Lovin' Tellin' The Story

Previously I began to describe what I see the real fruit of the secular to be. First it is apathetic and second it is hopeless or marked by despair. Now I would like to go on and finish with a third fruit, anarchy. Anarchy Anarchy, as I see it, is a complete lack of control or order. It would be the result of a society without laws and mores. We often see glimpses of this after natural disasters or in the wake of wars when governments are powerless to control the people. Death, looting and general chaos are the markers of this type of situation. You may be thinking, "well, just because a society is without religion does not mean that it is without laws or morals." This is partially correct but, as I mentioned earlier, without a religious framework, of whatever sort, there are no grounds for either laws or morals. They may be transferred from a religious worldview but they are not natural for the secular. Let us look for a moment at the idea of laws. These are imposed on a so...

In common terminology the so called "fruit" of something is that which it bears, or the result of it. Obviously the fruit of a tree is something like an apple or an orange and the fruit of plants are things like tomatoes and cucumbers. We also use it in a more metaphorical way such as, "the fruit of our labor." That is, if I worked hard in school the fruit of my labor would be good grades...hopefully. We also know that in the Bible Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit telling us that it is love, joy, peace and that like. Now in society today there is a move to get further and further away from things like Christianity and some would even say religion all together. Highly educated professors, scientist, authors and others want to remove religion and all of it's nasty trappings from the world. With that in mind and I would like to reckon for a few moments what the fruit of the secular would be. Now, to be clear I am not suggesting that all secular people sho...

"If I perish, I perish." These are the haunting words of Esther as she prepares to enter boldly into the presence of King Ahasuerus. Looking at the story we may think this seems like an odd statement because Esther is the queen and she was highly favored by the king. Why in the world would she perish? Well, like Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, she was about to break a law, or at least take a huge risk. The law that she was risking transgressing was that no one was to enter into the kings presence without being summoned. If they did so they would be killed. Now there was one caviat, if the king extended his septer to the person then they would be spared. Now, I shouldn't have to explain the deep imagery of this as it relates to the way we enter into the presence of God and I don't want to spend much time on it because I want to focus on something else, the attitude that Esther has about this risk. "If I perish, I perish." These words are echoed by ...

Wrong! Habakkuk is a small book found between Nahum and Zephaniah and if I'm not mistaken is commonly referred to as one of the "minor prophets." Of course, the term "minor" is no indication of the weight of the words but rather the amount of words. Anyway, this short, three chaptered, book was my Bible reading this morning and though I'm sure this is not the first time I've read Habakkuk I'm equally as sure it can't be any more than the second. Thus, I was amazed at the meat and potatoes that were available from this so-called "minor" prophet. First we have those rascals the Chaldeans who are going to be used to punish the Israelites for their continued disobedience. There was one verse in particular that struck me in the first section of this book and it was 1:7 which says, "Their justice and authority originate with themselves." Now you may or may not have read my other posts about Jeremiah being an American but I would lik...

Just this afternoon I was able to catch part of one of the episodes of Band of Brothers on the History Channel. I've read the book twice and seen the entire mini-series but the power of it never fades. I am always in awe of the men that fought in World War II and their humble heroism. I suppose I would like to take just a few minutes, as the Fourth of July approaches, to say "thank you" to those who have taken their turn defending freedom throughout the history of the United States. I fear that with the way that values and culture are heading there will be fewer and fewer who are willing to recognize what these valiant men have done and show their appreciation. Three of my grandfathers were, in some way, involved in World War II. My mother's dad served with the Civil Air Patrol in Manteo, NC. Their mission was to hunt German U-boats off the east coast and keep America's citizens safe. My father's dad, about whom I know very little as his passed on before ...

Leviticus 10:1-3 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, "It is what the Lord spoke, saying, "By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I will be honored." The sons of Aaron offered "strange fire" to God. That phrase struck me this morning as I was reading this passage in Leviticus. It got me to thinking about what we offer as strange fire these days. No longer do we have the tent of meeting and burnt offerings to God like in the time of the Israelites. No, we now have the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ and so we don't have to make atonement for our sins according to the laws of the Old Testament. Now, my initial question was "What were...

God laughs in the face of $700 Billion. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 For the past two months or more the talk of bailouts has become the new chic conversation piece. It started with the banking industry, or the credit industry, or was it the real estate industry? Who knows! In any event the federal government has been inundated with bailout...excuse me, "rescue" plans, packages and those wanting a piece of the proverbial pie. Of course, just like every other problem we have in this modern age, the solution is to throw inordinate amounts of money at it in the hopes of drowning the problem in cash. It seems a little bit like the person who wishes to drown their troubles in alcohol only to end up with a splitting headache, a pickled liver and no memory of how it all...