The Simple Life

Psalm 150:1-6 (NLT) 1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! 2 Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! 3 Praise him with a blast of the ram's horn; praise him with the lyre and harp! 4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! 5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. 6 Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord! There comes a time when after we have thought of who God is and placed Him in His proper context that we sit back and are amazed. The only words that come to our mind during these times are words of praise for who He is and what He has done. Should this attitude be my norm? Should I be here every day? Or, is this something that comes "at times"? What is it that causes this spontaneous outburst of praise? I think that if I would just open my eyes and see the sunrise or sunset today. If I would take th...

2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV) 7 Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. I am not to give money, time or talent just because of a need or a feeling of guilt that may overtake me lest I become susceptible to the Evil one's games in trying to play me. I am not to give reluctantly or wishing that I could keep the resource for myself. Most non-profit organizations base their appeal on need or guilt? Should I not address need? Should I only give when I am cheerful about the gift? Why give? Does cheerful giving come from the attitude in which I give? If I am a steward instead of owner, if I see my resources as building the kingdom instead of my self-centered life, if I have responded to the Spirit of God instead of the appeal of man perhaps I would be a bit "giddy" in my giving. Does anyone in America give because God moves them to give or do we give based on appeal? Does it matter? Would it ma...

  This week I heard of another friend who was headed to work with an organization, here in the United States, who needed to raise financial support before beginning his job. Another friend shared with me the woes of his financial condition in that he was in the midst of a ministry, and his support has been less than adequate. I turned on the radio and heard the Christian Radio Share-A-Thon over and over, and over and over again. They spoke of the importance of supporting their work, because after all, I benefited from it, so I should pay for it. In fact, I guess, I should give sacrificially to benefit me. My mind flashed to conferences I attended where I went to seminars on how to raise funds. I was told that I needed to make sure that those who could give had reason to give. I was told those who gave need to continue to be pampered so that they continue to give. I was told that we need to build a board of directors around the givers, and that if they gave, if their treasure was with u...

1 John 2:26-27 (NLT) 26 I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. 27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don't need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. Uncomfortable with the direction of the country? It is either because you think your life will be affected adversely or because the Holy Spirit is poking at your soul. Recently the president of France expressed concern about our president. He said, in essence, that our president was naive and arrogant, a most dangerous combination; for if one is naive and un-teachable one remains a great danger. Certainly this was Satan's original sin as well. He was naïve in believing he could be greater than God and arrogant in that he believed he could actually pull it off because of who he was. In my mind, I wo...

Lies….The Stuff of Life Do we really lie to ourselves? It seems as if we always have a positive spin on what we do or what we say. It seems as though people do not really have a "mirror" to look at when evaluating themselves, or, if they do, the mirror is so distorted that what they see looks acceptable. This past week I was astonished at the eulogies that were heaped upon Ted Kennedy. It seemed as if nobody wanted to really talk about what was obvious. Ted was talked about, by both sides of the aisle, as a man who fought hard for the downtrodden, for those who were less fortunate, for those who were "helpless." He was talked about as a man of faith, as one we could and should emulate. Really? Do we really believe this or is it just normal and acceptable rhetoric that we often verbalize after someone dies? Isn't this the same man who fought to have innocent babies killed through abortions? Weren't these babies the "least of these," the innocent, t...

Daniel 4:34 (NIV) 34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. Sanity- a state of soundness of mind, reason, rationality, sensibleness, and reasonableness. This comes when I raise my eyes. This comes when I praise my God and honor and glorify Him. This comes when I recognize what actually is. It is time…..now raise your eyes to our King and allow your sanity to return.

Does God hate what brings us to sin as much as the sin itself? The Scriptures seem to indicate that God does not just view murder as wrong, but the hatred that leads to murder is equally wrong. Sexual sins are wrong, but the thought of sexual sins, lust, is equally wrong. Being greedy is wrong, but coveting is equally wrong. Gluttony is condemned, but what is it that leads to gluttony? Drunkenness is a sin, but what is it that leads to drunkenness? Laziness is a sin, but what is it that leads to laziness? Could it be that under the banner of freedom and our fear of legalism, we often condemn the sin but ignore what brought us to the sin, when if we eradicated what brought us to sin, we would not be in sin? Could it be that we are concerned about the wrong end of this problem, and are more like modern -ay Pharisees than we would like to admit? Perhaps we need to adjust the end of the problem we are addressing. Perhaps we need to adjust the path in order to change the ultimate destinati...

  Satan is the author of confusion and lies. If God is the originator of truth, Satan is the force behind fantasy. It seems as if our nation is living in a kind of fantasy world. There are many who live with enormous amounts of debt. They live a life that cannot be supported by the "reality" of their income or status. If they "need" something and have the ability to put it on credit, they do so. Our President seems to understand this fantasy world quite well. When he came to office, he did whatever he could to make sure the source of our fantasy, money, continued to flow. In fact, he decided to bankrupt our nation and then use this bankrupt government to bail out a bankrupt baking system. For some reason there is this idea that spending more money that we do not have in order to support a lifestyle we cannot have will eventually bring about success and prosperity. The young people who have not created this financial fantasy have been living a fantasy life of their ...

  Lines from Lewis Carroll's Alice….and the Cat.   Alice: Would you please tell me which way I ought to go from here. Cat: That depends a great deal on where you want to get to. Alice: I don't much care where- Cat: Then it doesn't matter which way you go. Alice: -so long as I get somewhere. Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that….if you only walk long enough.   This is way too much like a conversation I am having over and over with high school seniors and college freshmen. Perhaps Lewis Carroll was prophetic. In contrast, Paul says: Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. " Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV) Go wherever or press on…..the choice is mine, for today.

It seems that our double standard has hit an all time low. David Letterman said the following this past week. "These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter. I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. I mean, look at my record. It has never happened. I don't think it's funny. I would never think it was funny. I wouldn't put it in a joke." What was said was inappropriate about a 14, 18, or 80 year old. Having an audience laugh shows an acceptance of such degrading talk. Women are degraded in porn, they are degraded in advertising, and they are degraded on mainstream television. It is marketable to degrade women, to make them objects of pleasure, and the target of jokes. It is protected by our freedom of speech. The sad reality is that all of this degradation is acceptable to our general public. If we as a society would turn off David Letterman, he would be jobless. If we refused to watch televis...

Evil happens not only when we do evil, but when we blur the lines between good and evil. Often we work at keeping the lines blurred in thinking that this blurring of lines helps us communicate better, or relate more, or avoid confrontation. In fact, we may spend so much of our time finding middle ground that we never advance, and this lack of advancement is tantamount to going backwards. For example, one might argue that in order to "relate" to a Godless culture we need to live in a manner that the Godless would understand. He/She might state that in order to be able to talk with them we need to live in their neighborhoods, drive the cars they drive, entertain ourselves the way they entertain themselves, and in essence, erase all distinctions that might show us to be different. As we do this, we blur the lines of demarcation. As we do this, we give little incentive for them to change, and little reason for them to see us changed. What would happen if we decided to live in a ...

I read an article recently describing the new teen craze of "Sexting." This, for those who do not know, is when a person takes a risqué picture of themselves, and sends it to someone for review….for whatever purposes. This is becoming quite prevalent in that on a recent spot check of phones it was found that 39% of all cell phones were used to send these indecent messages, and 48% of the teens' phones had received such images. Think of it. Almost half of the teens' phones received unacceptable images of their friends. What are they thinking? Where do they get this from? It seems to me that the laws in our nation are out of whack, and the kids are just being consistent with the reality in which they live. Our society, as a whole, has dropped any semblance of standards. We allow pornography, but not for minors. We tell people that we cannot do anything about the porn industry because of freedom of speech, and then condemn it at certain ages. In fact, we have a history o...

  Without a clear understanding of right and wrong that lies outside of ourselves, we will disintegrate as a culture from within, and face formidable challenges from without. There has been much said in recent days on why Iran should not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Even though I agree with the majority of thought on this issue, the reasoning behind the thought does not make sense. Why should Iran not have a nuclear weapon when the United States does? What makes us different? Are we morally superior than those in Iran? Do we get to have these kinds of weapons because we would show restraint in using them? (As if we never did use them….) Do we have these weapons in order to keep the rest of the world as vassals of the United States? I would agree that if we, as a nation, lived by the standards put forth in God's Word, we could be trusted with great power. In fact, anyone who is subject to God's Word could be trusted with great power. Those who know and obey God understa...

  A young man recently wrote "Dear Abby" because of his concern for his father becoming sexually active with other men. He was disturbed by what was going on and asked Abby how he might better deal with this. His first problem was to ask "Dear Abby," who obviously pulls her ideas from whatever is most politically correct, and not from what is right and wrong. She told this young man that it should no longer shock people that someone has chosen to act like his father is acting. She went on to say this: "Times have changed. Today a person's sexual orientation is no longer considered something to be hidden. One constructive way to deal with it would be to realize how fortunate you are to have the kind of relationship you have always had with your dad. Be supportive, don't judge and love him for the parent he has always been." Bad advice. The loving part is good; we should always be loving. But love cannot watch someone destroy themselves and say noth...

There is a crisis in our nation in that Christians are not acting like Christians. We seem so concentrated on being forgiven that we forget to be holy. We find causes to rally to and open our lives to scrutiny of a press that does not care about right and wrong but about their personal agenda. Any liberal in the country would give their life for freedom of speech, yet when Miss California exercised it she became target #1. When she said she did not believe in Gay marriage and later claimed it went against what God has said and she would not go against what God has said. That should have been enough for the media. She exercised her right as an American citizen to speak what she believed. However, we are seeing that free speech is not free. In fact, this young woman has been taking a beating and, quite frankly, was not prepared for such an onslaught. If one is going to take a public stand then ones life will be publicly scrutinized. We do not battle flesh and blood but the ...

In life there are things that are whether we want to acknowledge them or not. For example, real maple syrup comes from maple trees no matter what we say, believe, or choose to ignore. The color red has already been established. We can call it whatever we want, but red is still red. Snow falls in the winter in Wisconsin. We may wish it was different, but it is what it is. Intelligent people spend no time arguing things that "are." They acknowledge them and adjust their lives to the obvious. It reminds me of a story of a warship traveling through the night on a special mission. In the middle of the night the captain saw a light in the distance in the very path that the ship was headed. He sent out a warning to the oncoming "ship" that it would need to alter its course in order to accommodate the warship. Soon the captain received a response that told the warship that it should adjust its course by 15 degrees. The captain sent another message giving his ship's name...

  This week, President Obama said the following: "And the last point I just want to emphasize, as I said yesterday at the CIA when I visited, what makes America special in my view is not just our wealth and the dynamism of our economy and our extraordinary history and diversity. It's that we are willing to uphold our ideals even when they're hard. And sometimes we make mistakes because that's the nature of human enterprise. But when we do make mistakes, then we are willing to go back and correct those mistakes and keep our eye on those ideals and values that have been passed on generation to generation." What are our ideals? Who sets the "ideal" agenda? Do our ideals include the killing of unborn babies while we condemn the torturing of the born terrorists? If we were to dismantle the foundation of a building brick by brick, what would eventually be the end result of the building? President Obama does not believe that the United States of America is a C...

What is the foundation of Christianity? Christ. Why does the world work? Why It there consistency in sunrises and sunsets? Christ. Why is there food to eat, trees to provide wood for homes, and fuel to heat and provide electricity? Christ. How did the universe come into existence? Christ. How will it end? Christ. I have concluded that Dave is just not that important.   Are the themes we have at church helping or hurting the cause of Christ? Are our churches about Christ or about us? Are we focused on what we focus on or what God focuses on? Could our churches' intent be the same as giving an alcoholic a bumper sticker at an AA meeting that says "I am not sober, just forgiven," Is the goal to be sober if you're an alcoholic, or just forgiven? Is the goal to be "sinless" if you're a Christian, or just forgiven? Does it matter?

Moving Off the "Gold Standard" This week our President informed the rest of the world that we were not a Christian nation. Although many may think that our leader is stating the obvious, and he may be, he is also declaring a new philosophy that will ignore the obvious importance of our nation's Christian heritage and declare independence from God from this day forward. To imply that we were never a Christian nation would be foolish and prove a lack of understanding history. To state that we are not now Christian, or have any "religious" loyalties is to be honoring man apart from God. Years ago the US dollar had value because it was measured against the "gold standard". It was so valuable that all nations of the world began to measure their economy against that of the United States and so stable that that the rest of the world adopted the dollar as their standard monetary measurement. Since our nation has moved off the gold standard our dollar has a di...

Trust I am struggling with trusting our new president and our government officials. I feel badly that this is the case in that I want to trust them, yet their words and actions do not mesh. Our president, while campaigning for office, spoke of great changes that needed to take place. One area he talked about was for change in the normal partisan politics. Another area he spoke often about was the end of politics as usual in the area of "earmarks" in appropriation bills. It seems that our president's pragmatic desires have driven him to say whatever is convenient at the moment, whatever would expedite his image and win the crowd. There is little that is not partisan in Washington these days, and there is a bill that he says he will sign, with over 8,000 earmarks in it. What could be his justification for lying to the public? What justifiable reason could he give to outright lie? I have heard him say that this is Bush's problem. I have heard him say that when it becomes...

Instant Relationships Relationships are important. They are important enough to rearrange your life for them, and they are marginal if we don't rearrange our lives for them. I may be old, but the foundational principles to good relationships have not changed. Intimate or good relationships still take intentionality and exclusivity in time. By that I mean that in order for me to have a good relationship with Linda, or anyone, I need to make time for her, and she for me, where we do not share our attention with something or someone else. It is not okay for me to carry on a heart to heart conversation with Linda while reading a magazine and watching the news. I need to put the magazine down, turn the television off, and look her in the eyes while listening to her heart. Exclusivity in the moment is part of a healthy relationship. That is what gets me concerned. It seems that there are many who are carrying on relationships (at least that is what they call them) with people they say th...

We Are Blind We, as a nation, are blind to certain problems and opportunities. If we as a nation are blind, then I, too, am blind. Jesus told us that we need to be careful not to point out the speck in someone else's eyes while we are sporting a beam in our own. So, when I say that we as a nation are blind, I mean that we, me included, are at times blind to what is really going on around us. For example, we know that greed can and does cause all kinds of problems, but we do not want to deal with the issue of greed, because that would mean that we would need to define it, and that I, and or others, would be guilty of such an attitude. Since we do not want to live with guilt or shame that is caused by the action of greed, we will just assume that we are not greedy, and those we suspect of greed we will not engage in debate, because we do not want to offend anyone. We know that the consumption of alcohol causes great pains in our world. I tried to find accurate statistics, but found t...

This week there has been much talk about the new stimulus bill that our Congress passed. Some think that the contents of this bill will save our nation's economy. Others think we will sink into a "stagflation" unknown since the days of Jimmy Carter. Time will tell who is right. There was no possible way that anyone could have read, analyzed and thought about what was voted on in the time they were given. That does not surprise me. In fact, most of our nation thinks that opinions formed on limited information, during this, the information age, is fine. People who have never read the Bible or have read it once become experts on what it says. Those who have never sat in on a foreign relations briefing become experts at foreign relations. Those who have not been successful in their own marriage or in raising children become experts in family. Members in church are asked to vote on what they think the "will" of God is for their church while never really seeking or he...

Almost six decades ago, former president Herbert Hoover wrote a warning that I fear America has not heeded. After calling attention to several new programs and concepts, including "New Freedom" and "New Religion," Hoover stated, "We have overworked the word "new"…. The practical thing we can do, if we want to make the world over, is to try out the word "Old" for a while. There are some "old" things that made this country…Some old things are slipping badly in American life and if they slip too far, the lights will go out of America. ( What in the World is Going On? Dr. David Jeremiah) I listened to our president talk the other day during a town meeting he held in Florida. He talked about the extreme hardship many were experiencing and I wondered if he really understood hardship. He talked about how much people wanted to work, and I wondered if he ever met the crowd that tried to work the system so they did not need to work. I heard...

  When I go into the auto shop at our camp, I am always amazed at how the mechanics there can skillfully use the tools at their disposal. When it comes to doing the impossible, they smile and get all excited about their latest purchase and the chance they will have to accomplish a difficult task with relative ease. It is even more impressive if I have been working on a problem for some time, and they come in when I am bloody-knuckled and on the edge of despair; they walk to their tool box, pick up a new tool, and walk over and solve my problem. It is equally impressive watching mechanics talk to the Snap On (Tool Company) representative. Their discussion revolves around the latest and greatest in tools that can solve a host of problems. As they talk, the adrenaline flows, the eyes widen, and the disaster stories of unsuccessful attempts to fix the problem without this tool flow like water over Niagara. Those who understand Christian camping get excited, just like our mechanic friends ...