Common Sense Commentary: Prov.6:16-19 lists seven things God "hates" and two of them are lying.
A lie is a falsehood but a falsehood is not necessarily a lie. False means "not true, wrong, or mistaken" and may be spoken in "ignorance" which means "uninformed lack of knowledge".
"False" refers to the thing said. A "Lie" includes the person saying it.
A lie is never ignorant of the truth of the matter. A lie, to be a lie, must be willfully told ... knowing it is untrue, false information. A falsehood may be told by a liar or by a person ignorant of the truth of the matter, but convinced within himself that it is true when it is, in fact, false. The latter is ignorance speaking falsely. The prior is a liar speaking falsely, to deceive, and knowing it. "A poor man is better than a liar." Prov.19:44. Either way, God's Word says, " The Devil is a liar and the father of it". He is also the father of much false information to make a trap for the gullible and ignorant, especially as it relates to the holy things of God. Even a sincere person can be sincerely wrong and ignorant about much of what God's Word makes plain. Many followers of cults sincerely believe it is true: the leaders seldom do. One is ignorant; the other a liar.
Anything that is not absolutely true is, to that degree, a falsehood or a lie, depending on who tells it, an ignorant person or a liar. A "half truth", quarter truth, or tenth is the same. A little white lie is a BIG BLACK LIE. To add to the truth is to make a lie. "Add ... not unto his words, lest ... thou be found a liar." Prov.30:22.
There must be a hundred words used to camouflage or excuse the lie. Some are sophisticated words, some crude and some disingenuous. It's spurious, a fallacy, or dissembling. It's duplicity, deceitful or montbankery. It is a fabrication, a fib, a story, yarn, exaggeration, a whopper, or bunk. He/she prevaricated, dissembled, or was spurious or specious. They overstated, hyperbolized, amplified the truth, enhanced the truth, maximized the truth or even "magnified God". How, exactly does one do that ? Can we make Him larger or greater or more than He is ? I think that one is used in ignorance, which is, a lack of knowledge rather than a lie. Who would lie about that ?
The real truth, based on facts, as God knows it, is neutral, apolitical and aopinionated. It is exactly as recorded, indelibly, unchangeable in the record books of God ... as it really is, no more and no less. There is one possible exception to the unchangeable record of God. Heb.10:17 "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Sin covered by the blood of Christ. Would I ever lie ? I can think of one thing about which I would lie: If "EVIL" was asking a question about which the truth would be so devastating to country or someone's life that my fear of a lie was less than of the truth. An example: If rampaging, insane killers broke into our home, my wife hid in a closet, and these EVIL, vicious killers asked where she was. I would not confess, "She is in that closet", but would say, "She is visiting her mother". I would also have lied to Nazies or Communists about anything to do with our National security. Like it or lump it. If you would do otherwise, don't tell your wife, you may suddenly become .... single. Somehow, I don't think God would hold it against me ..... which He might if I said .... "She's in that closet". Being saved by grace has it's advantages over selfrighteous, works salvation, which is itself a lie. I'm at peace letting God be my judge not sinful prople. Rom.3:4 "God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar ...."
Still, there is no good or bad truth. The truth is the truth is the truth. All truth, past, present and future, is God's honest to goodness truth. God may not like the matter but He loves the truth of the matter. Jesus said, "...I am the truth ...." Jn.14:6. When the Word of Truth speaks, heaven and earth respond in immediate, absolute obedience as they did in Genesis 1 "And God said ....", thirteen or fourteen times, as He created the earth and all that's in it. Tie that with John 1:1-14 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. .... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. .... And the Word was make flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."Jesus Christ is the living Word of God !
Pass It On. RB
Aug 29, 2010
A Carload Of Lambs ... It's A Calling
Common Sense Commentary: In God's work, His church, everybody has a calling. The nursery is one, the Sunday School is another, and getting them there is another ... with Mom and Dad.
When I was a boy in the sandy, mesquite country of West Texas, cattle, sheep and horses were a common sight. Many people still rode horses to town. Quite regularly we would see an old farm wagon pulled by a team of mules or work horses. Just as often, there would be some wind-blown, suntanned cowboy driving a herd of cattle or working at a flock of sheep down the dusty roads around Sweetwater .... and sometimes right through town.
I'll always remember the first job offer I ever had, when I was about six years old. A local rancher had hired an older boy to take eight or ten sheep across town to fresh pasture. One of these was just a lamb which the boy was going to have to carry on the horse with him. The boy then hired me to sit on the back of the horse and hold the lamb while he tended to the sheep.
As we made our way slowly across Sweetwater, that little lamb wriggled, kicked, bleated, and wet on me. He didn't want to ride that horse or the boy holding him. He wanted his Momma ... NOW. His elders were just about as difficult .... since you can't really "drive" sheep .... or lead them very easily either. It was quite a job keeping that little flock headed in the right direction.They would stop to graze, or dart to the side and "spook" every time a dog barked or a Model T or "A" car passed. But .... it was our responsibility to deliver them safely to the pasture where their owner had "commissioned" us to take them.
By now, you probably see what I am "driving" at and where I am going with this little analogy.In every neighborhood in America there are hundreds of little lambs and straying sheep which God has commissioned us to round up in Sunday School or Church, teach, and get to heaven safely. They don't usually want to go on the trip. They don't all realize we are trying to help them to better places and better things. But we must continue, nevertheless, to invite them, encourage them, pray for them, and even "carry" them in our own cars (with the above mentioned complications) to fulfill our responsibility to God and to those precious, little lambs. ...
and their fleet footed, easily distracted parents.
"Bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep; we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep." I know, I know ..."Bringing in the sheves..."
Pass It On. RB
When I was a boy in the sandy, mesquite country of West Texas, cattle, sheep and horses were a common sight. Many people still rode horses to town. Quite regularly we would see an old farm wagon pulled by a team of mules or work horses. Just as often, there would be some wind-blown, suntanned cowboy driving a herd of cattle or working at a flock of sheep down the dusty roads around Sweetwater .... and sometimes right through town.
I'll always remember the first job offer I ever had, when I was about six years old. A local rancher had hired an older boy to take eight or ten sheep across town to fresh pasture. One of these was just a lamb which the boy was going to have to carry on the horse with him. The boy then hired me to sit on the back of the horse and hold the lamb while he tended to the sheep.
As we made our way slowly across Sweetwater, that little lamb wriggled, kicked, bleated, and wet on me. He didn't want to ride that horse or the boy holding him. He wanted his Momma ... NOW. His elders were just about as difficult .... since you can't really "drive" sheep .... or lead them very easily either. It was quite a job keeping that little flock headed in the right direction.They would stop to graze, or dart to the side and "spook" every time a dog barked or a Model T or "A" car passed. But .... it was our responsibility to deliver them safely to the pasture where their owner had "commissioned" us to take them.
By now, you probably see what I am "driving" at and where I am going with this little analogy.In every neighborhood in America there are hundreds of little lambs and straying sheep which God has commissioned us to round up in Sunday School or Church, teach, and get to heaven safely. They don't usually want to go on the trip. They don't all realize we are trying to help them to better places and better things. But we must continue, nevertheless, to invite them, encourage them, pray for them, and even "carry" them in our own cars (with the above mentioned complications) to fulfill our responsibility to God and to those precious, little lambs. ...
and their fleet footed, easily distracted parents.
"Bringing in the sheep, bringing in the sheep; we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep." I know, I know ..."Bringing in the sheves..."
Pass It On. RB
Aug 28, 2010
The Greatest Lesson Ever Learned
Common Sense Commentary:
Years ago I was driving through Georgia when the thought occurred to me that I should stop at the next old, black man I saw and ask him some revealing question and give him some money.
No sooner had I the thought than suddenly there was an old black man chopping wood in the front yard of his highway side shanty. I screeched to a halt, backed up, whipped into his drive and got out. The old man was surprised but very composed and simply stood there waiting for me to state my business. "Sir, I said, you appear to have had a long life and many experiences. I would like to ask you a question." "Ask on",said he. Said I,"What is the greatest lesson you ever learned"? The old man thought for a brief moment and answered, "Dat God loves an ole Negro like me".
I don't know whether God stopped me to get that old man's answer or for him to get my money
..... but we both came away well. I couldn't have gotten a better answer from Prince, Priest or Preacher. Like a master surgeon, that old gentleman put his finger expertly on the very heart of everything that matters.
There are a lot of things, in this life, worthy of learning, and many more useless things we don't need to know. In all my years of seeking knowledge, two things stand out above all else in the many object lessons of life and in the Word of God itself. Truth and Love. Jesus said " I am the way, the truth and the life .... " Jn.14:6. And the Apostle John declared, "God is love" in Jn.4:16. That old man learned that God loved him from the truth of God's Word and he believed it and received it. For your own benefit, later, read 1Cor.13, 1Jn.3 & 4, Titus 2:4, James 2:8, Gal.5:14, and Prov.10:12.
Both Love and Truth have legions of demonic counterfeits in opposition. The powers of darkness constantly undermine God's Love and Truth and seek to substitute them with counterfeits. Once a person hears the Truth of God and accepts the Love of God through Christ, Satan has lost them forever. "Without truth" is "without light". Darkness is nothing except the absence of Light. Even as Hate is the absence of Love and Error the absence of Truth. Truth is a single thing in all the universe and every truth is part and parcel of the whole of God's one universal TRUTH . To reject the truth of God is to open the heart and mind to ten thousand falsehoods. Even as deep in an underground coalmine, if there is no light, there is no vision and, "Where there is no vision the people perish ...." Prov.29:18. One small candle would drive out worlds of darkness. "Without truth" is the most fearful of all things and "without love" is the loneliest and maybe the most painful. Where there is no love there is bitterness and strife and hatred and fear. The absence of love opens the dungeon doors of deep destruction and rots the souls of those who have turned their minds and hearts away from God's love to live in chains of darkness. NO LOVE is the eternal state of lost souls. Unbelief continues and dominates only where God's love and His Christ are rejected by non-acceptance of His one and only plan for the redemption and cleansing of our sinful souls, through faith in Christ. Faith is God's link between Truth and Love. "Faith cometh by hearing ( truth ) .... the word of God." Rom.10:7 When the truth of God is heard and faith in Christ is born in that soul, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost .... Rom.5:5.
Years ago I was driving through Georgia when the thought occurred to me that I should stop at the next old, black man I saw and ask him some revealing question and give him some money.
No sooner had I the thought than suddenly there was an old black man chopping wood in the front yard of his highway side shanty. I screeched to a halt, backed up, whipped into his drive and got out. The old man was surprised but very composed and simply stood there waiting for me to state my business. "Sir, I said, you appear to have had a long life and many experiences. I would like to ask you a question." "Ask on",said he. Said I,"What is the greatest lesson you ever learned"? The old man thought for a brief moment and answered, "Dat God loves an ole Negro like me".
I don't know whether God stopped me to get that old man's answer or for him to get my money
..... but we both came away well. I couldn't have gotten a better answer from Prince, Priest or Preacher. Like a master surgeon, that old gentleman put his finger expertly on the very heart of everything that matters.
There are a lot of things, in this life, worthy of learning, and many more useless things we don't need to know. In all my years of seeking knowledge, two things stand out above all else in the many object lessons of life and in the Word of God itself. Truth and Love. Jesus said " I am the way, the truth and the life .... " Jn.14:6. And the Apostle John declared, "God is love" in Jn.4:16. That old man learned that God loved him from the truth of God's Word and he believed it and received it. For your own benefit, later, read 1Cor.13, 1Jn.3 & 4, Titus 2:4, James 2:8, Gal.5:14, and Prov.10:12.
Both Love and Truth have legions of demonic counterfeits in opposition. The powers of darkness constantly undermine God's Love and Truth and seek to substitute them with counterfeits. Once a person hears the Truth of God and accepts the Love of God through Christ, Satan has lost them forever. "Without truth" is "without light". Darkness is nothing except the absence of Light. Even as Hate is the absence of Love and Error the absence of Truth. Truth is a single thing in all the universe and every truth is part and parcel of the whole of God's one universal TRUTH . To reject the truth of God is to open the heart and mind to ten thousand falsehoods. Even as deep in an underground coalmine, if there is no light, there is no vision and, "Where there is no vision the people perish ...." Prov.29:18. One small candle would drive out worlds of darkness. "Without truth" is the most fearful of all things and "without love" is the loneliest and maybe the most painful. Where there is no love there is bitterness and strife and hatred and fear. The absence of love opens the dungeon doors of deep destruction and rots the souls of those who have turned their minds and hearts away from God's love to live in chains of darkness. NO LOVE is the eternal state of lost souls. Unbelief continues and dominates only where God's love and His Christ are rejected by non-acceptance of His one and only plan for the redemption and cleansing of our sinful souls, through faith in Christ. Faith is God's link between Truth and Love. "Faith cometh by hearing ( truth ) .... the word of God." Rom.10:7 When the truth of God is heard and faith in Christ is born in that soul, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost .... Rom.5:5.
The absence of Godly love (love includes discipline) in the home produces l0nely, angry, frustrated young rebels against everything else their parents stood for. They usually lash out at society to get even with whoever or whatever deprived them of a happy home. So many of them end up on drugs, or alcohol or in prostitution or crime or with aids or dead. The real tragedy is that so few of them ever hear God's truth or know His love and are lost forever.
Pass It On. RB
Aug 26, 2010
Cynicism Is Not All Bad
Common Sense Commentary:
The word "cynic", like the word "vulgar" and the word "liberal", has more than one definition. "Vulgar" originally meant "The common people"(Webster's #1 definition) but now means "obscene and profane"(Webster's #4). Similarly, the word "liberal", according to Webster: #1 "unrestricted free thinker", #2 "generous, free handed", #3 "unrestrained, unchecked, lawless, licentious". Likewise,the word "Cynic" can either mean you believe, "#1 virtue is the only good, and its essence lies in self control and independence" or, it can mean you are "#2 a violent critic of social customs and current philosophies" or, that you are "#3 one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self interest".
All of the above definitions are given in my faithful, old, true blue Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. As in Bibles, I prefer the oldest, most accurate and trusted versions in Dictionaries.
The first definition of "cynic" listed as #1 in my dictionary is, "a Greek school of philosophers who taught that virtue is the only good, and its essence lies in self control and independence", degenerated, over time, so that "cynics" were said to be, by their opposites, "violent critics of social customs and current philosophies". Whether that definition was true or not depends on which side wrote the history books of those times. At any rate, the word "cynic" has now degenerated into the totally negative connotation of "distrustful, faultfinding critic". Even with that definition, being "cynical" is not always, altogether a bad thing. For instance, if you lived in Germany in the 1930's and you were not a "distrustful, faultfinding critic" of Adolph Hitler and his NAZI cohorts, you were either gullible, ignorant, immoral or all three. The same would be true concerning Joseph Stalin and Communism. In my opinion, it is also true in our nation today. We are precisely where Germany was just prior to Hitler coming to power after the German currency was debased by the out of control printing of money to pacify the people. Anybody who is a citizen of our country who isn't now "cynical" concerning most Politicians, Central Banks, Wall Street and the Main Line News Media fits the above description ..... "gullible, ignorant immoral or all three".
Remember, the original cynics believed that "Virtue is the only good and that its essence lies in self control and independence". Our country needs a revival of "virtue, self control, and independence". That won't happen without a spiritual Revival of our national motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST" and THAT won't happen if we leave out Jesus Christ.
Pass It On. RB
The word "cynic", like the word "vulgar" and the word "liberal", has more than one definition. "Vulgar" originally meant "The common people"(Webster's #1 definition) but now means "obscene and profane"(Webster's #4). Similarly, the word "liberal", according to Webster: #1 "unrestricted free thinker", #2 "generous, free handed", #3 "unrestrained, unchecked, lawless, licentious". Likewise,the word "Cynic" can either mean you believe, "#1 virtue is the only good, and its essence lies in self control and independence" or, it can mean you are "#2 a violent critic of social customs and current philosophies" or, that you are "#3 one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self interest".
All of the above definitions are given in my faithful, old, true blue Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. As in Bibles, I prefer the oldest, most accurate and trusted versions in Dictionaries.
The first definition of "cynic" listed as #1 in my dictionary is, "a Greek school of philosophers who taught that virtue is the only good, and its essence lies in self control and independence", degenerated, over time, so that "cynics" were said to be, by their opposites, "violent critics of social customs and current philosophies". Whether that definition was true or not depends on which side wrote the history books of those times. At any rate, the word "cynic" has now degenerated into the totally negative connotation of "distrustful, faultfinding critic". Even with that definition, being "cynical" is not always, altogether a bad thing. For instance, if you lived in Germany in the 1930's and you were not a "distrustful, faultfinding critic" of Adolph Hitler and his NAZI cohorts, you were either gullible, ignorant, immoral or all three. The same would be true concerning Joseph Stalin and Communism. In my opinion, it is also true in our nation today. We are precisely where Germany was just prior to Hitler coming to power after the German currency was debased by the out of control printing of money to pacify the people. Anybody who is a citizen of our country who isn't now "cynical" concerning most Politicians, Central Banks, Wall Street and the Main Line News Media fits the above description ..... "gullible, ignorant immoral or all three".
Remember, the original cynics believed that "Virtue is the only good and that its essence lies in self control and independence". Our country needs a revival of "virtue, self control, and independence". That won't happen without a spiritual Revival of our national motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST" and THAT won't happen if we leave out Jesus Christ.
Pass It On. RB
Aug 21, 2010
Failure Is Great ....IF... You Invest It In Success
Common Sense Commentary:
Failure is great....If it, like a chauffeur, drives you to success .... and opens the door for you. RB
The difference in success and failure is as much in not doing the wrong things as it is in doing the right things. Success in almost any field is usually built upon a huge pile of the debris of multiple failures. There are few exceptions. After a person has made a sufficient number of mistakes and has failed in enough ways, he begins to complete his education in the field of hard knocks and "how NOT to do it". I, personally, have known very few successful people who have not first waded through a lot of hardship and failure.
The not so obvious fact in observing successful things is, that success is not simply genius, or some secret formula, which brings a person to the pinnacle of one's vision, but it is also,in fact, all of their failures and mistakes which made the stairway to success possible. In other words, it is their accumulation of failures which taught them experience and knowledge and led them to an accumulation of successes which finally brought them to the winner's circle ... and once a winner, success breeds success. So, a real winner is a winner even when he is still losing. He's the one who does not give up, but keeps on keeping on long after most people quit. That usually means he has a positive attitude, definite goals, determination and a lot of endurance.
This is also true in the Christian world. A popular Christian singer in recent years had a song entitled "There Are No Losers". I never cared for the song. Neither do I think that term should be used like a curse word. The truth is, there ARE LOSERS and WINNERS. If there are no Losers, there are no Winners, but we faulty humans are not the best judges of which is which. We are inclined to judge other people's success by our own standards of what "success" is. God's Word says that those who "commend themselves" also "measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves" and "are not wise". 2Cor10:2.
Most people can't help but think "those poor savages in the jungles" would all be like us if they could: But many of those jungle dwellers wonder why we don't want to be where they are. A missionary to the jungles of South America, once told me of landing his small plane on a river deep in the jungle. The native people there had never seen a white man or any of the outside world's STUFF except an occasional airplane high above them. They were, of course, very curious and the chief and his brother stoically agreed to take a ride with the pilot who flew them up over the vast jungle a few minutes. Back on the ground, he asked them why they weren't more excited and what they thought about flying up above everything. The chief answered simply, "Bugs do it". They didn't like his lunch, his clothing, his glasses or shoes either. They liked it where they were .... "poor savages at home in the jungle".
When I was younger and a bit dumber, I believed in "Nation Building" like Republicans
and somewhat less on feeding, healing, housing, and subsidizing the poor of the whole world like Democrats do. Both parties have spent trillions of your dollars (Mine ? ... Yes Yours) fulfilling their dreams which when they awoke, just now,swore it was the other party's nightmare. I think both are now drying the tears from their bloodshot, cataracts ...with frowns on their faces, their fists on "their own" wallets and their fingers on yours. It has become obvious to idiots, that we have exported the "American Way" to third world countries until they now have more of it than we have. I assume that because WE don't have it any more and it went somewhere.
What America and all the world needs is not each others "way of life" but Jesus Christ. He makes all the changes that are needed most in lives. He changes hearts, souls and lives. We need that in America as much as any nation on earth including darkest Africa and the Arctic. He also turns losers into winners while the world and the devil try to drag us into the losers circle where they are and think it is fun to be.
The "love of money" and accumulation of it is not success. The building of a multinational corporation is not success. Becoming a famous, popular, beautiful, celebrity is not success.
True SUCCESS is .... whatever it is that causes a person or family or nation to be at peace with themselves and with God; and, causes them to be motivated to do their best in all worth while things they attempt. Things like , providing for their own, helping others LEARN how to provide for THEMSELVES, living a useful healthy life, being frugal which is stewardship, working hard, being honest, being balanced, treating everybody with respect, and setting an example for their family, church and nation for Christ.
Now, what is that powerful force which endeavours to develop those elements of character and true success in the lives of people ? It has to be obvious to those who have experienced it. It is exactly what God's Bible teaches us ! Those who seek God's Will as a way of life are winners
and those who do not are the losers. Mark 8:36 .... For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul".
Pass it on. RB
Failure is great....If it, like a chauffeur, drives you to success .... and opens the door for you. RB
The difference in success and failure is as much in not doing the wrong things as it is in doing the right things. Success in almost any field is usually built upon a huge pile of the debris of multiple failures. There are few exceptions. After a person has made a sufficient number of mistakes and has failed in enough ways, he begins to complete his education in the field of hard knocks and "how NOT to do it". I, personally, have known very few successful people who have not first waded through a lot of hardship and failure.
The not so obvious fact in observing successful things is, that success is not simply genius, or some secret formula, which brings a person to the pinnacle of one's vision, but it is also,in fact, all of their failures and mistakes which made the stairway to success possible. In other words, it is their accumulation of failures which taught them experience and knowledge and led them to an accumulation of successes which finally brought them to the winner's circle ... and once a winner, success breeds success. So, a real winner is a winner even when he is still losing. He's the one who does not give up, but keeps on keeping on long after most people quit. That usually means he has a positive attitude, definite goals, determination and a lot of endurance.
This is also true in the Christian world. A popular Christian singer in recent years had a song entitled "There Are No Losers". I never cared for the song. Neither do I think that term should be used like a curse word. The truth is, there ARE LOSERS and WINNERS. If there are no Losers, there are no Winners, but we faulty humans are not the best judges of which is which. We are inclined to judge other people's success by our own standards of what "success" is. God's Word says that those who "commend themselves" also "measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves among themselves" and "are not wise". 2Cor10:2.
Most people can't help but think "those poor savages in the jungles" would all be like us if they could: But many of those jungle dwellers wonder why we don't want to be where they are. A missionary to the jungles of South America, once told me of landing his small plane on a river deep in the jungle. The native people there had never seen a white man or any of the outside world's STUFF except an occasional airplane high above them. They were, of course, very curious and the chief and his brother stoically agreed to take a ride with the pilot who flew them up over the vast jungle a few minutes. Back on the ground, he asked them why they weren't more excited and what they thought about flying up above everything. The chief answered simply, "Bugs do it". They didn't like his lunch, his clothing, his glasses or shoes either. They liked it where they were .... "poor savages at home in the jungle".
When I was younger and a bit dumber, I believed in "Nation Building" like Republicans
and somewhat less on feeding, healing, housing, and subsidizing the poor of the whole world like Democrats do. Both parties have spent trillions of your dollars (Mine ? ... Yes Yours) fulfilling their dreams which when they awoke, just now,swore it was the other party's nightmare. I think both are now drying the tears from their bloodshot, cataracts ...with frowns on their faces, their fists on "their own" wallets and their fingers on yours. It has become obvious to idiots, that we have exported the "American Way" to third world countries until they now have more of it than we have. I assume that because WE don't have it any more and it went somewhere.
What America and all the world needs is not each others "way of life" but Jesus Christ. He makes all the changes that are needed most in lives. He changes hearts, souls and lives. We need that in America as much as any nation on earth including darkest Africa and the Arctic. He also turns losers into winners while the world and the devil try to drag us into the losers circle where they are and think it is fun to be.
The "love of money" and accumulation of it is not success. The building of a multinational corporation is not success. Becoming a famous, popular, beautiful, celebrity is not success.
True SUCCESS is .... whatever it is that causes a person or family or nation to be at peace with themselves and with God; and, causes them to be motivated to do their best in all worth while things they attempt. Things like , providing for their own, helping others LEARN how to provide for THEMSELVES, living a useful healthy life, being frugal which is stewardship, working hard, being honest, being balanced, treating everybody with respect, and setting an example for their family, church and nation for Christ.
Now, what is that powerful force which endeavours to develop those elements of character and true success in the lives of people ? It has to be obvious to those who have experienced it. It is exactly what God's Bible teaches us ! Those who seek God's Will as a way of life are winners
and those who do not are the losers. Mark 8:36 .... For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul".
Pass it on. RB
Aug 20, 2010
"Tribulation Worketh" ....Wonders !
Common Sense Commentary:
Within the last twelve months, I have lost many of my oldest and best friends and close relatives. Right now, several others are seriously ill and some not expected to live. Others are
going through the most difficult days of their lives. As a friend and Pastor, I try to comfort and strengthen them in their pain and desperation. The truth is, though, that all the words I can conjure up from my years of experience are almost empty when people are suffering and dying. Many would contradict that and tell me how comforting I have been to them. But the fact is, its not just me, nobodie's words can reach the deepest spiritual needs of a person's soul. When a loved one has died, friends want to help and comfort with phrases like, "He's better off now", "She's not suffering any more", "Don't cry", "Look on the bright side". "He wouldn't want you to sorrow so". It does help a burdened heart for friends to just be there and take all the other details, responsibilities and necessities off the grieving ones. But the only words that can truly reach a broken spirit and needy soul is God's Words. Our Creator knows us best and just what we need and how to fill that need. His Word has a power that the most eloquent among us could not match in a lifetime of training and experience. How could human words possibly put a positive spin on a terminal prognosis or a truly comforting word to a loving wife whose lifetime love has died ..... EXCEPT IT BE GOD'S WORD, GOD'S PROMISES ? Is even that possible ? Yes, it is ! I have witnessed it thousands of times when God's Word on forgiveness, eternal salvation, the resurrection, and hope have healed broken hearts. His Holy Word puts the lie to Satan's deception, of our weak flesh, that a Christian's pain and grief are needless suffering that prove God doesn't care. God does care, but He understands love, forgiveness, and heaven ..... Satan doesn't. Neither do those he leads around by the nose.
God's Eternal Truth says that even the most terrible things have a Wonderful side for true Christians whether they can see it or not. "All things work together for good to them that love God ..."Rom8:28. I don't mean to understate the pain, fear and discouragement felt during times of tribulation. I just want to speak of God's greater reasons for "allowing" us to suffer. He knows about it and could very well prevent it ....but sometimes He doesn't. That tells me that He, knowing all things, has a higher purpose for us than just hardship and pain.
I think Tribulation has four distinct benefits to the true Christian's life and Christ's Church, and here they are:
I. Ousting the Chaff and Purging Dead Words. Jesus warned us of "chaff" and "dead works" in Matt.3:12 ,,,, God, "whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and gather His wheat into the granary but He will burn up the chaff ...."
It is God who controls the winds of trial "His fan", and blows them through His church to
SEPARATE true believers. He is winnowing the wheat, exposing it to the winds of trial, SEPARATING the wheat from the chaff and the chaff from the wheat. The chaff is blown away by the winds, but the grain is only "sifted, purified and selected for the Master's use. This tribulation, separating process "unjoins" unsaved members (Job21:19) but cleanses and strengthens God's people, Christ's Bride, the true Church. See also 2Tim.2:21 and Heb.9:14.
II. Occasion of Spiritual Growth. Rom.5:1-5 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into His grace .... And not only (that) but we glory in tribulation also: Knowing that tribulation
worketh patience ; and Patience, experience; and Experience hope: And Hope maketh NOT ASHAMED ...." You see, tribulation is like a ladder with these four progressive rungs of Spiritual Growth: (1) Patience = Endurance, Perseverance, Long suffering. (2) Experiance = Proof of God's Truth. (3) Hope = Expectation, Security. (4) Unashamed = Because, v.5, we are filled with God's presence (His Holy Spirit) and God's love, and know it, which makes us unashamed and openly followers of Christ.
III. Opportunity to Glory (Rejoice) 2Cor.7:4 ...Apostle Paul said, "I am FILLED WITH COMFORT, I am EXCEEDINGLY JOYFUL in ALL our TRIBULATIONS". And who could say such a thing with more credibility ? Blinded on the Damascus Road encounter with Jesus Christ, after He was crucified, Paul cried out "LORD" confessing Christ as his master. I think Paul's "blinding" there is a key to his "thorn in the flesh". Most of his fourteen epistles (letters) were dictated to assistants, though Paul signed all with "his own hand" he says. Read the last two or three verses of all of the Pauline Epistles. On one he boasts, "See how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand". But it was a short one compared to others. Weak eyes ?
When some of the brethren were complaining or bragging of their sufferings for Christ, Paul scolded them by mockingly listing a litany of dozens of tribulations he had endured, including a series of near death experiences. See 2Cor.11:23-30. Paul must have set the all time record for numbers of serious tribulations in one life, but never complained or mentioned it except that one time. He wrote fourteen epistles full of praise and gratitude and set an example for how TRIBULATION is indeed an "Opportunity for Rejoicing".
IV. Others .... That they too may "Grow, Rejoice, and Minister to "others' in turn.
"The God of All Comfort ....who comforteth us in ALL our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them (others) which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 2Cor.1:3-5. See also Acts 14:22, Rom.8:35, John 16:33.
Pass It On. RB
Within the last twelve months, I have lost many of my oldest and best friends and close relatives. Right now, several others are seriously ill and some not expected to live. Others are
going through the most difficult days of their lives. As a friend and Pastor, I try to comfort and strengthen them in their pain and desperation. The truth is, though, that all the words I can conjure up from my years of experience are almost empty when people are suffering and dying. Many would contradict that and tell me how comforting I have been to them. But the fact is, its not just me, nobodie's words can reach the deepest spiritual needs of a person's soul. When a loved one has died, friends want to help and comfort with phrases like, "He's better off now", "She's not suffering any more", "Don't cry", "Look on the bright side". "He wouldn't want you to sorrow so". It does help a burdened heart for friends to just be there and take all the other details, responsibilities and necessities off the grieving ones. But the only words that can truly reach a broken spirit and needy soul is God's Words. Our Creator knows us best and just what we need and how to fill that need. His Word has a power that the most eloquent among us could not match in a lifetime of training and experience. How could human words possibly put a positive spin on a terminal prognosis or a truly comforting word to a loving wife whose lifetime love has died ..... EXCEPT IT BE GOD'S WORD, GOD'S PROMISES ? Is even that possible ? Yes, it is ! I have witnessed it thousands of times when God's Word on forgiveness, eternal salvation, the resurrection, and hope have healed broken hearts. His Holy Word puts the lie to Satan's deception, of our weak flesh, that a Christian's pain and grief are needless suffering that prove God doesn't care. God does care, but He understands love, forgiveness, and heaven ..... Satan doesn't. Neither do those he leads around by the nose.
God's Eternal Truth says that even the most terrible things have a Wonderful side for true Christians whether they can see it or not. "All things work together for good to them that love God ..."Rom8:28. I don't mean to understate the pain, fear and discouragement felt during times of tribulation. I just want to speak of God's greater reasons for "allowing" us to suffer. He knows about it and could very well prevent it ....but sometimes He doesn't. That tells me that He, knowing all things, has a higher purpose for us than just hardship and pain.
I think Tribulation has four distinct benefits to the true Christian's life and Christ's Church, and here they are:
I. Ousting the Chaff and Purging Dead Words. Jesus warned us of "chaff" and "dead works" in Matt.3:12 ,,,, God, "whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and gather His wheat into the granary but He will burn up the chaff ...."
It is God who controls the winds of trial "His fan", and blows them through His church to
SEPARATE true believers. He is winnowing the wheat, exposing it to the winds of trial, SEPARATING the wheat from the chaff and the chaff from the wheat. The chaff is blown away by the winds, but the grain is only "sifted, purified and selected for the Master's use. This tribulation, separating process "unjoins" unsaved members (Job21:19) but cleanses and strengthens God's people, Christ's Bride, the true Church. See also 2Tim.2:21 and Heb.9:14.
II. Occasion of Spiritual Growth. Rom.5:1-5 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into His grace .... And not only (that) but we glory in tribulation also: Knowing that tribulation
worketh patience ; and Patience, experience; and Experience hope: And Hope maketh NOT ASHAMED ...." You see, tribulation is like a ladder with these four progressive rungs of Spiritual Growth: (1) Patience = Endurance, Perseverance, Long suffering. (2) Experiance = Proof of God's Truth. (3) Hope = Expectation, Security. (4) Unashamed = Because, v.5, we are filled with God's presence (His Holy Spirit) and God's love, and know it, which makes us unashamed and openly followers of Christ.
III. Opportunity to Glory (Rejoice) 2Cor.7:4 ...Apostle Paul said, "I am FILLED WITH COMFORT, I am EXCEEDINGLY JOYFUL in ALL our TRIBULATIONS". And who could say such a thing with more credibility ? Blinded on the Damascus Road encounter with Jesus Christ, after He was crucified, Paul cried out "LORD" confessing Christ as his master. I think Paul's "blinding" there is a key to his "thorn in the flesh". Most of his fourteen epistles (letters) were dictated to assistants, though Paul signed all with "his own hand" he says. Read the last two or three verses of all of the Pauline Epistles. On one he boasts, "See how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand". But it was a short one compared to others. Weak eyes ?
When some of the brethren were complaining or bragging of their sufferings for Christ, Paul scolded them by mockingly listing a litany of dozens of tribulations he had endured, including a series of near death experiences. See 2Cor.11:23-30. Paul must have set the all time record for numbers of serious tribulations in one life, but never complained or mentioned it except that one time. He wrote fourteen epistles full of praise and gratitude and set an example for how TRIBULATION is indeed an "Opportunity for Rejoicing".
IV. Others .... That they too may "Grow, Rejoice, and Minister to "others' in turn.
"The God of All Comfort ....who comforteth us in ALL our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them (others) which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 2Cor.1:3-5. See also Acts 14:22, Rom.8:35, John 16:33.
Pass It On. RB
Aug 18, 2010
Tolerance Reflects Our Level Of Love More Than High Standards
Common Sense Commentary:
What we will tolerate, and from whom, is nearly always determined by our relationship with the offending person. Most of us are guilty of "Respect of Persons" when it comes to our tolerance levels. Most parents will tolerate behavior in their "little angel" which they abhor in the "little devil" next door. It's disgusting in someone we don't like, tolerated in a neighbor,
smiled at in a friend, and applauded when "little angel" does it. That's how little angels get
to be ....... Big Devils .
Denominations and political parties often wave their "big tent" banners among themselves, whose flaws they love to overlook or snicker about, but beat their opposites over the head, for doing the same things, with unbelievable extremes of hypocrisy. That is often true in other competing entities as well.
It seems to be an inborn characteristic of our depraved human nature to discriminate unfairly and be partial, forgiving and understanding, and not even know it, when it is one of our own kind doing something bad. But we see sin and partiality much more clearly when its someone of a different tribe doing the same thing.
I used to lead tours,from the church I pastored, every two or three years. It saved a lot of money to have two in a room so I would usually enlist a preacher or friend to be my room mate. One year, another pastor was going with us so we were to sleep in the same room.It was a long tiring flight from Florida to Tel Avive, about thirty hours with delays and weather.By the time we landed, and spent that whole day touring holy sites, we were all dead tired so we hit our beds early. Within a few minutes I knew I was going to have a long, long sleepless week. That Brother snored so loudly and in so many tunes, in bass, tenor, alto and soprano,that I tried every way I could think of to stop up my ears. I had forgotten earplugs so I stuffed toilet paper in my ears , then tied a towel around that , then buried my head under three pillows and almost suffocated into unconsciousness, but no sleep. I finally took my blanket and jerked one off his bed and went out on the balcony and closed the sliding door. I didn't sleep much out in the cold with dogs barking and roosters crowing, but at least it was peaceful. That man's snoring was the most nerve wracking and intolerable noise, in the dark of night you can imagine, and I got very few hours of sleep the whole week. Intolerant ? You bet !
Two years later, my own precious seventy year old, farmer father was my room mate on the same trip. His snoring was every bit as talented as that other guy, but there was one difference.I so loved my "Daddy", whom I seldom got to be with, that his snoring, in perfect, soothing harmony, was as sweet and comforting to me as a choir of angels. My tolerance of Dad's snoring was so complete that it actually kinda floated me off toward dreamland. I actually enjoyed it and for a couple of nights forced myself to stay awake, pleasantly resting in his presence. I kissed him on his bald head and introduced him as my sandman at breakfast.
I'm sure NOBODIES snoring would be anything but horrible, certainly not pleasant, on an every night basis. God bless you poor, faithful, tolerant wives who have to listen to that all the time. But it isn't just the guys that snore ..... uh that's what I've been told ....uh ...I can only imagine ...I'm glad I never had that problem with my sweet wife. But I wouldn't take anything for the good memories I have of Dad and Mom and our family growing up. They are both gone now ...and I do miss them so. The fact is, they tolerated far far more from me that I ever did from them.
The truth is, it isn't just unfair to maintain a double standard, judging or criticizing things in others which we don't mind and tolerate in those we know or love. Actually, God's Word says it is wrong to be a Respecter of Persons. He brings the subject up eight times in His Book and rebukes it. I'll just quote one of them .... "My brethren, have not the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory with respect of persons." James 2:1. Impartiality Is another trait of our Lord He wants us to embrace. He loves us in spite of our "Respect of Persons", but wants us to yield it unto Him and prune it out of our lives to be more Christ like. Don't get me wrong, I know that God expects us and wants us to have a degree of loyalty and commitment to our very own family that we can't possibly have to others, but it can be a spiritual hindrance when it is too far out of balance. I'll do a blog soon on "Respect of Persons".
Pass It On. RB
What we will tolerate, and from whom, is nearly always determined by our relationship with the offending person. Most of us are guilty of "Respect of Persons" when it comes to our tolerance levels. Most parents will tolerate behavior in their "little angel" which they abhor in the "little devil" next door. It's disgusting in someone we don't like, tolerated in a neighbor,
smiled at in a friend, and applauded when "little angel" does it. That's how little angels get
to be ....... Big Devils .
Denominations and political parties often wave their "big tent" banners among themselves, whose flaws they love to overlook or snicker about, but beat their opposites over the head, for doing the same things, with unbelievable extremes of hypocrisy. That is often true in other competing entities as well.
It seems to be an inborn characteristic of our depraved human nature to discriminate unfairly and be partial, forgiving and understanding, and not even know it, when it is one of our own kind doing something bad. But we see sin and partiality much more clearly when its someone of a different tribe doing the same thing.
I used to lead tours,from the church I pastored, every two or three years. It saved a lot of money to have two in a room so I would usually enlist a preacher or friend to be my room mate. One year, another pastor was going with us so we were to sleep in the same room.It was a long tiring flight from Florida to Tel Avive, about thirty hours with delays and weather.By the time we landed, and spent that whole day touring holy sites, we were all dead tired so we hit our beds early. Within a few minutes I knew I was going to have a long, long sleepless week. That Brother snored so loudly and in so many tunes, in bass, tenor, alto and soprano,that I tried every way I could think of to stop up my ears. I had forgotten earplugs so I stuffed toilet paper in my ears , then tied a towel around that , then buried my head under three pillows and almost suffocated into unconsciousness, but no sleep. I finally took my blanket and jerked one off his bed and went out on the balcony and closed the sliding door. I didn't sleep much out in the cold with dogs barking and roosters crowing, but at least it was peaceful. That man's snoring was the most nerve wracking and intolerable noise, in the dark of night you can imagine, and I got very few hours of sleep the whole week. Intolerant ? You bet !
Two years later, my own precious seventy year old, farmer father was my room mate on the same trip. His snoring was every bit as talented as that other guy, but there was one difference.I so loved my "Daddy", whom I seldom got to be with, that his snoring, in perfect, soothing harmony, was as sweet and comforting to me as a choir of angels. My tolerance of Dad's snoring was so complete that it actually kinda floated me off toward dreamland. I actually enjoyed it and for a couple of nights forced myself to stay awake, pleasantly resting in his presence. I kissed him on his bald head and introduced him as my sandman at breakfast.
I'm sure NOBODIES snoring would be anything but horrible, certainly not pleasant, on an every night basis. God bless you poor, faithful, tolerant wives who have to listen to that all the time. But it isn't just the guys that snore ..... uh that's what I've been told ....uh ...I can only imagine ...I'm glad I never had that problem with my sweet wife. But I wouldn't take anything for the good memories I have of Dad and Mom and our family growing up. They are both gone now ...and I do miss them so. The fact is, they tolerated far far more from me that I ever did from them.
The truth is, it isn't just unfair to maintain a double standard, judging or criticizing things in others which we don't mind and tolerate in those we know or love. Actually, God's Word says it is wrong to be a Respecter of Persons. He brings the subject up eight times in His Book and rebukes it. I'll just quote one of them .... "My brethren, have not the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory with respect of persons." James 2:1. Impartiality Is another trait of our Lord He wants us to embrace. He loves us in spite of our "Respect of Persons", but wants us to yield it unto Him and prune it out of our lives to be more Christ like. Don't get me wrong, I know that God expects us and wants us to have a degree of loyalty and commitment to our very own family that we can't possibly have to others, but it can be a spiritual hindrance when it is too far out of balance. I'll do a blog soon on "Respect of Persons".
Pass It On. RB
Aug 17, 2010
Riden A Bull Called "Precious" Til The Horn Blows
Common Sense Commentary has closed for the day. Today I've got Riddles, Puzzles, and Proverbs revealing a one word tip .... if you can decipher what Tx is talkin about. Clue ------ (six letters).
I'm writin this to all my fans in the stands and podners in the chutes with a one word riding tip.Now, all you cowboys and cowgirls in the stands justa yellin and screamin at the judges an the administration better give a listen to them boys in the chutes, ridin, tyin and tellin. I say "boys" cause there ain't no "sweet thangs" ridin bulls. Now this is the Main Event here in Odessa's Tumbleweed Rodeo Rink an everbody here has it all on the line bettin on whose gonna take home the Title, Silver Buckle, an Prize Money. Lotsa cowboys has rode mean ole Brahma Bulls, from Wall Street to Whatchacallit, over the years .... but mostly didn't ride em long. Them that did, had a big payday and didn't have to order a glassa water, on the road, between Rodeos nomore....for a while anyways. Now, water with ketchup, salt and pepper tastes good when your starvin but gets old fast .... and so does sugar water for desert but it keeps you hobblin on with your thumb out.
Now listen, them national champions in bull ridin give good tips to you civilians wearin them football helmets an ridin them volatile stock back home .... Keep that helmit on cause you need it. Theres a reason they call them stock advisers "brokers" cause they done "broke" a lotsa boys. I'd ruther lose a ear or eye than my head .... which I have done onct or twict. Anyways, real, top notch bull riders will tell you that onct you get on the hurricane deck of a real Brama bull, "pray, stay, an payday at the horn". Other words, ride thisun til the horn blows cause thats where the fortunes is. Well, down here in Texas, I've topped off a few good bull runs in my time and got broke up, bruised and busted mostly .... a lota times, actual, an no payday. But, THIS Bull called "Precious" done bucked, bounced and rattled me, for nine years, an I'm still on his back, neck, and b... uh hind quarters. That ain't all, I ain't leavin cause he's a payday already and I know where he's goin so I'm gonna ride him til the horn blows ebum tho I know I'll be bow legged, ringie and raw til the cows come home. Thisuns gonna be in the winners circle with me on him. I want that silver buckle and I,m stakin my boots, cows and mesquite trees on Ole "Precious". My soul I done give to Jesus an He's gonna get the glory an more business frum me. So, when the horn blows, look me UP, cause UP's where I'll be.
So, what is Tx talkin about in this one word tip ? Its not spiritual, its fiscal.
Use email not the blog for answers.No use passin thisun on; nobody will believe it anyways. RB
Oct.1, 2010 Answer:
"One word tip" is Silver ... physical silver, not paper. It has been in a "Precious" metal, "Bull" market for nine years and I have "ridden" it ever since. It has been a rough ride with volitile ups and downs but its rise looks like jagged stairsteps all the way up from about $4.00 to $22.00 spot per oz. and the sky is the limit. It would take a day to explain why I believe that, so I won't go there ... here. "Give and it shall be given unto you ...." Til the horn blows ! RB Update=Jan.2011 $30
I'm writin this to all my fans in the stands and podners in the chutes with a one word riding tip.Now, all you cowboys and cowgirls in the stands justa yellin and screamin at the judges an the administration better give a listen to them boys in the chutes, ridin, tyin and tellin. I say "boys" cause there ain't no "sweet thangs" ridin bulls. Now this is the Main Event here in Odessa's Tumbleweed Rodeo Rink an everbody here has it all on the line bettin on whose gonna take home the Title, Silver Buckle, an Prize Money. Lotsa cowboys has rode mean ole Brahma Bulls, from Wall Street to Whatchacallit, over the years .... but mostly didn't ride em long. Them that did, had a big payday and didn't have to order a glassa water, on the road, between Rodeos nomore....for a while anyways. Now, water with ketchup, salt and pepper tastes good when your starvin but gets old fast .... and so does sugar water for desert but it keeps you hobblin on with your thumb out.
Now listen, them national champions in bull ridin give good tips to you civilians wearin them football helmets an ridin them volatile stock back home .... Keep that helmit on cause you need it. Theres a reason they call them stock advisers "brokers" cause they done "broke" a lotsa boys. I'd ruther lose a ear or eye than my head .... which I have done onct or twict. Anyways, real, top notch bull riders will tell you that onct you get on the hurricane deck of a real Brama bull, "pray, stay, an payday at the horn". Other words, ride thisun til the horn blows cause thats where the fortunes is. Well, down here in Texas, I've topped off a few good bull runs in my time and got broke up, bruised and busted mostly .... a lota times, actual, an no payday. But, THIS Bull called "Precious" done bucked, bounced and rattled me, for nine years, an I'm still on his back, neck, and b... uh hind quarters. That ain't all, I ain't leavin cause he's a payday already and I know where he's goin so I'm gonna ride him til the horn blows ebum tho I know I'll be bow legged, ringie and raw til the cows come home. Thisuns gonna be in the winners circle with me on him. I want that silver buckle and I,m stakin my boots, cows and mesquite trees on Ole "Precious". My soul I done give to Jesus an He's gonna get the glory an more business frum me. So, when the horn blows, look me UP, cause UP's where I'll be.
So, what is Tx talkin about in this one word tip ? Its not spiritual, its fiscal.
Use email not the blog for answers.No use passin thisun on; nobody will believe it anyways. RB
Oct.1, 2010 Answer:
"One word tip" is Silver ... physical silver, not paper. It has been in a "Precious" metal, "Bull" market for nine years and I have "ridden" it ever since. It has been a rough ride with volitile ups and downs but its rise looks like jagged stairsteps all the way up from about $4.00 to $22.00 spot per oz. and the sky is the limit. It would take a day to explain why I believe that, so I won't go there ... here. "Give and it shall be given unto you ...." Til the horn blows ! RB Update=Jan.2011 $30
Aug 16, 2010
Bearing Arms: What Did Jesus Say
Common Sense Commentary: There are increasing numbers of powerful forces, political and otherwise, who demand a ban on all guns around the world .... except for those in power and their armies, state police and the Judges and Politician's bodyguards, of course. Well, that may sound like the remedy to all the crime and killings in the news media, but they always neglect to tell the whole story. The criminal element, drug lords, pimps, muggers, burglars, terrorists, and killers don't obey our laws now and won't if more laws are passed. These politicians are the same guys who have just forced off on all of us peasant citizens an inferior, stretched to the breaking point, Health Plan they would be insulted and embarrassed to have on themselves and their family. What's more, they can serve one term and have a huge, all inclusive, extravagant, bureaucratic,FREE For Life Health Plan for their highnesses and lownesses. Yes, those are the guys who want all guns banned .... except in their homes and their cars and for their bodyguards. And why do they need them if we don't ??? Tell me that Senator. "Well, there's a lota crazys out there who hate me for my political integrity, or crooks who want to rob me or lunitics and bombed out addicts who can kill ya at the drop of a hat.... and they'll drop the hat.... ha ha ha ha .... they wear em turned backards with their britches draggin so they look harmless but I see em comin from all directions .... so I gota have protection .... that's obvious. But you don't need a gun ...as just a plain, simple, little, old, average citizen. You ain't got nuthin they want ! Besides, there's more crime, stealin, illisiticity and underhanded dealins in our Capitol City than any major city in the country. I sacrafice to live here. Even in my upscale, high-class, Congressional, gated community, there's more crooks than Meskins in Los Angeles ha ha ha. "
I never did care much for old Senator Hocus-Pocus and like him a lot less every five minutes. That's enough of that rant. I was going to say:
A few years ago I read the tragic account, by the single survivor, of a family which was viciously abused and murdered one night by a gang of "socially deprived, underpriviledged" cutthroats. This family lived in the ghetto section of a large northeastern city. They were not a Christian family and the parents had too many vices but they loved their children and were doing their best to save enough to improve their situation. One evening, just at bedtime, this gang of six "misunderstood" savages, which had followed the sixteen year old girl home that afternoon, burst through the front door .... all with knives. They proceeded to beat and stab the mother and father until they fell dying on the floor. Then two of the blood thirsty maniacs turned on the fourteen year old son and beat him unconscious while the other four raped the twelve and sixteen year old girls.
All the while the noise and screams of bloody mayhem reached the ears of neighbors up and down the street. One of the neighbors, who called a city councilman to complain that he couldn't sleep because of the noisy people next door, later denied he had heard anything at all. Another neighbor later testified that he thought it was a family matter and didn't think he should get involved. Another neighbor simply said he and his wife were so scared they barricaded their own doors and turned up the volume on their television set and radio so it would sound like a party was going on in their house.
When the dawn came, everyone in the family was dead except the boy who had been thrown through a window into the yard and had drawled into some bushes.
If I had been one of that family's neighbors, I don't think I could ever look my wife and children in the face again for my shame. And, don't tell me not to judge them or that I don't know what I would do if it had been me next door. I don't have to prove myself to anyone. I have done that numerous times over the years including many months of continuous, bloody combat in both Koreas. That and a good many other experiences is why I have a Texas Carry Permit and a shot gun, pistols and ammo. "Why Reverend", you ask ? Well I'm a minister and a writer so I minister to the surviving victim and put one big black "period" on the foreheads of each of those "poor , abused and deluded" maniacs. I'm usually prepared to introduce myself to them and get acquainted wherever I happen to be. I like to make friends of their caliber with mine. Of course I'll visit any of their survivors in the "lock down" hospital ward while I'm up seeing the boy they threw thru the window. You know .... to read to em from the Book.
If we are neighbors to someone who is in real trouble, the least we can do is call the police, sheriff and hound them til they arrive. 911 is so simple and easy to dial that it is inexcusable not to use it in such cases. If the cops aren't there in three minutes, call the fire dept and report a fire .... then go start one.
Every Christian home needs an old shotgun and revolver. Simple to load, point and fire with no hang ups. If you disagree, why do you think Jesus, Himself, told His Disciples, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." "And they said, Lord, behold here are two swords. And Jesus said unto them, it is enough" Luke 22:36 & 38. Jesus not only told them to sell something and buy a sword but two of them already had a sword. Peter was one of them.
Jesus obviously hadn't scolded those two for having a sword during all their travels over three years time, on dangerous roads. Doesn't sound like He even thought anything about it. These verses are not a contradiction but must harmonize with everything else Jesus said. In fact, later in this same chapter, when Judas led the Chief Priests and Captains of the Temple and Elders out to take Jesus and crucify him, quick tempered Simon Peter, whipped out his sword and whacked an ear off of the High Priest's servant. Jesus reached out and healed the servant's ear and chided Peter for being too quick too quick on the trigger. That's good advice today. Then He told the religious mob (delegates) "This is your hour and the power of darkness." Lk.22:53. This is the reason He chided Peter. "This is your hour" simply means, all this was prophesied .... that I would be taken, falsely accused, betrayed and crucified and, "This is the hour for your part of it to be fulfilled." It had to happen and Jesus knew Peter couldn't stop it ... and shouldn't try.
I think it relevant that the above verses were recorded by "Luke, the beloved physician".
Now, I know that once in a great while somebody gets "accidentally" shot with an "unloaded" gun. But for every one of those cases, there are at least thirty or forty lives saved by the wise use of a gun. Without civilian guns in homes, cars and holsters, criminals would have a free pass to anybodies home and be gone before the police could get there. Crime is more out of control where guns are banned than where they are not. El Paso, Tx. and Juarez, Mex. are like one big city except for the Rio Grande river between them. Guns are illegal and banned in Juarez but legal in El Paso. Last year, Juarez alone had over six hundred murders. El Paso had about ten. Surveys show that most of the homes in El Paso have a gun. Which city would you rather live in Mr. Congressman ?
I'm sure my point is obvious by now. Don't let a power mad administration or U.N. committee of "Citizens of the World", take away our Constitutional Right to have and bear arms in this country, where an insane, wicked, drug crazed majority elected a religious, fanatical, mad man. No apologies. I know, I know, we need to pray for our rulers and I do. I pray as David often prayed for evil rulers ... that God would reward them according to their works.
I never did care much for old Senator Hocus-Pocus and like him a lot less every five minutes. That's enough of that rant. I was going to say:
A few years ago I read the tragic account, by the single survivor, of a family which was viciously abused and murdered one night by a gang of "socially deprived, underpriviledged" cutthroats. This family lived in the ghetto section of a large northeastern city. They were not a Christian family and the parents had too many vices but they loved their children and were doing their best to save enough to improve their situation. One evening, just at bedtime, this gang of six "misunderstood" savages, which had followed the sixteen year old girl home that afternoon, burst through the front door .... all with knives. They proceeded to beat and stab the mother and father until they fell dying on the floor. Then two of the blood thirsty maniacs turned on the fourteen year old son and beat him unconscious while the other four raped the twelve and sixteen year old girls.
All the while the noise and screams of bloody mayhem reached the ears of neighbors up and down the street. One of the neighbors, who called a city councilman to complain that he couldn't sleep because of the noisy people next door, later denied he had heard anything at all. Another neighbor later testified that he thought it was a family matter and didn't think he should get involved. Another neighbor simply said he and his wife were so scared they barricaded their own doors and turned up the volume on their television set and radio so it would sound like a party was going on in their house.
When the dawn came, everyone in the family was dead except the boy who had been thrown through a window into the yard and had drawled into some bushes.
If I had been one of that family's neighbors, I don't think I could ever look my wife and children in the face again for my shame. And, don't tell me not to judge them or that I don't know what I would do if it had been me next door. I don't have to prove myself to anyone. I have done that numerous times over the years including many months of continuous, bloody combat in both Koreas. That and a good many other experiences is why I have a Texas Carry Permit and a shot gun, pistols and ammo. "Why Reverend", you ask ? Well I'm a minister and a writer so I minister to the surviving victim and put one big black "period" on the foreheads of each of those "poor , abused and deluded" maniacs. I'm usually prepared to introduce myself to them and get acquainted wherever I happen to be. I like to make friends of their caliber with mine. Of course I'll visit any of their survivors in the "lock down" hospital ward while I'm up seeing the boy they threw thru the window. You know .... to read to em from the Book.
If we are neighbors to someone who is in real trouble, the least we can do is call the police, sheriff and hound them til they arrive. 911 is so simple and easy to dial that it is inexcusable not to use it in such cases. If the cops aren't there in three minutes, call the fire dept and report a fire .... then go start one.
Every Christian home needs an old shotgun and revolver. Simple to load, point and fire with no hang ups. If you disagree, why do you think Jesus, Himself, told His Disciples, "He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." "And they said, Lord, behold here are two swords. And Jesus said unto them, it is enough" Luke 22:36 & 38. Jesus not only told them to sell something and buy a sword but two of them already had a sword. Peter was one of them.
Jesus obviously hadn't scolded those two for having a sword during all their travels over three years time, on dangerous roads. Doesn't sound like He even thought anything about it. These verses are not a contradiction but must harmonize with everything else Jesus said. In fact, later in this same chapter, when Judas led the Chief Priests and Captains of the Temple and Elders out to take Jesus and crucify him, quick tempered Simon Peter, whipped out his sword and whacked an ear off of the High Priest's servant. Jesus reached out and healed the servant's ear and chided Peter for being too quick too quick on the trigger. That's good advice today. Then He told the religious mob (delegates) "This is your hour and the power of darkness." Lk.22:53. This is the reason He chided Peter. "This is your hour" simply means, all this was prophesied .... that I would be taken, falsely accused, betrayed and crucified and, "This is the hour for your part of it to be fulfilled." It had to happen and Jesus knew Peter couldn't stop it ... and shouldn't try.
I think it relevant that the above verses were recorded by "Luke, the beloved physician".
Now, I know that once in a great while somebody gets "accidentally" shot with an "unloaded" gun. But for every one of those cases, there are at least thirty or forty lives saved by the wise use of a gun. Without civilian guns in homes, cars and holsters, criminals would have a free pass to anybodies home and be gone before the police could get there. Crime is more out of control where guns are banned than where they are not. El Paso, Tx. and Juarez, Mex. are like one big city except for the Rio Grande river between them. Guns are illegal and banned in Juarez but legal in El Paso. Last year, Juarez alone had over six hundred murders. El Paso had about ten. Surveys show that most of the homes in El Paso have a gun. Which city would you rather live in Mr. Congressman ?
I'm sure my point is obvious by now. Don't let a power mad administration or U.N. committee of "Citizens of the World", take away our Constitutional Right to have and bear arms in this country, where an insane, wicked, drug crazed majority elected a religious, fanatical, mad man. No apologies. I know, I know, we need to pray for our rulers and I do. I pray as David often prayed for evil rulers ... that God would reward them according to their works.
The Second Amendment of our U.S. Constitution:
"A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
Webster's first definition of Militia is,"Inactive citizen soldiers called up in emergencies." The word "people" needs no definition but it obviously was in reference to civilians rather than active soldiers. If the founders had meant "active soldiers", they would have said soldiers. Also, their use of the two words, "keep and bear" is a clear distinction of two different aspects of our Second Amendment Rights. "Keep" means to own, have, hide, display in home, barn, toilet, or saddle bag or holster. The word, "Bear", according to Webster's first definition means to carry.
So you see there is no getting around what our Founding Fathers meant in that simple twenty five word Second Amendment. We have the right to have and carry arms. Don't let them fool you. They know what it means they just don't like it.
Pass It On. R.B.
Aug 15, 2010
The 17 Zillion "Forwards" I Get And Send On Half Of...
Common Sense Commentary: Enough is enough !! Thanks, I love you all...really. This is to all my mailing list... friends, enemies, and kin folks ....
No need to convert me; I'm already redeemed, saved, born again and converted to Christ. No need to brainwash, entertain, warn or scare me to death with all the known facts in the world.
I already know the world is going to hell in a hand basket. I am well aware of the unbelievable, tangled mess our own country has voted itself into. Talk to me ! Don't send me tons of
information about our national debt of trillions for welfare, Social Security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, free medical care, war, and commitments etc. etc. etc. which amount to 17 TRILLION $$$$$ and rising another TRILLION every year into the distant future which cannot possibly, ever, ever, ever be paid off in a thousand years but will tax our children and great, great, great grandchildren to death for evermore til Jesus Comes and we get the blame for letting it happen. There is one way to pay off the national debt. That is for the Fed. Reserve to print 17 TRILLION more new dollars... That would do it, but it would also make your own, savings, retirement, Soc.Sec. payments, dollars, worth about 2 cents each. Yes, my dear friends....
I am already so outraged, angry, hot under the collar and MAD, that I have ceased to read any newspaper, or watch TV news except FOX. I don't even read most of the glaring, important stuff forwarded to my mail box online. Even though almost all of it is true and the #*&^$% Liberals need to hear it. Every day a bunch of forwards arrive and I read the titles and maybe a paragraph. Then, I say to myself, "I am already 9,999 percent AGAINST that or 9,998 percent FOR that. Either way it is 9000 percent OVERLOAD on my old brain. The problem is, I either have to cease force feeding myself tons of information or, plan two, load my shotgun and head for Washington. So I just forward those shockingly true forwards on to everybody I know to help them either get motivated to VOTE next election or maybe THROW UP... or maybe hate me for exposing them to horrifying facts or for force feeding them that good stuff I can't stomach much more of, myself. You can count on old Rayburn to fight the good fight, witness and VOTE. I already hate the devil and dislike all his politically correct helpers here on earth and I'm 10,000 percent against what they stand for. I can't increase that... impossible.
Most of this forwarded stuff is true, some is really fantastic and says what I wish I had said and some of it is half true more or less. I have noticed that some of the most brilliant, revealing "forwards" are branded "Untrue" by Snopes because the original article was written by someone other that the one given credit for it. If the information is accurate and needs to be said, I don't really care who wrote it. The Communists used to kill one of their own folk heroes or a village, and blame it on the U.S. to gain the sympathy of other idiots and win world support. I think Liberals, of similar stripe, change those named authors of "forwards" and send them on to discredit the information. If I sound cynical, its because I AM ! We citizens of this country have been lied to, misled, cheated, and abused by power hungry politicians, Wall Street, The Liberal News Media, and Central Bank manipulators for decades and it gets worse every year. If Jesus doesn't come soon, this old wicked world will rot down to its socks into a big pile of scum .... on its own. That's why I believe His hand is on the door knob. He will be back.
When our duly elected politicians somehow morph from the Lone Ranger into a greedy, lying bandit, who do you blame ? It must be the demented citizens who voted them in. Whats the remedy for that ? It wouldn't change anything if all the politicians just dropped dead. Those same simple minded voters would just vote some more big spenders and crooks and liars back
in with hopes of getting a few more crumbs from the Washington free stuff table.
The only answer, humanly speaking, is that every True Christian campaign and vote for honest, descent all Americans. You know all those loafers, muggers, prostitutes and freeloaders are not going to register and vote. We can out vote them if every Real Christian will just get up and go vote or better yet, vote early by mail. We would never lose an election if we All just voted. That is not to say I was enthusiastic about the slate of candidates in 2008. I wasn't.
I'll make you a deal. If you will just read my blogs, I will cease to send forwards of any kind. What it may take me hours to write, you can read in a few minutes. In other words, I will read all of your emails to me and you read mine and we will both by-pass the overwhelming temptation to "forward" all that good stuff to each other. I will send it to my Liberal frien....
associates but not to you. They are the ones who need to read it. I am already convinced and I know you are too. Yes,10,000 percent.
No need to convert me; I'm already redeemed, saved, born again and converted to Christ. No need to brainwash, entertain, warn or scare me to death with all the known facts in the world.
I already know the world is going to hell in a hand basket. I am well aware of the unbelievable, tangled mess our own country has voted itself into. Talk to me ! Don't send me tons of
information about our national debt of trillions for welfare, Social Security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps, free medical care, war, and commitments etc. etc. etc. which amount to 17 TRILLION $$$$$ and rising another TRILLION every year into the distant future which cannot possibly, ever, ever, ever be paid off in a thousand years but will tax our children and great, great, great grandchildren to death for evermore til Jesus Comes and we get the blame for letting it happen. There is one way to pay off the national debt. That is for the Fed. Reserve to print 17 TRILLION more new dollars... That would do it, but it would also make your own, savings, retirement, Soc.Sec. payments, dollars, worth about 2 cents each. Yes, my dear friends....
I am already so outraged, angry, hot under the collar and MAD, that I have ceased to read any newspaper, or watch TV news except FOX. I don't even read most of the glaring, important stuff forwarded to my mail box online. Even though almost all of it is true and the #*&^$% Liberals need to hear it. Every day a bunch of forwards arrive and I read the titles and maybe a paragraph. Then, I say to myself, "I am already 9,999 percent AGAINST that or 9,998 percent FOR that. Either way it is 9000 percent OVERLOAD on my old brain. The problem is, I either have to cease force feeding myself tons of information or, plan two, load my shotgun and head for Washington. So I just forward those shockingly true forwards on to everybody I know to help them either get motivated to VOTE next election or maybe THROW UP... or maybe hate me for exposing them to horrifying facts or for force feeding them that good stuff I can't stomach much more of, myself. You can count on old Rayburn to fight the good fight, witness and VOTE. I already hate the devil and dislike all his politically correct helpers here on earth and I'm 10,000 percent against what they stand for. I can't increase that... impossible.
Most of this forwarded stuff is true, some is really fantastic and says what I wish I had said and some of it is half true more or less. I have noticed that some of the most brilliant, revealing "forwards" are branded "Untrue" by Snopes because the original article was written by someone other that the one given credit for it. If the information is accurate and needs to be said, I don't really care who wrote it. The Communists used to kill one of their own folk heroes or a village, and blame it on the U.S. to gain the sympathy of other idiots and win world support. I think Liberals, of similar stripe, change those named authors of "forwards" and send them on to discredit the information. If I sound cynical, its because I AM ! We citizens of this country have been lied to, misled, cheated, and abused by power hungry politicians, Wall Street, The Liberal News Media, and Central Bank manipulators for decades and it gets worse every year. If Jesus doesn't come soon, this old wicked world will rot down to its socks into a big pile of scum .... on its own. That's why I believe His hand is on the door knob. He will be back.
When our duly elected politicians somehow morph from the Lone Ranger into a greedy, lying bandit, who do you blame ? It must be the demented citizens who voted them in. Whats the remedy for that ? It wouldn't change anything if all the politicians just dropped dead. Those same simple minded voters would just vote some more big spenders and crooks and liars back
in with hopes of getting a few more crumbs from the Washington free stuff table.
The only answer, humanly speaking, is that every True Christian campaign and vote for honest, descent all Americans. You know all those loafers, muggers, prostitutes and freeloaders are not going to register and vote. We can out vote them if every Real Christian will just get up and go vote or better yet, vote early by mail. We would never lose an election if we All just voted. That is not to say I was enthusiastic about the slate of candidates in 2008. I wasn't.
I'll make you a deal. If you will just read my blogs, I will cease to send forwards of any kind. What it may take me hours to write, you can read in a few minutes. In other words, I will read all of your emails to me and you read mine and we will both by-pass the overwhelming temptation to "forward" all that good stuff to each other. I will send it to my Liberal frien....
associates but not to you. They are the ones who need to read it. I am already convinced and I know you are too. Yes,10,000 percent.
Keep this one at home. RB
Aug 14, 2010
(2) Seven Power Promises To Christ Likeness
Common Sense Commentary:
"According to His divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and Godliness, through the Knowledge of Him that hath Called us to His Glory and Virtue; Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises; that by these ye might be Partakers of the Divine Nature..... 2Pet.1:3-4 (Please also read thru v.9). This is the same divine plan and Purpose of God I spoke of in my last blog titled (1) In His Image.
Don't miss the "divine Power" and "precious Promises" in the above verses from whence I got the title: Seven Power Promises To Christ Likeness. I list those "Power Promises" below.......
I. Power Promise (1). All Trouble and Affliction Have A Godly purpose = Christ likeness....
.... Heb.12:10 God chastens us "for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness."
..... 2Cor.4:17 "... Our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory (exceeding heavy honor)...." which is Christ likeness.
II. Power Promise (2). All Things Work for the Believer's Good and God's purpose= Christ likeness, "in His Image".
..... Rom.8:18 "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." which is Christ likeness.
..... Phil.1:6 "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (2nd Coming "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him"1Jn.3:2). Christ likeness.
III. Power Promise (3). Every True Christian is Destined to Christ likeness = His Purpose.
..... Rom.8:29 "We are predestinated to be conformed to the image God's Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren." Jesus Christ is the "firstborn" of a new, eternal race of born again, transformed to Christ likeness, "in His Image and Likeness" faithful believers as was God our Creator's original plan and purpose for mankind. "In His Image."
IV. Power Promise (4). Christ likeness is a SPIRITUAL Metamorphosis from an ugly worm like caterpillar to a glorious and beautiful butterfly..."so to speak", lest anyone quote me as
delusional or trying to start a new religion of "Believer Butterflies". Its the best I can do with a word picture illustration honey. Anyway, here are the verses :
..... 1Cor15:49 "....as we have born the image of the earthly (physical), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Regenerated "in His image and likeness". Christ Likeness.
..... Phil.3:21 For He "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself." = Christ likeness, in His image, Perfectly Holy is God's Purpose for us.
V. Power Promise (5). The Miracle of the Mirror (From Glory Unto Glory) = Christ likeness.
..... 2Cor.3:18 "But we all with open face (vail gone) beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory unto glory."= DOXA Gk.wd.
..... 1Thess.2:12 "We are called unto His glory. " = DOXA Greek Word "Glory". Christ Likeness.
VI. Power Promise (6). This is the Mystery of the Ages throughout the Old Testament. The Jew's Messiah/Christ (Gk/Heb Same word) was spoken of by Moses and the prophets but the people were blinded by a "vail"as described by the Jewish scholar who became the Apostle Paul :
..... Col.1:27 "This is the mystery which was hidden (vail) from ages past.... Christ in you the hope of Glory." "Christ IN you" is even more than "Christ like". It is the person of Christ living IN you. This is the mystery God's people Israel could not see in the O.T. prophecies of their coming Messiah/Christ . c.f. Rom.1:7, 3:17 & 2Cor.4:4. In these next verses, "Their minds were blinded.
.... 2Cor.3:13-16 "which vail is done away in Christ " and when they turn to the Lord, "The vail is taken away". Christ Likeness (Please read all these verses).
VII. Power Promise (7). God's Finished Work....Perfection. After we Christians have suffered persecution; (Jesus said, "if they hated me they will hate you"), after we have suffered tribulation; ("Tribulation worketh endurance") after a lifetime of growing in grace and struggling to live up to our name, Christian....then, finally, when we hear, "the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God", and the dead in Christ arise, God will finish us...."In His Image and after His likeness." As we are caught up into the clouds:
.... Col.3:4 "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory".... Glorified, Christlike, in His Image, Perfectly Holy.
.... 1Jn.3:2-3 "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doeth not yet appear what we shall be; but we KNOW that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."
..... Heb. 12:18 & 22-23 "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched (Sinai) but ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of Just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling ..... (The Heavenly Altar Of God at the Mercy Seat of God where Christ ascended immediately at His resurrection to present His sacrifice upon the cross for our sins ). Every True Christian's Future is there around God's Throne as described above.
Pass It On. RB
"According to His divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and Godliness, through the Knowledge of Him that hath Called us to His Glory and Virtue; Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises; that by these ye might be Partakers of the Divine Nature..... 2Pet.1:3-4 (Please also read thru v.9). This is the same divine plan and Purpose of God I spoke of in my last blog titled (1) In His Image.
Don't miss the "divine Power" and "precious Promises" in the above verses from whence I got the title: Seven Power Promises To Christ Likeness. I list those "Power Promises" below.......
I. Power Promise (1). All Trouble and Affliction Have A Godly purpose = Christ likeness....
.... Heb.12:10 God chastens us "for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness."
..... 2Cor.4:17 "... Our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory (exceeding heavy honor)...." which is Christ likeness.
II. Power Promise (2). All Things Work for the Believer's Good and God's purpose= Christ likeness, "in His Image".
..... Rom.8:18 "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." which is Christ likeness.
..... Phil.1:6 "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (2nd Coming "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him"1Jn.3:2). Christ likeness.
III. Power Promise (3). Every True Christian is Destined to Christ likeness = His Purpose.
..... Rom.8:29 "We are predestinated to be conformed to the image God's Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren." Jesus Christ is the "firstborn" of a new, eternal race of born again, transformed to Christ likeness, "in His Image and Likeness" faithful believers as was God our Creator's original plan and purpose for mankind. "In His Image."
IV. Power Promise (4). Christ likeness is a SPIRITUAL Metamorphosis from an ugly worm like caterpillar to a glorious and beautiful butterfly..."so to speak", lest anyone quote me as
delusional or trying to start a new religion of "Believer Butterflies". Its the best I can do with a word picture illustration honey. Anyway, here are the verses :
..... 1Cor15:49 "....as we have born the image of the earthly (physical), we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Regenerated "in His image and likeness". Christ Likeness.
..... Phil.3:21 For He "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself." = Christ likeness, in His image, Perfectly Holy is God's Purpose for us.
V. Power Promise (5). The Miracle of the Mirror (From Glory Unto Glory) = Christ likeness.
..... 2Cor.3:18 "But we all with open face (vail gone) beholding as in a glass (mirror) the glory
of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory unto glory."= DOXA Gk.wd.
..... 1Thess.2:12 "We are called unto His glory. " = DOXA Greek Word "Glory". Christ Likeness.
VI. Power Promise (6). This is the Mystery of the Ages throughout the Old Testament. The Jew's Messiah/Christ (Gk/Heb Same word) was spoken of by Moses and the prophets but the people were blinded by a "vail"as described by the Jewish scholar who became the Apostle Paul :
..... Col.1:27 "This is the mystery which was hidden (vail) from ages past.... Christ in you the hope of Glory." "Christ IN you" is even more than "Christ like". It is the person of Christ living IN you. This is the mystery God's people Israel could not see in the O.T. prophecies of their coming Messiah/Christ . c.f. Rom.1:7, 3:17 & 2Cor.4:4. In these next verses, "Their minds were blinded.
.... 2Cor.3:13-16 "which vail is done away in Christ " and when they turn to the Lord, "The vail is taken away". Christ Likeness (Please read all these verses).
VII. Power Promise (7). God's Finished Work....Perfection. After we Christians have suffered persecution; (Jesus said, "if they hated me they will hate you"), after we have suffered tribulation; ("Tribulation worketh endurance") after a lifetime of growing in grace and struggling to live up to our name, Christian....then, finally, when we hear, "the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God", and the dead in Christ arise, God will finish us...."In His Image and after His likeness." As we are caught up into the clouds:
.... Col.3:4 "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory".... Glorified, Christlike, in His Image, Perfectly Holy.
.... 1Jn.3:2-3 "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doeth not yet appear what we shall be; but we KNOW that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."
..... Heb. 12:18 & 22-23 "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched (Sinai) but ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of Just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling ..... (The Heavenly Altar Of God at the Mercy Seat of God where Christ ascended immediately at His resurrection to present His sacrifice upon the cross for our sins ). Every True Christian's Future is there around God's Throne as described above.
Pass It On. RB
Aug 12, 2010
(1) In HIS Image....Christlikeness Is God's Purpose For Us
Common Sense Commentary: This is an outline summary of a person's journey from creation "In God's Image", Original Adamic Human Sin, on through the Old Testament ages and dispensations from the age of Innocence, The Fall,Law, Patriarchs, Prophets and ending with the birth of Jesus and the New Testament Church Age. This dispensation will end with the second coming of Christ and rapture of His Bride, the true Christians. At the rapture, God's plan to Redeem and Restore, all believers to His "ORIGINAL PURPOSE" in Genesis ... "In His Image"... "CHRIST LIKENESS" will be completed.
My title, "In His Image" was God's original, constant, continual and final "purpose" and plan for every, single, individual person who ever lived or will live on this earth. A second title might be "From Glory Unto Glory" or, in a word, "Christ likeness". Christ likeness IS "In His Image" which is glorious beyond words ! The word "glory" is, in the Greek, "DOXA" which means "Exceedingly Heavy Honor". This word, DOXA, encompasses and radiates ALL of the Beautiful, Wonderful, Holy attributes of God. "Theology" is "The Study of God". "Doxology" is the study of God's Glory. God's plan and purpose for man has never changed....Godly Holiness, "In His Image", or Christ likeness. His original "purpose" was, "And God said let 'US' (Holy Trinity) make man in 'OUR' image, after 'OUR' likeness....So God created man in 'HIS' own Image." Gen.1:26.
In Genesis 3, God's "image and likeness", the human race, composed of two people, became desecrated by the sin of disobedience ignited by Lucifer and they, our forefather and foremother, became sinners and all their descendants as well.... both by birth and by choice. God's "purpose" for the race, not having changed, was to now initiate a remedy of redemption and restoration for this marred image of Himself. For the next several centuries, as the human race struggled with their inborn fleshly lust and sin, God sent prophets to cry out against the wickedness, disobedience and idol worship of the people. They also prophesied of the coming Messiah Saviour. They gave many signs and identifying traits and events of the Messiah/ Christ that the people might recognize Him when He arrived by way of a virgin birth. All of which eventually came to pass in the person of Jesus. He was God in the flesh and God's remedy for the curse of sin which condemned us all. John 3:16 expresses it best.
In the New Testament, Col.1:15, Apostle Paul said of Jesus Christ, "Who is the 'image' of the invisible God.... and the firstborn of many brethren (Christians)". The wages of our sins was death (Rom.6:23). Somebody sinless had to die for us or we had to die, hopeless, for our own sins. There was no one who was qualified/sinless until God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to die for us, in our place, for our sins.
So, what is God's plan and "purpose" for us today ? It hasn't changed, "Be ye holy as He is holy" 1Pet.1:15. Paul put it this way, "Put on the new man which is renewed in the image of Him that created us ...." Col.3:10. This word "renewed" in Greek is anakainoo "to make new again". This is a present, passive, participle indicating a continuing process not yet completed.
Paul goes on to say in Col.3:11-14, "...Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore (all His good attributes) even as Christ. And above all things put on love which is the bond of perfection".
=Perfect Holiness and Christ likeness. Agape Love is the crowning glory of Christ likeness. God's finished work of grace is agape love.....Godly love. There are so many ways we Christians fall short of Christ likeness, but one thing is uppermost "above all things"Paul said, is Christian love. That is the nearest to Christ likeness we can come. Not one of us is or will ever be truly Christlike in every way while in this sinful world, but it will happen at the coming of Christ in the air. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doeth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that ,when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1Jn.3:2
Pass It On. RB
My title, "In His Image" was God's original, constant, continual and final "purpose" and plan for every, single, individual person who ever lived or will live on this earth. A second title might be "From Glory Unto Glory" or, in a word, "Christ likeness". Christ likeness IS "In His Image" which is glorious beyond words ! The word "glory" is, in the Greek, "DOXA" which means "Exceedingly Heavy Honor". This word, DOXA, encompasses and radiates ALL of the Beautiful, Wonderful, Holy attributes of God. "Theology" is "The Study of God". "Doxology" is the study of God's Glory. God's plan and purpose for man has never changed....Godly Holiness, "In His Image", or Christ likeness. His original "purpose" was, "And God said let 'US' (Holy Trinity) make man in 'OUR' image, after 'OUR' likeness....So God created man in 'HIS' own Image." Gen.1:26.
In Genesis 3, God's "image and likeness", the human race, composed of two people, became desecrated by the sin of disobedience ignited by Lucifer and they, our forefather and foremother, became sinners and all their descendants as well.... both by birth and by choice. God's "purpose" for the race, not having changed, was to now initiate a remedy of redemption and restoration for this marred image of Himself. For the next several centuries, as the human race struggled with their inborn fleshly lust and sin, God sent prophets to cry out against the wickedness, disobedience and idol worship of the people. They also prophesied of the coming Messiah Saviour. They gave many signs and identifying traits and events of the Messiah/ Christ that the people might recognize Him when He arrived by way of a virgin birth. All of which eventually came to pass in the person of Jesus. He was God in the flesh and God's remedy for the curse of sin which condemned us all. John 3:16 expresses it best.
In the New Testament, Col.1:15, Apostle Paul said of Jesus Christ, "Who is the 'image' of the invisible God.... and the firstborn of many brethren (Christians)". The wages of our sins was death (Rom.6:23). Somebody sinless had to die for us or we had to die, hopeless, for our own sins. There was no one who was qualified/sinless until God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to die for us, in our place, for our sins.
So, what is God's plan and "purpose" for us today ? It hasn't changed, "Be ye holy as He is holy" 1Pet.1:15. Paul put it this way, "Put on the new man which is renewed in the image of Him that created us ...." Col.3:10. This word "renewed" in Greek is anakainoo "to make new again". This is a present, passive, participle indicating a continuing process not yet completed.
Paul goes on to say in Col.3:11-14, "...Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore (all His good attributes) even as Christ. And above all things put on love which is the bond of perfection".
=Perfect Holiness and Christ likeness. Agape Love is the crowning glory of Christ likeness. God's finished work of grace is agape love.....Godly love. There are so many ways we Christians fall short of Christ likeness, but one thing is uppermost "above all things"Paul said, is Christian love. That is the nearest to Christ likeness we can come. Not one of us is or will ever be truly Christlike in every way while in this sinful world, but it will happen at the coming of Christ in the air. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doeth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that ,when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1Jn.3:2
Pass It On. RB
Aug 11, 2010
The Big " IF" Determines Destinies
Common Sense Commentary:
Rudyard Kipling was not just a good poet, he was a fine Christian. I first read his poem, "IF" when I was a young preacher in Seminary. This is the first thing that really spoke to my sense of what a man should be, except for my father's example. "If" is the biggest, little word in any language. Everything henges on this one syllable word. The "Law of First Mention" says that the first mention of a word in the Bible has special significance in defining what the word means in all the rest of its uses following the first. Our word "If" is first used in Genesis 4:7...."If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door...." The last mention, in the Bible, of "if" is in Rev.22:19, and is God's final warning. "If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take his part out of the book of life...." Jesus, Himself, put forgiveness of sin, redemption and eternal life in the simplest, shortest possible form, when He said, "I am the door: by me IF any man enter in, he shall be saved...." John 10:9. In all three of these verses, "IF" is the pivot point of ETERNITY. "If you do well...."Heaven". "If you do not well...."Hell". Every good and bad thing has a big if between them. Every right and wrong has that big if to deal with. That one little two letter word, a conjunction of condition, standing there in the crossroads of the most important decisions of life and you must make the choice..."which way shall I go ?" Life and death issues are decided here..."IF". Eternity itself is decided here...."IF". "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom.10:9
.................. If by Rudyard Kipling ..................
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.
If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken;
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them; "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a man, my son!
"Hold on"...and
Pass It On. RB
Rudyard Kipling was not just a good poet, he was a fine Christian. I first read his poem, "IF" when I was a young preacher in Seminary. This is the first thing that really spoke to my sense of what a man should be, except for my father's example. "If" is the biggest, little word in any language. Everything henges on this one syllable word. The "Law of First Mention" says that the first mention of a word in the Bible has special significance in defining what the word means in all the rest of its uses following the first. Our word "If" is first used in Genesis 4:7...."If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door...." The last mention, in the Bible, of "if" is in Rev.22:19, and is God's final warning. "If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take his part out of the book of life...." Jesus, Himself, put forgiveness of sin, redemption and eternal life in the simplest, shortest possible form, when He said, "I am the door: by me IF any man enter in, he shall be saved...." John 10:9. In all three of these verses, "IF" is the pivot point of ETERNITY. "If you do well...."Heaven". "If you do not well...."Hell". Every good and bad thing has a big if between them. Every right and wrong has that big if to deal with. That one little two letter word, a conjunction of condition, standing there in the crossroads of the most important decisions of life and you must make the choice..."which way shall I go ?" Life and death issues are decided here..."IF". Eternity itself is decided here...."IF". "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom.10:9
.................. If by Rudyard Kipling ..................
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.
If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken;
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them; "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a man, my son!
"Hold on"...and
Pass It On. RB
Aug 10, 2010
(II) God's Foreknowledge Leads To Predestiation
Common Sense Commentary: "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate .....
whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them he also glorified. Rom.8:29-30. God's order and arrangement of these five blessed events in the life of every believer are in the order of their occurrence. From eternity past (foreknowledge) to eternity future (glorified) their order is vital. Glorification is based upon Justification, Justification upon the Call of God, the Call upon Predestination and Predestination upon Foreknowledge. So, all of our Spiritual Journey with God began in His eternal FOREKNOWLEDGE which must precede all else.
The key to understanding Biblical predestination correctly is in understanding the meaning of the word "foreknow". It simply means exactly what it says... "to know before". Though a verb, it does not reflect any kind of action upon anything except thought. The word, "predestinate" is an action upon a person or thing. Knowledge is not action. It is not the brain or mind but is contained withing the brain and subjective to the mind. It is somewhat similar to a computer which has "hardware" with "software" programed into it. One's knowledge is basically the sum total of one's experiences and exposure to information. Intuition is not magic; it is primarily a result of knowledge and experience.
Foreknowledge, in its absolute sense, of knowing exactly what will happen before the fact is an attribute which only God Himself possesses and He did not attain it but always had it. A very knowledgeable, experienced person can often predict the "probable" result of certain activity but never with absolute accuracy or certainty. God alone has that power, not by learned knowledge or experience but as an eternal characteristic of His Deity. He knows all things, has always known all things and always will know all things. Rev.1:8 ..."I am... the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
The Greek word Proeidon, "to foresee" means to "see before" as in Acts 2:31. This text (v.29-30) says that God had told David, in Psm.16:10, about Jesus Christ and that David, " Seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ". Reason with me. Did David's spiritual "foresight" determine the resurrection of Christ ? Clearly not. He simply had "foreknowledge" of what was going to happen. That knowledge did not in any way affect the resurrection. Likewise, Gal 3:6-9 says that, "the scripture foresaw that God would justify the heathen through faith" as He justified Abraham by faith not works. Question: Did the scriptural prediction of "Salvation by grace through faith in Christ "cause" Christ to come and die for our sins and resurrect from death ? No. It was prophetic foresight of the event. So it is with God's "foreknowledge".
So what does "Foreknowledge" mean ? The Greek word is "prognosis" which means to "know before". Does the Doctor's prognosis CAUSE the disease or does the disease cause the prognosis ? A prognosis is simply a prediction, or foreknowledge of what the disease will, itself, do in the future. It has no causative action. Prognosis, "foreknowledge" of what will happen in the future, like truth, is neutral. It is what it is. There is not good or bad truth. Truth is truth.
A prognosis (foreknowledge), is not a disease put upon the patient by the Doctor. He simply, in his wisdom, knows what the disease will do. It isn't his fault or choosing. So is the "prognosis" foreknowledge of God. He gave us a free will and foreknows what we will do with it. The choice is ours alone but the foreknowledge (prognosis) is His. What God knows will happen....WILL HAPPEN !!! That is Pre destined according to His prognosis (foreknowledge).
Rom.8:29-30 bases predestination upon God's foreknowledge of what we would do with our free will when the time came. Foreknowledge comes out of eternity past, then predestination, then the call, then justification, and then glorification into the eternal future. That is God's order not mine. Now, if our eternal God has that perfect, absolute prognosis (foreknowledge) of our own personal choices, before they even happen, and as if they had already happened, how can that foreknowledge not come to pass ? Not by His decision but ours. He foreknew it but it was us who did it , good or bad. And, if God foreknew it how could it be changed ? Can't prayer change things ? Yes, but He foreknew that too. Another aspect of God's irreversible, unchangeable foreknowledge is ..... "destined" or more accurately, "predestined" and if foreknown and predestined, you can also call it "elected" or "foreordained" but it is still based upon the foreknowledge of God. "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father."
1 Pet.1:2.
This is Biblical "Predestination" according to God's plan, design, will and purpose for our salvation. "According to the good pleasure of His will" Eph.1:5. "which He hath purposed in Himself " Eph.1:9. "Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" Eph.1:11. "Christ ...In whom ye also trusted after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel .... Ye believed, ye were sealed." Eph.1:13
Pass It On. RB P.S. = Don't you just love God's Word ?
whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them he also glorified. Rom.8:29-30. God's order and arrangement of these five blessed events in the life of every believer are in the order of their occurrence. From eternity past (foreknowledge) to eternity future (glorified) their order is vital. Glorification is based upon Justification, Justification upon the Call of God, the Call upon Predestination and Predestination upon Foreknowledge. So, all of our Spiritual Journey with God began in His eternal FOREKNOWLEDGE which must precede all else.
The key to understanding Biblical predestination correctly is in understanding the meaning of the word "foreknow". It simply means exactly what it says... "to know before". Though a verb, it does not reflect any kind of action upon anything except thought. The word, "predestinate" is an action upon a person or thing. Knowledge is not action. It is not the brain or mind but is contained withing the brain and subjective to the mind. It is somewhat similar to a computer which has "hardware" with "software" programed into it. One's knowledge is basically the sum total of one's experiences and exposure to information. Intuition is not magic; it is primarily a result of knowledge and experience.
Foreknowledge, in its absolute sense, of knowing exactly what will happen before the fact is an attribute which only God Himself possesses and He did not attain it but always had it. A very knowledgeable, experienced person can often predict the "probable" result of certain activity but never with absolute accuracy or certainty. God alone has that power, not by learned knowledge or experience but as an eternal characteristic of His Deity. He knows all things, has always known all things and always will know all things. Rev.1:8 ..."I am... the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
The Greek word Proeidon, "to foresee" means to "see before" as in Acts 2:31. This text (v.29-30) says that God had told David, in Psm.16:10, about Jesus Christ and that David, " Seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ". Reason with me. Did David's spiritual "foresight" determine the resurrection of Christ ? Clearly not. He simply had "foreknowledge" of what was going to happen. That knowledge did not in any way affect the resurrection. Likewise, Gal 3:6-9 says that, "the scripture foresaw that God would justify the heathen through faith" as He justified Abraham by faith not works. Question: Did the scriptural prediction of "Salvation by grace through faith in Christ "cause" Christ to come and die for our sins and resurrect from death ? No. It was prophetic foresight of the event. So it is with God's "foreknowledge".
So what does "Foreknowledge" mean ? The Greek word is "prognosis" which means to "know before". Does the Doctor's prognosis CAUSE the disease or does the disease cause the prognosis ? A prognosis is simply a prediction, or foreknowledge of what the disease will, itself, do in the future. It has no causative action. Prognosis, "foreknowledge" of what will happen in the future, like truth, is neutral. It is what it is. There is not good or bad truth. Truth is truth.
A prognosis (foreknowledge), is not a disease put upon the patient by the Doctor. He simply, in his wisdom, knows what the disease will do. It isn't his fault or choosing. So is the "prognosis" foreknowledge of God. He gave us a free will and foreknows what we will do with it. The choice is ours alone but the foreknowledge (prognosis) is His. What God knows will happen....WILL HAPPEN !!! That is Pre destined according to His prognosis (foreknowledge).
Rom.8:29-30 bases predestination upon God's foreknowledge of what we would do with our free will when the time came. Foreknowledge comes out of eternity past, then predestination, then the call, then justification, and then glorification into the eternal future. That is God's order not mine. Now, if our eternal God has that perfect, absolute prognosis (foreknowledge) of our own personal choices, before they even happen, and as if they had already happened, how can that foreknowledge not come to pass ? Not by His decision but ours. He foreknew it but it was us who did it , good or bad. And, if God foreknew it how could it be changed ? Can't prayer change things ? Yes, but He foreknew that too. Another aspect of God's irreversible, unchangeable foreknowledge is ..... "destined" or more accurately, "predestined" and if foreknown and predestined, you can also call it "elected" or "foreordained" but it is still based upon the foreknowledge of God. "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father."
1 Pet.1:2.
This is Biblical "Predestination" according to God's plan, design, will and purpose for our salvation. "According to the good pleasure of His will" Eph.1:5. "which He hath purposed in Himself " Eph.1:9. "Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" Eph.1:11. "Christ ...In whom ye also trusted after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel .... Ye believed, ye were sealed." Eph.1:13
Pass It On. RB P.S. = Don't you just love God's Word ?
Aug 8, 2010
(I) Free Moral Agent: God's Gift To Us Of A Free Will
Common Sense Commentary:
Believe it or not, there are many Christians who believe that everything that happens in this old wicked world is God's Will by the mere fact that whatever God doesn't stop, He permits and it must, therefore, be God's Perfect Will. This view is half true. God not only knows everything
that happens, good and evil, but He also foreknew it before the worlds began. The theological word for God's foreknowledge is Omniscience (all knowing). It should also be obvious that if our Omnipotent (all powerful) and Omnipresent (all present, past and future) God foreknows what will happen, He could easily stop the bad and only permit the good. Then, why doesn't He ????
The answer to that is, that it was God's Perfect Will and Purpose for both angels and humans, not to be just Predestined pegs on a game board, but that His created beings have a Free Will to make "most" of their own decisions and choices and thereby their destiny. How could it possibly please God our Father for angels and humans to do exactly and only what God predetermined and "programed" them to do? This, without a choice or independent, individual decision of their own ? Would you want your own children to obey your every thought and command without any thought or word or action of their own, with no choices or personality of their own but yours ? Do you not get more pleasure and blessing when they learn from you and then make wise decisions and good choices for themselves ? Surly our Heavenly Father wants that for us as well. If God predetermined everything we or angels do or think, based on nothing other than His choosing to bless one and curse the other, why then does He hold us responsible and accountable for our sins, hate, lust, and murder if we were predestined by His choice to do those things ?
I. Angelic Free Will : When the Archangel Lucifer (Satan) and his rebellious angels fought against Archangel Michael and his good angels,were they all just preprogramed robotzombies or Free Moral Agents, with Free Wills, who chose sides for themselves ? Rev.12:7-9 . If they were not each responsible for their own actions, why did God cast them out of heaven ? God, through the prophet Isaiah, explains the Free Will and individual choices of angels in Isa.14:12-14 where God asked Lucifer exactly how he fell from heaven to earth and then God answered the question for him.... , "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ...I will ....
I will .... I will .... I will be ....(God)." Now, whose will was it that caused these rebellious angels to try to take over heaven, theirs or God's ???? Yes, its a silly question and to say that God "predestined " their sin by His own perfect will is also silly. God could have stopped it but didn't because those angels had a free will, followed Lucifer willingly, and paid the price for their sins. Not only that, but those "self willed" angels who rejected God's perfect will for them and thus put themselves under the "permissive will" of God, needed to be removed from His Holy Presence. 2 Pet.2:4 "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell into chains of darkness." God rebuked Satan in Ezek.28:12-17, where He addressed him as, oh you ... "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty," you sealed your own fate.... "You were the anointed cherub that covereth, and I put you there: you were upon the holy mountain of God, walked up and down in the midst of the precious stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. Thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God...." Now anyone who still thinks what Lucifer did was somehow "God's will" simply because He didn't stop Lucifer's rebelling in the first place, overlooks God's gift to us of a "Free will" and makes God responsible for sin. NONSENSE !
II. God's Perfect Will vs. His Permissive Will: God, of course has a "Perfect Will" for His angels and for us humans too. His "Perfect Will" is always best for us all. But apparently His "Perfect Will" is, among other things, that we each have a "Free Will" to obey and love Him or to do otherwise by our own choices. He wants us to love and follow Him by our own will, choice, and decision. He is glorified by that more than if we had no choice and could not do otherwise. When we disobey and go astray, we may damage our family, our marriage, our reputation, other people and create irreparable damage that we have to live with the rest of our lives. If our marriage is destroyed and our mate has remarried, repented and has children by a new mate, both of you can still grow in grace, obey and serve God. The sin of divorce is not the unpardonable sin but needs sincere repentance. You cannot restore what you ruined that was God's "Perfect Will" for the two of you, your family, your health, and testimony, but you can still live for Him within His "Permissive Will". Since the past cannot be relived and corrected or changed, you can rebuild your life and possibly be more faithful to Him than you would ever have been before going astray. The prodigal son, after he messed up his life and wasted his substance in riotous living, woke up in the pig pen starving, and said to himself, "I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee". Luke 15:18.If that is the case, and your life and testimony are shining for God more than ever before, His "Permissive Will" may become His "Perfect Will" under the present circumstances. "All things work together for good to them that love God.... "Rom.8:28.
"God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you." 1 Pet.5:10.
There are thousands of things, of course, which are God's will alone and totally beyond our will or decisions, choices or control. For instance, the entire universe, seasons, night and day, hurricanes, weather, oceans, birth of Christ, Holy Spirit's working, Prophecy are just a few. God said of Adam, "I will make him a helpmate.." Eve...Gen.2:18. Adam had nothing to do with it.
Later, He said to Noah, "I will destroy them " with the flood. Gen.6:13. To Abraham, God said, "I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Jesus) Gen.12:3. Abraham did not make that decision. Jesus said, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man (human) hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him.... " Rev.3:20
III. Human Free Will: After Jesus told Judas, "That thou doest, do quickly." Judas went immediately to the Chief Priests and asked, "What will ye give me, and I will deliver Jesus
unto you ? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." (Prophesied by God's foreknowledge) Zec.11:12-13. Did God, by His own will,want Judas to do this evil , by creating him to betray Jesus ? Is that what predestination is ? No. Isn't it more rational and more like God, that He and Jesus Foreknew that Judas, by his own Self will and greed, would simply play into God's hand and plan that Jesus, the lamb of God, would give His life on that cross for the willful sins of hopeless sinners? John 3:16. Look also at the rich farmer in Luke 12:18-19 . He proudly said, "I will, I will, I will" three times of great boastful things he would do with his riches but no thanks or credit or offering to God. "But God said, you fool...." you will die tonight. Then whose shall those things be ?
And why were not the Jewish elders, priests and scribes in Luke 22:66-68 saved ? Jesus said, it was because, "Ye will not believe". That, my friends , is His "Foreknowledge" of their own will first and if He foreknew they would not believe, He also foreknew their destiny because "Ye will not believe" and not because God was unwilling to save them. Jesus also said to a Jewish mob, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life". John 5:40
The Gospel (good news) is, that, many Jews and Gentiles Will come to Jesus. Rev.22:17 "The Spirit and the bride (church) say, come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."
>
Pass It On. RB
Believe it or not, there are many Christians who believe that everything that happens in this old wicked world is God's Will by the mere fact that whatever God doesn't stop, He permits and it must, therefore, be God's Perfect Will. This view is half true. God not only knows everything
that happens, good and evil, but He also foreknew it before the worlds began. The theological word for God's foreknowledge is Omniscience (all knowing). It should also be obvious that if our Omnipotent (all powerful) and Omnipresent (all present, past and future) God foreknows what will happen, He could easily stop the bad and only permit the good. Then, why doesn't He ????
The answer to that is, that it was God's Perfect Will and Purpose for both angels and humans, not to be just Predestined pegs on a game board, but that His created beings have a Free Will to make "most" of their own decisions and choices and thereby their destiny. How could it possibly please God our Father for angels and humans to do exactly and only what God predetermined and "programed" them to do? This, without a choice or independent, individual decision of their own ? Would you want your own children to obey your every thought and command without any thought or word or action of their own, with no choices or personality of their own but yours ? Do you not get more pleasure and blessing when they learn from you and then make wise decisions and good choices for themselves ? Surly our Heavenly Father wants that for us as well. If God predetermined everything we or angels do or think, based on nothing other than His choosing to bless one and curse the other, why then does He hold us responsible and accountable for our sins, hate, lust, and murder if we were predestined by His choice to do those things ?
I. Angelic Free Will : When the Archangel Lucifer (Satan) and his rebellious angels fought against Archangel Michael and his good angels,were they all just preprogramed robotzombies or Free Moral Agents, with Free Wills, who chose sides for themselves ? Rev.12:7-9 . If they were not each responsible for their own actions, why did God cast them out of heaven ? God, through the prophet Isaiah, explains the Free Will and individual choices of angels in Isa.14:12-14 where God asked Lucifer exactly how he fell from heaven to earth and then God answered the question for him.... , "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ...I will ....
I will .... I will .... I will be ....(God)." Now, whose will was it that caused these rebellious angels to try to take over heaven, theirs or God's ???? Yes, its a silly question and to say that God "predestined " their sin by His own perfect will is also silly. God could have stopped it but didn't because those angels had a free will, followed Lucifer willingly, and paid the price for their sins. Not only that, but those "self willed" angels who rejected God's perfect will for them and thus put themselves under the "permissive will" of God, needed to be removed from His Holy Presence. 2 Pet.2:4 "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell into chains of darkness." God rebuked Satan in Ezek.28:12-17, where He addressed him as, oh you ... "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty," you sealed your own fate.... "You were the anointed cherub that covereth, and I put you there: you were upon the holy mountain of God, walked up and down in the midst of the precious stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. Thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God...." Now anyone who still thinks what Lucifer did was somehow "God's will" simply because He didn't stop Lucifer's rebelling in the first place, overlooks God's gift to us of a "Free will" and makes God responsible for sin. NONSENSE !
II. God's Perfect Will vs. His Permissive Will: God, of course has a "Perfect Will" for His angels and for us humans too. His "Perfect Will" is always best for us all. But apparently His "Perfect Will" is, among other things, that we each have a "Free Will" to obey and love Him or to do otherwise by our own choices. He wants us to love and follow Him by our own will, choice, and decision. He is glorified by that more than if we had no choice and could not do otherwise. When we disobey and go astray, we may damage our family, our marriage, our reputation, other people and create irreparable damage that we have to live with the rest of our lives. If our marriage is destroyed and our mate has remarried, repented and has children by a new mate, both of you can still grow in grace, obey and serve God. The sin of divorce is not the unpardonable sin but needs sincere repentance. You cannot restore what you ruined that was God's "Perfect Will" for the two of you, your family, your health, and testimony, but you can still live for Him within His "Permissive Will". Since the past cannot be relived and corrected or changed, you can rebuild your life and possibly be more faithful to Him than you would ever have been before going astray. The prodigal son, after he messed up his life and wasted his substance in riotous living, woke up in the pig pen starving, and said to himself, "I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee". Luke 15:18.If that is the case, and your life and testimony are shining for God more than ever before, His "Permissive Will" may become His "Perfect Will" under the present circumstances. "All things work together for good to them that love God.... "Rom.8:28.
"God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, and settle you." 1 Pet.5:10.
There are thousands of things, of course, which are God's will alone and totally beyond our will or decisions, choices or control. For instance, the entire universe, seasons, night and day, hurricanes, weather, oceans, birth of Christ, Holy Spirit's working, Prophecy are just a few. God said of Adam, "I will make him a helpmate.." Eve...Gen.2:18. Adam had nothing to do with it.
Later, He said to Noah, "I will destroy them " with the flood. Gen.6:13. To Abraham, God said, "I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Jesus) Gen.12:3. Abraham did not make that decision. Jesus said, "Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man (human) hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him.... " Rev.3:20
III. Human Free Will: After Jesus told Judas, "That thou doest, do quickly." Judas went immediately to the Chief Priests and asked, "What will ye give me, and I will deliver Jesus
unto you ? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." (Prophesied by God's foreknowledge) Zec.11:12-13. Did God, by His own will,want Judas to do this evil , by creating him to betray Jesus ? Is that what predestination is ? No. Isn't it more rational and more like God, that He and Jesus Foreknew that Judas, by his own Self will and greed, would simply play into God's hand and plan that Jesus, the lamb of God, would give His life on that cross for the willful sins of hopeless sinners? John 3:16. Look also at the rich farmer in Luke 12:18-19 . He proudly said, "I will, I will, I will" three times of great boastful things he would do with his riches but no thanks or credit or offering to God. "But God said, you fool...." you will die tonight. Then whose shall those things be ?
And why were not the Jewish elders, priests and scribes in Luke 22:66-68 saved ? Jesus said, it was because, "Ye will not believe". That, my friends , is His "Foreknowledge" of their own will first and if He foreknew they would not believe, He also foreknew their destiny because "Ye will not believe" and not because God was unwilling to save them. Jesus also said to a Jewish mob, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life". John 5:40
The Gospel (good news) is, that, many Jews and Gentiles Will come to Jesus. Rev.22:17 "The Spirit and the bride (church) say, come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely."
>
Pass It On. RB
Aug 7, 2010
My Dad And Mom Always "Finished The Job"
Common Sense Commentary:
My Dad was not a formally educated man but he knew worlds more about life and raising children than any psychologist, psychiatrist, or pseudo-expert I ever heard of. Dad had a cubic mile of morals but a few basic rules that seemed to cover the thousands of things the "experts" have written volumes about. One of Dad's rules for himself was, "Finish the job". In all my years, before Dad's death, I never knew him to leave a job unfinished or half done. Many times I've seen him work all night to finish a job or start again at daybreak to finish a job; or wade out into the mud after a heavy rain to finish a job. He never left a job in the middle unless a Caterpillar tractor fell on him... which it did ! Even then, the first day he got out of the hospital, he was out there finishing that job.
My Brother, Tommy, told me, recently, of a conversation he had with a man who had worked for our Dad in the plumbing business. This man told Tommy, "Your dad could work circles around everybody else and would work everybody around him to death by his example". It was well known that Dad would give any man a job even if the guy only wanted money not work. Dad always expected any job he was responsible for, to be done right and as quickly as possible without wasted time. He often had to spend a lot of time fixing or finishing what others were supposed to do, but he never fussed or cussed about it. You might not have the job tomorrow if you didn't work right today, but he would pay the sluggard off with a happy face and kindly say, "I wont need you tomorrow". Dad felt that if he didn't give a job his best and do it right that he would be stealing money from the people paying him. He expected his help to do the same for him. Dad believed God meant what He said...."Let the thief labour, working with his hands the thing which is good...."Ecc.4:28. King Solomon, who was himself a hard worker, also said, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Ecc.9:10. The Hebrew word rendered "might" here is "koach" and implicates your power, strength, ability, and wealth. In other words, "do it with all thats in you". Do all you promise or agree to and do it right.
My mother was also a worker. She was always up early preparing breakfast, school lundches and Dad's lunch. All of our clothing was invariably clean and ready. there were many times during the Great Depression, when she didn't have much to work with but there was always beans and cornbread. Mom cooked her cornbread in a skillit.... and usually burned it but Dad never complained and my two sisters, brother and I never knew the difference. We thought it was supposed to be black on the bottom and liked it that way. I still compliment my wife when she occasionally burns it..... for me, of course. My mother practically ran every where she went. No one could keep up with her. I think her long legged father set that example. In latter life, she used a walker but would usually carry it out in front of her and still outwalked us all. Mom was always looking for bargains to "save Money". Dad told her one time, if she didn't stop saving so much money.... we were going to become rich without having to work.
It isn't nostalgia or exageration when I say, "There has never been a Dad and Mom who loved their children more, and showed it, than mine. We were a huggin and cheek kissin family.... and still are. Here's a poem I wrote for my Mother before she died.
I Love You Mom
For the years you loved me
Before I ever knew
For the tears you hid
When I did not love you
For the million miles your worked
For your family
For prayers you prayed
To God for me
For the wonderful home
We kids are from
For all you were and are
I love you, Mom. Rayburn
After 33 years of fulfilling all of his Heavenly Father's work in earth, Jesus completed the final task ...on the cross, God's work of Redemption. When He had given His all, he cried out with His last breath, "It is finished" and died for our sins. Everybody who ever amounted to anything worthwhile in life has had to learn that eternity changing, earth moving, lesson of life... Finish the job ! I would rather my children learn this one quality than most other human commendations or acclaim. If they learn this, they will succeed in many other areas of accomplishment. Our Saviour's last command to us was, "Go ye...." and God expects us to finish that job.
Pass It On. RB
My Dad was not a formally educated man but he knew worlds more about life and raising children than any psychologist, psychiatrist, or pseudo-expert I ever heard of. Dad had a cubic mile of morals but a few basic rules that seemed to cover the thousands of things the "experts" have written volumes about. One of Dad's rules for himself was, "Finish the job". In all my years, before Dad's death, I never knew him to leave a job unfinished or half done. Many times I've seen him work all night to finish a job or start again at daybreak to finish a job; or wade out into the mud after a heavy rain to finish a job. He never left a job in the middle unless a Caterpillar tractor fell on him... which it did ! Even then, the first day he got out of the hospital, he was out there finishing that job.
My Brother, Tommy, told me, recently, of a conversation he had with a man who had worked for our Dad in the plumbing business. This man told Tommy, "Your dad could work circles around everybody else and would work everybody around him to death by his example". It was well known that Dad would give any man a job even if the guy only wanted money not work. Dad always expected any job he was responsible for, to be done right and as quickly as possible without wasted time. He often had to spend a lot of time fixing or finishing what others were supposed to do, but he never fussed or cussed about it. You might not have the job tomorrow if you didn't work right today, but he would pay the sluggard off with a happy face and kindly say, "I wont need you tomorrow". Dad felt that if he didn't give a job his best and do it right that he would be stealing money from the people paying him. He expected his help to do the same for him. Dad believed God meant what He said...."Let the thief labour, working with his hands the thing which is good...."Ecc.4:28. King Solomon, who was himself a hard worker, also said, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." Ecc.9:10. The Hebrew word rendered "might" here is "koach" and implicates your power, strength, ability, and wealth. In other words, "do it with all thats in you". Do all you promise or agree to and do it right.
My mother was also a worker. She was always up early preparing breakfast, school lundches and Dad's lunch. All of our clothing was invariably clean and ready. there were many times during the Great Depression, when she didn't have much to work with but there was always beans and cornbread. Mom cooked her cornbread in a skillit.... and usually burned it but Dad never complained and my two sisters, brother and I never knew the difference. We thought it was supposed to be black on the bottom and liked it that way. I still compliment my wife when she occasionally burns it..... for me, of course. My mother practically ran every where she went. No one could keep up with her. I think her long legged father set that example. In latter life, she used a walker but would usually carry it out in front of her and still outwalked us all. Mom was always looking for bargains to "save Money". Dad told her one time, if she didn't stop saving so much money.... we were going to become rich without having to work.
It isn't nostalgia or exageration when I say, "There has never been a Dad and Mom who loved their children more, and showed it, than mine. We were a huggin and cheek kissin family.... and still are. Here's a poem I wrote for my Mother before she died.
I Love You Mom
For the years you loved me
Before I ever knew
For the tears you hid
When I did not love you
For the million miles your worked
For your family
For prayers you prayed
To God for me
For the wonderful home
We kids are from
For all you were and are
I love you, Mom. Rayburn
After 33 years of fulfilling all of his Heavenly Father's work in earth, Jesus completed the final task ...on the cross, God's work of Redemption. When He had given His all, he cried out with His last breath, "It is finished" and died for our sins. Everybody who ever amounted to anything worthwhile in life has had to learn that eternity changing, earth moving, lesson of life... Finish the job ! I would rather my children learn this one quality than most other human commendations or acclaim. If they learn this, they will succeed in many other areas of accomplishment. Our Saviour's last command to us was, "Go ye...." and God expects us to finish that job.
Pass It On. RB
Aug 5, 2010
Who Invented The Work Ethic ?
Common Sense Commentary:
The principle of the work ethic is as valid today as it was when God made muscles on Adam and "....put him into the garden of Eden to dress and to keep it". Gen.2:15. Every honest person since then, who has dug, chopped, planted, built, cooked and cleaned, knows that someone has to pay a price in energy and know-how for every mouthful of food anyone on earth swallows. Nobody survives in this world without someone paying for it in work, sweat, time or "money" ... which comes from work, sweat, time and know-how.
Those who think "work" is a four letter word and something unnecessary or degrading and that it is smart to "let the dummies do it" are the real dumb ones. Workers are not dummies unless they let the lazy sluggards sponge off of them more than once. You do them no favors by paying their way. They grow to expect it. The truth is it is self destructively dumb to be "too smart to work" and truly "sinful" for the worker who allows it. "...This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat...."2Thess.3:10. God tells us what to do about such drones: LET THEM STARVE. Yes, yes, some Nancy Palusie will whine, "But that's not Christian". God's Word said it, I just read it! The fact is, it is not Christian to rob these spongy people of their self respect, integrity, physical fitness, and purpose in life by pampering them with handouts. That destroys them. People who don't have to hold a job have entirely too much time to sit around , complain, get bored and get into trouble. God's Word says we should "Command busybodies to shut up, go to work, and eat their own bread". 2Thess.3:12.
Child labor laws may have been good for the minority who were abused, but it has hurt the majority of young people who are not allowed to work because of it. Are they better off not working than we old timers were when we were let out of school for the summer so we could help get the harvest in and had chores to do every day of the week ???? If someone says "yes", you are too young to know better or maybe you are already some one's "dummy" or maybe their mummy.
Someone once asked me, "Should I get a job and pay my bills or serve God?"...."Serve God by GETTING A JOB, I answered. But, Pastor Blair, you are supposed to be kind and encouraging to people not scold them. The kindest thing I can do for you is to tell you the truth and motivate you toward God's purpose for your life and that is never to let your debts go unpaid so you can "serve God". You can't be a thief and serve God. The good thing about hard times and a crash of the economy is, folks are forced to stop wasting their substance on foolishness, and lazy loafers have to go to work or go without. Our country has needed an economic collision with reality for a long time. Well, its here, so lets all take up the slack and make the best of it and our national character should improve. Christian, you just do your honest best and God will do the rest....but not until we have done our very best. Why should He ? He created us to work. God invented the work ethic. Work results in profit but talk results in poverty says Prov.14:23.
Pass It On. RB
The principle of the work ethic is as valid today as it was when God made muscles on Adam and "....put him into the garden of Eden to dress and to keep it". Gen.2:15. Every honest person since then, who has dug, chopped, planted, built, cooked and cleaned, knows that someone has to pay a price in energy and know-how for every mouthful of food anyone on earth swallows. Nobody survives in this world without someone paying for it in work, sweat, time or "money" ... which comes from work, sweat, time and know-how.
The first farmer was God. He planted the Garden Of Eden and all vegetables with a word,"Let".
The first farm family was Adam and Eve. Their work in Eden was no stress or strain until they disobeyed God and original sin was born. From that time forth the "ground was cursed with thorns and thistles" and the soil was weakened of its original strength. God then told them of their fate in Gen.3:19. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground...." That original sin of disobedience and its consequences still affect those who work the soil and everyone else who must work to earn, to buy, to eat. Those who will not work for their needs will pay in some other way.....Diminished self image, self hate, lack of exercise, contempt from the self reliant and sympathy from (lifetime free stuff) Liberals.
Those who think "work" is a four letter word and something unnecessary or degrading and that it is smart to "let the dummies do it" are the real dumb ones. Workers are not dummies unless they let the lazy sluggards sponge off of them more than once. You do them no favors by paying their way. They grow to expect it. The truth is it is self destructively dumb to be "too smart to work" and truly "sinful" for the worker who allows it. "...This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat...."2Thess.3:10. God tells us what to do about such drones: LET THEM STARVE. Yes, yes, some Nancy Palusie will whine, "But that's not Christian". God's Word said it, I just read it! The fact is, it is not Christian to rob these spongy people of their self respect, integrity, physical fitness, and purpose in life by pampering them with handouts. That destroys them. People who don't have to hold a job have entirely too much time to sit around , complain, get bored and get into trouble. God's Word says we should "Command busybodies to shut up, go to work, and eat their own bread". 2Thess.3:12.
Child labor laws may have been good for the minority who were abused, but it has hurt the majority of young people who are not allowed to work because of it. Are they better off not working than we old timers were when we were let out of school for the summer so we could help get the harvest in and had chores to do every day of the week ???? If someone says "yes", you are too young to know better or maybe you are already some one's "dummy" or maybe their mummy.
Someone once asked me, "Should I get a job and pay my bills or serve God?"...."Serve God by GETTING A JOB, I answered. But, Pastor Blair, you are supposed to be kind and encouraging to people not scold them. The kindest thing I can do for you is to tell you the truth and motivate you toward God's purpose for your life and that is never to let your debts go unpaid so you can "serve God". You can't be a thief and serve God. The good thing about hard times and a crash of the economy is, folks are forced to stop wasting their substance on foolishness, and lazy loafers have to go to work or go without. Our country has needed an economic collision with reality for a long time. Well, its here, so lets all take up the slack and make the best of it and our national character should improve. Christian, you just do your honest best and God will do the rest....but not until we have done our very best. Why should He ? He created us to work. God invented the work ethic. Work results in profit but talk results in poverty says Prov.14:23.
Pass It On. RB
Aug 3, 2010
Leadership Decisions, Good And Bad
Common Sense Commentary: There is, obviously, good and bad leadership. To a large degree, good leadership is based on good decisions and bad leadership on bad decisions. Bad leadership and bad decisions are based on appearances, polls, politics, pressure groups, fear, greed, hate, relationships and ignorance. Many politicians base all their decisions on polls and politics. There were many times when God's Prophets and Apostles could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and pain by yielding to "popular opinion" or "fear of government", but they didn't.
I once knew a pastor who forgot that God had called him to the ministry to do God's will, preach God's Word and minister to God's people as God's Ambassador...as best he could. He loved God's people and tried hard to please each one of his parishioners. The more he tried, the more difficult the task became. The Apostle Paul said, "the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved".1 Cor.12:15. Finally, my pastor friend decided the way to please everyone was to put up a suggestion box. This he did, and that Sunday, he asked that anyone who wanted to suggest how he might improve his sermons or point out their disagreements with him should use the suggestion box. Well, needless to say, some folks were sitting on ready with their criticisms. Others who were perfectly content, didn't want to disappoint their pastor so they dreamed up something to complain about. After reading the contents of that box for three weeks, this very sincere pastor resigned in humiliation and confusion. He has never preached a sermon since. The ironic thing is, he was a better than average preacher and would have been a successful pastor if he had followed the Shepherd instead of the goats and a few misguided sheep.
Another pastor, I know, resigned after spending several years reacting more and more to criticism, complaints, threats, and coercion. Of course, they grew worse and worse each time he reacted. The truth is, a lot of very descent people have a built in need to disagree with authority or leadership. Just as a lot of husbands fight to retain leadership and wives who fight to gain it.
If a leader places too much emphasis on loud and constant complaints, his future is dim.
Pontius Pilate yielded to a loud pressure group and Christ was crucified. Pilate himself eventually paid a heavy toll for his irresponsible, leadership compromise with that mob of religious fanatics and negativeites (new word).
During my sixty years of ministry, it became more and more obvious to me that leaders who once begin to yield to threats and coercion, will soon be bouncing off the wall for every little pressure group that wants their way in his decisions. "Reaction" not "action" will become a way of life for that person and it grows harder and harder to resist the increasing numbers of vocal dissenters. "The wheel that squeaks the loudest" may work with most politicians but it is wrong and must not be yielded to by leaders with honor and courage. ALL the wheels need oil even if they don't scream out their objection. Decisions must be made by those elected or appointed or anointed by God on the basis of TRUTH, RIGHT, REASON, SCRIPTURE, GOOD COUNCIL,
GOOD INFORMATION and PRAYER. Never yield to any cheaper, quicker, easier, less painful "escape hatch". In the end, it will not be cheaper, quicker, easier, or less painful. It will cost you in every conceivable way including your character, your future effectiveness and on the major issues in our government today, your country and your children's freedom.
The absolute best policy, for your family's safety and your "good" success, is to let the world know, "WE DO NOT PAY RANSOM, WE PAY LARGE REWARDS FOR THE APPREHENSION AND CONVICTION OF KIDNAPPERS. Also, WE DO NOT PAY OFF BLACKMAILERS, WE EXPOSE AND PROSECUTE BLACKMAILERS. And, WE DO NOT YIELD TO PRESSURE, POLITICS, and COERCION WE MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON TRUTH, RIGHT, REASON, GOOD COUNCIL, GOOD INFORMATION , SCRIPTURE and PRAYER FOR GOD'S WILL.
We all have life changing decisions to make in the November elections. Vote for those who are most likely to pull this country out of the immoral swamp we are in, not who promises to give everybody on earth the most free stuff.
Pass It On. RB
I once knew a pastor who forgot that God had called him to the ministry to do God's will, preach God's Word and minister to God's people as God's Ambassador...as best he could. He loved God's people and tried hard to please each one of his parishioners. The more he tried, the more difficult the task became. The Apostle Paul said, "the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved".1 Cor.12:15. Finally, my pastor friend decided the way to please everyone was to put up a suggestion box. This he did, and that Sunday, he asked that anyone who wanted to suggest how he might improve his sermons or point out their disagreements with him should use the suggestion box. Well, needless to say, some folks were sitting on ready with their criticisms. Others who were perfectly content, didn't want to disappoint their pastor so they dreamed up something to complain about. After reading the contents of that box for three weeks, this very sincere pastor resigned in humiliation and confusion. He has never preached a sermon since. The ironic thing is, he was a better than average preacher and would have been a successful pastor if he had followed the Shepherd instead of the goats and a few misguided sheep.
Another pastor, I know, resigned after spending several years reacting more and more to criticism, complaints, threats, and coercion. Of course, they grew worse and worse each time he reacted. The truth is, a lot of very descent people have a built in need to disagree with authority or leadership. Just as a lot of husbands fight to retain leadership and wives who fight to gain it.
If a leader places too much emphasis on loud and constant complaints, his future is dim.
Pontius Pilate yielded to a loud pressure group and Christ was crucified. Pilate himself eventually paid a heavy toll for his irresponsible, leadership compromise with that mob of religious fanatics and negativeites (new word).
During my sixty years of ministry, it became more and more obvious to me that leaders who once begin to yield to threats and coercion, will soon be bouncing off the wall for every little pressure group that wants their way in his decisions. "Reaction" not "action" will become a way of life for that person and it grows harder and harder to resist the increasing numbers of vocal dissenters. "The wheel that squeaks the loudest" may work with most politicians but it is wrong and must not be yielded to by leaders with honor and courage. ALL the wheels need oil even if they don't scream out their objection. Decisions must be made by those elected or appointed or anointed by God on the basis of TRUTH, RIGHT, REASON, SCRIPTURE, GOOD COUNCIL,
GOOD INFORMATION and PRAYER. Never yield to any cheaper, quicker, easier, less painful "escape hatch". In the end, it will not be cheaper, quicker, easier, or less painful. It will cost you in every conceivable way including your character, your future effectiveness and on the major issues in our government today, your country and your children's freedom.
The absolute best policy, for your family's safety and your "good" success, is to let the world know, "WE DO NOT PAY RANSOM, WE PAY LARGE REWARDS FOR THE APPREHENSION AND CONVICTION OF KIDNAPPERS. Also, WE DO NOT PAY OFF BLACKMAILERS, WE EXPOSE AND PROSECUTE BLACKMAILERS. And, WE DO NOT YIELD TO PRESSURE, POLITICS, and COERCION WE MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON TRUTH, RIGHT, REASON, GOOD COUNCIL, GOOD INFORMATION , SCRIPTURE and PRAYER FOR GOD'S WILL.
We all have life changing decisions to make in the November elections. Vote for those who are most likely to pull this country out of the immoral swamp we are in, not who promises to give everybody on earth the most free stuff.
Pass It On. RB
Labor Day Comment
Let's get something straight. This blog may not please every Pastor or Church Staff member, but ALL labor done in Jesus name is as Spiritual an act as Prayer, Preaching,
or Missionary Endeavor....IF the Christian doing the work is doing it for Jesus Christ and to the best of his/her ability. If you are not called or gifted to preach, teach or sing solos or in the choir but love to keep the nursery, or you don't mind cleaning the church, and do it for Jesus, in His name, that becomes as spiritual a calling as anything anyone is doing. And, if you do it with all your ability and don't feel you are being taken advantage of,but are glad to be of service, you are doing more than a Staff member or Pastor or Missionary who has a bad attitude or does it for show or for a salary or for any "other" reason.
When I was a young pastor, I had everything in my ministry classified as either
"SPIRITUAL" or "physical". The physical things were money, mowing the church lawn, painting the steeple, vacuuming the floors, cleaning the restrooms, etc. Somewhere along the way God began to "convert" my thinking. That "cup of water given in Jesus name", the "widow's mite", the "Boy's five loaves", and other scriptural lessons changed my understanding of God's economy. I began to comprehend that anything and everything done for Jesus, "in His name" was spiritual more than physical. No matter how lowly it may appear to most human eyes, whether it is scrubbing the floor, picking up trash or changing a tire for someone, if that is what God is calling or leading you to do, at that moment, and you do it in Jesus name, it is a spiritual act. "Little is much when God is in it."
When we started the church in Tallahassee, Florida, my wife and children worked as hard as I did....maybe harder. She labored all day for her family, cleaning, cooking, making clothing, and a thousand other things. Our children, "labored" in school, helped their mom, unloaded and loaded 200 folding chairs, baby beds, and song books from a trailer every Sunday. The girls kept the nursery. They worked as hard as I did, preparing messages, visiting people and other so called "spiritual work". When rewards or crowns are given, in heaven, by the Lord, they may well be more honored than I.
My two original classifications were right but my understanding of them was all wrong. The fact is that everything truly done in Jesus' name is spiritual and everything not done in Jesus' name, even religious things, is physical and worldly.
"...Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom.14:23. Be very careful how and why you do what you do.
Yes, of course, it is true that bringing people to Christ is the ultimate goal of all "real" Christian efforts. In a war, the front line is the goal and purpose of the factory workers, supply forces, headquarters personnel and everyone else doing their best for the war effort. All of their jobs are important to accomplish their goal of winning the war. The primary difference in the different people and the different jobs, is "their level of loyalty and commitment". Without the immense effort on the home front the soldiers on the battle front do not have a chance of winning or even surviving. I can say these things without apology because I fought in the Korean War against the Communist North Korean army and the Chinese both in South and North Korea with the U.S.Marines. We could not have stopped the enemy without the ships at sea and the air power and those at home producing the material who had the right motives and commitment in mind.
Our Lord's work is like that. Our primary purpose is to bring souls to Christ and train others to do the same, but we cannot get that job done without nursery helpers, mechanics janitors, electricians, tithers, etc, etc. All labor done for Jesus is spiritual labor. The "Go ye" in the Great Commission is as important as the "Preach the Gospel".
Pass It On. RB
or Missionary Endeavor....IF the Christian doing the work is doing it for Jesus Christ and to the best of his/her ability. If you are not called or gifted to preach, teach or sing solos or in the choir but love to keep the nursery, or you don't mind cleaning the church, and do it for Jesus, in His name, that becomes as spiritual a calling as anything anyone is doing. And, if you do it with all your ability and don't feel you are being taken advantage of,but are glad to be of service, you are doing more than a Staff member or Pastor or Missionary who has a bad attitude or does it for show or for a salary or for any "other" reason.
When I was a young pastor, I had everything in my ministry classified as either
"SPIRITUAL" or "physical". The physical things were money, mowing the church lawn, painting the steeple, vacuuming the floors, cleaning the restrooms, etc. Somewhere along the way God began to "convert" my thinking. That "cup of water given in Jesus name", the "widow's mite", the "Boy's five loaves", and other scriptural lessons changed my understanding of God's economy. I began to comprehend that anything and everything done for Jesus, "in His name" was spiritual more than physical. No matter how lowly it may appear to most human eyes, whether it is scrubbing the floor, picking up trash or changing a tire for someone, if that is what God is calling or leading you to do, at that moment, and you do it in Jesus name, it is a spiritual act. "Little is much when God is in it."
When we started the church in Tallahassee, Florida, my wife and children worked as hard as I did....maybe harder. She labored all day for her family, cleaning, cooking, making clothing, and a thousand other things. Our children, "labored" in school, helped their mom, unloaded and loaded 200 folding chairs, baby beds, and song books from a trailer every Sunday. The girls kept the nursery. They worked as hard as I did, preparing messages, visiting people and other so called "spiritual work". When rewards or crowns are given, in heaven, by the Lord, they may well be more honored than I.
My two original classifications were right but my understanding of them was all wrong. The fact is that everything truly done in Jesus' name is spiritual and everything not done in Jesus' name, even religious things, is physical and worldly.
"...Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom.14:23. Be very careful how and why you do what you do.
Yes, of course, it is true that bringing people to Christ is the ultimate goal of all "real" Christian efforts. In a war, the front line is the goal and purpose of the factory workers, supply forces, headquarters personnel and everyone else doing their best for the war effort. All of their jobs are important to accomplish their goal of winning the war. The primary difference in the different people and the different jobs, is "their level of loyalty and commitment". Without the immense effort on the home front the soldiers on the battle front do not have a chance of winning or even surviving. I can say these things without apology because I fought in the Korean War against the Communist North Korean army and the Chinese both in South and North Korea with the U.S.Marines. We could not have stopped the enemy without the ships at sea and the air power and those at home producing the material who had the right motives and commitment in mind.
Our Lord's work is like that. Our primary purpose is to bring souls to Christ and train others to do the same, but we cannot get that job done without nursery helpers, mechanics janitors, electricians, tithers, etc, etc. All labor done for Jesus is spiritual labor. The "Go ye" in the Great Commission is as important as the "Preach the Gospel".
Pass It On. RB
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