The Good Samaritan
A month back, a friend of mine who lives in a very cold part of the USA had told me that she was rapidly running out of wood which she needed for heating her small home. Not only that, but her chain saw had broken and she had no way to get it fixed. Two very major problems when you're on a fixed income and the average nightly temperature is below zero. This same person isn't a Christian and has had a bunch of negative run-ins with folks who say that they are Christians. Very unfortunate. It's not like I could just run up there and cut wood for her..but I asked her if it was OK with her if I asked other Christians to give her some help.."sure."
I looked online and found a non-denominational church 7 miles from her place..I called them..talked with the Pastor.and explained that here was an opportunity to "walk the walk" and "talk the talk"..that a woman alone had a dire need of some help which could be taken care of fairly easily by a few people..she HAD the wood, she simply couldn't get it cut. How about a few folks helping her out and then perhaps, just perhaps, they MIGHT also be of good Christian witness to her so that she'd see that not ALL Christians are like the ones that she'd met before? The Pastor sounded very nice..he said he'd have to meet with his "elder board", but that he was sure they could do something to help her out.
A week went by and nothing happened. A second phone call, and another assurance that they're "meeting about it."
I called another buddy of mine who lives 1000 miles away from the woman. Now THIS man is a Christian man who "gets it." His response was to jump in his truck with two chain saws and drive the 1000 miles. He spent a week there, cutting wood and fixing up anything that the woman had which needed fixing. He refused anything except homecooked meals, and conversation in return.
When he left, the woman had 3 full months of stacked and split wood, AND a brand new chain saw.
It's been over a month and still not one word from the church 7 miles away from her home. and yet, she knows a little more now than she did weeks ago about how "real" Christianity works. When she asked the man "WHY did you drive 2000 miles round trip just to see to it that I had enough wood to heat my house and had a chain saw that I can use?" His answer was, "Jesus said to "Love your neighbor as yourself." "
The parable of the Good Samaritan comes to mind..local people heard of her need and "passed by", ignoring her. Yet the good Samaritan..a simple man who has no fame, no fortune, takes a week's vacation from his own job and spends his own savings to help a person who is a total stranger to himself..asking nothing in return.
May we ALL be modern "Good Samaritans" every time that we have the opportunity to help those in need.
SBG
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
December 23,2006
There has been much talked about in the media the past 5 years concerning the "War on Christmas." IMHO, it's much more than Christmas although it peaks at this time of year. For a few decades now there has been a "war" going on, and it's a war waged upon our society's faith culture in general. The way to win any battle is to attack from multiple "fronts" so that your enemy is beset with confusion, breaks ranks and cannot muster a strong defense.
The enemy is winning this war. Why? There are two reasons which come to mind; both are glaringly obvious and easily overcome if people of Faith would merely come awake and alive take action. By "people of Faith" I mean people of ALL Christian faiths
So why is the enemy winning? Apathy and marginalization.
The "Silent Majority" remains silent. Why? Where ARE the churches? Where are the people who believe yet have no formal church affiliation? According to all of the public opinion polls ever done the overwhelming majority of voters in this country have a firm belief in God..so where ARE these people? They're at home sitting on their hands while the country goes to hell in a handbasket. Does anyone BELIEVE for a nanosecond that the local, state of Federal government wouldn't snap to attention if ALL of these people of FAITH made a mighty roar and said "ENOUGH !!" ???
1. We don't want filth on the airways.
2. We don't want filth in the movies.
3. We don't want corrupt government.
4. We don't want abortion.
5. We don't want "easy divorce" that breaks up families
6. We don't want same sex marriages.
7. We DO want a return to laws being actually enforced
8. We DO want common sense returned to "justice" in America.
9. We DO want silent prayer in the schools.
10. We DO want "In God we Trust" on our coins.
People of Faith in America may have vastly different religious beliefs, yet they share a commonality of morals and goals for their families. They all wish to worship in freedom in a country which is morally safe for their children and their children's children. America USED to be such a place. 50 years ago, it was not Utopia. Yet it WAS a nation filled with people who lived without locked doors, without fear of your 10 year old walking alone down your own street after dark, without fear of your child being exposed to filth in a movie theater, without the disgust of reading that your President had an affair, without 1 in 4 American teens experimenting with methamphetamines, without abortion-on-demand as a means of a "smart economic" choice, without the very mention of God being surgically removed step-by-step from our history and culture.
As people of Faith..what are we doing?
The enemy is winning this war. Why? There are two reasons which come to mind; both are glaringly obvious and easily overcome if people of Faith would merely come awake and alive take action. By "people of Faith" I mean people of ALL Christian faiths
So why is the enemy winning? Apathy and marginalization.
The "Silent Majority" remains silent. Why? Where ARE the churches? Where are the people who believe yet have no formal church affiliation? According to all of the public opinion polls ever done the overwhelming majority of voters in this country have a firm belief in God..so where ARE these people? They're at home sitting on their hands while the country goes to hell in a handbasket. Does anyone BELIEVE for a nanosecond that the local, state of Federal government wouldn't snap to attention if ALL of these people of FAITH made a mighty roar and said "ENOUGH !!" ???
1. We don't want filth on the airways.
2. We don't want filth in the movies.
3. We don't want corrupt government.
4. We don't want abortion.
5. We don't want "easy divorce" that breaks up families
6. We don't want same sex marriages.
7. We DO want a return to laws being actually enforced
8. We DO want common sense returned to "justice" in America.
9. We DO want silent prayer in the schools.
10. We DO want "In God we Trust" on our coins.
People of Faith in America may have vastly different religious beliefs, yet they share a commonality of morals and goals for their families. They all wish to worship in freedom in a country which is morally safe for their children and their children's children. America USED to be such a place. 50 years ago, it was not Utopia. Yet it WAS a nation filled with people who lived without locked doors, without fear of your 10 year old walking alone down your own street after dark, without fear of your child being exposed to filth in a movie theater, without the disgust of reading that your President had an affair, without 1 in 4 American teens experimenting with methamphetamines, without abortion-on-demand as a means of a "smart economic" choice, without the very mention of God being surgically removed step-by-step from our history and culture.
As people of Faith..what are we doing?
Friday, December 22, 2006
Friday, December 22,2006
I was delighted to see on the national news the other day that there is now a trend among college students to "seek God." Hearing that made me wish that I could reach out to them and say, "Just ask. " In my own life, it took over forty years of "seeking" because I insisted upon making it a complicated intellectual pursuit. "WHY ?" was my reply to much of scripture. I had the need to have every single "WHY?" answered to my satisfaction before I would agree to believe.
If someone had said to me many years ago that I was a person filled with pride I would have been completely stunned and would have refused to accept that as the truth. Yet that, indeed, was the truth. I was not filled with pride, as in "I feel I am superior to other people." There's a different sort of "pride." It's the one where a person is so lacking in humility that they steadfastly cling to the notion of "prove it to me, for I MUST have an answer better than my own which is pleasing to me."
I'm reminded of the character in Lord of the Rings , Gollum, who refers to the ring as "My Precious". Gollum would rather live in a cave, alone, miserable and bereft of companionship of his own kind than to give up his "Precious". He'd prefer death. I can understand that character very well. For forty years of my adult life, I was Gollum. I clung fast to my life without God, preferring it, cherishing it, not wanting to give it up UNLESS it could be proven to me without any doubt whatsoever intellectually that God not only existed, but had something better to give to me. "My Precious."
I pray that the young people of today are a lot smarter than I was..that those who are seeking God for the very first time in their twenties will realize immediately that the concept of God's "grace" is just not something that the human mind can easily grasp. I hope that they let it come..accept it, welcome it..ask for it. It's SO SIMPLE. Attempting to have complete understanding of "WHY" as a condition of belief will have them wandering in the desert of confusion as I did. It's a lonely place.
I marvel a hundred times a day why God should choose to love me. But love me, He does..and the very thought of it blows me away.
Revelations 21:5-8
If someone had said to me many years ago that I was a person filled with pride I would have been completely stunned and would have refused to accept that as the truth. Yet that, indeed, was the truth. I was not filled with pride, as in "I feel I am superior to other people." There's a different sort of "pride." It's the one where a person is so lacking in humility that they steadfastly cling to the notion of "prove it to me, for I MUST have an answer better than my own which is pleasing to me."
I'm reminded of the character in Lord of the Rings , Gollum, who refers to the ring as "My Precious". Gollum would rather live in a cave, alone, miserable and bereft of companionship of his own kind than to give up his "Precious". He'd prefer death. I can understand that character very well. For forty years of my adult life, I was Gollum. I clung fast to my life without God, preferring it, cherishing it, not wanting to give it up UNLESS it could be proven to me without any doubt whatsoever intellectually that God not only existed, but had something better to give to me. "My Precious."
I pray that the young people of today are a lot smarter than I was..that those who are seeking God for the very first time in their twenties will realize immediately that the concept of God's "grace" is just not something that the human mind can easily grasp. I hope that they let it come..accept it, welcome it..ask for it. It's SO SIMPLE. Attempting to have complete understanding of "WHY" as a condition of belief will have them wandering in the desert of confusion as I did. It's a lonely place.
I marvel a hundred times a day why God should choose to love me. But love me, He does..and the very thought of it blows me away.
Revelations 21:5-8
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