December
A Time to Tear Down
by Jim O’Brien
As a rule most people think it's wrong to destroy. We hate to see the old building torn down even when it will be replaced by something modern and beautiful. We want to save the historic landmark.
I confess I can't stand to throw away old clothes. They've seen better days when the colors were vibrant and the elastic stretched tight. But now the sock drawer is filled with holey socks that sag around the ankles so the rag drawer gets replenished. Still, there's something unnatural about ripping apart a formerly good shirt or sheet so it can be used to clean the bathroom or polish the car.
It reminds us of a fundamental reality of life-everything is temporary. The exciting new car will eventually be crushed, the metal melted to be made into something better. And that's the key. Something better cannot be made until the old car is destroyed.
Solomon wrote that there is "a time to tear down and a time to build", (Eccl. 3:3). So understand from the time that you build the new house, with the latest technology, the granite counter tops and the heated sidewalks, that there will come a time to tear it down. A hundred years from now the average person will not want to live in the house of your dreams any more than you want to live in the house your great-grandfather built. Think of it, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no insulation, no central heat or a/c. How could our grandparents have gotten excited about such a house?
Granddad's feather bed holds no appeal to a generation accustomed to a sleep number bed. If that is just a little discouraging, take heart-Solomon wrestled with the same reality. So he asked the natural question, "What does the worker gain from his toil?" (Eccl. 3:9)
Somebody invested his life working on an assembly line making feather beds and Model T Fords. What did the worker gain for all his trouble? The accountant whose eyes went dim working late into the night, missing time with the children, sacrificed a lot for something so transitory.
However valuable these "things" may have seemed at one time, all of them had to go. Some sooner than others.
The news is reporting terrible atrocities in foreign countries as mad dictators struggle to retain power amidst the poverty of their country. Soldiers have been sent into the streets to murder protestors.
Maybe God is thinking it's time for the tyrant to go. Surely there's something better to replace him. But, I'm not optimistic that the next dictator will be any better.
Economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the phrase "Creative Destruction." He pointed out that some businesses are outdated. The government should not intervene to save them. The free-market economy is a rational system that destroys the obsolete so something better can take its place. Maybe the free-market system contains Godly principles after all.
Surprisingly, the same principle applies to churches. Jesus told the religious authorities of His day, "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." (Matt. 21:43 NIV) Thank God for removing those men and their stifling systems so we could have access to the Savior. Something had to be destroyed before something better could be created.
Man may spend too much time trying to preserve existing structures. Even this earth will fade away.
The Prophet Isaiah talked about a time yet future when God will destroy what now exists for the purpose of creating a better world. "For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not come to mind or be remembered. But, be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;" (Isaiah 65:17-18 NRSV).
Maybe Joseph Schumpeter learned about creative destruction from reading the Bible.
♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖
Yes, There is Good News!
- By Bill Rollins
The calendar will soon flip another year for us and again I ponder the passage of time. It is something that is unstoppable for us humans. It is just one of many things that has been ordained by God Himself. Speaking of God ordaining things, I must wonder just what there may be that God has not ordained.
Do you consider God to be in charge of the universe? I do. He is the Creator and the Sustainer of all things. In the beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis, God tells us that at the end of each day of creation, He pronounced it as good. And that at the end of the sixth day we read, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”
Soon after, in Chapter 3 of Genesis we see that man (i.e. Adam and Eve) couldn’t keep one commandment. Yes, He has graciously given us 10 commandments, but to Adam and Eve He only brought forth one: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” They failed the test and that was not good! I believe we know the rest of the story. They chose to take upon themselves the knowledge of what was good and what was evil. And so without God’s guidance in navigation, things went downhill from there. At this point in scripture God puts the Bible on “fast forward” and takes us about 1,650 years in two chapters and so we come to Noah’s day. Genesis 6:5, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth and His heart was filled with pain.” My friends, this was not good news. God grieved and His heart was filled with pain! These are strong words that are used for God’s emotions. Have you ever grieved? It is not a pleasurable time. Has your heart ever been filled with pain? Same comment!
Some have wondered how a good God could allow bad things to happen. Let me state right here that the bad things that happen on this earth grieve God and fill His heart with pain. His hand is not here to stop an inebriated person’s car from starting eventually killing an innocent bystander. But I believe His heart grieves.
I can answer this seeming dilemma in one word; freedom! Adam and Eve chose a certain path and it was not a path of freedom but slavery. And yet God (who “changes not”) still allows us the freedom to go out and get drunk and try to drive home.
But God has now, once again, given us His true freedom through His Son Jesus Christ. In Him we are free. Free to not sin. Free to love Him. Free to walk before Him in true righteousness and holiness. We all know that freedom is not free and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. He paid the ultimate penalty for us so that we may once again be truly free.
And friends and brethren, that is good news.
❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎
We live in an interesting age. Perhaps every age that has gone by might be labeled as interesting, but for different reasons. Today we have an abundance of technology that in some aspects assists us in our day to day tasks, and in other aspects frustrates us to no end. I have heard some say that our age must be one of higher intelligence than any previous ones because we have so much technology. But the reality is that intelligence and technology really have no correlation.
In the beginning when God created mankind, the strains of DNA that make up our genetics were perfect. And now some 6,000 years later after copies upon copies of this DNA have been made (where-in genetic mutations have allowed for defects and diseases) our physical make up is somewhat less perfect than when first created (i.e. we are a little dumber than our ancestors!) But, hey, we have technology.
Is that a good thing?
Well, there are arguments on both sides of this question. I remember when calculators first came out and we all relied upon them so much that we forgot how to add and subtract in our heads. Automatic cash registers rob the cashier of the ability to count back change to the customer, etc. Our technology tends to create a laziness that is “dumbing us down.”
In a previous column I wrote about “the ‘hole’ in my life that needed to be filled.” And how this “good news” of the gospel was the only thing that would fit the bill. There are a lot of things in this world that will try to make us think we have found something good. But there really is only one thing; and that one thing is the love of God and the peace of God that surpasses all our understanding. It is the only thing that will allow us to look right through the smoke and fog of bad news that seems to pervade our world today.
May God’s love find its way straight into your life and bring the true comfort we all need in this “interesting age” in which we live.
And friends and brethren, that is good news
🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤
Have You Lost Your Mind?
by Cynthia Saladin
There’s a very interesting quote by C.S. Lewis: When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind. I don’t know about you, but more and more it seems like I’m running against the crowd.
I feel it strongly during the fall holy days. I’m more than out of step with the world. One friend saw my calendar and said, “Does that say Feast of Trumpets? Did you mean ‘crumpets’?” People who are not in the habit of fasting wonder if we’re totally crazy for not only afflicting our souls for 24 hours, we are thankful for the day. And then the Feast of Tabernacles! How many people cannot comprehend spending the time and money just to spend eight days attending church services!! Yep, during the fall I definitely feel like I’m running contrary to our world.
Then comes Christmas. Bright lights, presents, good food, family memories - why in the world would I not want to be part of that? Some will freely admit that Santa and all the commercialism/materialism is not good. But they claim to celebrate the season because of the birth of Jesus Christ. He’s the whole reason for their celebration. They are unimpressed with me assertion that the One who said He is the way, the truth, and the life would not want to have his birthday celebrated on day when most people know He was not born. They don’t care about the lie. But I do. And that puts me smack in the middle of a downhill river trying to go upstream!
The encouraging thing about moving in the opposite direction is that God said it would be this way: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19, ESV). And furthermore, we’re not supposed to try to fit in. We’re supposed to be a peculiar people. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9, ESV).
So I shouldn’t worry that people think I’ve lost my mind. As long as I’m different because I’m seeking to please God, then I’m on the right track. I just need to keep my eyes on my job: proclaiming the excellencies of Him who turned me back from rushing madly over the cliff.
🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤
Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink.
~Dwight L. Moody
A Time to Tear Down
by Jim O’Brien
As a rule most people think it's wrong to destroy. We hate to see the old building torn down even when it will be replaced by something modern and beautiful. We want to save the historic landmark.
I confess I can't stand to throw away old clothes. They've seen better days when the colors were vibrant and the elastic stretched tight. But now the sock drawer is filled with holey socks that sag around the ankles so the rag drawer gets replenished. Still, there's something unnatural about ripping apart a formerly good shirt or sheet so it can be used to clean the bathroom or polish the car.
It reminds us of a fundamental reality of life-everything is temporary. The exciting new car will eventually be crushed, the metal melted to be made into something better. And that's the key. Something better cannot be made until the old car is destroyed.
Solomon wrote that there is "a time to tear down and a time to build", (Eccl. 3:3). So understand from the time that you build the new house, with the latest technology, the granite counter tops and the heated sidewalks, that there will come a time to tear it down. A hundred years from now the average person will not want to live in the house of your dreams any more than you want to live in the house your great-grandfather built. Think of it, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no insulation, no central heat or a/c. How could our grandparents have gotten excited about such a house?
Granddad's feather bed holds no appeal to a generation accustomed to a sleep number bed. If that is just a little discouraging, take heart-Solomon wrestled with the same reality. So he asked the natural question, "What does the worker gain from his toil?" (Eccl. 3:9)
Somebody invested his life working on an assembly line making feather beds and Model T Fords. What did the worker gain for all his trouble? The accountant whose eyes went dim working late into the night, missing time with the children, sacrificed a lot for something so transitory.
However valuable these "things" may have seemed at one time, all of them had to go. Some sooner than others.
The news is reporting terrible atrocities in foreign countries as mad dictators struggle to retain power amidst the poverty of their country. Soldiers have been sent into the streets to murder protestors.
Maybe God is thinking it's time for the tyrant to go. Surely there's something better to replace him. But, I'm not optimistic that the next dictator will be any better.
Economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the phrase "Creative Destruction." He pointed out that some businesses are outdated. The government should not intervene to save them. The free-market economy is a rational system that destroys the obsolete so something better can take its place. Maybe the free-market system contains Godly principles after all.
Surprisingly, the same principle applies to churches. Jesus told the religious authorities of His day, "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit." (Matt. 21:43 NIV) Thank God for removing those men and their stifling systems so we could have access to the Savior. Something had to be destroyed before something better could be created.
Man may spend too much time trying to preserve existing structures. Even this earth will fade away.
The Prophet Isaiah talked about a time yet future when God will destroy what now exists for the purpose of creating a better world. "For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not come to mind or be remembered. But, be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating;" (Isaiah 65:17-18 NRSV).
Maybe Joseph Schumpeter learned about creative destruction from reading the Bible.
♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖ ♖
Yes, There is Good News!
- By Bill Rollins
The calendar will soon flip another year for us and again I ponder the passage of time. It is something that is unstoppable for us humans. It is just one of many things that has been ordained by God Himself. Speaking of God ordaining things, I must wonder just what there may be that God has not ordained.
Do you consider God to be in charge of the universe? I do. He is the Creator and the Sustainer of all things. In the beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis, God tells us that at the end of each day of creation, He pronounced it as good. And that at the end of the sixth day we read, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”
Soon after, in Chapter 3 of Genesis we see that man (i.e. Adam and Eve) couldn’t keep one commandment. Yes, He has graciously given us 10 commandments, but to Adam and Eve He only brought forth one: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” They failed the test and that was not good! I believe we know the rest of the story. They chose to take upon themselves the knowledge of what was good and what was evil. And so without God’s guidance in navigation, things went downhill from there. At this point in scripture God puts the Bible on “fast forward” and takes us about 1,650 years in two chapters and so we come to Noah’s day. Genesis 6:5, “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth and His heart was filled with pain.” My friends, this was not good news. God grieved and His heart was filled with pain! These are strong words that are used for God’s emotions. Have you ever grieved? It is not a pleasurable time. Has your heart ever been filled with pain? Same comment!
Some have wondered how a good God could allow bad things to happen. Let me state right here that the bad things that happen on this earth grieve God and fill His heart with pain. His hand is not here to stop an inebriated person’s car from starting eventually killing an innocent bystander. But I believe His heart grieves.
I can answer this seeming dilemma in one word; freedom! Adam and Eve chose a certain path and it was not a path of freedom but slavery. And yet God (who “changes not”) still allows us the freedom to go out and get drunk and try to drive home.
But God has now, once again, given us His true freedom through His Son Jesus Christ. In Him we are free. Free to not sin. Free to love Him. Free to walk before Him in true righteousness and holiness. We all know that freedom is not free and Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice. He paid the ultimate penalty for us so that we may once again be truly free.
And friends and brethren, that is good news.
❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎
We live in an interesting age. Perhaps every age that has gone by might be labeled as interesting, but for different reasons. Today we have an abundance of technology that in some aspects assists us in our day to day tasks, and in other aspects frustrates us to no end. I have heard some say that our age must be one of higher intelligence than any previous ones because we have so much technology. But the reality is that intelligence and technology really have no correlation.
In the beginning when God created mankind, the strains of DNA that make up our genetics were perfect. And now some 6,000 years later after copies upon copies of this DNA have been made (where-in genetic mutations have allowed for defects and diseases) our physical make up is somewhat less perfect than when first created (i.e. we are a little dumber than our ancestors!) But, hey, we have technology.
Is that a good thing?
Well, there are arguments on both sides of this question. I remember when calculators first came out and we all relied upon them so much that we forgot how to add and subtract in our heads. Automatic cash registers rob the cashier of the ability to count back change to the customer, etc. Our technology tends to create a laziness that is “dumbing us down.”
In a previous column I wrote about “the ‘hole’ in my life that needed to be filled.” And how this “good news” of the gospel was the only thing that would fit the bill. There are a lot of things in this world that will try to make us think we have found something good. But there really is only one thing; and that one thing is the love of God and the peace of God that surpasses all our understanding. It is the only thing that will allow us to look right through the smoke and fog of bad news that seems to pervade our world today.
May God’s love find its way straight into your life and bring the true comfort we all need in this “interesting age” in which we live.
And friends and brethren, that is good news
🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤
Have You Lost Your Mind?
by Cynthia Saladin
There’s a very interesting quote by C.S. Lewis: When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind. I don’t know about you, but more and more it seems like I’m running against the crowd.
I feel it strongly during the fall holy days. I’m more than out of step with the world. One friend saw my calendar and said, “Does that say Feast of Trumpets? Did you mean ‘crumpets’?” People who are not in the habit of fasting wonder if we’re totally crazy for not only afflicting our souls for 24 hours, we are thankful for the day. And then the Feast of Tabernacles! How many people cannot comprehend spending the time and money just to spend eight days attending church services!! Yep, during the fall I definitely feel like I’m running contrary to our world.
Then comes Christmas. Bright lights, presents, good food, family memories - why in the world would I not want to be part of that? Some will freely admit that Santa and all the commercialism/materialism is not good. But they claim to celebrate the season because of the birth of Jesus Christ. He’s the whole reason for their celebration. They are unimpressed with me assertion that the One who said He is the way, the truth, and the life would not want to have his birthday celebrated on day when most people know He was not born. They don’t care about the lie. But I do. And that puts me smack in the middle of a downhill river trying to go upstream!
The encouraging thing about moving in the opposite direction is that God said it would be this way: If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you (John 15:18-19, ESV). And furthermore, we’re not supposed to try to fit in. We’re supposed to be a peculiar people. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9, ESV).
So I shouldn’t worry that people think I’ve lost my mind. As long as I’m different because I’m seeking to please God, then I’m on the right track. I just need to keep my eyes on my job: proclaiming the excellencies of Him who turned me back from rushing madly over the cliff.
🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤 🖤
Christians should live in the world, but not be filled with it. A ship lives in the water; but if the water gets into the ship, she goes to the bottom. So Christians may live in the world; but if the world gets into them, they sink.
~Dwight L. Moody
