There are some institutions who teach that it is right for one to believe that he is right but it is wrong to for one to believe others are wrong. So what happened is that these people want us to cultivate our thinking process without coming to a rightful conclusion. I don’t know why but some times I feel that many have educated themselves to imbecility.
Where there is no frame work of morality, there is only relativity and the stupidity of being unable to determine right from wrong. God’s Word could never be wrong and this should be the basis of our moral framework.
Apr 282012
Apr 082012
Christianity is a religion of the open tomb.
The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in.
“He is Risen!” 3 Powerful words that offers Hope for the future providing power to live and win for the present.
May you have this victory too!
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Apr 072012
Many men will talk about the character of Jesus and how beautiful His teachings are but only a few would find it comfortable to talk about the Christ of the cross and His sufferings for us. Yet without the cross and Jesus’ Resurrection there is no hope for mankind.
Oswald Chambers says: Calvary means “the place of a skull” and that is where our Lord is always crucified, in the culture and intellect of men.
The cross and the resurrection is a great study and it takes a lot of humility to understand it.
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Apr 022012
It was June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. The French under the command of Napoleon were fighting the Allies (British, Dutch, and Germans) under the command of Wellington. The people of England depended on a system of semaphore signals to find out how the battle was going. One of these signal stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral.
Late in the day it flashed the signal: “W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N—D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- -.” Just at that moment one of those sudden English fog clouds made it impossible to read the message. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news that their country had lost the war. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the remainder of the message could be read. The message had four words, not two. The complete message was: “W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- – -DE-F-E-A- T-E-D- – -T-H-E- – -E-N- E-M-Y!” It took only a few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was turned into victory!
So it was when Jesus was laid in the tomb on the first Good Friday afternoon. Hope had died even in the hearts of Jesus’ most loyal friends. After the frightful crucifixion, the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding had crept in on the friends of Jesus. They had “read” only part of the divine message. “Christ defeated” was all that they knew. But then on the third day–Easter Sunday–the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding lifted, and the world received the complete message: “Christ defeated death!” Defeat was turned into victory; death was turned to life! Such a beautiful and inspiring story taken from the book, “Illustrations Unlimited” edited by James S. Hewett.
Imagine what and how the disciples felt the day and night before the Resurrection.
Men who have given up everything in order to follow Christ and now distraught to see their Messiah crucified and died on the cross. Some times we get into the case of the disciples and criticize them for their lack of faith but how would we have responded had we been in their sandals then? I wonder.
There is such a tone of finality to the word “death.” It’s like the final curtains are down. It’s “the End.” “Finito” as the Italians would say. I cannot type Chinese characters from my keyboards but it’s just as gloomy as it sounds. “Finished!” “Dead!” “That’s All Folks!”
Or is it?
Do you know that the One who dies on the first Good Friday is familiar with death but He treated it in another way? Let me tell you why.
The Moody bible Institute in Chicago stands tall and erect right in the heart of the windy city. I have visited it and I have at one time spent a few hours in their impressive library browsing over some of their books. This institution is named after the very popular evangelist name Dwight L. Moody.
As a young man, D.L. Moody was called upon suddenly to preach a funeral sermon. He hunted all throughout the four Gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons, but searched in vain. He found that Christ broke up every funeral he ever attended. Death could not exist where he was. When the dead heard his voice they sprang to life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.”
And then the glorious Sunday came.
The stone could not hold Him, death could not conquer Him and the only One who conquered death lived and rose again to assure us and comfort us that in Him we may have life too. Don’t ask me how this is done I’m not a theologian. Heck…I’m not even religious. I’m just a businessman who believes. And this is why in Him I invest my entire life. That particular Saturday sure is a lonely one but it’s the lull before the Rise! Death now carries no more sting. For those who believe.
Put your work aside and just think about this for a moment.
Your perspective in the board room will be different from you perspective in the operating room when that time comes but the Rise on Sunday will give you hope.
Somebody said: “The stone was rolled away from the door, not to permit Christ to come out, but to enable the disciples to go in.” And that is the very essence of the Christian faith.
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Mar 252012
A farmer’s boy decided to get married. His father said to him, “John, when you get married, your liberty is gone.”
The boy said he did not believe it. The father said, “I’ll prove it to you. Catch a dozen chicken, tie their legs together and put them in the wagon. Hitch up the 2 horses to the wagon and drive into town. Stop at every house you come to, and whenever you find the man is boss, give him a horse. But whenever you find the woman is boss, give her a chicken. You’ll give away all your chickens and come back with 2 horses.
“is it really that bad?” The boy wondered. What is father trying to say? That the woman is the head of the house? That she is the boss? Still, the boy wouldn’t believe.
Nevertheless, he accepted the proposition and drove to town. He had stopped at every house and had given away 10 chickens when he came to a nice little house and saw an old man and his wife standing out on the front lawn. He called to them and asked, “who is the boss here?”
The man said, “I am.” Turning to the woman, the boy said, “Is he the boss?”
The woman replied, “Yes, he is the boss.”
The boy asked them to come down to the street. He then explained his reason for asking and told the man to pick out one of the horses. He said he would bring the horse back to him that afternoon. The old man and the old lady looked over the horses carefully, and the husband said, “I think the black horse is the better of the two.”
The wife then said, “I think that brown one is in every way the better horse. I would choose him.”
The old man took a careful look at the brown horse and said, “I guess I’ll take the brown horse.”
The boy smiled and said, “Oh no you won’t; you’ll take the chicken.”
Clearly, the woman is still the boss around the house.
Some times I get really tired of hearing all those jokes about certain men being “Under” the power and authority of their wives. All jokes imaginable have been concocted and why is this so? Very simple. Because not too many people understand God’s design for marriage.
You would be amazed at the kinds of things business people say about marriage. One guy said that -Marriage is not a word. It is a sentence (a life sentence!).
Another one trying to play with the concept of philosophy deduces marriage this way: He says -Marriage is love. Love is blind. Therefore, marriage is an institution for the blind. Would you believe that?
One business man tired of all the household chores says that the Marriage certificate is just another word for a work permit.
One wise guy says that you see that the disintegration of marriage comes in different stages:
In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens adoringly.
In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens agonizingly.
And in the third year, they BOTH speak and the NEIGHBORS listen excitedly.
Truth is those who make fun of marriage perhaps is simply being defensive about it. Maybe the guys in the office who tease men saying that their wives are their bosses are themselves being defensive in a way.
Somebody says: Marriage is an institution in which a man loses his Bachelor’s Degree and the woman gets her Masters. And lastly, another business man says: when a man holds a woman’s hand before marriage, it is love; after marriage, it is self-defense.
Husband and wife, instead of complementing each other collide with each other. This is not an exception, rather it is more of a rule. This is an eventuality because both parties in the marriage relationship do not understand his and her role.
Haven’t you noticed that after attending various marriage seminars, the husband and wife goes home even increased the intensity of their fights. Simply because they start blaming each other. This should not be.
The Bible says that the husband is to love his wife to the point of even dying for her as Jesus Christ gave His life for the church. But the woman’s part is to submit to the authority of her husband. Mess up this pattern and your marriage is messed up too.
So the next time you hear those turkeys teasing you just because you don’t want to go with them to the bar after work tonight, they have no idea what marriage is all about. But you know better because you know the Word of God.
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Mar 212012
Norman Cousins says: “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
My father raised us up well and even though we grieve his passing last night we rejoice in his arrival in the promised place Jesus offered. He passed on in peace because the Prince of Peace is in his heart.
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Mar 202012
It is important that we get our math right. The things that count are the things that cannot be counted. I am convinced that we need to see through the clutter and see Jesus for He is all that matters. Youth is fleeting life on this earth is finite and only what matters in eternity truly counts. Learn to number our days aright so we can have a heart of wisdom.
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Mar 042012
From the book entitled “More Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks” as edited by Wayne Rice, is a story about a parakeet and a vaccum cleaner but as you listen to it you may observe that it deals more than a story about a parakeet. It may actually be talking about you and me.
There’s the story of a woman who had a parakeet named Chippie. She loved Chippie because he was such a happy little song bird. Chippie’s constant chirping just seemed to brighten her day. One day, the woman was cleaning the bottom of Chippie’s cage with a vacuum cleaner when the telephone rang. She reached for the telephone without removing the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner from the cage, which was a mistake. The vacuum cleaner nozzle got pointed in the direction of poor little Chippie, and he was suddenly sucked up into the machine.
When the woman looked back at the cage and realized what had happened, she was horrified. She dropped the telephone, turned off the vacuum cleaner and ripped open the dust bag to get to her little bird. Chippie was a real mess, but he was still alive. She raced to the kitchen sink and turned the water on full force on Chippie. The more she tried to wash him, the worse he looked, so she took him to the bathroom and started trying to dry Chippied with her hair dryer–full force and high heat. Finally she got the bird dry and put him back in his cage.
Several days later, a friend called and asked how Chippie was doing.
“He’s alive,” he said, “but he just sits in his cage and stares into space. And,” she added thoughtfully, “Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore.”
We all know people who are a lot like Chippie. We know young people who once had a song in their hearts. But due to circumstances out of their control, they discovered that “life sucks.” As a result, they aren’t singing much anymore.
I never gave much thought about this until one time I had to stay home during a long vacation. The religious holidays took a couple of days and the stores were closed, the movies were showing nothing but old religious movies and I wasn’t at the mood of messing around with my computer. The only thing that got me going was to watch rented tapes all day long. BY the end of the day, I simply found myself staring at the boob tube allowing my mind to drift.
Thinking yet having no thoughts. Looking yet seeing nothing. So different from the usual vibrant and hyper active me. My wife and my kids noticed this and they laughed because at that time and circumstance, I was really a funny figure.
When they awakened me from my spell, I suddenly realized that I have been so accustomed to be moving around, getting busy, running all over the place such that I get so caught up with the rat race I don’t know how to rest any more. No, it’s not burn out, it’s not anything I know it’s just a case of getting so busy with life’s stupid demands such that my heart can’t even sing anymore. I may not have noticed this but I probably worship my work and work at my play because life’s different circumstances do have a tendency to rob our very life away from us. In other words, I felt like Chippie. But the question is: What about you?
Have you ever felt a little like Chippie? Have you been abused by people you loved? Has your world been turned upside down? Have you lost your desire to Sing? Well don’t!
As Chippie found out, there are no “quick fixes.” Healing takes time. But there is someone who can give you back your song and restore your joy. His name is Jesus. “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things” (Psalm 98:1). It’s no longer strange to find that the Word of God calls Jesus a Healer. I guess no one can exist without Him, and that includes chippie as well as me.
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Jan 152012
A farmer had one old horse that he used for tilling his fields. One day the horse escaped into the hills and when all the farmer’s neighbors heard about it, they sympathized with the old man over his bad luck. “Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows? Only God knows.” said the farmer.
A week later, the horse returned with a herd of wild horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. “Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows? Only God knows” said the farmer.
Then, when the farmer’s son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone agreed that this was very bad luck. Not the farmer, who replied, “Bad Luck? Good luck? Who knows? Only God knows.”
Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and forced every able-bodied young man to go fight in a bloody war. When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they let him stay. Everyone was very happy at the farmer’s good luck.
“Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows? Only God knows.”
This ancient Chinese story tells us a lot about what’s going on in our world. If there’s one thing that really amazes me it is the fact that just when the the knowledge age is hamde men more knowledgeable, there is likewise an upsurge of interest into the occult (Vampire movies), astrology and mysticysm. Visit your friendly neighborhood book stores and you will discover that the shelves assigned to carry such books have expanded tremendously. Man will always hunger and thirst for that mysterious dimension which is the spiritual realm and all means will be exhausted in order to have a glimpse into the future and the unknown.
Something doesn’t seem to connect here. If my life is governed by luck whether good or bad, then where would I place God? My Bible says that God is in full control and so nothing ever happens without His knowledge and control. And so if I believe in this, then where will I put luck? It doesn’t take a lot of intelligence to figure out the fact that being a Christian and believing in luck is a contradiction in terms.
I just make it simple. I do my best and God does the rest and I’m not going to let any fortune teller tell me how to live my life and neither am I going to allow any moronic horoscope to dictate what my day will be.
Sometimes it seems like things are going well, and at other times, things seem to be going badly. And we let those things dictate our feelings and our outlook on life. When things are going well, we’re happy and we think God is with us. If they are going badly, we get discouraged and think that God must have abandoned us. We end up being tossed around by our circumstances. And if faith in God is sadly wanting, then the tendency is to believe in luck.
But the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4 that he had learned to be content, even happy, in all circumstances. He was happy when things were bad (he was in jail at the time), and he was happy when things were going good as well. That’s the great thing about being part of God’s family. We really don’t have to worry in our circumstances, because no matter what, we have hope in Christ. “We know that in everything, God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).
Believe me this is such a liberating feeling. To know that my life and my future is in God’s hands. So I can travel without a charm in my wallet and I can pass under the ladder and enjoy seeing a black cat cross my path. Every single fortune teller died and remained dead. Jesus Christ rose up from the dead and that’s why I’m putting my trust in Him! It’s a spritual discipline we all have to exercise.
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Dec 242011
At a clearance sale, the wife of a federal district court judge found a green tie that was a perfect match for one of her husband’s sports jackets. Soon after, while the couple was vacationing at a resort complex to get his mind off a rather complicated cocaine conspiracy case, he noticed a small, round disc sewn into the design of the tie.
The judge showed it to a local FBI agent, who was equally suspicious that it might be a ‘bug’ planted by the conspiracy defendants. The agent sent the device to FBI headquarters In Washington, DC for analysis.
Two weeks later, the judge phoned the Washington office to learn the results of their tests. “We’re not sure where the disc came from,” the FBI told him, “but we discovered that when you press it, it plays ‘Jingle Bells.’”
So! Are you ready for Christmas?
Is Christmas all about having parties and exchanging gifts?
It must be more than that.
Here’s a reminder from Henry Van Dyke.
ARE YOU WILLING –
- to stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children;
- to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old;
- to stop asking how much your friends love you, and to ask yourself whether you love them enough;
- to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts;
- to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke;
- to make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open?
- Are you willing to do these things for a day?
- Then you are ready to keep Christmas!
Text messages are swell but nothing beats an old fashioned Christmas cards that will always pass the test of time.
One of my favorite Christmas cards carry the following words:
The title is: “WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT JESUS?”
Here’s how it goes:
He was born of a woman so that we could be born of God.
He humbled Himself so that we could be lifted up.
He became a servant so that we could be made heirs.
He suffered rejection so that we could become His friends.
He denied Himself so that we could freely receive all things.
He gave Himself so that He could bless us in every way!
MAY YOU KNOW HIS LOVE THIS CHRISTMAS
Such simple words that may mean nothing to a lot of people but it means a whole lot to those who know Him.
When you read the Bible you will be able to see all the symbols of Christmas.
And as I present them to you, treat this day’s message as if it were a Christmas card I am giving you.
So please listen very carefully.
May the Christmas PRESENTS remind us of God’s greatest GIFT – His only begotten Son.
May the Christmas CANDLES remind us of Him who is the LIGHT of the world.
May Christmas TREE remind us of another TREE on which He died for us.
May the Christmas FEAST remind us of Him who is the BREAD OF LIFE.
May the Christmas CAROLS remind us of His glad tidings which we are to proclaim to all mankind?
May the Christmas season remind us in every way of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
May you and your family have a blessed Christmas and a Christ-centered productive New Year.
