"today makes and sets the stage for tomorrow"...a really good thing to remember, not only with stuff, but relationships.
AND history...give this a thought...our ancestors left off telling their history so that today our nation is going in so many different directions of confusion we hardly know what side is up, except for what we want at the moment. I'm not talking so much about people who have grown up with a solid set of values but those who didn't grow up knowing there is a pre-set system of right and wrong, bad-better-best way of living. Our nation is very much a needy mission field!
Today makes and sets the stage for tomorrow---every time an unchurched immigrant was left to live life as best he could without the church embracing him, he began a community at odds with the church and began a downward spiral. Whenever a son or daughter left home without a strong connection to the church, the same resulted.
Because the Judeo-Christian life is the only basis of civilization, to begin a community without the church is to set the stage for disaster in the future. We have been slowly steeped in the ideas of our society that we are numb to the horrors right around us and need to purposefully and aggresively focus on God alone for our own personal value system of thought. Today sets the stage for tomorrow---the stage was set for the aborting of 40,000,000 human beings to be killed in their mother's wombs. The stage was set for children to be subject to unimagineable horrors in child porn, too often being murdered on film for some kind of sick pleasure.
What are we going to set up for the next play in our own personal life?
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
"Children, quiet down, your grandfather is sleeping!"
"Papa, Hanzie says Grandfather grew up in the desert, how could he do that, it's too hot?"
" Ah, I think it is time to tell you a great story, one you must never forget, my little Nemmie, I will tell you after we have eaten Mama's delicious lamb stew."
"Come children, sit by me. Shh, very quietly, sit. Close your eyes; in your mind see the desert, it's so hot in the day, and so cold at night! Would you like to be there? No, no, I think not! Now, hear a wolf calling to his friend in the night, see the eagle looking for dinner in the fresh morning light, now it is quiet, still, becoming so hot! Now look and see hundreds of people, many in their tents in the heat of the day, children, like you, are playing near the tents, one of those children is named Enos, your grandfather."
"But Papa, Grandfather is old, he can't be a boy!"
"Oh, but he was a child long before he was a grandfather! Do you remember the stories of how God did great miracles in Egypt and set our people free from slavery?"
"Yes Papa. But what is slavery?
"Slavery is telling one man that he must work for another man for nothing and never go away"
"Is it hard work?"
"Yes Nemmie, it is very hard work, so hard that many people become very sick and die!"
And so, Amosi tells his little one the story of how his grandfather grew up in the desert and when he was a man, entered the Promised Land. Amosi went on to tell Nemmie of the wonderful land God had given them and God had said to never forget the wonders God had done and that Nemmie must tell his children the great wonders God did, not only in Egypt and the desert but in his own life.
Most important, God said to never forget Him when they prospered, but they did; and as every prosperous nation down through the centuries, so have we. This very day the banks of America are hoarding the $700,000,000,000 they were given to jump start a sagging economy, this incredible corporate greed that has been destroying the economy of the United States and the world has come about because men have forgotten God, and the Church has sat ho-humming in their pews all these years, neglecting their responsibility to call society to accountability. John Winthrop saw this need, but those after him lost this vision of the root depravity of man and listened to the those who said man is basically good at heart. The Church, too, has followed this lead.
This is why history is so vital.
Democracy requires the "honor system" of Christianity in order to survive. It also has checks and balances to protect it against the men who would rule over them for their own gain.
"Papa, Hanzie says Grandfather grew up in the desert, how could he do that, it's too hot?"
" Ah, I think it is time to tell you a great story, one you must never forget, my little Nemmie, I will tell you after we have eaten Mama's delicious lamb stew."
"Come children, sit by me. Shh, very quietly, sit. Close your eyes; in your mind see the desert, it's so hot in the day, and so cold at night! Would you like to be there? No, no, I think not! Now, hear a wolf calling to his friend in the night, see the eagle looking for dinner in the fresh morning light, now it is quiet, still, becoming so hot! Now look and see hundreds of people, many in their tents in the heat of the day, children, like you, are playing near the tents, one of those children is named Enos, your grandfather."
"But Papa, Grandfather is old, he can't be a boy!"
"Oh, but he was a child long before he was a grandfather! Do you remember the stories of how God did great miracles in Egypt and set our people free from slavery?"
"Yes Papa. But what is slavery?
"Slavery is telling one man that he must work for another man for nothing and never go away"
"Is it hard work?"
"Yes Nemmie, it is very hard work, so hard that many people become very sick and die!"
And so, Amosi tells his little one the story of how his grandfather grew up in the desert and when he was a man, entered the Promised Land. Amosi went on to tell Nemmie of the wonderful land God had given them and God had said to never forget the wonders God had done and that Nemmie must tell his children the great wonders God did, not only in Egypt and the desert but in his own life.
Most important, God said to never forget Him when they prospered, but they did; and as every prosperous nation down through the centuries, so have we. This very day the banks of America are hoarding the $700,000,000,000 they were given to jump start a sagging economy, this incredible corporate greed that has been destroying the economy of the United States and the world has come about because men have forgotten God, and the Church has sat ho-humming in their pews all these years, neglecting their responsibility to call society to accountability. John Winthrop saw this need, but those after him lost this vision of the root depravity of man and listened to the those who said man is basically good at heart. The Church, too, has followed this lead.
This is why history is so vital.
Democracy requires the "honor system" of Christianity in order to survive. It also has checks and balances to protect it against the men who would rule over them for their own gain.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Reliable Research Material
Past centuries of everyday life have created thousands of legends and stories that have quickened the imagination, wondering what is true and what is only the fantasy of wandering thoughts. How is it possible to even begin to know what really happened centuries ago?? Well, in many instances it is much more possible than we could have believed! There are several particularly important things to know when doing ancient research.
First, in the 17th-18th centuries several self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics declared many, many documents and historians to be invalid, seeming to think those in the distant past were less intelligent than themselves and merely made up stories. These men had no authority to declare history false, and even less to publish their thoughts which persist even to our own school textbook. These men also had little to work with compared to today and the many sciences we now have used to explore the past; we have computers to analyze the findings of etymologists, those who study the evolution of languages; archeaologists have uncovered a tremendous amount of ancient information and much that has surprised and delighted us; geologists have also learned a great deal about the areas in which people worked and lived; the list goes on to several more and different sciences the 17th-18th century scholars had no access with which to prove their ideas. It is highly unfortunate that the ideas these men put forth are stiil great affecting our culture and world view.
Why? So why did these self-proclaimed atheists persist with these thoughts? Because(gasp!)the stories and ancient genealogies pointed directly back to Noah! Proving Noah was a real living,breathing human being and not a mere fable. And so proving the Bible true!
Next time we will explore the historians and documents, and after that, stories more thrilling than fiction and setting the heart beating to want to know more!
First, in the 17th-18th centuries several self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics declared many, many documents and historians to be invalid, seeming to think those in the distant past were less intelligent than themselves and merely made up stories. These men had no authority to declare history false, and even less to publish their thoughts which persist even to our own school textbook. These men also had little to work with compared to today and the many sciences we now have used to explore the past; we have computers to analyze the findings of etymologists, those who study the evolution of languages; archeaologists have uncovered a tremendous amount of ancient information and much that has surprised and delighted us; geologists have also learned a great deal about the areas in which people worked and lived; the list goes on to several more and different sciences the 17th-18th century scholars had no access with which to prove their ideas. It is highly unfortunate that the ideas these men put forth are stiil great affecting our culture and world view.
Why? So why did these self-proclaimed atheists persist with these thoughts? Because(gasp!)the stories and ancient genealogies pointed directly back to Noah! Proving Noah was a real living,breathing human being and not a mere fable. And so proving the Bible true!
Next time we will explore the historians and documents, and after that, stories more thrilling than fiction and setting the heart beating to want to know more!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Welcome!
This is a beautiful fall crisp day, here for us to enjoy as we please.
Can you imagine 3 months ago a family boarded a ship in a harbor in England, in the spring of 1635, and have not stepped foot on solid ground until the fall of that year, perhaps on a day such as this? As they sailed, the little ship never stopped it's movement, children cried in the hold of the ship as the stench of sickness and animals overwhelmed the little ones, there was no place to go for a private moment of solitude, half way across the endless ocean the food is stale and sparse, the fresh water is no longer clean and is rationed. Clothing is never removed, washing up is nearly impossible as fresh water is jealously kept for drinking, sickness spreads quickly in the close quarters as most of the voyage requires most passengers to remain inside the hold.
Now imagine land and stepping out into the fresh, crisp air of freedom...and nothing else! Nothing! Nothing but wilderness, until shelters are made sleeping quarters are still aboard ship. But there is freedom from fear of arrest or death because choices were made counter to that of the King! Imagine, fearing for your life because you have decided a certain way of worship is honoring to God and you are sure that choice is worth the sacrifice! Imagine family members were killed for these choices, so dear to your heart you risked your own life, and those of your family!
We have grown up on history being little more than disconnected names, dates, and places that have little meaning for us, other than knowing enough to pass the test and then it is mostly forgotten. Perhaps this is partly why we have lost our history, it seems so distant and totally irrelevant to our everyday lives. But not so! And here we begin an adventure with a depth of meaning for us today we could not have imagined!
Please journey with us as we find, to our astonishment, the everyday decisions made hundreds, even thousands of years ago, have tremendous impact on us this very day!
Can you imagine 3 months ago a family boarded a ship in a harbor in England, in the spring of 1635, and have not stepped foot on solid ground until the fall of that year, perhaps on a day such as this? As they sailed, the little ship never stopped it's movement, children cried in the hold of the ship as the stench of sickness and animals overwhelmed the little ones, there was no place to go for a private moment of solitude, half way across the endless ocean the food is stale and sparse, the fresh water is no longer clean and is rationed. Clothing is never removed, washing up is nearly impossible as fresh water is jealously kept for drinking, sickness spreads quickly in the close quarters as most of the voyage requires most passengers to remain inside the hold.
Now imagine land and stepping out into the fresh, crisp air of freedom...and nothing else! Nothing! Nothing but wilderness, until shelters are made sleeping quarters are still aboard ship. But there is freedom from fear of arrest or death because choices were made counter to that of the King! Imagine, fearing for your life because you have decided a certain way of worship is honoring to God and you are sure that choice is worth the sacrifice! Imagine family members were killed for these choices, so dear to your heart you risked your own life, and those of your family!
We have grown up on history being little more than disconnected names, dates, and places that have little meaning for us, other than knowing enough to pass the test and then it is mostly forgotten. Perhaps this is partly why we have lost our history, it seems so distant and totally irrelevant to our everyday lives. But not so! And here we begin an adventure with a depth of meaning for us today we could not have imagined!
Please journey with us as we find, to our astonishment, the everyday decisions made hundreds, even thousands of years ago, have tremendous impact on us this very day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)