A New "Monkey Trial"?

I found a very interesting article in the AgapePress news summary today. You can find it here. I will be watching this trial.

Remembering to Remember

Remember! What a powerful word. I recall sitting around the table with my family (my Mom & Dad, all us kids, and our kids) and ransacking through our memories. “Hey, remember when …” Sometimes the memory is sweet, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes unwelcome, but always, I remember things that I had not remembered for some time.

I was thinking about our fellowship tonight. It is so easy to forget who we are, what Christ has done, what it cost Him, what God desires of us. So easy to forget …

The answer – purposeful remembering. That is something I need to work on. Remembering to remember. Looking into God’s memory book and reminding myself.

Back to Living?

I am not surprised, but I am chagrined. The largess of the American people and other relief agencies is being squandered. Maybe not by many, but by enough that it points up a fallacy in our system of support. According to KPRC, channel 2, in Houston, FEMA and Red Cross debit cards are being used at “Adult Entertainment” establishments in Houston. This is possible because there are almost no restrictions placed on such aid. It was meant to help these unfortunates get back on their feet and begin the process of starting over. I guess that the first thing some need to get going again is their perversions. It seems to me that such support could be controlled to some degree. I do not like my tax money, or the money given to charity going to feed someone’s perversion.

"One Nation (Without God)?"

United States District Judge, Lawrence Karlton today determined that the Pledge of Allegiance is un-Constitutional (again) because it includes the words “one nation under God.” This is one more step, even if it is reversed at the Supreme Court level, down the road of secularism. What is just as much of a concern is that a God-free or God- neutral culture seems so reasonable, even to many believers. When we see the increased distance our culture places between it and God, it becomes harder to understand why so many would question why God would allow a Hurricane Katrina to pound the Gulf coast. This is not to say that God is necessarily responding to our actions, though I do not think I could rule that out. Rather, why would a secular society care? They care because those who have been changed by the power of God, and who maintain an active witness in the world, daily demonstrate that reality is not bound to secularism. Reality is bound to God. Without God everything is blind chance, purposeless and irrational. No understanding exists without God. Not even of the destruction of a hurricane. A nation that gives up on being “under God” places itself square in the middle of a mad-house of events that cannot be accounted for, nor in which one can find peace.

Weightier Matters

Boy, are we compassionate. A drive is underway here to collect truck loads of stuff for those in the Astrodome in Houston. Today, a well known Christian radio personality was calling for a national day of prayer for the needs of the Gulf coast. I have heard of hundreds of evangelical churches that have been destroyed. People are displaced, and yes, they need our prayer and our compassionate action.

But, have we left “the weightier matters undone.” How can we, as believers in Jesus Christ, not get the point that God is calling men and women to repentance? As I understand the scriptures, this is just “white noise” compared to the full volume judgment that is coming on this world. I realize that God is not calling our nation to repentance. Our nation has no standing before God. But the people do. They are those being called. We, complacent Bible-believing church members, are being called to get serious about our lives and our service for God.

If God were to start moving among the people we know, who would be there to bring the Word of life to them? Would it have to be someone else? Are we prepared and eager to give that answer? Do we show that hope that will cause others to seek out our God?

While we open our hearts and our finances to those who have been displaced in the Mississippi and Louisiana area, let us not forget the far greater displacement they and millions of others are facing – being alienated from God and alone in the world. While we pray, let us remember the believers there who are carrying food, water, supplies, and the Word of God to these people. And let us remember to do the same here.

Oh, one more thing. I was talking to a brother about some of this, and he said, very sarcastically, "Don't worry. We'll get over it." I understand him. After a while, things don't seem so bad, and we "get over it."

So Far, So Good!

For those who have been trying to keep up, I finished the first two chapters of my project last evening at 10:18 pm, and sent it off this morning. Two down, three to go - plus all the changes my advisor will "suggest."

A little of the pressure is off, but the last three chapters need to be done by November 1. So - off we go!

Always Forward!