Heros - The Way It Should Be

Our hero was our father.  Then our hero was the policeman or firefighter or teacher.  We had neighborhood heros that all the kids and some of the adults looked up to.  They were a hero because they did amazing things.

As a child a father was the protector who always caught us before we fell.  We could depend upon him to always be there.  He was larger than life itself.  He taught us things about bugs and why sky is blue.  He helped us with homework and took us to the zoo and told us about the animals.


He taught us to fly a kite, to ride a bicycle, to ice skate, to bowl and play cards.  He taught us that there was someone who we could depend upon when all else fails.

Then he left.  Our hero was a grandfather, an uncle or a neighbor.  Sometimes it was even Mom when she had time to be with us after working some menial job to put food on the table and clothes on our backs.

We moved around and our hero was a character in a book or someone in history.

History was changed and we found out that the hero owned slaves or polluted the planet or had children out of wedlock.

Our hero was a sports' figure and he used steroids or gambled on the game or beat his pregnant girlfriend.

Our hero was a rock star until they overdosed.  We found a new hero whose rap was banned because it glorified rape and killing policemen.

We emulated our hero and found the act of following was not satisfying.  The idol worshiping was not the same as the doing.  Our lives became filled with lost dreams and visions of a reality that did little more than torture us with their vagueness and we looked for another hero and when it was found the media ridiculed it and tore it down if they mentioned faith or belief in God.  Goodness and faith is reviled while men having illicit affairs and destroying hotel rooms are held high with massive coverage on the evening news.

We need a new hero for the children.  They need someone to uphold clean living and wholesome moral values.  They need to know that there is someone they can depend on so when it comes time to know God, they have already had the experience of knowing what goodness is, of knowing The Messiah through the human representation of Him through that one He used and we knew as a hero. 

We need to know that the children have someone other than a drunk, drug dealer, undressed rock star pulsating on stage or the pedophile next door to look up to and emulate.  They need a Noah, a Joshua,  a Jabez, a Boaz, an Esther, a David or a Paul in their life.  They need a living Bible that they can point to and say, "I want to be just like that when I grow up."

We need to know that their eyes are upon us each and every day.  They need a hero.  They need to know there is goodness and mercy in the world.  They need to know that God lives within us and is there to help us through the bad days and rejoice with us in the good times.

Tiny Tomato Follow-up

On November 25, 2010 I posted one called "Thankful for Tiny Tomatoes".  About 2 days later I decided to clean up the flower beds and put some pine straw around the plants that were still alive.

I looked at the Cherry Tomato plant and saw about a hundred little green tomatoes on it.  They had been protected from the freeze and were not damaged.  I didn't have the heart to just throw them away.  That would be wasteful.  But what can you do with a hundred inch sized green tomatoes?

I could not think of anything but I remembered reading in a gardening book many years ago about how someone had pulled up a regular tomato plant and hung it upside down in their garage to harvest the tomatoes later.

Being the type to not want to do more than I have to and not wanting to dig in the dirt, I just grabbed the stem close to the dirt and pulled up the roots.  I put it in a trash bag upside down and hung it in the spare bathtub.  It hung there for a few days and I moved it to the laundry room.  It has been a unique pleasure to go to the laundry room and check for more ripe tomatoes.  The vine is pretty much dried out now and is only storage space for the remaining few green tomatoes.   It is almost time to take it down and maybe start some new plants for the next season.  The Lord has been abundantly gracious and Blessed us with more food to eat.

For three weeks it has been hanging over the dryer getting a bit of northern sun through the window and we have been harvesting tomatoes every few days.

I will miss them when they are gone, but it has been fun having them around.

Thank The Lord for all His Blessings.

One of America's Heros

I do not recall ever meeting this man, but I may have.  One of my step-fathers worked at the National Bank of Washington so I very well could have had the pleasure of this gentle little man telling me things were "veddy good".  I have no idea when I cut out this clipping or what newspaper it came from.  I found it while sorting through some of my odd piles of "stuff to go through later."

At a time when people stay an average of less than seven years at one job location, it is amazing to know that one man stayed at his post for 66 years.   In a day when youth is venerated and the older worker is discarded in favor of the "innovative" ways of the young, it was refreshing to note that the employer chose not to throw away a faithful worker thirty years prior to his retirement.  It may even cause some to wonder, "Why is there mandatory retirement anyway?"  It only serves to reinforce the idea that after a certain age, you are no longer useful to society.

It was a truly heartwarming story and it is worth passing on.   He truly lived life to the fullest.

Traditions of Men vs GOD

Teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of Men

Christmas
Easter
Tithing
Halloween
Missions
Birthdays
Thanksgiving
Feeding the poor
Sunday morning worship service
Clothing the poor
Wednesday evening prayer meeting
Sunday School


In the beginning was the Word, then we added to it and we took away from it and we made it convenient for ourselves.  We call ourselves Christian.  We are reborn through the finished Work of Christ on the Cross and somehow that is never enough.  Instead of leaving the ways of the world behind we drag all our traditions and baggage with us.  We pretend to turn our focus on the true "reason for the season" when in fact there is no Scriptural reason for much of what we do; for what we have woven into the simple Gospel, the stand-alone Word of God.

It starts with Sunday morning.  Do we truly know why we worship on Sunday?  Do we actually worship or do we listen to announcements, listen to the choir and plan our week while the preacher drones on?

We claim to celebrate the Resurrection of the Messiah on a holiday called Easter.  Yet we feel we have to make it fun for the children with egg hunts and candy and other mess.  We tell our children that the empty egg shell represents the empty tomb.  We attend the sunrise service and we go home momentarily moved.

We hand over our donations on Sunday morning, maybe, if it is convenient.  We repeat the story of the widow's mite given to The Lord in the temple while deducting the reasons for giving less than that ten percent.

There is trunk or treat and Christian themed costume parties in order to incorporate the world's addiction to Halloween parties.

We go on mission trips and give money to missions after much pleading from the sponsors of the trips ignoring the mission field in our own town.

The celebration of birthdays has become a yearly event where the old dog and pony show is dwarfed in comparison.  We give no heed to what is mentioned in Scripture regarding birthday parties.

Thanksgiving.  Giving thanks is what we should be doing daily but we set aside one day a year to gorge ourselves in the company of people we seldom see or talk to any other time of year.

The poor are only hungry twice a year on Thanksgiving and on Christmas.  They are only unclothed and lacking in housing or furniture at this time of year.

Prayer meeting on Wednesday is no longer devoted to a time of prayer.  There was too much silence to suit so they just have another meeting.  It appears that true prayer meetings have lost their appeal.

We send our children to Sunday School because they need that instruction.  Our lives are so busy that we cannot spend the time with them during the week to teach them Biblical Truth.  Anyway, it is a time when they can socialize with other Christian children.  If you believe that, you haven't taught Sunday School lately.  Instead of studying for a lesson and preparing oneself for the class, we hand out insipid class activities from a prepackaged formula designed to follow the denominations' standards not necessarily the Biblical ones.

Following the Truth is so much richer than trying to hang on to tradition.  Traditions are filled with falsehood and can be destroyed.  The Truth, Biblical Truth is everlasting and cannot be undone.  We warp and twist the truth in order to fit in, to feel more comfortable.  We suppress and grieve the Holy Spirit with our rebellion. 

He can give us so much more if we dispense with the trappings and open up to the Truth. 

Read your Bible.  Study HIS word.  Leave off what you have always done and see what HE would have you to do.  Study with your children.  Let HIM start a revival within yourself, then your family.  HE will grow it from there. 

HIS WAY IS EVERLASTING.  The ways of the world change with every breeze.

Yahweh Works in Strange and Mysterious Ways

It is often that we are lead to specific things in order to complete our learning in an area of our Bible Study.

The question, lingering within the deep recesses of my heart is asked.  It is a silent question, one that is not fully living within my mind.  A verse passes before me like a feather in the wind.  While surfing through the myriad mish-mash of garbage channels, it stops momentarily where a preacher speaks about the silent question and a partial answer brushes across my heart like a lock of hair blown blown across my cheek by the summer breeze.  It is noticed, but brushed aside.

A short time later the words jump off the page and are noticed just like a toe notices a chair leg in the middle of the night. Although it is ignored, it has become enough of a nuisance as to be remembered if only superficially.  The Word of God has a subtle way of becoming one with me.  It finally caresses my heart and soul as though it were a rediscovered love.  It envelopes me with His love and His tenderness and reminds me that He is a jealous God who requires my allegiance, my undivided allegiance.

And that is when the fight begins.  I have a bad habit of wanting to wander off the straight and narrow all the while professing my undying love and telling everyone that I am doing no such thing. 

The reason and the only reason that I am miserable much of the time is that I know what is right.  I know what I do in my rebellious spirit is wrong but I insist, just as the children of Israel did, on complaining and wallowing in my self pity, and whining about what I think I should have.

But He is merciful.  He is steadfast and He is God.  He is The Messiah.  He is the Only One who deserves honor, praise and glory.  That is precisely why His Name should NEVER be diminished or left out or in any way ignored.  The first four of the Ten Commandments are devoted to HIM.  That ought to tell us something.

It should come as no surprise that the body of Christ is self-destructing.  We are becoming consumed with working longer hours on the job in order to do a better job, saving the planet, living green, feeding the homeless, building bigger houses, more playgrounds, writing letters to politicians about spending, protesting this and supporting that until our time has been taken up with worthy causes.  And we are busy at church decorating for this, cooking for that, raising money for the children's trip, the women's retreat, the gift bags for the hospital, the teddy bears for the ambulance, the blankets for the homeless, the basketball ministries, the inter-faith softball teams, the clothing for the shelters, and the prison outreach and the Angel Trees and all the other things that were never mentioned in Scripture. 

We are so busy being busy that women cannot stay home with their children and are chided if they do so.  Women are encouraged to act like men and men are encouraged to show their feelings.  We have weeping men on the screen and women being drunk and spewing profanity like it is something to be proud of. 

Our government is replete with talking heads that spout out politically correct gobbledygook which we are digesting as gospel while the real Gospel of Christ lies on  the shelf collecting dust. 

Rape, murder, incest and other atrocities are on the rise while women dress like whores showing their breasts and their behinds all the while wondering why they get no respect from men.  They wonder why their relationships are short and tawdry.  Even many churches remain silent.  The older women no longer teach the younger as they are afraid they may offend them by telling them what is right and what is wrong. 

Men leave children across the nation like so many Pez popping out of a candy dispenser.  Male children growing up with only mothers to guide them.  Angry young men becoming fathers themselves perpetuating the misery and leaving their own sons behind unless God Himself intervenes.  Young girls without a proper father's love finding it where she may.  

So where do we start?  How do we turn things around?  Can we even make a difference?  Has the world gon to far over the line for a Christian to even try?

We start with ourselves.  Only God can turn things around.  Each one of us can make a difference in ourselves and those around us with God's help.  It matters not how far gone the world is.  What matters now is whether or not we are still being used of God to do HIS will instead of whining about what we cannot do.  For we can do nothing.  It is God who works.  We are only a tool to be used for His pleasure.

We cannot save the world nor the planet.  We cannot even save ourselves.  The Salvation of the world, the rebuilding of the planet is His job.

If that is true then what difference does it make if we worship Him on Saturday or on Sunday?  It makes a HUGE difference if it means we are being disobedient and are expecting our prayers to be answered.  It makes a difference if we say we follow Him and do not follow His commandments.

It all makes a difference.  It has to.  He would not have said it if it was not important.  We just need to listen to HIS voice and not our own.  Let the Holy Spirit lead you.  Be quiet and listen to the still small voice of God.  One note that I will make about the following information is that the Sacrifice of Christ did not "cancel the written code" HE fulfilled the law.  It may just be semantics to some, but to me there is a distinct difference.

The following was passed on to me via email.  It is a bit different than the other information I found earlier.  I do not know who wrote this, but credit is given to a writing by Jason Meyer at the end.  I pass it on to you as complete as it was given to me.

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It is often claimed that “God instituted the Sabbath in Eden” because of the connection between the Sabbath and creation in Exodus 20:11. Although God's rest on the seventh day (Genesis 2:3) did foreshadow a future Sabbath law, there is no biblical record of the Sabbath before the children of Israel left the land of Egypt. Nowhere in Scripture is there any hint that Sabbath-keeping was practiced from Adam to Moses.

The Word of God makes it quite clear that Sabbath observance was a special sign between God and Israel: “The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested” (Exodus 31:16–17).

In Deuteronomy 5, Moses restates the Ten Commandments to the next generation of Israelites. Here, after commanding Sabbath observance in verses 12–14, Moses gives the reason the Sabbath was given to the nation Israel: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15).

God's intent for giving the Sabbath to Israel was not that they would remember creation, but that they would remember their Egyptian slavery and the Lord's deliverance. Note the requirements for Sabbath-keeping: A person placed under that Sabbath law could not leave his home on the Sabbath (Exodus 16:29), he could not build a fire (Exodus 35:3), and he could not cause anyone else to work (Deuteronomy 5:14). A person breaking the Sabbath law was to be put to death (Exodus 31:15; Numbers 15:32–35).

An examination of New Testament passages shows us four important points: 1) Whenever Christ appears in His resurrected form and the day is mentioned, it is always the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1, 9, 10; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:1, 13, 15; John 20:19, 26). 2) The only time the Sabbath is mentioned from Acts through Revelation it is for evangelistic purposes to the Jews and the setting is usually in a synagogue (Acts chapters 13–18). Paul wrote, “to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews” (1 Corinthians 9:20). Paul did not go to the synagogue to fellowship with and edify the saints, but to convict and save the lost. 3) Once Paul states “from now on I will go to the Gentiles” (Acts 18:6), the Sabbath is never again mentioned. And 4) instead of suggesting adherence to the Sabbath day, the remainder of the New Testament implies the opposite (including the one exception to point 3 above, found in Colossians 2:16).

Looking more closely at point 4 above will reveal that there is no obligation for the New Testament believer to keep the Sabbath, and will also show that the idea of a Sunday “Christian Sabbath” is also unscriptural. As discussed above, there is one time the Sabbath is mentioned after Paul began to focus on the Gentiles, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” (Colossians 2:16–17). The Jewish Sabbath was abolished at the cross where Christ “canceled the written code, with its regulations” (Colossians 2:14).

This idea is repeated more than once in the New Testament: “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord” (Romans 14:5–6a). “But now that you know God — or rather are known by God — how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years” (Galatians 4:9–10).

But some claim that a mandate by Constantine in A.D. 321 “changed” the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. On what day did the early church meet for worship? Scripture never mentions any Sabbath (Saturday) gatherings by believers for fellowship or worship. However, there are clear passages that mention the first day of the week. For instance, Acts 20:7 states that “on the first day of the week we came together to break bread.” In 1 Corinthians 16:2 Paul urges the Corinthian believers “on the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income.” Since Paul designates this offering as “service” in 2 Corinthians 9:12, this collection must have been linked with the Sunday worship service of the Christian assembly. Historically Sunday, not Saturday, was the normal meeting day for Christians in the church, and its practice dates back to the first century.

The Sabbath was given to Israel, not the church. The Sabbath is still Saturday, not Sunday, and has never been changed. But the Sabbath is part of the Old Testament Law, and Christians are free from the bondage of the Law (Galatians 4:1-26; Romans 6:14). Sabbath keeping is not required of the Christian—be it Saturday or Sunday. The first day of the week, Sunday, the Lord's Day (Revelation 1:10) celebrates the New Creation, with Christ as our resurrected Head. We are not obligated to follow the Mosaic Sabbath—resting, but are now free to follow the risen Christ—serving. The Apostle Paul said that each individual Christian should decide whether to observe a Sabbath rest, “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5). We are to worship God every day, not just on Saturday or Sunday.

Recommended Resource: The End of the Law: Mosaic Covenant in Pauline Theology by Jason Meyer.