From July 24, 2017
How many times have we encountered this? “My grandson that I really, really love was so unhappy because he couldn’t marry his boyfriend; but now he can, and he’s just so happy! And I’m happy that he’s happy, so I’m all in favor of gay marriage and that’s why I have the Rainbow Flag on my lawn…”?
Moral standards that are handed down by God, and have stood unchanged for thousands of years, must quickly give way–because someone is “unhappy” with them. Naturally, we want our loved ones to be “happy.”
Even if we don’t quite know what the word means, anymore.
The Bible believes in happiness. “Happy is that people, that is in such a case; yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 144:15). “[H]e that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he” (Proverbs 14:21). But the word is never used to describe sexual anarchy.
Still, for the sake of whatever “happiness” is, people with blinding speed discard the moral code in which they were raised. There was once a baby shower here, in front of this apartment building, complete with DJ and free beer, to celebrate an impending out-of-wedlock birth. The mother-to-be, who had not yet divorced her husband, was having the baby by her shiftless, no-good boyfriend. And the yard was full of “happy” people “celebrating” the event which, at one time in their lives, they would have viewed as a moral calamity. Mr. Boyfriend, by the way, stuck around long enough to beget another child by this woman, then fled the scene. Leaving the baby strapped into a car seat, Mommy worked full-time while Mr. Boyfriend played video games and gambled.
But they were “happy” for a while.
Are God’s laws bad because, if we obey them, they keep us out of messes like this? Or are they just bad because God doesn’t like us to be “happy”?
But, hey, well, if we’re gonna trust other sinners, if we’re gonna trust What’s Happenin’ Now, instead of trusting God… God doesn’t know what’s best for us, but Bill Nye the Science Guy does. Anything to be “happy”–right?
From February 19, 2016
Who spoke the saddest word in all the Bible?
In Acts 26, Paul defends the Christian faith before the Roman governor, Festus, and King Agrippa, son of that Herod who murdered the Apostle James, but a man with a decent reputation in history. Paul has high hopes that Agrippa will listen to him, because he knows the king has been an earnest student of the scriptures.
Paul concludes, “For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely; for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.”
And Agrippa’s answer (verse 28): “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”
Almost!
Almost got eternal life. Almost got forgiveness of my sins. Almost reconciled to God. Almost entered into God’s Kingdom, and into the joy of Our Lord.
Missed it by that much!
At the risk of sounding like a 1950s TV commercial, don’t let this happen to you.
All right, yeah, faith can be difficult. It wouldn’t be faith, if it weren’t. The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)–and King Agrippa didn’t have it.
He almost believed.
That’s sad.
From June 20, 2020
The video might take a minute or 2 to load. PD
I just can’t see how anyone can observe nature and not believe in its Creator.
Behold the ocean sunfish! I was totally intrigued by this creature, when I became old enough to page through books and magazines and at least look at the pictures. It didn’t look at all like any other fish! I mean, come on–it’s like a great big head without a body.
But look at it in its natural habitat. Here it works just fine. Here it moves gracefully.
And then a platoon of little fish come along to clean the parasites off its skin!
“Evolved by blind chance–” Uh-huh. But it’s not chance that’s blind.
From December 5, 2015
Who was the biggest ninny in the Bible?
Was it the Pharaoh who wouldn’t let the people go? Surely Adam and Eve are in the running. But those were major, world-shaping sins whose effects are still being felt today.
No–I’d say, hands down, the biggest chowderhead in the Bible is Amaziah, king of Judah, son of J0ash. He becomes king in Chapter 24 of 2 Chronicles, and in Chapter 25, Verse 14, he invades Edom and conquers it.
And what does he do next? He “brought the gods of the children of Seir [Edom], and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.”
God sent a prophet the ask Amaziah the entirely reasonable question, “Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?” (v. 15) Amaziah refused to listen, and threatened the prophet into silence.
The rest of his career is briefly told. He picked a fight with Israel and lost, to the great cost of the people of Judah, and fifteen years later was assassinated by his own subjects.
It took the world some 2,500 years to generate leaders who could match Amaziah for perverse stupidity. By now we have a bumper crop of them. “Hmmm… I think I’ll drop the real God, who gave me everything I have, and worship the idols of these pagans whom I’ve just defeated in a war… Yeah, that ought to work!”
Yes, truly worthy of Angela Merkel. Maybe even worthy of Obama. Definitely Bidenesque in its depth of foolishness.
If Amaziah were alive today, he’d surely be a big wheel in the E.U.