Exercise Your Rights II

In my last blog I laid out the choice that was being presented in this election.  We have made our choice, now what?  This is America, right?  Our government can’t change from democracy to socialism, can it?  This is still the best country in the whole world!  But, anything CAN happen; we as a country are not immune.  It is all up to you!  I think it is time for everyone to wake up and take an ACTIVE role in our government.  Let your voice be heard!  Elections are not the only time to do that.  Our government is, after all, of the people, by the people and for the people.  But this only remains true IF you remain active—it is when we are passive that this right is taken away.

 

What not to do:

• Disrespect – We are to respect the office of our president, vice president, senators, congressmen/women, governors, mayors, etc.  These are offices of authority.  What example is it to our children when we disrespect authority?  How can we expect them to obey us?
• Complain, grumble, slander or in any way bad-mouth the people in office.  This does not produce good fruit; it does not bring change.
• Feed off the ranting of others—this includes conservative media (radio shows, etc.).  You can keep yourself informed without filling your mind and heart with negativity.  Sort through actual news and ranting and tearing down of government officials.  Again, it is not fruitful; it makes you mad, but doesn’t bring about change.  Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

What we need to do:

• Pray
• Be informed.  For example, do you know what the Fairness Doctrine is?  Or the energy bill that is phasing out the sale of filament light bulbs?  Both of these issues affect your life.  Get your news from an unbiased source; this won’t be channels 2, 6, or 8.  You need to find out the issues.  Check out www.khouse.org, onenewsnow.com, AFA.net, worldnetdaily.com, worldmag.com, to name a few.
• Get in contact with your legislators (local, state, and in DC) and STAY in contact with them.  You can write them letters, send emails, and make phone calls.  I heard somewhere once that every contact they get, they treat as the view of 1000 of their constituents.  They are bound to uphold the views of those constituents.  But how can they know how we feel when we just sit on our couches and stew?  You can sign up for the AFA.net email newsletter–they will send you alerts on legislation and they make it very easy to send a quick email to the appropriate legislators.
• Place your trust in the Lord.  Proverbs 21:1  He is in control.  He is not surprised by this election, He know the end from the beginning.  Isaiah 46:10
• Above ALL, we must obey the Word of God!  Paul tells us in Romans 13:1-7 to respect the authority of government for they are appointed by God to restrain evil on the earth.  When we are disrespecting the government, we are disrespecting God!  Ouch!  Peter tells us in I Peter 2:13-17 that it is the will of God that we submit to the laws of government.  I believe this applies when those laws do not directly contradict the Word of God.  When Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were told to bow down and worship the idol that King Neduchadnezzar had built, they refused because it contradicted God’s law.  (See Daniel 3)  Paul tells us in I Timothy 2:1-4 that we should pray for our government leaders so that we will lead peaceable lives and that they may come to the knowledge of the truth.

Think about the world that Peter or Paul or Daniel lived in.  I highly recommend reading through the book of Daniel to see an excellent example of how we ought to conduct ourselves in this world.  Peter and Paul lived in the Roman empire—Peter in the province of Judea and later in Rome, while Paul traveled extensively throughout Asia Minor, spending time in Rome also.  At that time in history the world was extremely pagan.  The rulers were the Caesars who wanted to be worshipped as gods, hardly what you consider a godly leader.  Yet, see above for what Peter and Paul had to say about their government.  Christians were severely persecuted in that time, too.  Nero killed both Paul and Peter.  Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were captured from Judah and taken to Babylon where Nebuchadnezzar was ruler.  Babylon is the birthplace of all false religion.  It was a normal part of the culture to worship idols, eat unclean foods, and practice all sorts of perversion in the name of their worship.  These things contradicted the Jewish laws that Daniel and his friends observed.  Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute ruler that could execute any one of these Jews at any time for disobedience if he wished.  What did Daniel and his friends do?  Did they disrespect their captors?  Did they complain?  We see through the book that they obeyed God’s law above the law of the king, but were at all times respectful and as a result were promoted to high government offices.  In the times when they were persecuted by the government for refusing to obey the king, God protected them.  Let this be a lesson to us.  Our world, even though it seems to be getting worse, is not as bad as the pagan cultures of ancient times.  Let our conduct be like Daniel, whose coworkers could find no fault with.  (Daniel 6:4)  Also note how the emphasis throughout the book is that God is the one who gives the kings their kingdoms.  He’s in control and there is no cause to live in fear and worry!

What Are Your Plans?

I had to take a break from blogging this last month as we had the opportunity of opening our home to a relative in need.  This young lady was in need of a major change in her life and the first night she came to live with us she said she would do anything to change and was excited to learn from us.  We laid out some rules and she agreed that they were good. 

 

My husband and I are teachers.  We have a heart to teach those that are teachable and want to learn.  So we tackled every opportunity to teach character qualities, spiritual fundamentals, and practical life skills.  We knew that this would take some time, so we planned many things to teach over the coming months.  One of the first lessons we wanted to teach is that our actions speak louder than our words.  We can say we love God, but if we aren’t keeping His commandments we don’t truly love Him. (John 14:15,21)  In fact, John tells us in I John 1:4 that, “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”  Well, this woman’s actions spoke louder than her words and subsequently she is no longer with us.

 

We have no ill feelings over the situation and, in fact, I can glean many lessons from it.  She has only harmed herself and not us.

 

I was mopping my floor this morning thinking over the whole situation.  I was thinking about all the things I had planned to teach her.  Plans to teach character qualities, spiritual fundamentals, knowledge of the Bible and God’s plan and character, and practical information, like how to handle finances, how to clean house and cook.

 

But with all my plans, it still came down to her choice.  She chose not to be meek and teachable, showing us through attitude that she really didn’t want a change in her life.

 

It is the same way with God.  Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)  God has plans for every one of us, BUT it is up to us to CHOOSE to follow God.  Jeremiah 10:23 says that man is NOT to direct his own steps; we are to let God direct our steps.  Ps. 37:23 says that the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord (I particularly like the New Living Translation of this verse). 

 

What are your plans for your life?  It is certainly okay to have goals, but I think we all need to stop more often than we do and ask what God’s plans for us are.  It is our choice, we can choose to live a mediocre life or we can CHOOSE to partake of the abundant life that Jesus promised in John 10:10.  It saddens me that many Christians don’t live that abundant life.  It all comes down to our choices.  After Moses read the law to the Israelites he told them they had a choice, in Deuteronomy 30:19, to CHOOSE life or death.

 

I truly believe this means in ALL areas of our life.  We must NOT departmentalize God, put Him in a little corner of our life, go to church, do our duty, and then everything else about our life is up to us.  We are only going to have that abundant life if we allow God into those other areas of our life.

 

The important thing to remember is that every one of us has influence on those around us.  If we aren’t living that abundant life, the people around us aren’t going to want anything to do with Christianity.

 

Many times the apostle Paul compared the spiritual walk with a race.  His readers were very familiar at that time with the Olympic games in Greece.  We, too, are familiar with the Olympic games, so I would like to expand on that comparison.  Imagine this year in Beijing the Olympics is including a special race open to anyone in the world and some wealthy benefactor has paid expenses for as many people of the world that want to come and participate in this race.  All you have to do is go and pick-up your plane ticket to China.  Many people will take this man’s word to be true, and go and pick-up their plane ticket and fly to China.  Once they are there, it is their choice whether to follow the plan of the games or do their own thing.  Some will say, “Hey this is great, I got a free ticket to China, but now I’m going to do my own thing and go sightseeing.”  Others will participate in this special race, but once the gun goes off, they don’t go anywhere.  They think, “This is so great, I’m at the Olympics in Beijing”, but they’re not cooperating and not actually doing any running, as if they don’t understand why they are there.  Others are running half-heartedly, not really putting much effort into winning.  Some come upon hurdles and then stop, not knowing how to jump them.  Now if the world was watching this race on television at home, most would change the channel.  People would lose their interest in the Olympic games. 

 

What I suggest to you is that the world is watching you as a Christian, and if you aren’t following God’s plan, then you are influencing those around you and they will want to turn the channel.  They won’t want anything to do with the Christianity that you’ve got.  Those that were off sightseeing, those that never started the race, those that ran half-heartedly, and those that were blocked by the hurdles ALL hindered the world’s confidence in the Olympic games.  Christians that are doing their own thing, or are never growing, or only put half a heart into following God (I’ll go to church, but I want to have my fun, too), or come upon obstacles and crumble, ALL hinder the gospel message.  So I say to you, are you going to be one of the runners in this race, striving for the gold medal?  Paul says in I Cor. 9:24 that we should all run like we mean it, to win the prize.

 

God has many plans for you, many things to teach you, the question is, are you going to let Him teach you and lead you?  God has given us a whole book of His will.  I know it sounds cliché and many years ago, I would’ve nodded my head in agreement, but not actually taken it to heart.  I can now tell you from experience that your life will change when you diligently study God’s Word, seeking God’s kingdom first (Matt. 6:33).

The Sign of the Times

I’m going to shift gears here a bit.  We all know the story of how God rained down fire and brimstone on the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their rampant sexual perversion.  I have heard people make references comparing America to Sodom and Gomorrah.  Here are a few examples of why: 

House Bill 1592 wants to add sexual orientation as a protected group under a hate crimes act.  People would be protected not only for race or color, but now sexual orientation.  Ultimately this bill is seeking to hinder our freedom of speech.  If a minister wants to read Romans 1:27-32, for example, he would be guilty of hate speech.  It has already happened in Canada and England is trying to institute it as well.  Aren’t all violent crimes motivated by hate and punishable by the laws we already have in place?  Why do we need special laws, now, if the crime is against a certain group of people? 

An estimated 400,000 people, mostly gay men, congregated in San Francisco last month, for the 24^th annual Folsom Street Fair to celebrate “leather” pride, which is a euphemism for sadomasochism, or S & M.  Police turned a blind eye while all kinds of wild activities were conducted in the streets in broad daylight, things that people normally get arrested for.  You may not have heard about this one because the media doesn’t want their agenda ruined that says the gay lifestyle is made up of people that are in committed loving relationships that last years, rather than people involved in perversion with many, many partners.  I’m not going to comment further on this one, if you want to read more, feel free, just be warned that the articles go into more detail. 

16 guys and 16 girls are competing to win Tila Tequila’s heart on MTV’s new reality match-making show.  Yes, you heard me right, guys and girls!  Again, no comment. 

Now you might be expecting some critical commentary, a harsh word of judgment for those involved in these activities.  But stay with me, I want to point something out that you might not be aware of. Let us turn in our Bibles to Ezekial 16:49-50.  When I read this I thought it was just so interesting.

“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom (speaking to Jerusalem): she and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.  And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.”  NKJV

Note that the abomination is listed here last.  I’m not trying to downplay the abomination, perhaps it’s listed last because it was the worst and it was the last straw, if you will.  But does America compare in the other categories?

Pride – America is full of pride, aren’t you proud to be an American?  Americas think they are better than any other country on earth.  We have a lot to be proud of, we’re a political superpower, are thought of as a wealthy nation, have more liberties than probably any other country (correct me if I’m wrong), but I don’t think that the Pilgrims or the Puritans, nearly 400 years ago, were full of pride, but rather gratitude to God for the freedoms they were enjoying in this land.  Let’s not forget the God that made it possible for us to have all these freedoms, freedom to worship how we choose, freedom to vote for who we choose…I could go on and on.  James 4:6

Fullness of Food – I know there are areas of America that are suffering, but I think as a whole, the majority have an abundance of food.  You can get government assistance to buy food.  There is a lot of food here that goes to waste, people overfill their plates and then can’t eat all of it.  Unfortunately the bulk of the food sold in America is terrible junk, but I think we can agree that America has abundance in the area of food and, for that matter, material goods.

Abundance of Idleness – Isn’t it the American dream to get a good degree at a good college so that we can get a cushy job and make a lot of money not doing a lot of work so we can have more free time to pursue leisure?  We live for our weekends and evenings.  The clock strikes 5 and we are running out of the office.  People bemoan Mondays.  These days people retire younger than in the old days; most people want to do anything else in life but work.  Proverbs 13:4 comes to mind, “The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.”  Or how about Proverbs 19:15, “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.”  Are we being productive with our time?  Are our activities producing fruit?  There is a time and place for leisure, it can be stress relieving, but we must have a balance of work and leisure.  Whether an activity produces monetary reward is not important, but whether it’s producing good things in our lives or in the lives of those around us.  We really will benefit from a six-day workweek the way God designed, rather than the five-day week we’re are accustomed to.  Take some of your time to invest in your kids, fix up your house (boosting it’s value), volunteer your time, etc.

Do we strengthen the hand of the poor and needy as a nation?  Our welfare system breeds poverty.  There isn’t an incentive to get off of welfare.  We’re not truly helping them. (This is said as a whole again, I know there are many good charities in our country that are helping the poor and spreading the gospel message.)

Haughty – the Hebrew word used here is gabahh.  The definition is to soar, that is, to be lofty, be proud, lift up, make higher, exalt.  I think humanity, as a whole is guilty of this one.  They think they can do it themselves, fix their problems, heal their sicknesses, find peace within themselves, and more.  Humans as a group don’t feel they need God; they lift themselves up and exalt themselves over God.

We can’t go around telling people how to change, but we can look inward and repent from our own wrongdoings.  II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  This verse is talking to us, followers of Christ; we shouldn’t be shocked at the world’s sin, they don’t know any better, but we should!

My Motto

I’d like to elaborate on my philosophy – If God created it, it is good for me; if man has changed it then it is bad for me. 

If we start to think in those terms choices become clear and we can end all this confusion.  The more you read about nutrition the more you will see contradicting opinions.  One group says saturated fats will kill you, another group says they will heal you.  Who do you trust? 

I Timothy 4:1-5 says that in the last days a great apostasy will take place and people will preach that we should abstain from foods that God created.  Well, the vegetarian/vegan movement has been preaching that for a while now, that we shouldn’t eat meat, some go as far as abstaining from anything remotely associated with animals such as honey (because it’s made by bees).  That really narrows your choices.  Doctors are telling us that saturated fats and cholesterol will clog our arteries and that we shouldn’t eat red meat very often.  Many people won’t eat eggs because of the cholesterol.  Nutritionists will tell you that you can increase your protein intake with protein powders and protein bars.  If we have ailments we are given pills, be they drugs or mega-vitamins.  How can we cut through all the nonsense?  Verse 4 and 5 – EVERY creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 

Now I think that a lot of people have taken these verses to mean that they must pray at every meal and ask God to bless the food they are about to eat and they think that this means it won’t harm them.  There are natural laws of sowing and reaping, just like the natural law of gravity.  We can’t throw a ball up into the air and pray that God will keep it up there.  It’s going to come down because of the natural law of gravity.  We can’t ask God to bless our processed non-food and expect that we won’t reap unhealthy lives from consuming it.  Deuteronomy 6:16 says, “You shall not tempt the Lord your God”.  Jesus quoted this verse when the devil tempted Him to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple.  We can not knowingly do things that we know will hurt us (or bring us bad health) and expect God to protect us.  God will not be mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7). 

I don’t know about you, but it’s nice when someone agrees with you.  I have been formulating this thought for a while, with this specific passage in mind.  So it made me feel good when I checked out one of Sue Gregg’s books and she said basically the same thing.  I Timothy 4:1-5 applies to God’s creation, not man’s adulteration.  When we choose foods, we must ask ourselves, “How far has this food (or supplement) come from God’s creation?”  In your babysteps toward healthier eating, try to start thinking in those terms.

Trust in the Lord pt. 2

Last week I encouraged you to put your trust in the Lord and the only way to do that is to know what His word promises you.  This will take some study.  So I thought I would pass along some of my favorite study tools. 

Interestingly enough, as I was planning this article I received an email newsletter with an article that says 60% of Christians world-wide know that they don’t give enough time to their relationship with God, this survey included pastors!  You can read the article here.  This was me a few years ago.  I have been in church all of my life but up until a few years ago I didn’t give any serious time to Bible study.  I am so glad I have made this a habit.  I have learned more the last few years doing my own study than I did in all those years in church.  I am not against church.  The church serves many purposes, but we have a responsibility to study God’s word for ourselves.  Study to show yourself approved (II Tim. 2:15). 

I think the biggest reason most of us don’t read our Bibles regularly is that we think it’s too complex and don’t know where to start and/or we don’t understand it when we do read it.  I know this was my problem.  I knew the basic tenets of my faith from my years in church, but every time I opened up the Bible to read it, I didn’t really understand what I was reading.   

My motivation came when I ran across a yearly Bible reading schedule and decided it was time to make Bible reading a habit.  It had selections daily from the Old Testament and the New Testament.  After a while of following this schedule I was starting to see the big picture and really beginning to understand.  I did not finish the entire Bible in the year.  I fell out of the habit for a bit and then picked it back up.  But the matter is not how much you read, it’s how often.  There have been times that I tell myself I’m going to sit down and study for 15 or 20 minutes and when I’m through I have only studied one verse.  But interestingly these seem to be the times I’ve received the most out of the study. 

Bibles

As far as Bibles I really enjoy my Thomas Nelson New King James study Bible.  It includes commentary, cross reference verses, concordance, selected Greek and Hebrew word definitions, and much more.   

Many people like the Message Bible because it’s written in modern language.  While you wouldn’t be able to do a word study with The Message since it is a paraphrase instead of a translation, it does make certain passages easier to understand than the King James.   

I have recently found the Narrated Bible.  It is a NIV translation presented in chronological order with commentary interspersed to read more like a story.  We are going to use this soon for our family reading time.  I think it’s important to see that the Bible is more than just 66 books written by 40 authors.  It is an integrated whole divinely inspired by God.  There are no parts of it that should be glossed over, everything is there by design. 

For children I really like The Comic Book Bible from Barbour Publishing.  It’s for 8 to 12 year olds.  Ty has read this Bible from cover to cover more times than I could count.  I like this Bible better than the typical storybook Bibles because it covers more territory.  It follows the order of the Bible with Old Testament first and then New Testament.  It includes maps and verses to learn.  I like that it includes the prophets, both major and minor and places an emphasis on Paul’s ministry that is usually absent from storybooks.   

Study Tools

www.esword.com  -  Free download of various Bible versions, Strong’s concordance, Webster’s 1828 dictionary, and numerous commentaries and extras (like Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews, for example).

 www.biblegateway.com  -  Great tool for looking up passages in other translations.  They have every translation here that I’ve ever heard of.  Sometimes it’s helpful to see the NIV or the Amplified translations, for example.  They also offer commentaries and study helps. 

www.eliyah.com – Online concordance available on this site.

 www.khouse.org  -  Chuck Missler’s website.  He offers commentaries, if not on every book of the Bible then close to it.  His commentaries are available on CDs, MP3 download and some of them are even available to listen to, streaming from his website.  I downloaded his MP3 of the Spring and Fall Feasts, it was fabulous.  I had skimmed over details of these feasts in my Old Testament reading, but now see how relevant they are.  Learning about these feasts has helped me to understand numerous things in the New Testament.  I’m in the middle of his Philippians commentary right now.  His radio broadcast, 66/40, is broken up into 25 minute segments.  They make a great size for a nightly Bible study.  These commentaries offer so much depth, they take you through the Bible verse by verse.  And, if you’re interested, you can even get college credit for listening to these. 

www.jcstudies.com  -  Center for Judaic-Christian studies.  I signed up for the free weekly study from the Torah.  I have really enjoyed it.  It’s very interesting to see the Jewish perspective. 

I hope this information helps you get started.  You can’t trust in the Lord unless you know what His Word promises you.  You will reap many rewards for diligence in this area – see Matthew 6:33 and Hebrews 11:6.