I smile, when I shouldn't smile. I smile at the futility of mans devices; at his confidence in the midst of pending disaster. How arrogant. How foolish man is. How foolish our leaders!
He creates his own problems, which only multiply and then tries to solve these problems which only cause more problems ... and man thinks he's so smart.
As far as technology goes, man comes up with a pretty good grade, A+, but when it comes to living in peace with himself he always comes up with a flat painful failure!
It seems all the physiologists, psychiatrists, philosophers and social workers in our world can't put "humpty-dumpty together again" but still they try.
Humpty-Dumpty has been broken a long time!
The forever failure of trying to legislate morality and mass behavior, especially when there is no consensus on what morality is, afflicts us all. Our legal box of liberty gets smaller and smaller. Our freedoms restricted!
Indeed man gravitates toward doing what's right in his own eyes not necessarily what's right in societies eyes. Laws work pretty well when there's a cop around. We can arrest the law breaker, and simply shuttle the problem away into a postponement camp. Man's solution? More cops. Bigger cops. Better guns. More lawyers. More judges and courts. longer fences. More and larger camps.
Laws made to control man's behavior have never been a solution to the behavioral change of an individual; only a temporary fear of punishment, or death. The key word here is solution. Admittedly there is no man made law that goes to the solution of changing the core of an individuals behavior; it's the heart of man that's the true prompter of his behavior. Common sense says this. God says this. History says this!
It's true that education, example and culture may affect man's behavior but truer still these influences will never change his heart. God calls man's heart evil, and evil it is.
God has the only solution to evil; it's available; it's free.
But man, being man, will continue to willfully and arrogantly bypass God in his "search" for another solution to his dilemma: controlling the effects of man's dark side ... the evil side of mankind.
Got any solutions?
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
WAR? WHAT WAR?
"Onward Christians soldiers" is a hymn we used to sing in the old days. We don't sing it much anymore. It's no longer popular and it never was politically correct. Not the best subject either; war was never popular in Christian circles. The hymn uses too many controversial words, words like ... Soldier? Christian? Onward? War? Battle? Enemy? The hymn implies we're in a war with an enemy. The old hymn also implies the wrong direction; forward. Today we're into "Retreats" more than victories ... and the way I see it, there can be no victory with out a struggle. Forward into battle? No wonder the hymn isn't sung much anymore. Better by far to ignore the enemy than confront him ... right?
By the way, we're having another "retreat" ... next weekend.
By the way, we're having another "retreat" ... next weekend.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
TEACHERS WHO MOLEST AND RAPE THEIR STUDENTS
For years liberal and progressive teachers have infiltrated our schools; colleges and universities becoming full of tenured liabilities. I've always thought that a teacher was hired to teach her subject not her bias. A true teacher is there to motivate students to learn, and in that environment, educate her students not indoctrinate them. A teacher indoctrinating students with her particular political philosophies, life philosophies or even religious convictions is simply wrong. Let all hired public school teachers keep to their given subject and teach it well. The true teacher's goal should be motivating and teaching ... not tenure.
Remember teachers, you have the bully platform! You influence the lives of your students; every teacher should carry this responsibility honestly and responsibly.
Exploiting the minds of young idealistic students and molesting their minds in the name of education should be high crime. No true teacher with integrity would do such a thing!
In high school, years ago, I had an old tenured teacher who would take our class period each day to preach his communistic philosophy. He would spin his lessons in History class with communistic thought. He was just one of many diseased teachers in the California School system. A teacher who should have been fired, but this was California and progressive California likes teachers like that.
I don't have children; if I did I would home teach or move out of California.
Years ago San Francisco was just a progressive city in California; it has now become California! When will it become our nation?
Parents, and the church have the right and responsibility of teaching and influencing their children in the area of morals, ethics, and character, and integrity along with religious and political views.
There should be some outrage! Don't molest my children; physically or intellectually! Indoctrination has no part in our public schools.
We need more intelligent kids and less confused ones!
For years liberal and progressive teachers have infiltrated our schools; colleges and universities becoming full of tenured liabilities. I've always thought that a teacher was hired to teach her subject not her bias. A true teacher is there to motivate students to learn, and in that environment, educate her students not indoctrinate them. A teacher indoctrinating students with her particular political philosophies, life philosophies or even religious convictions is simply wrong. Let all hired public school teachers keep to their given subject and teach it well. The true teacher's goal should be motivating and teaching ... not tenure.
Remember teachers, you have the bully platform! You influence the lives of your students; every teacher should carry this responsibility honestly and responsibly.
Exploiting the minds of young idealistic students and molesting their minds in the name of education should be high crime. No true teacher with integrity would do such a thing!
Publish Post
In high school, years ago, I had an old tenured teacher who would take our class period each day to preach his communistic philosophy. He would spin his lessons in History class with communistic thought. He was just one of many diseased teachers in the California School system. A teacher who should have been fired, but this was California and progressive California likes teachers like that.
I don't have children; if I did I would home teach or move out of California.
Years ago San Francisco was just a progressive city in California; it has now become California! When will it become our nation?
Parents, and the church have the right and responsibility of teaching and influencing their children in the area of morals, ethics, and character, and integrity along with religious and political views.
There should be some outrage! Don't molest my children; physically or intellectually! Indoctrination has no part in our public schools.
We need more intelligent kids and less confused ones!
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
SOME CHRISTIANS ARE FOOLS
Years ago I was visiting a Wycliffe tribal missionary in the jungles of Bolivia working with his tribe. This handful of Indians were the remnant of large tribe; a man several wives and his large family were all that were left. This missionary was willing to invest five to ten years living in the jungle with his family to bring the Gospel to these few people.
The nationals saw them as a group of dirty thieves.
In speaking one day here in the U.S, I brought this example up as an illustration of dedication and commitment. Later a friend of mine pulled me aside to give me his take on this missionary. My friend was a "mature" Christian, intelligent, wealthy ... and an engineer. He was logical and pragmatic in his perspective ... so his response was as follows
"Von, why does this missionary invest his time and our money on so few people? It would make more sense to become a pastor of a church here, that way he could work with a hundred, two hundred or three hundred people. His so called investment just doesn't make sense."
Most of us Christians claim that even if we were the only sinner on earth, Christ would have willingly sacrificed His life for us. We're satisfied with that pious answer. Yet this missionary willing to invest his life in this handful of primitive people to give them the Gospel, an education, medical help ... well, it doesn't make sense.
Or does it?
Our missionary brother was called to do God's will and that's what he was doing in the middle of the hot humid jungle.
Indeed God's ways are not our ways. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. Isaiah writes it this way. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah. 55:9)
... and God is not willing that any should perish! (II Peter 3:9)
Ahh secular Christians, making their hasty judgments based on bang for the buck!
The nationals saw them as a group of dirty thieves.
In speaking one day here in the U.S, I brought this example up as an illustration of dedication and commitment. Later a friend of mine pulled me aside to give me his take on this missionary. My friend was a "mature" Christian, intelligent, wealthy ... and an engineer. He was logical and pragmatic in his perspective ... so his response was as follows
"Von, why does this missionary invest his time and our money on so few people? It would make more sense to become a pastor of a church here, that way he could work with a hundred, two hundred or three hundred people. His so called investment just doesn't make sense."
Most of us Christians claim that even if we were the only sinner on earth, Christ would have willingly sacrificed His life for us. We're satisfied with that pious answer. Yet this missionary willing to invest his life in this handful of primitive people to give them the Gospel, an education, medical help ... well, it doesn't make sense.
Or does it?
Our missionary brother was called to do God's will and that's what he was doing in the middle of the hot humid jungle.
Indeed God's ways are not our ways. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. Isaiah writes it this way. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah. 55:9)
... and God is not willing that any should perish! (II Peter 3:9)
Ahh secular Christians, making their hasty judgments based on bang for the buck!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
OUR HUNGER FOR HIGH!
We're a nation of rich pampered and unhappy people. Oh, we have our poor, that's true, but our "poor" is not the "poor" we find in Haiti, India or Africa. That poor is real poor.
We rich North Americans have become not only unhappy but unhealthy too.
Unhealthy? I'm not talking food or height to weight ratio here but a more accurate yet invisible standard; I'm talking pharmacy here. I'm talking pills, capsules, sprays, ointments, vitamins. There's over the counter medicine for the "do it yourself" crew and behind the counter medicine for the doctor's more "impatient patients". Pharmaceuticals; literally a ton of variety packed on a growing variety of shelving. Each little bottle jar or box offering no solution, simply a promise of symptomatic relief for pain or discomfort. Relief in a matter of minutes! Ahh ...
In my day the little old drug stores of the past were more limited. There weren't many of them in the town or city. Over the counter medicines offered little more than a bottle of aspirin and behind the counter and the man in white, were the syringes and pills. We simply took pain and discomfort as a part of life. Sounds strange doesn't it?
We got hooked on Coke ... Coca-Cola early. Our nations first true addiction.
Today we want to feel good. Our healthy and natural endorphins are no longer enough, we want to push it! This attitude makes a candidate ... for addiction.
We want a legitimate high. We expect it ... it's our right as Americans to be "happy and high". In fact what makes the whole thing so dangerous is that we, as a people, have addicted ourselves to "high and happy". We are searching for a "high and happy" that is as elusive as the treasure at the end of a beautiful rainbow.
Still, we search the shelves ... looking for high!
We have let ourselves and our children become candidates for a "high" and "happy" lifestyle that doesn't exist.
We rich North Americans have become not only unhappy but unhealthy too.
Unhealthy? I'm not talking food or height to weight ratio here but a more accurate yet invisible standard; I'm talking pharmacy here. I'm talking pills, capsules, sprays, ointments, vitamins. There's over the counter medicine for the "do it yourself" crew and behind the counter medicine for the doctor's more "impatient patients". Pharmaceuticals; literally a ton of variety packed on a growing variety of shelving. Each little bottle jar or box offering no solution, simply a promise of symptomatic relief for pain or discomfort. Relief in a matter of minutes! Ahh ...
In my day the little old drug stores of the past were more limited. There weren't many of them in the town or city. Over the counter medicines offered little more than a bottle of aspirin and behind the counter and the man in white, were the syringes and pills. We simply took pain and discomfort as a part of life. Sounds strange doesn't it?
We got hooked on Coke ... Coca-Cola early. Our nations first true addiction.
Today we want to feel good. Our healthy and natural endorphins are no longer enough, we want to push it! This attitude makes a candidate ... for addiction.
We want a legitimate high. We expect it ... it's our right as Americans to be "happy and high". In fact what makes the whole thing so dangerous is that we, as a people, have addicted ourselves to "high and happy". We are searching for a "high and happy" that is as elusive as the treasure at the end of a beautiful rainbow.
Still, we search the shelves ... looking for high!
We have let ourselves and our children become candidates for a "high" and "happy" lifestyle that doesn't exist.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
WHEN DOES PROTECTION BECOME DANGEROUS?
We are living in a society obsessed with protection. It seems quite apparent. Safety is the big thing from schools to industry, we hear the word constantly. Safety hats, safety shoes, safety glasses to kids having to wear safety helmets, knee-pads safety belts on and on it goes penetrating every aspect of our society ... but can "protection" become dangerous? When does protection actually weaken the individual? When does well meaning, even necessary protection make us vulnerable to the realities of life? Living carefree in a beautiful protective bubble shields us from a real and dangerous world, a world of billions of tough, strong and alert people.
A thought along that line.
As a young girl my mother lived on a farm. She had opportunities to watch little chicks hatch. Oh how the chicks struggled as they slowly worked their way out of their eggshell. Her heart went out to these little struggling chicks, so small and helpless. In time emotion got the best of her. Why couldn't she help the chicks? She was strong able and willing ... so she started helping the chicks, eliminating their struggle, only to find that what she really did was to cripple many of the chicks, in fact a few died.
At her young age my kind hearted mother didn't understand what she was doing; instead of helping she actually was crippling and killing those she loved. She didn't understand that the tough eggshell and process of struggling was all part of a well laid out divine plan to strengthen the new chick and prepare him for life. The struggle was necessary. The struggle was essential ... but the struggle was hard to watch.
Like my mother, our well meaning leaders have become obsessed with eliminating the struggle in life, thus weakening and dumbing down the very individuals they are leading. No more thorns, spikes, sharp-edges. No more bare feet or painful falls: a smoothing of the path into fantasy land ... the great American bubble.
I see this thing played out with so many loving mothers and their children. Mothers innocently crippling the very kids they love simply because they aren't really thinking this thing out. Over protection of a child can only produce a weak man or woman ... and weak men and women produce a weak America.
Unfortunately, too often emotion trumps common sense to the hurt of us all. Don't over protect!
A thought along that line.
As a young girl my mother lived on a farm. She had opportunities to watch little chicks hatch. Oh how the chicks struggled as they slowly worked their way out of their eggshell. Her heart went out to these little struggling chicks, so small and helpless. In time emotion got the best of her. Why couldn't she help the chicks? She was strong able and willing ... so she started helping the chicks, eliminating their struggle, only to find that what she really did was to cripple many of the chicks, in fact a few died.
At her young age my kind hearted mother didn't understand what she was doing; instead of helping she actually was crippling and killing those she loved. She didn't understand that the tough eggshell and process of struggling was all part of a well laid out divine plan to strengthen the new chick and prepare him for life. The struggle was necessary. The struggle was essential ... but the struggle was hard to watch.
Like my mother, our well meaning leaders have become obsessed with eliminating the struggle in life, thus weakening and dumbing down the very individuals they are leading. No more thorns, spikes, sharp-edges. No more bare feet or painful falls: a smoothing of the path into fantasy land ... the great American bubble.
I see this thing played out with so many loving mothers and their children. Mothers innocently crippling the very kids they love simply because they aren't really thinking this thing out. Over protection of a child can only produce a weak man or woman ... and weak men and women produce a weak America.
Unfortunately, too often emotion trumps common sense to the hurt of us all. Don't over protect!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
THE ANATOMY OF A LEECH
Last week I bought a small can of spray paint. $4.99 the label said. I took the can to the counter and paid for it. I didn't think much about it until I looked at the receipt. The price of the paint was indeed $4.99 but I paid $5.39. Well 39c won't kill me but ...
I started thinking about little taxes. Today taxes are like a spreading virus, they're everywhere. City taxes, State taxes, Federal taxes not just big taxes like property tax and the April 15th variety but the ever increasing small taxes and the micro-taxes that are built into every part of every little thing we buy. These little taxes are relatively painless until we think about them. Man, these slimy politicians even tax death!
How many ways can our government suck blood out of us? Taxes are a lot like small leeches, thousands of them, and leeches go for the blood!
Just a little more revenue ... The leech's mantra is MORE!
I remember a hot humid night in Assam India. We were on a hunt quietly winding through the bush; our guides were barefoot, wearing shorts and tee shirts. I was wearing tennis, tee shirt and long pants. In an hour or so we paused and I noted our guides scraping their legs with small sticks. They were scraping off the ugly leeches they had collected on our hike. I was fascinated, I had never seen leeches, I'm a California boy. These leeches, large and small were ugly, like varicose veins out of control. The guides were scraping them off leaving their lower legs bloody and bleeding.
As I watched, suddenly the thought came to me ... what about my legs? I pulled my pants up and sure enough my legs were loaded with large and small leeches. Leeches I never knew I had, rather painless until ... the flashlight revealed it all. Those slimy leeches were after my blood.
An analogy came to mind.
Little taxes, like leeches, come on so gradually and even painlessly we aren't aware that they're sucking our life blood. The leech starts small, it quietly and persistently starts sucking and then begins growing larger and larger! Yes! Ever larger! (Sound familiar?)
This analogy, as in all analogies, breaks down.
The leech, unlike the government will stop growing and when it's full will drop off. The government leech, well, it will continue growing and develop a life of it's own. And true enough the government does something for all it's blood sucking, however the more it grows the more corrupt, incompetent and cumbersome it gets, that's the very nature of the government leech. There's just something about parasites I don't like.
Could it be that the ultimate end of a parasite is to cripple and destroy it's host?
I started thinking about little taxes. Today taxes are like a spreading virus, they're everywhere. City taxes, State taxes, Federal taxes not just big taxes like property tax and the April 15th variety but the ever increasing small taxes and the micro-taxes that are built into every part of every little thing we buy. These little taxes are relatively painless until we think about them. Man, these slimy politicians even tax death!
How many ways can our government suck blood out of us? Taxes are a lot like small leeches, thousands of them, and leeches go for the blood!
Just a little more revenue ... The leech's mantra is MORE!
I remember a hot humid night in Assam India. We were on a hunt quietly winding through the bush; our guides were barefoot, wearing shorts and tee shirts. I was wearing tennis, tee shirt and long pants. In an hour or so we paused and I noted our guides scraping their legs with small sticks. They were scraping off the ugly leeches they had collected on our hike. I was fascinated, I had never seen leeches, I'm a California boy. These leeches, large and small were ugly, like varicose veins out of control. The guides were scraping them off leaving their lower legs bloody and bleeding.
As I watched, suddenly the thought came to me ... what about my legs? I pulled my pants up and sure enough my legs were loaded with large and small leeches. Leeches I never knew I had, rather painless until ... the flashlight revealed it all. Those slimy leeches were after my blood.
An analogy came to mind.
Little taxes, like leeches, come on so gradually and even painlessly we aren't aware that they're sucking our life blood. The leech starts small, it quietly and persistently starts sucking and then begins growing larger and larger! Yes! Ever larger! (Sound familiar?)
This analogy, as in all analogies, breaks down.
The leech, unlike the government will stop growing and when it's full will drop off. The government leech, well, it will continue growing and develop a life of it's own. And true enough the government does something for all it's blood sucking, however the more it grows the more corrupt, incompetent and cumbersome it gets, that's the very nature of the government leech. There's just something about parasites I don't like.
Could it be that the ultimate end of a parasite is to cripple and destroy it's host?
Monday, March 09, 2009
"VON, DON'T TAKE LIFE SO SERIOUSLY"
People have often give me advice. "Von, you need to be thinking about your future." "What you need is a hobby; you need a day off, take a vacation." "Von, don't take life so seriously, after all" ... etc., etc. These friends are well-meaning. Their advice is sincere and I understand where they are coming from ... however, I doubt whether they understand where I'm coming from. I wish they did.
May I be honest? I find it hard to buy into advice like that no matter how logical and well-meaning it might be. Why? I guess I have seen too much of the world ... the real world. The plight of the poor. The vivid pictures I've seen of an unfair world have colored my philosophy. What I have seen has truly affected my life. Both my philosophy and my perspective are not "normal." How can I not take life seriously? Life on earth is limited. I'm here to do what I can't do in heaven. Do I indeed have the time and money to pursue an amusing hobby when so much needs to be done by so few? Retirement? I don't think so. It's true, with what I've seen and experienced, I have a hard time defining "balance."
In Mexico they have a saying, "What I don't see doesn't exist". Which is to say, "If I see it I am somehow responsible for what I see, so I simply look the other way and I'm off the hook." What a comforting perspective. I only have to keep my eyes focused on the beautiful blue horizon above the ugliness of reality and maintain a positive attitude. True, life is indeed great ... if you don't look down! The mindset of "What I don't see doesn't exist" is as deceptive as it is popular. The flip side of this perspective is actually more truthful, " What I do see does exist!"
The images that haunt me weren't gotten from the television or the pages of a book nor did they come from secondhand illustrations. They were created in three-dimension from the permanent and smelly stuff of reality ...right before my eyes!
Every week more uninvited images come my way. Frustrating and unfair, they're images that rip out the very concept of our American "balanced life".
The little mother standing before me asks for money to buy milk for her children. Her husband has been in the U.S for over two years now. She's received no word from him. She is holding her infant in one arm and her one year old boy in another. (She has another man "paying the rent") Her thin, barefoot six year old boy stands next to his little sister holding her hand. All of them are looking at me. They are hungry. They are waiting for my answer.
If you look closely you can see that Emilia had once been an attractive lady. Now she's older and is no longer as attractive. A barrio prostitute, and at her age she makes very little money. Emilia has no husband. Her thin, bastard son who's dirty and unkempt is sitting in the corner against an equally dirty fence. He is more of a vegetable than a young man. He and his mother live together in a small shack. Inhaling paint thinner has produced his vacant stare. She stands, avoiding my eyes as she asks for some money for groceries.
Enrique is always there. He is big. He is quiet. His thinking and speech are slow. He just stands there on his two swollen legs that are always infected. They drain into his dirty socks. Enrique has walked over a mile on those painful legs for some free produce. He is upset because his teenage son and his wife are sleeping together. He's asking for some money also.
Young teenage Carlos in tears confides to me that their living is hard. They haven't much money anymore. "My mom is old and the men don't want her anymore." (Referring to his prostitute mother, whom he loves.)
Maria presents me with her two year old son Felipe. "What am I to do?", she asks. "Will you help me?" Her sons eyes are not focused. She tells me how the doctors had operated on him. "Look", she says as she brushes his hair back to reveal the many scars. I'm looking at a warm, human vegetable. Maria wants some hope, some help and some money to buy his milk. You see, that's all she can feed him. She squirts the milk into his umbilici with a syringe several times each day. I look at her as she walks away with Felipe in her arms ... I could only buy her milk; I could do no more.
I would like to look the other way, but somehow, I can't.
May I be honest? I find it hard to buy into advice like that no matter how logical and well-meaning it might be. Why? I guess I have seen too much of the world ... the real world. The plight of the poor. The vivid pictures I've seen of an unfair world have colored my philosophy. What I have seen has truly affected my life. Both my philosophy and my perspective are not "normal." How can I not take life seriously? Life on earth is limited. I'm here to do what I can't do in heaven. Do I indeed have the time and money to pursue an amusing hobby when so much needs to be done by so few? Retirement? I don't think so. It's true, with what I've seen and experienced, I have a hard time defining "balance."
In Mexico they have a saying, "What I don't see doesn't exist". Which is to say, "If I see it I am somehow responsible for what I see, so I simply look the other way and I'm off the hook." What a comforting perspective. I only have to keep my eyes focused on the beautiful blue horizon above the ugliness of reality and maintain a positive attitude. True, life is indeed great ... if you don't look down! The mindset of "What I don't see doesn't exist" is as deceptive as it is popular. The flip side of this perspective is actually more truthful, " What I do see does exist!"
The images that haunt me weren't gotten from the television or the pages of a book nor did they come from secondhand illustrations. They were created in three-dimension from the permanent and smelly stuff of reality ...right before my eyes!
Every week more uninvited images come my way. Frustrating and unfair, they're images that rip out the very concept of our American "balanced life".
The little mother standing before me asks for money to buy milk for her children. Her husband has been in the U.S for over two years now. She's received no word from him. She is holding her infant in one arm and her one year old boy in another. (She has another man "paying the rent") Her thin, barefoot six year old boy stands next to his little sister holding her hand. All of them are looking at me. They are hungry. They are waiting for my answer.
If you look closely you can see that Emilia had once been an attractive lady. Now she's older and is no longer as attractive. A barrio prostitute, and at her age she makes very little money. Emilia has no husband. Her thin, bastard son who's dirty and unkempt is sitting in the corner against an equally dirty fence. He is more of a vegetable than a young man. He and his mother live together in a small shack. Inhaling paint thinner has produced his vacant stare. She stands, avoiding my eyes as she asks for some money for groceries.
Enrique is always there. He is big. He is quiet. His thinking and speech are slow. He just stands there on his two swollen legs that are always infected. They drain into his dirty socks. Enrique has walked over a mile on those painful legs for some free produce. He is upset because his teenage son and his wife are sleeping together. He's asking for some money also.
Young teenage Carlos in tears confides to me that their living is hard. They haven't much money anymore. "My mom is old and the men don't want her anymore." (Referring to his prostitute mother, whom he loves.)
Maria presents me with her two year old son Felipe. "What am I to do?", she asks. "Will you help me?" Her sons eyes are not focused. She tells me how the doctors had operated on him. "Look", she says as she brushes his hair back to reveal the many scars. I'm looking at a warm, human vegetable. Maria wants some hope, some help and some money to buy his milk. You see, that's all she can feed him. She squirts the milk into his umbilici with a syringe several times each day. I look at her as she walks away with Felipe in her arms ... I could only buy her milk; I could do no more.
I would like to look the other way, but somehow, I can't.
Friday, February 20, 2009
THE DUMB ONES END IN THE FRYING PAN!
I'm not the greatest fisherman, by that I mean I spend way more time fishing than catching. Years ago I was fishing a nice river up in northern California. I caught a few small pan sized trout placed them on a string and headed to the nearby town. Walking over a bridge toward the town I happened to look down into the clear water below and what should I see but four big, I mean "big" trout. They were facing upstream and slowly moving their tails ... and best of all they weren't moving. I ran back to my car and quickly got my fishing gear together and returned to the bridge full of high hopes. Boy, I wanted to get these babies. I carefully let down my baited hook right between them. They didn't seem interested, I changed bait but to no avail. I even placed my baited hook right in front of their mouths, and they still wouldn't bite.
I leaned over the rail and studied those big trout I wanted so badly. I didn't get a fish that afternoon but I did come away with a lesson I haven't forgotten.
What was the difference between the small fish I caught in the river and these big old trout under the bridge? These big old fish were big because they were old and they were old because they didn't take bait, or just maybe they spotted the hook or the thin blue line. One thing for sure, they didn't play the hook and line game. In a piscatorial sense, these guys were old because they were smart! The line of fish in my car would never get old because they were a few of many "hungry teens" ready to bite on anything.
Three cheers for experience!
Caution! Watch closely before you chase that dainty little morsel, there may be a hook and line attached o someone who wants you for all the wrong reasons!
I leaned over the rail and studied those big trout I wanted so badly. I didn't get a fish that afternoon but I did come away with a lesson I haven't forgotten.
What was the difference between the small fish I caught in the river and these big old trout under the bridge? These big old fish were big because they were old and they were old because they didn't take bait, or just maybe they spotted the hook or the thin blue line. One thing for sure, they didn't play the hook and line game. In a piscatorial sense, these guys were old because they were smart! The line of fish in my car would never get old because they were a few of many "hungry teens" ready to bite on anything.
Three cheers for experience!
Caution! Watch closely before you chase that dainty little morsel, there may be a hook and line attached o someone who wants you for all the wrong reasons!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
BLIND TO DANGER:
Last night I was speaking to a group of about twenty teens in the rough "Red Light" district of Tijuana. Zona Norte is known to be a dangerous area of the city near the border fence. Even while I'm speaking, there are emergency vehicles streaming back and forth with sirens blasting. Drunks, drug addicts, prostitution, you name it and it's part of the Zone. Colorful, exciting and for some, deadly!
I was telling the boys some adventure stories about the Amazon jungle, and mentioned dangers like tigers, piranha fish, anaconda snakes even insects. They listened intently.
After I had talked a little about my world in the jungle, I asked them what dangers they faced in their world of Zona Norte. I wondered what kind of response I would get.
There was a long silence as the boys sat and thought about the dangers they faced in their world ... no one could come up with a danger.
It seems that the exotic carries quite an impact. The exotic and unknown come wrapped in a package of fear.
The dangers these boys face every day are so common to them that they don't count them as dangers.
Not that unusual is it?
I was telling the boys some adventure stories about the Amazon jungle, and mentioned dangers like tigers, piranha fish, anaconda snakes even insects. They listened intently.
After I had talked a little about my world in the jungle, I asked them what dangers they faced in their world of Zona Norte. I wondered what kind of response I would get.
There was a long silence as the boys sat and thought about the dangers they faced in their world ... no one could come up with a danger.
It seems that the exotic carries quite an impact. The exotic and unknown come wrapped in a package of fear.
The dangers these boys face every day are so common to them that they don't count them as dangers.
Not that unusual is it?
Saturday, February 14, 2009
RESPONSIBLE VS IRRESPONSIBLE!
I'll admit there's a danger in taking kids across the border into Mexico. Is our ministry irresponsible in taking work groups into Mexico to work with the poor? Many have questioned our wisdom in doing this. Some have called us irresponsible.
As I lifted Maria, a dying woman, and placed her in the back of my Volkswagen van, I might have been called irresponsible because she was dying of AIDS and her clothing was very wet with sweat. My bare arms were wet too. Are there times where being responsible in doing good is seen by others as being irresponsible?
Several years ago Efren pulled an unconscious man from a burning car and saved his life. The drivers door was jammed and the flames were hot and the gas tank was soon to explode. Efren thought this to be a responsible act. Others in the crowd I'm sure thought him to be unwise and irresponsible.
Is it irresponsible for a man to take his family and move from affluent and "safe" America to a foreign country full of very real dangers, simply to share the Gospel with a people enslaved by darkness. Responsible or irresponsible?
Is it responsible to trust God and His Word and act in faith?
Is it responsible to trust God and do His will wherever He sends you?
Can God protect His own? Does He?
These are hard and painful questions for the many weak and immature Christians here in comfortable America. Those Christians professing a faith they don't practice seem quick to judge those few who are out practicing their faith.
When it comes to preaching "trust God," the Evangelical Church in America does well, but when it comes to practicing that "trust," well, lets be honest; that's another thing ... the few Believers who practices that trust are often seen as being irresponsible.
As a Believer I'm asked by God to be responsible in doing His will even if my brethren see my actions as irresponsible.
So we'll continue to enter Tijuana, dodge the bullets and keep on ministering.
As I lifted Maria, a dying woman, and placed her in the back of my Volkswagen van, I might have been called irresponsible because she was dying of AIDS and her clothing was very wet with sweat. My bare arms were wet too. Are there times where being responsible in doing good is seen by others as being irresponsible?
Several years ago Efren pulled an unconscious man from a burning car and saved his life. The drivers door was jammed and the flames were hot and the gas tank was soon to explode. Efren thought this to be a responsible act. Others in the crowd I'm sure thought him to be unwise and irresponsible.
Is it irresponsible for a man to take his family and move from affluent and "safe" America to a foreign country full of very real dangers, simply to share the Gospel with a people enslaved by darkness. Responsible or irresponsible?
Is it responsible to trust God and His Word and act in faith?
Is it responsible to trust God and do His will wherever He sends you?
Can God protect His own? Does He?
These are hard and painful questions for the many weak and immature Christians here in comfortable America. Those Christians professing a faith they don't practice seem quick to judge those few who are out practicing their faith.
When it comes to preaching "trust God," the Evangelical Church in America does well, but when it comes to practicing that "trust," well, lets be honest; that's another thing ... the few Believers who practices that trust are often seen as being irresponsible.
As a Believer I'm asked by God to be responsible in doing His will even if my brethren see my actions as irresponsible.
So we'll continue to enter Tijuana, dodge the bullets and keep on ministering.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
GOOD-BYE GOD, WE DON'T NEED YOU ANY MORE
How do you invite God to leave? We have an example In the book of Matthew. The story begins in the 8th. chapter and 28th verse. The people of the Gadarenes asked our Lord to leave their city. It was clear that they preferred the pigs! Pigs trumped liberating a slave from demonic control and changing future lives.
Our Lord was asked by the majority of the city to leave. When God is sent packing what or who replaces the vacuum? Any answer is a dangerous one. In the case of the Gadarenes, the pigs, their swill and filth returned. The demons remained to enslave the people. Once more the Gadarenes had their God-less status quo.
Will America take a lesson from the Gadarenes? Do we really want God out of America?
Will God bless America in absentia? I think not!
On one hand over eighty percent of Americans say they believe in God, on the other hand we and "God's" church stand silent while a determined minority of atheists slowly and successfully push God and His Christians out of the very America they created.
Starting with children in school, continuing on through the media and higher education, the atheist's Godless agenda gains credibility and momentum ... while we quietly watch.
While It's a puzzle now, it will be a disaster later.
Some of us feel a deep sorrow.
I fear for the future and I'm not alone. I long for the America that once was, and the God that made it great.
Our Lord was asked by the majority of the city to leave. When God is sent packing what or who replaces the vacuum? Any answer is a dangerous one. In the case of the Gadarenes, the pigs, their swill and filth returned. The demons remained to enslave the people. Once more the Gadarenes had their God-less status quo.
Will America take a lesson from the Gadarenes? Do we really want God out of America?
Will God bless America in absentia? I think not!
On one hand over eighty percent of Americans say they believe in God, on the other hand we and "God's" church stand silent while a determined minority of atheists slowly and successfully push God and His Christians out of the very America they created.
Starting with children in school, continuing on through the media and higher education, the atheist's Godless agenda gains credibility and momentum ... while we quietly watch.
While It's a puzzle now, it will be a disaster later.
Some of us feel a deep sorrow.
I fear for the future and I'm not alone. I long for the America that once was, and the God that made it great.
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