Stake Your Faith

At the scene of the Battle of the Little Big Horn where General Custer was defeated by native Americans is a reminder of dedication. The tribesmen were well organized militarily. They had one band of warriors who wore long sashes attached to their waist that trailed out on the ground. They were given two spears. One was used to drive through the sash on the ground and stake out his territory. That stake that fixed his position meant he was willing to give his life to protect that territory. It means he was immovable. We need to emulate them with our faith.

A spastic, herky-jerky, on-again, off-again fidelity dishonors God, displeases the world, and defeats the doer.

Consistency counts for more than capacity.

Found entered in the diary of Bill Bordan on the day of his death was this notation: “No reserve, No retreat, No regret.” He had without compromise staked his faith and stood by it to death.

When put on trial for his faith Martin Luther is quoted as saying, “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. So help me God. Amen.”

His closing words were, “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.” 

He had boldly staked his faith. Take time to stake yours. List such topics as these and stake your faith. What do you believe about: Jesus Christ, the Bible, salvation, for starters?

“… sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15

Every Good and Every Perfect Gift

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  James 1:17

“Every good gift and every perfect gift…” James uses two different nouns both of which are translated “gift.” The first means “the act of giving” (DOSIS). The second, DOREMA, refers to results, thus, “the thing,” the gift itself. Therefore, the text literally means, “every good giving and every perfect gift is from above.”

He is the Father of lights. The sun, moor and stars declare Him: Genesis 1:16. He made the greater light, the sun, the lesser light, the moon, and the stars.

He never changes. With Him there is no variableness. “Variableness” translates PARALLAGE, a word which refers to change or variation. Our English equivalent is the word PARALLAX. It conveys the idea of changing one’s point of view.

Illustrate this concept of changing your point of view. Extend your right arm and hold up your index finger. Now don’t move it. Cover your left eye with your left hand. Don’t move that right index finger. Rapidly move your left hand and cover your right eye with it. Do this back and forth a few times. It looks like the right index finger moves, but it doesn’t. Your view might change, but His doesn’t.

“Shadow of turning” pictures the late evening lengthening shadows resulting from the earth’s rotation. God is constant; He doesn’t turn. He never changes. God doesn’t change like a shifting shadow.

Every good and perfect gift is from God. Gain His perspective and you will never need to change it.

A worthy prayer: 

Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. Psalm 25:4

Work Out Your Own Salvation

“Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12

A superficial reading of that text might lead to understanding that it means a person has to work to deserve salvation. Up front, it doesn’t mean that, and the Bible doesn’t mean that.

As an aside the Book of James seems to teach salvation is by work. It doesn’t teach that. 

In contrast to the rest of the Bible, James was written not to teach how to be saved, but what do after being saved, that is, work as taught in Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.”  

In the Philippians verse “work out your salvation” is used in the same sense as in math when a teacher presents a complex problem, and says “work it out,” meaning take it to its logical conclusion.

To “work out your salvation,” means take it to its proper conclusion. We are not saved by works, but to work.

We are His “workmanship.” This is the translation of poiema. It is a root from which we get our word poem. From where does a poem come? The mind of the poet. From where did you come? You are God’s poiema, you are His workmanship, He made you. For what? To engage in creative work. That is why it is so fulfilling.

The First Program of Family Planning 3/5/00

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

JESUS CHRIST emphasized and elevated the institution of marriage by asserting it to be a permanent relationship. It is the basis for family living.

In a day when family life is rapidly deteriorating somebody needs to speak a good word for the family. That’s my intent.

Dr. Ernest Gordon, Dean of Chapel at Princeton University ended one of his books with this remark: “In the wild seas of violence that characterizes our time we are in deepest need of islands of sanity, or harbors of humanity, in which the art of being human may be learned.”

Long before the dean made his observation our Lord established such a haven. It is called the family. There is so much division and disaster in family living that it is difficult to speak on the subject without touching sensitive nerves. I know those who have been hurt most would be those most desirous of the subject being addressed. With deep affection and great sympathy for those having suffered because of their family failing to function, I want to encourage family life. I know I do it with those hurting most in this arena praying most earnestly for the successful application of God’s Word in this matter.

Family Services Association of America reports: “family breakdown is fast reaching epidemic proportions and now ranks as America’s number one social problem.”

It is so serious some are advocating making sure your marriage will work. To insure that it will persons are encouraged to live together before marriage. This is a noble appeal for license to commit adultery.

Syndicated columnist Sydney Harris wrote: “Living together without any sense of permanency or legality is no more like marriage than taking a warm shower is like shooting the rapids in your underwear. Neither premarital sex, nor premarital living, nor premarital anything else is a reliable guide to what the marital state will be like. A training camp cannot really prepare you for war; it can provide the techniques, but not the psychological ambience, which is the truly important aspect of the experience. Legitimatized, social sanctioned marriage brings out the best and the worst in persons; and no informal living arrangement, even for years, can simulate it…”

We need to declare firmly that the unholy union of two people living together out of wedlock is an affront to God regardless of how popular it may become in the world. It is in love that council against cohabitation is offered. One survey I read recently showed that couples who live together before marriage are 80% more likely to get a divorce than those who do not. It does just the opposite of what it purported to do.

An additional reason for not living together before marriage is that women who do are twice as likely to experience domestic violence as those who do not. These women also suffer four times as many cases of depression as married women and twice as many as single women.

Most young adults have heard these statistics. The question then is why do they get so involved. Men do because it provides sex without commitment. Women do it in order to manipulate men into marriage. They think of it as auditioning for the role of wife.

One of the distinctions between mature and immature people is the ability to delay gratification. Couples who demonstrate this reveal they can’t do this. Unfortunately most couples who lack the maturity and commitment to get married before living together lack the level of commitment necessary to stay married.

The old fashioned engagement period in which restraint is exercised and persons get acquainted is all the trial needed before marriage. The fact that one fourth of all engagements are broken shows it works. When I first heard that statistic I thought that was bad. Then I reconsidered. That is the purpose. These persons found marriage wasn’t right for them. Their engagement served its purpose. Those who married, their engagement also worked.

Marriage should be entered into with a sense of permanence. Young people plan on a long engagement. I hear of too many people saying, “I didn’t know he (or she) was like that before we married.” A long engagement that puts the relationship to test enables a person’s true nature to emerge.

My wife, at the time she was the person to whom I was proposing marriage, made me wait two years before marriage because she promised her dad she would not marry until she finished college. I figured that if she was that conscientious about keeping her word to her dad she would keep her word to me.

Her dad also gave her a final check-off point before marriage. Incidentally, I didn’t know about this until 44 years later. As they stood in the vestibule of the church awaiting the Bridal March he said to her, “You can walk out of this church now and that will be alright, but if you walk down that aisle you are his bride from now on regardless.” Lucky for me she didn’t walk out.

NO nation has ever survived the degeneration of the home. Not Greece in 300 BC nor Rome in 300 AD. The institution of marriage is taking a rap today. However, there is nothing wrong with marriage. For a cake to turn out well the right ingredients in proper proportions must be added. If sour milk is used instead of fresh, an unpleasant taste results. It is always the cake that is blamed — not the milk. Two essential ingredients form the basis of a good marriage. They are two mature persons. Both parties must willfully leave their adolescence behind. Neither can remain single mentally. No evasive smoke screen can enable a person to hide from the responsibilities associated with marriage.

Augustine said, “The human family constitutes the beginning and essential element of society…Peace in society must depend on peace in the family.”

In light of that, violence in our streets can be traced to violence in the family. Over one million children a year are abused by someone they love and depend on for food, shelter, security, and protection. It is the silent, and often untreated, epidemic of our homes. The fear of further abuse forms a wall around the helpless child, insuring his or her silence and preventing help. The American family needs help.

The Jewish family of the Old Testament era has much to commend itself as a role model for modern families. Deuteronomy 11: 18 – 21 needs to be applied in our families.

The family must still serve as the primary teaching institution in America. Thank God for the many Godly teachers who model their faith in the public school system. However, the courts have greatly restricted what they can do. The family must reassume its rightful role for teaching values. Doubtless there are those who say “I don’t have time.” You might well adjust your schedule if you hear this question posed by Socrates, “Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?”

Hear now Deuteronomy 11: 18 – 21 == READ IT.

Note these principles to be used in teaching:

A. LET THEM EXPERIENCE TRUTH
The passage calls for imbedding God’s Word “in your heart and in your soul.” That requires looking for teachable moments. Do it when sitting, walking, and lying down. The best way to teach a truth is to model it. This takes time.

David said, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11).

There must be a gift of PRESENCE before there can be a gift of PRINCIPLES.
Presence says, “I need you, we belong together.”
Presence says, “I care, we need to be together.”

Again the sick argument arises asserting it is the quality of time not the quantity of time that is important. Now reflect just a minute. Did that principle apply during courtship? You know it did not and it will not now.

If you have quantity time, it is logical that you are more likely to have as part of it quality time.

B. EXHIBIT THEM Vs. 18 “bind them for a sign”

Communication scientists say that 89 percent of our learning is visual, 10 percent is auditory, and 1 percent is through other means. Make certain that the art and literature in your home represents great moral truths.

If a non-Christian were to enter your home, is there anything that would visually let such a one know you are a follower of Christ?

God’s Word shall “be frontlets between your eyes.” Our eyes are allowed to focus on a multiplicity of things, but all too seldom things of God. Listen to radio, view TV, observe advertising. What is being programmed into minds. We turn to the things we tune in on most. The human heart tends to forget God and His word. We need to refocus on Him and His word by focusing on things that remind us of Him.

Much that is shown on TV impacts the American family in a negative way. TV characters consume ten times as much alcohol as coffee. It is little wonder that over seven million teens will become alcoholics this year.

According to the National Federation for Decency (Fall 1978), 88 percent of all sex depicted on TV is outside marriage. This has to be a contributing factor to ten million minors having a venereal disease and one million girls between twelve and seventeen getting pregnant each year.

C. TEACH THEM Vs. 19 “You shall teach them”

That is God’s plan for passing on truths about Him from one generation to another. Truths are to be passed from parent to child. That child becomes the parent of the next generation.

In Deuteronomy 6 the matter of parents giving spiritual education to their children is stressed. It is not the states responsibility to give children spiritual education it is a task incumbent on the family.

God’s laws were dictated for the benefit of “you, your children and their children after them” (Deuteronomy 6:2). Parents are exhorted to discuss God’s Word “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when your get up” (v 7).

Teach your children some basics. Such as:

• All of life isn’t fun. Fun isn’t the criteria by which you judge what you should do. Sometime it isn’t fun to do right. If having fun had been the basis of action there would have been no willingness on behalf of Columbus to suffer privation in order to sail the ocean blue. It wasn’t fun to defend America against the Nazi threat in World War II. It isn’t fun to do home work, be responsible and show up on time for engagements, attend choir practice, or do your home chores.
• Don’t whine because life isn’t fair. It isn’t. It never was and never will be. Don’t expect it. “Fair” isn’t the issue “right” is.
• Some things are special, some places sacred, and some persons worthy of respect. It is proper to respect the flag and stand for the playing of the national anthem. Don’t lose a sense of awe and wonder regarding life.
• It is OK to respect those with whom we differ while lovingly defending our beliefs.
• You are a responsible person. Don’t look for excuses or someone to blame. Assume responsibility for your own actions.
• Life takes on meaning when you have a Biblical world view. Base you beliefs and conduct on God’s Word.

Communication is an art. It can be helped by:

1. Reading good books together.
2. Avoiding unpleasant conversations at the wrong time.
3. Respecting one another’s right to express their own opinion.
4. Learn to listen attentively.

Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Talking is very much like playing on the harp. There is as much in laying the hand on the strings to stop their vibrations as in twanging them to bring out the music.” Parents you need to be available to interact with your children. They need to learn from you.

D. WRITE THEM Vs. 20 “write them”
I have a friend who coaches one of the nations top football teams. Every morning at 6:00 he reads his Bible for 15 minutes. He then enters in a notebook his understanding of the passage read. Next he notes what he thinks God is trying to tell him personally through the text. I commend this practice to you.

E. MOST STRATEGICALLY MODEL THEM
“Let the words of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16).

Some of you, children, have been neglected, some abused, and some abandoned by your parents or a parent. What are you to do? Resolve not to be bitter. Release yourself from bondage to your parent. If you stay angry or bitter with your parent, you are his or her slave. Forgive your parent. What your parent has done may be despicable. Only by forgiving your parent for Christ’s sake can you gain victory from the controlling influence of your parent that is causing you bitterness, a sense of rejection, or inferiority. Forgive your parent even as Christ has forgiven you.

A parent may be able to change an child’s actions by threats or bribes. That isn’t a heartfelt attitude. The attitude can only be changed when the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and changes us to become like the Son of God. The key to such a change is the heart.

Parents, some of you not only need the forgiveness of your child but of your God. Seek His forgiveness. Having done so, resolve to right your relationship with your child.

Purpose to fulfill the instruction of this passage.

Who Defeats Your Best Ideas?

It’s not what you know, it is what you do with what you know that matters. Information is good, but information alone is sterile. What matters is what you do with what you know.

Strange isn’t it, many seek more knowledge while not utilizing what is known. That is true in business, sports, family life, religion, and every area of life. As in algebra, to find the unknown start with the known. 

Three hundred years before Christ, Erathosthenes conducted a significant experiment. He discovered that in the city of Syene at high noon a stick standing perfectly vertical cast no shadow.  Later, he also discovered that 500 miles away, at the exact same moment, a vertical stick cast a shadow of 7 degrees. This led to the following conclusion. 7 degrees is approximately 1/50 of the 360 degrees in a circle. If every 500 miles is 7 degrees, then the full circle of the earth would be 25,000 miles. Erathosthenes had calculated the earth’s circumference to within a few miles. From this he concluded the earth is round.  

Eighteen hundred years later Christopher Columbus sailed out of a safe harbor into an uncharted and foreboding sea. His intent was to sail to India. He, too, believed the earth was round. However, his calculations were off by 7,000 miles. It took weeks longer than anticipated to reach an unknown destination. He returned to this hemisphere four times and died in 1506 having no idea where he had been. 

Today we pay tribute to Columbus, but few know the name Erathosthenes. Both had faith. One acted on his faith and the other didn’t. Erathosthenes did nothing with what he knew. Columbus had limited knowledge, but in faith he acted on that in which he had faith. 

Is there some good adventure, project, or action you have the knowledge to achieve, but haven’t? Don’t let your song go unsung; your deed undone. Don’t succumb to been-gonna-itis. 

Who defeats your best ideas? Who holds you back from what might be or you might become? Be honest. Our own worst inhibitor is our self. 

As in algebra, to find the unknown start with the known. What part of God’s will do you know to do, and aren’t doing it?

In professional and spiritual matters this admonition is still valid: “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”

Are you a spiritual Columbus or an Erathosthenes?