This is one of my reflective posts that I usually do not leave up too long:....maybe for obvious reasons:
I was on a college campus yesterday for a lecture offered to the pubic. I always leave a few of my Special Dog pens around when on a college or university campus. So this post is directed to those few students who may have picked up the pen and then visited this site. My post is very straightforward and to the point. Time is short....time is always short. Consider my advice if you will.....log off if that's your choice.
I ran into a young man of about 30 a little while ago who I first met when he was in his late teens. He's was at the time.....and still is....a very nice and gregarious young man....but he knew it all. I'm talking here mostly about the Christian Faith and religious belief in general. Anything that I might offer him in the way of information he just passed over and would would counter with...."Well I think...."
His young mind.....maybe 18 at the time....was like a toddler who first learns to walk. He's got to go everywhere and investigate everything.....and he has the energy to do it. Now this is wonderful in a toddler and it's also wonderful in a young adult but you have to keep the toddler away from the fireplace and you also have to warn that young adult mind about low hanging branches as they run through the woods after that fleeting muse of a great intellect.
The long and short of it is that you are still young. We....those much older than you....want you to grow to the fullest of your intellectual capabilities. The general problem at your age is that you have limited experience in life. You have got to build up a foundation of solid logic, reasoning and common sense. This takes time. It doesn't mean that you do not fully exercise your mind in the analytical areas of life.....politics for instance....it means that you seek more to learn than to teach.....for now.
Your education has been severely limited in this Progressive age. The foundation that you have would be shaky at best. There is too much information available today to have been able to sort it out as it came along. In short, your situation is tougher than mine was. You must put a governor of sorts on your conclusions.....not on your questions....nor on your hypotheses.....but on your conclusions. You can still state you opinions strongly....but there must be a humble spirit along with them....just in case you are wrong.....which more often than not....you will be.
When you get to be about 40 years old....Lord willing....you will look back and wince at some of your hastily made conclusions. When you get to be about 50 you'll do so again for the previous 10 years.....only hopefully they will be fewer. And when you get to be about 60.....you'll wish that you knew at 20 what you have since learned. That's the way it goes. It's God's design.....and like any design of His...honoring the Lord's Day for instance.....if you go astray from it you will pay a certain price....proportional to the importance of what you went astray on.
So when you find yourself in a conversation with a senior citizen.....I advise you to give him or her the credit that is due him or her. You might even want to seek out some of us.....and first go to your father! God gave him the job of taking care of you! Hey I'm a senior citizen. Isn't it a little self-serving for me to say this. Not at all. I'll probably never meet you! That's part of the beauty of writing posts like this. I can be open....and you can leave any time that you want.
As for that young man that I knew at 18 years old. He's the same today as when he was then.....confused....but still knows it all. I was 32 years old when God crushed my spirit under the weight of acknowledging my own guilt. I was that young man. There is an irony of sorts that I wouldn't recommend....the more of life one might waste......the greater joy and gratitude when one is saved!
I'm reminiscing now.....It was 1972 and I was on a pier on the lower side of the Sydney Opera House....just admiring the architecture of the new structure. Google the image sometime...it's the same today. An Australian man came up to me....maybe 40 years old. He said that he was a Baptist pastor. I was a weightlifter at the time and obviously an American serviceman. He asked a small favor....to come to his church for an hour and teach his youth group the basics of weightlifting.....for they just purchased a weight set. He gave me the opportunity to walk away from my trivialities for only an hour.....to possibly learn something that I did not know.....but there wasn't really anything I did not know! He asked a second time....and a third. I was polite but adamant...I would not leave my world for even an hour. I think about this episode in my life about once a year at least. I Googled Sydney Baptist churches trying to find some old pastor who might resemble him....for I remember his kind face. I would call and apologize....and then tell him how I came to faith in Jesus Christ. I could encourage him in that his efforts were never far from my mind. I was unsuccessful.
You know there's some irony in a post like this....for if you stayed this long.....then maybe you have that humble spirit. If so then you won't take offense.....but neatly place the advice along with the rest from other elderly statesman....I like that phrase....elder statesman....that you have received....to be pondered in the future....in a meditative mood... of which hopefully you have many.
Note: The Scripture verse is Deuteronomy 32:7
OCTOBER 31st
I don't have to look for evidence of this for I know it exists......Vladimir Putin is holding some Soviet-style parade for whatever his purposes are....and yes families come out for the parade as families do....ignorant of Soviet history.....but many others utterly refuse to be a part of it....for they remember the horror and the terror of Communism and the KGB. They refuse to erase the memory of the Gulags. They may even pull out the chest of old family photos to mourn once again what their grandparents and great-grandparents suffered in persecution and famine....or they may even look at what is beginning to happen once again in their beloved country. They may....many of them....open their Bible.....while they are still allowed.
I cannot speak speak for any other Christians on this although I'm sure that I'm not alone but when I see the word Halloween......I think of the evils of this world since Cain killed Abel. Included might be the the great plagues of history and the thousands of wars and terrible birth deformities and diseases of all kinds and mass murder down to the latest murder on one of streets last night. I see the darkness of every false religion that saves no one. I see the world as it is today....and I see myself when I forget to put on the armor of God.
. Lastly I see the form of a man....beaten and spit upon.....carrying a cross....then lying on it as his feet are nailed to it and then his arms extended for the same....his face an unrecognizable pulp of blood and open wounds. I can almost hear the evil squeals of demons around him....and I can almost feel the power of mighty angels above all of this....staring with a firm determination that they will have their day....that this Lamb will be a Lion once again.
So I cannot then be part of this day. To my brothers and sisters who somehow disassociate the reality from the fun.....this is ignorance.....and I choose to fly by that and focus instead on their faith in a risen Savior. There is culpability enough for all of us in what is ahead. And I then focus on another nail that was hammered.....on a church door....at a castle in Germany....500 years ago. Those holy angels that obeyed God.....their day is near.....and there is redemption enough for all of us in what is ahead. Hallelujah....and Maranatha!
I was on a college campus yesterday for a lecture offered to the pubic. I always leave a few of my Special Dog pens around when on a college or university campus. So this post is directed to those few students who may have picked up the pen and then visited this site. My post is very straightforward and to the point. Time is short....time is always short. Consider my advice if you will.....log off if that's your choice.
I ran into a young man of about 30 a little while ago who I first met when he was in his late teens. He's was at the time.....and still is....a very nice and gregarious young man....but he knew it all. I'm talking here mostly about the Christian Faith and religious belief in general. Anything that I might offer him in the way of information he just passed over and would would counter with...."Well I think...."
His young mind.....maybe 18 at the time....was like a toddler who first learns to walk. He's got to go everywhere and investigate everything.....and he has the energy to do it. Now this is wonderful in a toddler and it's also wonderful in a young adult but you have to keep the toddler away from the fireplace and you also have to warn that young adult mind about low hanging branches as they run through the woods after that fleeting muse of a great intellect.
The long and short of it is that you are still young. We....those much older than you....want you to grow to the fullest of your intellectual capabilities. The general problem at your age is that you have limited experience in life. You have got to build up a foundation of solid logic, reasoning and common sense. This takes time. It doesn't mean that you do not fully exercise your mind in the analytical areas of life.....politics for instance....it means that you seek more to learn than to teach.....for now.
Your education has been severely limited in this Progressive age. The foundation that you have would be shaky at best. There is too much information available today to have been able to sort it out as it came along. In short, your situation is tougher than mine was. You must put a governor of sorts on your conclusions.....not on your questions....nor on your hypotheses.....but on your conclusions. You can still state you opinions strongly....but there must be a humble spirit along with them....just in case you are wrong.....which more often than not....you will be.
When you get to be about 40 years old....Lord willing....you will look back and wince at some of your hastily made conclusions. When you get to be about 50 you'll do so again for the previous 10 years.....only hopefully they will be fewer. And when you get to be about 60.....you'll wish that you knew at 20 what you have since learned. That's the way it goes. It's God's design.....and like any design of His...honoring the Lord's Day for instance.....if you go astray from it you will pay a certain price....proportional to the importance of what you went astray on.
So when you find yourself in a conversation with a senior citizen.....I advise you to give him or her the credit that is due him or her. You might even want to seek out some of us.....and first go to your father! God gave him the job of taking care of you! Hey I'm a senior citizen. Isn't it a little self-serving for me to say this. Not at all. I'll probably never meet you! That's part of the beauty of writing posts like this. I can be open....and you can leave any time that you want.
As for that young man that I knew at 18 years old. He's the same today as when he was then.....confused....but still knows it all. I was 32 years old when God crushed my spirit under the weight of acknowledging my own guilt. I was that young man. There is an irony of sorts that I wouldn't recommend....the more of life one might waste......the greater joy and gratitude when one is saved!
I'm reminiscing now.....It was 1972 and I was on a pier on the lower side of the Sydney Opera House....just admiring the architecture of the new structure. Google the image sometime...it's the same today. An Australian man came up to me....maybe 40 years old. He said that he was a Baptist pastor. I was a weightlifter at the time and obviously an American serviceman. He asked a small favor....to come to his church for an hour and teach his youth group the basics of weightlifting.....for they just purchased a weight set. He gave me the opportunity to walk away from my trivialities for only an hour.....to possibly learn something that I did not know.....but there wasn't really anything I did not know! He asked a second time....and a third. I was polite but adamant...I would not leave my world for even an hour. I think about this episode in my life about once a year at least. I Googled Sydney Baptist churches trying to find some old pastor who might resemble him....for I remember his kind face. I would call and apologize....and then tell him how I came to faith in Jesus Christ. I could encourage him in that his efforts were never far from my mind. I was unsuccessful.
You know there's some irony in a post like this....for if you stayed this long.....then maybe you have that humble spirit. If so then you won't take offense.....but neatly place the advice along with the rest from other elderly statesman....I like that phrase....elder statesman....that you have received....to be pondered in the future....in a meditative mood... of which hopefully you have many.
Note: The Scripture verse is Deuteronomy 32:7
OCTOBER 31st
I don't have to look for evidence of this for I know it exists......Vladimir Putin is holding some Soviet-style parade for whatever his purposes are....and yes families come out for the parade as families do....ignorant of Soviet history.....but many others utterly refuse to be a part of it....for they remember the horror and the terror of Communism and the KGB. They refuse to erase the memory of the Gulags. They may even pull out the chest of old family photos to mourn once again what their grandparents and great-grandparents suffered in persecution and famine....or they may even look at what is beginning to happen once again in their beloved country. They may....many of them....open their Bible.....while they are still allowed.
I cannot speak speak for any other Christians on this although I'm sure that I'm not alone but when I see the word Halloween......I think of the evils of this world since Cain killed Abel. Included might be the the great plagues of history and the thousands of wars and terrible birth deformities and diseases of all kinds and mass murder down to the latest murder on one of streets last night. I see the darkness of every false religion that saves no one. I see the world as it is today....and I see myself when I forget to put on the armor of God.
. Lastly I see the form of a man....beaten and spit upon.....carrying a cross....then lying on it as his feet are nailed to it and then his arms extended for the same....his face an unrecognizable pulp of blood and open wounds. I can almost hear the evil squeals of demons around him....and I can almost feel the power of mighty angels above all of this....staring with a firm determination that they will have their day....that this Lamb will be a Lion once again.
So I cannot then be part of this day. To my brothers and sisters who somehow disassociate the reality from the fun.....this is ignorance.....and I choose to fly by that and focus instead on their faith in a risen Savior. There is culpability enough for all of us in what is ahead. And I then focus on another nail that was hammered.....on a church door....at a castle in Germany....500 years ago. Those holy angels that obeyed God.....their day is near.....and there is redemption enough for all of us in what is ahead. Hallelujah....and Maranatha!
