There are people who bother me. Just downright annoy, irritate, unnerve, grate, go against the grain and all the other derivatives “annoy me. When I make a statement like that, sister usually comments “there’s a lot of people who feel the same way about you”. I used to hear preachers declare that ‘God loves the sinner but hates the sin’. Exactly where is that scripture found? Is that in the book of ‘Soundsright 1:1’ right along with ‘God helps those who help themselves’??? If you say something long enough, you can literally start believing it even though you KNOW it is not factual. I think that we, in our small mentalities, hear and accept things without thinking them through. No wonder we’re called sheep. It’s that bandwagon mentality I wrote about recently. Too many of us sit in front of the screen and listen to news reports and accept that information as ‘true’. “If it’s on the internet –TV –radio – in the newspaper –in front of the classroom it has to be true. “ That scripture is ‘Soundsright 1:2’. When are we going to have the chutzpah (that’s shameless audacity, by the way) to start questioning what we are spoon fed by a God-rejecting world? I went to college for a very long time. I have had some interesting experiences in my classroom times and I’m pretty sure a few of my university professors were glad that I was gone. One afternoon, I sat in a class while a Sociology teacher was exploring the circle of industry. All around me sat the young eaglets that would soon take over their spaces in business and community. All scribbling and nodding and looking intense. He was chanting what the Darwinians have taught for years, and part of his information was very factual and observable. He talked of rivertowns, like Louisville, that develop around the waterfront and how the shipping magnates built their houses close to their boat yards and later, moved away from that initial business area. When the general housing became more rural, businesses followed the money and the town distanced itself from proximity to the river. The population would grow and move out farther away from the mundane ‘business areas’ that had followed it and it would become a 20 year cycle of moving to get away, being followed, moving to get away, being followed, etc. finally, as with the urban development going on in the Louisville area now, the outer circle would see all the empty buildings in the river area and it would be announced high class to move back and redevelop the neighborhoods again…and eventually the cycle starts again. That’s how Shively, Prospect, Bardstown, Fern Creek and all the other outer areas developed and now have their own shopping centers, groceries, and school systems. I could accept most of that…but then he began talking about the ‘beginning of time’ and how the ‘ape-man ‘ learned to develop community and trade and how we lived like beasts until some primate grunted and a word was formed. Hmmmm. He talked about the European Sapiens mixing with the African Sapiens and creating tribes and nations and how the ocean was the mother ship of all mankind and …well, you’ve heard it since the middle of the last century when evolution was escorted into the public school system and God was escorted out. I sat respectfully for a long time and finally raised my old withered hand…tongue in cheek, folks…it wasn’t that old and it wasn’t that withered, but when a middle aged person joins a roomful of 19-22 year olds, age is a very distinguishing characteristic. He was eager to respond to my search for knowledge. I simply asked him to give me his references. He looked perplexed and I repeated….if man were ignorant and written language had not been created, then there are no linguistically based sources for this information and it had to be gleaned from supposition rather than tangible evidentially sound resources…therefore, I wanted to study the subject more than what could be presented during a 90 minute lecture and asked for his documented research. He stared at me for a couple of minutes, then changed the topic. I never did get the list of resources from that era. Had he read the Word, he might have been able to provide the class with who, what, when, and where, other than we ‘think’. Foolish? I’m sure I looked stupid to many people in those years. Another teacher whom I truly admired for his marvelous ability to delve into literature like Baowulf, Chaucer, and Shakespeare opted not to speak to me when I approached him to say goodbye at graduation. ‘All I did” was ask him a pointed question during a lecture that did not support his opinion. He was presenting that Shakespeare was the true composer of the Bible and that his thought pattern could be seen all the way through the scriptures. He surmised that old King James had hired him to create the literary collection as a focal point for the less scholastic peoples of the era. I disputed the theory, my 40+ young classmates gasped when I told him that his theory was rubbish and I asked on what premise he based his idea on. He retorted that Christ was not discussed until the second half of the literary collection and that he was not mentioned at all until Matthew. (This man was the son of a Presbyterian minister, no less). I laughed and asked him to actually go back and read the old testiment and see the prophecy being revealed and proclaimed again and again. I simply quoted him…”You cannot propose an opinion on something you have never read or explored in depth. Without personal investigation, you are merely parroting the masses, and the masses are usually ill informed and ignorant of the truth”. Hmmmm. So…this is my point. If we are going to proclaim that we follow Christ, do you think that we ought to be more interested in what He says rather than what the world calls ‘good’. Just because the masses say we should be tolerant and non-judgmental about lifestyles and behavior patterns and that there is no such thing as sin…should we believe that? I’m not calling for people to hate each other, but Justin Stevens preached last Sunday and made some very valid points. He said that he was in the millennium generation and that they did not need to be entertained and placated..they needed to see real Christians living authentic lives and being real about what they were presenting. I’m finding that I’m spending more time in the Word than in the news these days. I want my reality to be based on a solid foundation. Don’t try to fool me …I have the tee shirt and I’m not going to wear it anymore. I thought I had all the answers…but God.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:17:46 +0000
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