Archive for the Category » Word for Wednesday «

WFW: What Happened to National Geographic?

March 10th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

When I was a kid, my family used to congregate occasionally to watch a National Geographic special on TV. Whether it was Eskimos, Aztecs, or Ubangis, we would learn something new about places and cultures that were far from our normal realm. They were always fascinating and well-done programs.

Obviously, things have changed at National Geographic. A co-worker told my husband that they were running a program last night about what the world would be like if we ran out of oil, so we watched it. In a word? Tripe. Balderdash. Utopian hogwash. Political propaganda. Yeah, I know. That’s more than a word, but I’m still ticked off that such a respected organization has descended to producing third-rate fantasy.

The program started out with us waking up one morning to find that all of the world’s oil fields had dried up overnight. They don’t attempt to explain how or why this happened. Billions of barrels of oil just disappeared in an instant.

As the program progresses through a time-line, we see all transportation come to a screeching halt (except in South America, where good cars run on sugar cane); the world stock markets crash (and big, bad oil stockholders become suddenly penniless); a mass exodus of urban areas (people walk to warmer climates or upstate New York, where they just happen to have a cabin in the woods with a fire and some egg-laying chickens awaiting their arrival); and all of the evil American cows and pigs die, because they run out of feed.

But never fear. This isn’t Armageddon. It’s just a mid-course correction. Because fifty years later (imagine the theme song from Mr. Rogers), we suddenly live in utopia. Our skies are clear, Central Park is now an 800-acre garden that feeds New York City, and we’re all bio-diesel-driving vegetarians.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:20-25)

Category: Bible, Christianity, Word for Wednesday | 3 Comments

WFW: What Price Political Correctness?

March 03rd, 2010 | Author: akagaga

As always, new folks are encouraged to participate in the Word for Wednesday meme. If you’re interested, click on the WFW tab at the top of the page for details. Personally, I’d be delighted to welcome some new Christian bloggers into the mix.

I’ve been snooping around the internet a little lately, far from my normal haunts, and I came across a post on FrontpageMag about “The Christian Muslim Summit” currently playing out at the Washington National Cathedral. The article by Faith J. H. McDonnell is titled Guess Who’s Coming to the Cathedral? and begins this way:

If you were counting on a robust offensive (or even a mild defense) from U.S. churches to stop in its tracks the incursion of Islamism in America, perhaps you should save up to pay your jizya (tax imposed on non-Muslims, dhimmis, for the right to exist). Many churches in America are neither willing nor prepared to counter the influence and infiltration of Islamism in their own congregations, let alone in the wider civil society. Rather than fear the judgment of the Almighty, these churches fear the label “Islamophobic.”

The path of political correctness is not limited to the church, of course. It’s blatant in government and mainstream media, and came into glaring focus in the military after the Ft. Hood shooting:

His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan’s “anti-American propaganda,” but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.

Society at large can be forgiven for swallowing lies they’ve been force-fed for decades, but Christians – Christians should know better.

Christians must know they are not going to be loved by everyone they meet.

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
because of this the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;
if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake,
because they do not know the One who sent Me.
(John 15:18-21)

Christians must know they are not called to make friends with the enemies of Christ, but to speak the truth with love.

What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light;
and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul;
but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
(Matthew 10:27-28)

And Christians must know that embracing Islam is denying Christ.

Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men,
I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
But whoever denies Me before men,
I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 10:32-33)

Category: Bible, Christianity, Word for Wednesday | 3 Comments

WFW: The Times They Are A-Changin’

February 24th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

There’s an old Bob Dylan song that keeps coming to mind these days titled The Times They are A-Changin’.(lyrics here.) Adopted as an anthem for the political and social upheaval of the sixties, it seems suited once again as a reflection of our times.

Regulars may have noticed that I haven’t been posting as often as usual, and I suspect that trend will continue. The winds of change have been blowing around here, too, and I seem to be going in a different direction. I have no intention of abandoning the Word for Wednesday or this blog – but I’m going to do my best not to miss the leading of the Holy Spirit, either, and that requires a more focused concentration.

What about you all? Anybody have the feeling that God is trying to prepare us for something different? Here’s an older version of the song, and a scripture passage that seems relevant.

There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

Category: Bible, Christianity, Word for Wednesday | 4 Comments

WFW: Doctrines, Creeds, and Catechisms

February 17th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Check out most any Christian denomination, and you’ll find a “statement of faith” that defines their beliefs, whether they call them doctrines or creeds or catechisms. Snoop around most any Christian website, and you’ll usually find a shorter version of the same thing.

The purpose of these statements is to differentiate Christian Group A from Christian Group B; i.e., the Baptists will emphasize adult baptism, the Calvinists will trot out the Canons of Dort, and the charismatics will explain the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

While these statements serve their purpose, they also have an unintended consequence that I think is universal. Adherents of each group turn to their particular denomination, their particular “statement of faith” to define what they believe. They rely on what others have said instead of turning to God and the Bible for answers. They become followers of a doctrine, creed, or catechism instead of followers of Jesus Christ.

It seems to me that if God had wanted to emphasize certain aspects of Christianity to the exclusion of others, He could easily have had someone write another book of the Bible called “The Summary of Christianity.” This would have made everyone’s life far simpler. When a doctrinal issue arose, they could simply consult “The Summary” and pronounce their verdict.

But God didn’t include “The Summary” and I have to believe that’s for a reason. Could it be that He truly does teach each of us individually, providing the right Word for the right moment, knowing we can’t take everything in at once? Could it be that He’s more concerned with the process of our learning, wanting us to learn to hear His voice, than He is in our getting an “A” in doctrine? Could the whole design of the Bible be to lead us where He wants us to go, instead of letting us find the quick and easy answer we think we need? Could it be that He wants us to spend time in prayer and in the Bible instead of turning to others?

Those are my questions this week, and here are some of the answers I got – from the Bible, not from any particular “statement of faith.”

Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually. (1 Chronicles 16:11)

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart (Luke 18:1)

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints (Ephesians 6:18)

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14:26)

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:27)

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.” (Matthew 13:34-35)

And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.” (Mark 4:11-12)

With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples. (Mark 4:33-34)

I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. (John 16:12-13)

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

… just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:15-18)

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. (Titus 1:10-11)

Category: Bible, Christian doctrine, Christianity, Word for Wednesday | 5 Comments

WFW: Becoming Children of God

February 10th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

I have been so blessed in my life. I often wonder, “Why me, God? Why did you choose me, when there are so many other better people around?”

I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a real answer to that question, but there is one thing I do know without question:

I don’t deserve to be a child of God. If I got what I deserved, my life here on earth would be one misery after another, just a foretaste of an eternity in hell.

But on February 27, 1994 a Christian in Florida, working under the direction of the Holy Spirit, convinced me that God would forgive all the horrible things I had done, simply because of what Jesus had done. All I had to do was believe and receive.

Since that day when I was born again, I’ve lived in the Light, learning and growing by the grace of God: stumbling and sometimes falling, but always with the assurance that My Father would be there to pick me up and set me on my feet again.

If you’d like to join the family and live in the Light, ask Jesus into your heart. You will never regret it.

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:9-13)

Category: Bible, Christianity, Word for Wednesday, salvation | 5 Comments