We're not loving, we're hating

 I passed her in the hall,
and she frowned as clear as could be,
I thought, "What utter gall
that she would so look at me,
I've always thought her haughty,
old Sister So N So,
She's mean and cold and naughty,
and snooty from head to toe."
But I didn't know the rest of the story,
as I looked her up and down,
I assumed she was full of vainglory
and that was the cause of her frown,
But at home was a non-Christian spouse,
 they had bills and much infirmity,
They were close to losing their house,
and they suffered so incredibly.
"He did a poor job on his class,
his song leading, his presiding over the table,
It's a surprise what the elders let pass,
someone so ill-equipped and unable.
He doesn't even want to serve,
he just likes all the notice and glory,
He soaks up the spotlight with such nerve,
yep, it's that same old sad story!"
"She's so prejudiced." "He doesn't like me."
"What is it she has so against me?"
"They're cliquish, self-righteous, persnickety,
a standoffish, uncouth family."
Why do we indulge in such conjecture,
assuming a bad motivation?
Guilty 'til proven innocent, in need of a lecture!
We are bloated with insinuation!
Let's err on the side of charity,
assume that they're trying their best,
Give up conjecture, seek verity,
and not put them to such an austere test.
For such harsh and judgmental rating
says more about us than of them,
It says we're not loving, we're hating,
when so quickly we rush to condemn.
Were we to put the very best construction
on the words, deeds, and hearts of another,
We'd avoid the broad path of destruction,
as we look for the best in our brother!

 

Neal Pollard  

The Wisdom of Fathers

                       
Dads, give yourself a point for every one of these you've actually said to your kids:

    Don't ask me, ask your mother.  Close the door -- were you raised in a barn?  You didn't beat me -- I let you win.  Big boys don't cry.  Don't worry, it's only blood.  Now you listen to ME, Buster!  I'll play catch after I read the paper.  Coffee will stunt your growth.  A little dirt never hurt anyone, just wipe it off.  Get your elbows off the table.  I told you, keep your eye on the ball.  Who said life was supposed to be fair?  Always say please and thank you -- that way, you get more.  If you forget, you'll be grounded till the end of the world. You call that a haircut?  "Hey" is for horses..  This will hurt me a lot more than it hurts you.  Turn off those lights -- do you think I'm made of money?   Don't give me any of your lip, young lady..  You call that noise "music"?  We're not lost -- I'm just not sure where we are.  No, we're not there yet.  Shake it off, it's only pain.  When I was your age, I treated MY father with respect.  As long as you live under my roof, you'll live by my rules.  I'll tell you why -- because I said so, that's why!  Do what I say, not what I do.  Sit up straight!  So you think you're smart , do you? What's so funny?  Wipe that smile off your face.  If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times.  C'mon, you throw like a girl.  You want something to do?  I'll give you something to do.  This is your last warning!  What are your intentions with my daughter?  I'd better get a good report, or you better head to Mexico.  I'm not sleeping, I was watching that channel.  What keeps those jeans of yours from falling off?  I'm not just talking to hear my own voice!  Don't believe everything you hear.  What do you think I am, a bank?  What part of NO don't you understand?  I don't care what other fathers are doing -- I'm not everybody else's father! You're not leaving my house dressed like that!  Hey, did you hear me talking to you? Don't use that tone with me!  Am I talking to a brick wall?  If I catch you doing that one more time, I'll....   Act your age.  Wipe your feet!  Don't make me stop the car!  What did I just get finished telling you?

    Some of the things we fathers say are downright embarrassing when we think about it.  But, in our finer moments, it is our intention to give advice that will shape our children into the people God wants them to be.  Though our children don't believe we can relate to anything that goes on in their lives, we can.  With what we have learned over the years by listening to others and the experience of making wrong decisions, we want to share with our children a wisdom that will keep them on the right path.

    "Hear, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to know understanding; For I give you good doctrine: Do not forsake my law.  When I was my father's son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother, he also taught me, and said to me:  'Let your heart retain my words; Keep my commands, and live.  Get wisdom!  Get understanding!  Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.'" (Prov. 4:1-5)

Alan Smith

NEWSWEEK, 11-13-00

A doctor phoned a patient and said, "I have some bad news and some good news.  The bad news is that you have only 24 hours left to live." The patient replied, "That is bad news.  What could be worse?" The doctor answered, "I've been trying to reach you since yesterday." God has been trying to reach mankind for ages with the bad news that death will be a reality for all until Jesus Christ destroys it at the end of time.  Each day tens of thousands of people discover that there is no trick or technology or technique known to man that can indefinitely hold death at bay.  Hebrews 9:27 makes a stark statement that many people choose to ignore or try to forget- '. . it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment." In spite of our aversion to death in modem times, modem people just keep on dying.

Recent fighting between Israelis and Palestinians has resulted in nearly 200 deaths, forcefully reminding us that much of the death in our world is self-inflicted.  A terrorist attack on the US battleship COLE last month killed 17 sailors.  Daily in the good old USA, 1000's of unborn but very alive babies are violently killed in a process we have chosen to call a choice, a killing process about which millions in our culture have become very casual and comfortable.  Besides this, annually in the US there are around 20,000 murders.  In reference to the ongoing cycle of bloodshed in the conflict in the Middle East, Shimon Peres (former prime minister of Israel) recently made a short but gripping statement which represents a universal human longing- "We pray for a day without funerals." (NEWSWEEK, 11-13-00, p 29)

Mankind has dreamed of a day without funerals since Cain killed his brother Abel.  Can we dare think of such a day in a world where death dominates and cemeteries dot the landscape?  The gospel brings hope for an endless day without funerals!  Revelation 21:4 dares to tell us that in the end, when God finally dwells with His people in the New Jerusalem, that He 'will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Woody Allen once said, "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.  I want to achieve it though not dying." The gospel says we will achieve immortality through Jesus' work of death, burial, and resurrection!  Thanks to Jesus, in Heaven there will be an endless day without funerals!

Dan Gulley

 

Hot Diggity Dogg

Jim Poage asks, "Did you hear about the new crossover artist who combines country music with rap?  His stage name is Hot Diggity Dogg" (Reader's Digest, 11/03, p 104). You won't get that joke unless you have heard of the famed (or infamous) rap singer Snoop Doggie Dog. "Crossover artist" is a term used to identify popular performers in one genre of music who "cross-over" or release recordings in another genre. Amy Grant, Faith Hill and Shania Twain have all been referred to as "crossover artists" because they had hit songs on the pop charts as well as having huge success in the gospel and country music fields Crossover artists are sometimes controversial. They are loved by those who enjoy their voices/music no matter what kind of songs they sing. But when they "crossover" they are sometimes accused of abandoning their roots and the fans who helped create their initial success.

Mark 14:10-11 describes what could be called the original crossover controversy: "Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. And when they y heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him."  Judas Iscariot was a member of an elite group of people. To use Mark's phrase, he was "one of the twelve." For three years Judas walked, talked, and enjoyed a level of fellowship and intimacy with Jesus unknown to any other on earth except the eleven other original apostles. As if to emphasize the point, the Holy Spirit identifies Judas in the gospel accounts as "one of the twelve " at least seven times (Matthew 26:14, 47; Mark 14:10, 20, 43; Luke 22:47; John 6:71). But Judas crossed over. From the apostleship he crossed over to apostasy. From being in Jesus' most trusted circle, he crossed over and became a traitor. Judas will always be remembered as "Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him" (Mark 3:19).

Judas teaches us an important spiritual lesson to follow Jesus part of the way, or even most of the way, is not enough. Although Judas followed Jesus for three years, he crossed over to those who opposed the Lord only a few hours before the cross. Like Judas, there are people today who enjoy close proximity to Christ and His disciples. People who seem to be "insiders," people who apparently follow Christ, yet never completely and totally embrace the teachings, values, and priorities of Christ. There are still those who follow Jesus to a point, but then betray Him when the cross looms near. Will you follow Christ all the way to the cross, or cross over to those who find His cross too heavy to bear?

Dan Gulley

King Asa of Judah

Second Chronicles 14-16 records the reign of King Asa of Judah (910-869 B. C.).  The Bible records he was loyal to God for a while (2 Chronicles  15:17), but late in his reign he acted foolishly by turning to and trusting in a military alliance with Syria instead of relying on the Lord for victory over enemies (16:1-10). Thus the sad statement about him in 2 Chronicles 16:12 ,  "In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe: yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians." That verse reveals that Asa suffered  not one but two notable failures: first in his feet, then in his faith. When his feet failed, he leaned on human wisdom and effort to deal with the problem. It was in his old age that Asa suffered a crippling and debilitating foot disease (1 Kings 15:23). How sad to imagine this once energetic and mighty monarch who walked with God now hobbling along on crutches. Sadder yet to realize that not only were his feet ailing, but his faith also faltered as "in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians." That's Old Testament parlance for saying he was walking by sight and not by faith.

Asa provides an important lesson for the modem day church of Christ. Scripture mandates that the church put feet on the gospel and carry it to all the world (Mark 16:15-16). Our feet are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). So vital are healthy feet to the work of the church and the salvation of lost souls that God refers to those who bring the good news of salvation in Christ as having "beautiful feet" (Romans 10:15)! In view of this truth, Christians cannot afford to be diseased in their feet. We must do what we can to get the gospel to people around the world, beginning with those across town or across the street or maybe even across the kitchen table! Five billion souls are waiting for the church to get on its feet and bring the message of salvation. Some of them are waiting on you. Therefore, let us do as Jesus taught by life and lip – let us love the lost and pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest (Matthew 9:38). Christians who follow in the footsteps of Him who came to seek and save the lost will never suffer from diseased feet or a diseased faith!

Dan Gulley

Quotes for father's day

Fifth Commandment:  "Honor your father and your mother: that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you." -- Exodus 20:12

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother."   -- Theodore Hesburgh, President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame

"My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."

-- Clarence Budington Kelland, U.S. Writer

"By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong.' – Charles Wadworth

"Small boys become big men through the influence of big men who care about small boys." - Unknown

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass."  "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply.  "We're raising boys."  ~Harmon Killebrew

"Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap-on-a-rope."  ~Bill Cosby

"A wise son makes a glad father." -- Proverbs 10:1

"A man's children and his garden both reflect the amount of weeding done during the growing season". – Unknown

 "A father carries pictures where his money used to be."  ~Author  Unknown

 

If a man die, shall he live again?

 

 

    Job is in the midst of great suffering. So extreme was his pain, he wished he could die (Job 7:15); and as he lay there desiring death, a *question* began to perplex his mind: "If a man die, shall he live again?" (14:14).  I'm wondering, where did this question come from? Why is it that as soon as he began thinking about death, something within the depths of his very being began to focus on a continued existence after the death of the body. That is, thoughts of death forced the issue of life AFTER death, and he asks, "If a man die, shall he live again?"

            Some 2,000 years later, a Babe was born in Bethlehem Judea, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. The child grew into manhood, preached to the poor, healed the sick, lame, and blind; and just prior to calling forth Lazarus from the tomb, He answered Job's question: "I AM the resurrection and the life; he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25).

            Now, here is something I want you to reflect upon: No one before Jesus Christ, knew of the doctrine of immortality, yet they longed for, and sought after it!  How could people long for something that they did not even know existed? Furthermore, where did the idea come from in the first place? Do dogs, cats, monkeys, or chimpanzees long for life after death? Do they do anything in their earthly existence to try and secure life after death? Why is it that man, and *only* man, of all the creatures on this earth, long for life after death? Why is it that *only* man, of all the creatures on this earth, thinks about, and tries to make some preparation for life after death?!

            Here is the answer: Man cannot help but think of an eternal existence because we *alone* are created in the very image of the eternal God. The thought of eternal life is the "effect," and there is no effect without a "cause."  Therefore, there is something within man that "causes" him to think about eternal life.

            It's an established fact that civilizations discovered who had no contact with the outside world - - who had never seen a preacher - - who had never seen a Bible - - had never been visited by a missionary, still they had a religion that worshipped a supreme being that promised eternal life! From where did they get the idea of "eternal life?"  The only answer can be: they got it from themselves … from an internal longing put there by God Himself. Solomon writes, "…God has placed eternity in our hearts" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Some love the doctrine of eternal life, some hate it; but the fact is, every single human being on the face of this planet is perplexed by the tangibility of the doctrine!

            Consider this: (as Beottner explains in his book "Immortality"), "You spend a life-time accumulating knowledge and experience, and you scarcely get preparations made for a full and intelligent life, when it comes your turn to die and leave it all behind."  If there is no life after death, the whole process of accumulating knowledge is pointless!

            Why are we constantly trying to better ourselves? Why do we keep working and hoping that "tomorrow" will be better than today? Is it just so we can lapse into "nothingness?"  After being lifted as high as this world could lift him, Solomon concluded, "The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments" (Ecc. 12:13).

            The *person of Jesus Christ … His crucifixion … His death and burial* are all facts of history. Furthermore, His tomb becoming empty on the third day is a *fact of history,* (though people differ on "how" the tomb became empty).  The Bible teaches that it was the same Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead who "has brought life and immortality to light THROUGH THE GOSPEL" (2Timothy 2:10). Furthermore, we are taught this eternal life is ONLY in Jesus Christ (1John 5:11-12).

            Someone says, "Well Toby, I know a man who has a PhD who says that isn't true!"  My response: "I know a man who had the Holy Spirit who says it is!"