REACTING TO GOOD NEWS

It was one of the seven greatest events in world history. Therefore, it needed an announcement to interpret the event and that announcement came from an angel: "I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2)

The long awaited Baby (the Seed of the woman as predicted in Gen. 3) is the Savior, the Messiah, and the Lord." And, as the angel declared, this is good news of great joy for all people. The shepherds knew that it was good news immediately; the Magi from the East did too. Their joyous reaction to the event was to travel over a thousand miles to celebrate it.

YET: JOY?

And how has fallen humanity reacted to it? Beginning with Herod and right down to our day, the reaction from the world system to the news has been to censor, and in some cases to declare the new illegal.

Saudi Arabia has banned the angelic news from all schools and hospitals.

N. Korea is so adamant against announcing the glad tidings that the government threatened to open artillery fire on a Christmas tree near its border in S. Korea, calling it "a tool of psychological warfare." (The government tolerates no holiday unless it's linked to the present leader or former leaders.)

Somalia makes an announcement yearly that celebrating Christmas is illegal and gives special training to its security force in order to put an end to all such celebrations.

Tajikistan, an Asian country, bans Christmas trees, giving gifts in the schools, fireworks, and even holiday meals. (!) A government's telling its citizens what they can't cook on one day of the year? Yes, that's how paranoid governments can be if they're totalitarian.

The government of Brunei will put you in jail for up to 5 years for celebrating Christmas. However, if you keep your celebration private and tell no Muslims about it, you may.

Albania is the only constitutional atheistic nation in the world. Naturally, Christmas finds no room in which to lodge in that nation. (I wonder why American atheists don't immigrate to that country. Sarcasm alert)

China bans Christmas and Christianity.

Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida, banned the celebration for 30 years, until 1998. Castro's reason was that people didn't need a holiday; they needed to work the sugar fields. What fun! 

THIS JUST IN FROM THE SHORES OF AMERICA

John W. Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute reflected on his 1950's childhood and our culture today. He wrote in "The Huffington Post;"

"But times have changed. Turmoil surrounds our schools. Police officers walk the hallways, and embattled teachers often act more like wardens than instructors. Sadly, the timeless celebration of Christmas seems to have been lost in the mix as well. Schools across the country avoid anything that alludes to the true meaning of Christmas, such as angels, the baby Jesus, stables and shepherds. Just consider some of the incidents that have taken place in recent years. 

 

"For example, a member of a parent/teacher organization at a Connecticut elementary school was in charge of decorating a large display case in the school’s entrance. For the upcoming December holidays, she was planning to put up a display called “Festival of Lights” and feature a display with a crèche for Christmas and a menorah and Star of David for Hanukkah, along with a document that explains the histories of both events. However, she was told by school officials that no religious objects could be used in the display.

"A kindergarten teacher in a Texas public school was informed that he could not mention the word “Christmas” or tell the historical Nativity story because someone in the district might sue. All other secular customs of the “winter holiday” were deemed to be okay, just not the religious symbols of Christianity. According to the school principal: “We cannot tie candy canes, trees, wreaths, Santa Claus, etc, as a religious symbol. What we can teach is the secular side of holidays. We can have the tree, candy cane, wreath, Santa Claus, etc, anything that is secular. No religious words can be attached. We cannot read aloud to the students any book pertaining to religious beliefs or happenings brought by you [the teacher] or the students. The student who brings a book can read/look at the book silently.”

"Another incident that highlights this extreme Christmas phobia involved a Michigan elementary school, where the principal issued a directive specifically forbidding references to God, Christianity or the birth of Jesus Christ. This is censorship, pure and simple.

"I have yet to understand how anyone can discuss the true — or even historical — meaning of Christmas without at least a reference to the baby Jesus. Surely something has gone wrong when America’s children are encouraged to celebrate the fictional Rudolph but are refused the opportunity to even mention Jesus, who was an actual, historical person. To claim that Christmas is something other than it is — a holiday with a religious foundation — is both dishonest and historically unsound."*

That's the news from around the world this Christmas season. But one question remains: What are you and I doing about and with the angel's announcement? Is our reaction as the shepherds' (evangelistic) or that of the Magi (worship)?

Think about it.

____________________________________________________________________________
For a complete discussion of the legal Do's and Dont's of Christmas published by The Rutherford Institute, see their "Twelve Laws of Christmas.

LEARNING FROM CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS III

The Hitchens brothers are a study in contrasts. Both Christopher and Peter are atheists, but Peter defects from that faith and becomes a Christian. A factor in his desertion was the attitude of Christopher who was angry, belligerent, and pugnacious. That helped start his brother questioning--Is that what atheism produces--hostility toward most things and most people? Whatever he saw in his brother, it wasn't appealing. Peter didn't want to wind up that way.

THE CONTRAST

Let's contrast that with what the Christian is to show: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's what Peter wanted to see. Looking at Paul's command to us, we see something else: "make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business." There was a restlessness about his brother Christopher; he was always upset about something, always attacking something or someone. That got old and ugly over time for Peter. 

PETER'S ATHEISM BECOMES OFFICIAL

But in his younger day, Peter was as bellicose as his brother: when he was still in boarding school at the age of 15, he chose to make his rebellion against Christianity and all of the conventions of his upbringing official by the ceremonial burning of his Bible – a gift from his parents - in the school yard.

He said, "I was sure that we, and our civilization, had grown out of the nursery myths of God, angels and Heaven."

After burning the Book, he intentionally began to do the things he had always been instructed were wrong: using foul language, mocking the weak, lying, stealing, using drugs, and betraying friends and family members. Peter and Christopher were two proverbial peas in the proverbial pod.

WAIT! THAT PICTURE!

It was staring at a picture– Rogier van der Weyden’s "Last Judgment" – that Hitchens felt a sudden and true conviction. Seeing the naked figures as they fled the fires of hell, all of his intentional rebellion and misdeeds came back to his mind, and with them, the realization that his life was a testament to the truth found in the painting: that misdeeds required justice, and that if anyone required saving from this justice, it was he. (From "Christianity Today")

Here's how Peter described the day he saw hell while on a cycling trip to Burgundy: I saw Rogier van der Weyden's 15th-century 'Last Judgment:' I had scoffed at its mention in the guidebook, but now I gaped, my mouth actually hanging open, at the naked figures fleeing towards the pit of hell. I had a sudden strong sense of religion being a thing of the present day, not imprisoned under thick layers of time. My large catalogue of misdeeds replayed themselves rapidly in my head. I had absolutely no doubt that I was among the damned, if there were any damned. Van der Weyden was still earning his fee, nearly 500 years after his death.”

This reminds us of Paul's evangelistic message to the Athenian intellectuals on Mars Hill when he spoke to them about Christ and the Judgement to come: "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31) Not only that text, but also Revelation 20:11-15 declares the coming Judgment. Jesus Himself spoke of it: "Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable  for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” The atheist was running scared.


That old, old painting put the fear of God into Peter Hitchens. He came back to the faith of his childhood; no longer was it a myth unsuitable for the age of jet engines and penicillin. The Bible-burning prodigal had come home.

THE CONCLUSION

What can we learn from Christopher (and Peter)? A combative, argumentative, stance can be a turn-off, just as Christopher's was to his brother. Dr. Andy Woods has a wise admonition for us: "If you clash with everybody everywhere you go, you're not growing in Christ."

We also see that atheism can produce an I'll-show-you-attitude, as Peter delighted in breaking all the moral principles he learned from his parents and even burning the gift from them, not in private, but publicly. That attitude too, becomes unattractive after awhile. Is a life of betraying friends and family something to be admired? Is mocking the weak winsome?

On December 15, 2011, death came for Christopher. Did he come to faith? As far as we know, no, he did not.

Christopher (left) and Peter Hitchens

LEARNING FROM CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS PART II

Christopher Hitchens, angry atheist, author, lecturer, and debater is dying of cancer. During that time, though knowing his condition, he still debates with those defending Christianity in public forums and still attacks anything and everything he deems Christian.

After the debates, as the combatants often do, Christopher and his opponent go out to eat and discuss the night's events as well as the various issues over which they've argued. Over just such a dinner, Hitchens asks Larry Taunton, his opponent of the earlier debate that night, "Why do you think I don't believe?"

That's quite a question, isn't it?

THE DILEMMA

Taunton is faced with a dilemma. "Should I tell him the truth? Should I flatter him? Should I tell him that I don't know? Or, should I tell him the truth?" Taunton chose to tell him the truth: First, he asks Hitchens, "Do you really want to know?" Hitchens says, "Yes, I do." Taunton then says, "[It's because] the cost of your conversion is one you're unwilling to pay as a world-famous atheist."

Hitchens' conversion, were it to occur, would be international news. He would lose the applause of the world, that's for sure. His friendships with the literati and the glitterati would evaporate; he'd be scorned, a pariah in the eyes of the elite who celebrate him. It's hard for us to admit, "I've been wrong all my life." The Apostle Paul had to do that after his Damascus road meeting with the risen Christ.

CARING MORE

Those would be hard words to say to Christopher, so harsh that Hitchens might just stand up and stalk away. But Christopher Hitchens didn't because he knew one thing about Larry Taunton: Taunton cared about him. He was a Christian different from most of those Christopher had met on the debate circuit or anywhere else: Larry Taunton cared more about winning Christopher than he did about winning any debate.

Such a quality is rare in the theological world because there's no more heady wine in that world than being right. At all costs, being right is the Holy Grail. It's all about winning the argument, carrying the day on the field of the verbal battle. It's about shutting down the other person, getting him flustered, angry, and mute. In that world, it's all about the paraphrased Dutch proverb, "Winning isn't everything, but it's way ahead of whatever is in second place."

But when is making someone angry, the goal of evangelism? Paul said the goal was to be clear and to persuade. That eliminates the goal of making someone angry. Shutting someone down isn't to be an end in itself because the goal is to bring Christ to them, but if, along the way, they become offended, so be it, but their offended state isn't our final goal.

There's a text which comes into play in the Hitchens/Taunton relationship, one we've ignored. It's from Proverbs: "When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." (16:7) Hitchens didn't stalk away because he respected Taunton.

Hitchens, the Englishman, said of Taunton, "If everyone in the United States had the same qualities of loyalty and care and concern for others that Larry Taunton had, we’d be living in a much better society than we do.” That's an example of Prov. 16:7.

What can we learn from the atheist Hitchens? Do that which impressed him, that which caused him to listen to the gospel: speak the truth with courage, from a background of love. That sounds like Eph. 4:15.

After all the debates and after dinner conversations with Christians, after hearing his brother talk about Christ and Him crucified, did Christopher Hitchens become, like his brother Peter, an atheist turned Christian?

TO BE CONTINUED

LEARNING FROM CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

There are these two brothers, Christopher and Peter. Both are atheists, but one of them, Peter, becomes a Christian. (It's odd that his parents named his brother Christopher. It means, "Christ bearer," of a Latin origin.) His life was one far from bearing Christ's name. He spent his adult life living like the Roman Emperor Julian who tried the impossible--to destroy Christianity.

What started Peter to rethinking atheism were many things, but one thing was his brother's rage and anger, sometimes a characteristic of atheists. The relationship between the two brothers makes for an interesting story, one throbbing with pathos. But that's another story, one that's the subject of a book written by Peter.

ANOTHER STORY

What is the story here is what we Christians can learn from Christopher, learn, from him instead of dismissing him because God certainly didn't dismiss him, but drew him, like all men, to Himself. But that drawing doesn't guarantee salvation--Christopher, like all of us, was given a free will. He could reject God's drawing.

What Christopher did with his life was to spend it writing, lecturing, and debating his adopted cause. He often debated his brother in public forums, but he debated others as well, and one of those was a professor named John Lennox.

In the debate world, the two debaters will square off in the public arena, and have at each other, engaging in verbal pugilism for an hour or so. Forget our presidential debates, they aren't really debates, but press conferences during which each candidate tries to come up with a one-liner (a zinger) that will win the day.

After the debate, the two combatants will often have dinner together and discuss various issues regarding their differences. They don't usually engage in a heated diatribe, but discuss things man-to-man over whatever food they've ordered.

THE DINNER

Anyway, Christopher Hitchens and John Lennox were doing just that, along with another man, Larry Taunton, who often debated Hitchens. They were having a conversation after midnight at a restaurant and from that dinner we can learn something valuable.

During the earlier debate, Hitchens had done what he always did, express his rage against Roman Catholicism and the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches. He inveighed against them as oppressive political machines, interested only in power, and responsible for many evils throughout the ages.

Earlier that evening, Lennox and Hitchens had debated one another in front of an audience of college students. Now, appropriately, the debate continued offstage.

“Christopher, do you really think that you're undermining our position with references to stuff like that?” Lennox asked. 

He went on to tell Hitchens that he agreed with him and that he could add stories to those Hitchens had told about the dark history of the three entities. He said, "I don’t doubt that the stories are true. I could add more stories of my own to the ones you have told. But they are not the actions of genuine Christians.” Hitchens asked, incredulously,  “You don’t consider the Orthodox Church Christian?” Hitchens seemed confident in the response he would get. 

Taunton then entered the conversation: “Well, it’s not about this or that denomination or what we consider Christian or not Christian,” he said. “It’s really a question of ‘What does the Bible say?'"

SHOCK

Taunton explains what happened next:

"At this, Hitchens sat up, totally astonished. Apparently, this was not the answer he expected. He turned to Lennox and gestured at me. “Do you agree with that, Professor?” “I do,” Lennox declared. “Christ forbade the very actions you are calling ‘Christian’! Christ was even more resolute in His opposition to hypocrisy, exploitation, and the use of violence to promote His message than you are, Christopher.” 

Lennox reached for his water glass, but it was empty. “Perhaps you should be one of his followers?” he added, putting the glass down."

So, there's one thing we can learn: Never assume what a person knows or doesn't know. In all of Hitchens' debates and travels, he'd never heard and understood that Roman Catholicism, the Russian and Greek Orthodox have used tactics and held doctrines that Christ Himself condemned. 

Never assume that a person knows what grace means. Never assume that a person knows what repent means. Never assume that a person knows what the finished work of Christ means. Never assume that a person knows what faith means. Never assume a person knows what John 3:16 means. (One man I talked to thought the words said, "John Three Colon One Six." He had no idea that they had reference to a text in the Bible in the third chapter of the Gospel of John.

This fact was brought home to me when a lady who had listened faithfully to my exposition of the book of Galatians and my hundreds of references to the Mosaic Law was talking with me after our last study of the book. On the last night, after our Bible study, she thanked me for the study. I thanked her and mentioned something about how we were free from the Law of Moses. It was then that she got a quizzical look on her face and said, "You mean Moses, Moses?" I answered, "Yes, of course." 

She told me that whenever I referred to the Mosaic Law in our study, that I was talking about a mosaic of laws from all over the ancient world, laws having nothing to do with the Moses who led Israel out of Egypt. So much for my pedagogical skills.  My problem was assuming that everybody knew what the two words, "Mosaic Law" meant. She had sat there in the auditorium for thee months not really understanding much of what I was talking about. Not her fault, but mine.

Anyway, what makes this account of that dinner conversation more poignant is that at the time, Christopher Hitchens was dying of cancer. 

Did he trust Christ as Savior?

TO BE CONTINUED

NEVER LET THEM SEE YOU SWEAT?

"Never let them see you sweat."

That was the tag line for an advertisement, unfortunately one which we often adopt as our motto of the Christian life and thereby try live the life of the impervious. The life of the impervious is a pretend life  which is a phony life of "never let them see you sweat." It's a life of pretend, a life of the pretense of being invulnerable to the vicissitudes of life.

Sometimes those in sales who are not yet successful are told by their coaches, "Fake it 'til you make it," which means, "Appear to be successful and let everyone know that things are great beyond belief for you in spite of the fact that you're struggling, failing, and suffering the disappointment of 'No sale" after another, one rejection after another.

Would you be surprised if you caught Paul crying? He cried. At his last meeting with the elders of the Ephesian church, looking back, he said about himself, "[S]erving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me [l]through the plots of the Jews . . ." The machinations of the enemies of the gospel caused Paul such hardship, such suffering, and such grief, he was brought to tears. He pulled back the curtain on his life and he let us see him sweat. 

Then there came the time to say good-bye for what the elders and Paul knew would be the last time and Luke records, "When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they would not see his face again." That's hard. 

The paragraph throbs with emotion. These weren't men pretending that all was as they wanted it to be. Luke lets us see them sweat. 

We turn to II Timothy and we find Timothy, Paul's legate to a church in the ancient world to be timid, fearful, and sick at times. His fear was so evident that Paul wrote to Timothy telling him that fear is no excuse for not serving the Lord. We know how Timothy felt--serving the Lord without pulling our punches is hard in a fallen world. 

It's difficult to tell a person that he's a sinner, separated from God, and there's nothing, no work, he can do to right his immoral ship. It's hard to tell him what the gospel is not: it's not church membership, baptism, or even what his parents believed. it's hard to face the wrath of those offended by the gospel. Losing friends and family over the gospel is hard and we hate it with a passion; we shouldn't pretend that it's easy to deal with. 

Listen to Paul as he writes to Timothy: "I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, 4longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. The life of the Christian who is off the bench and into the arena knows that it's that hard, hard to the point of crying.

In our quest to never let them see us sweat, we pretend that we have no regrets, no problems, no struggles. And more than that, we pretend we have no tears. We act as if we have arrived and nothing bothers us, when even Paul said that he hadn't "arrived." We want to appear as Mary Poppins whom we might paraphrase: practically impervious in every way. Bullet proof to the buffetings of time and tide. 

The non-Christian can see through our facade in a New York minute. He knows life isn't as the prosperity preachers pretend that it is, and he turns from the phony, the plastic man, the hollow man. He recognizes the superficial when he sees it. 

But the shortest verse in the Bible shows us that Jesus Himself cried at the graveside of Lazarus. 

There are those who, like Job's friends, tell us to "Buck up" when we're hurt Then they throw a verse at us. But there's One who's compassionate toward us. as we see in Psalm 56:8: "Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?" God notes the hairs on our head (Matt. 10:30;) He considers our frame that we are but dust (Ps. 103:14).

When we turn to the psalmists we see emotion, not emotionalism, of those believers who are crying out to God in their sufferings because the slings and arrows of those arrayed against them and they hurt.

Things are difficult in a fallen world for those seeking to live the Christ life, we don't pretend they aren't. To pretend we're bullet proof to the hurts life brings ignores the fact that, at times, tears are appropriate.

We have God's word that all things are working together for good, but while they're working, we hurt, and God notices and God cares, and God provides.

WHY THE INSANITY? PART 2

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Last week, we examined the idea that in 1963, America began to lose its sanity as evidenced by what we see today and what has happened since that time. We continue in that theme:

1. In the last several months, 45 teachers have resigned from the Harrisburg, PA, school system because of violence. (One of the resignations came from a first grade teacher after being attacked by her students.)

2. A proposed Delaware education regulation will allow children to self-identify gender and race--without parental consent.

3. Santa Clara University’s student government recently voted to deny a pro-capitalism campus club official recognition, citing the possibility that the group may invite conservative speakers, and that allowing it would be a stand against “humanity.”

4. At the University of Florida, a student was penalized for writing “man” instead of “humankind” in a class paper.

5. Oberlin College offers a for-credit course on "How to Win a Beauty Contest." Cornell University offers a course called "Tree Climbing" "which "will teach you how to get up into the canopy of any tree, to move around, even to climb from one tree to another without touching the ground. This course will teach you how to use ropes and technical climbing gear to reach the top of any tree, to move around, and even to climb from tree to tree without returning to the ground. All equipment is included in the course fee."

7. At the University of Texas there is a course called: "Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond"

8. The high water mark for SAT scores was 1963. They have declined every year since.

7, The birth rates for unwed girls 15-19 years of age started a steep increase in 1963 from 15 per thousand to 35 per thousand in 1987, nearly doubling over that period of time.

8. The combined live birth-plus-abortion rate for unwed girls under 15 years of age soared after 1963 from 5 per thousand to 25 per thousand despite a declining population growth.

9. Sexually transmitted diseases for ages 10–19 began to soar in an incredible increase starting in 1963.

10. Premarital sexual activity among U. S. teenage girls age 18 moved upward from 22% of the population in 1963 to 54% of the population in 1982.

11. Divorce rates began an immediate rise in 1963 from 2.2 per thousand to 14.2 per thousand in 2017  among women who were college graduates. (The longer a person stays in our educational system, the more likely their marriage is to fail.)

12. In the academic world, it is now unquestioned orthodoxy that all cultures are of equal value. The unintelligible grunts and howls of a wild dervish screaming out his incantations are to be taken with the same seriousness as Shakespeare. The incomprehensible chicken scratchings of abstract artists are to be accorded the same reverence as the paintings of Michelangelo. When respected scholars such as Harold Bloom of Yale point out the lunacy of this, they are shouted down by their colleagues. (J. Draper)

13. Before 1963, the top seven problems in public schools were: (1) talking, (2) chewing gum, (3) making noise, (4) running in the halls, (5) getting out of turn in line, (6) wearing improper clothing, and (7) not putting paper in waste baskets. Today, the top seven problems in public schools are: (1) rape, (2) robbery, (3) assault, (4) burglary, (5) arson, (6) bombings, and (7) murder.

14. In the Christmas card section of the greeting card aisle, there are cards which read: "For my dad and his man" and the other says, "For my mother and her woman." Inside the cards are the words, "I am so glad you have found your  special someone to love." (Paraphrased)

15. JK Rowling, speaking to a packed house of 1,600 students in NYC who have read every book of her Harry Potter series, announces that one of the important characters in the books, Dumbledore, is a homosexual. The students sit in stunned silence for a moment and then erupt into prolonged applause. (Look at Romans 1:32)

16. The insanity isn't limited to America. In England, Paul Weston, a candidate for the European Parliament was arrested for quoting a passage critical of Islam from Winston Churchill’s 1899 book “The River War.” This is doubly odd because in November 2002, Churchill was voted the greatest Briton who ever lived, garnering over 1,000,000 votes. What a difference 15 years makes!

17. A company is selling bulletproof infant carriers and backpacks. 

 Dr. James T. Draper Jr. writes, "I know that only the most simplistic would suggest that the removal of a twenty-two-word prayer from the public schools caused such a radical change. It cannot be denied, however, that the national separation of education and religious faith is directly related to the radical changes that started in the 1960s."

The 1963 decision of the Supreme Court put an official stamp on rejection and rebellion against the Word of God, thus officially starting the insanity as stated in Prov. 1:7, 24-29, and 2:1-7.

To quote the Bible, "and they loved to have it so." Dr. Allen Ross, professor at Dallas Seminary notes that David comes to an important conclusion in Ps. 144:15 when he writes "that any people whose God is the Lord will be blessed." ("The Bible Knowledge Commentary")

BUT BE OF GOOD CHEER

It has often been observed that the darker it is, the brighter is the light that shines. In Philippians 2:14-15, Paul writes to the believer, "Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world," It's a phenomenon of the world that it pitch black darkness, if there is a pinpoint of light, all eyes turn to the light. 

Today, if you have a Christian marriage of 25 years or more, you are shining as a light in a dark world. If your life is exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5), you are shining as a light in a dark world.  As you verbally witness to the gospel, you are a light in a dark world.

We're not going to tun back the clock, but we can have an impact. 

Let's think about it.

 

WHY THE INSANITY?

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Proverbs 9:10

Those 19 words explain the American mental landscape in 2017. As one author has said, "We're not on a slippery slope; we're at the bottom. There seems to be a national insanity, the loss of the ability to think, to analyze, to understand. I would present the following Exhibits A-O to prove my case:

EXHIBIT A: "Who's Britannica to tell me that the Panama Canal was built in 1914? If I want to say that it was built in 1941, that's my right as an American. Truth comes from your gut." Stephen Colbert

EXHIBIT B:
Our language has been corrupted: “Safe spaces” mean segregation. “Affirmative action” is synonymous with implicit racial quotas. “Theme houses” are race-based apartheid living quarters. “Trigger warnings” are censorship. “Student loans” are paramount to indentured servitude for over a decade. And “diversity” ensures monotony and orthodoxy in thought and expression. (Victor Davis Hanson)

EXHIBIT C: "It was a small sentence—”I will pray for you”— but it meant big trouble for Cony High School technician Toni Richardson. When Richardson offered that comfort to another Christian on staff in private, she was hauled before school officials and warned not to utter a word about her faith again. District officials kicked off the controversy last year by telling Richardson that she could “face discipline or dismissal in the future if she expressed her faith so openly again."(Tony Perkins)

EXHIBIT D: There is now something called"gender fluid." This is referring to a person who does not identify with a single fixed gender, and expresses a fluid or unfixed gender identity. One’s expression of identity is likely to shift and change depending on context.

EXHIBIT E: There is now such a thing as PGP, preferred gender pronoun, which is simply the pronoun or set of pronouns that an individual would like others to use when talking to or about that individual. Under a new California law, those who work in health care who use the wrong gender pronoun when referring to a transgender patient could face prison time. (In June 2017, Canada passed a new law that opens Canadians up to fines and even jail time if they use gender pronouns that do not correspond to a person's subjectively determined "gender identity.")

EXHIBIT F: Graphic “sex education” is forced on kindergarteners. "The Chicago Public Schools this year are mandating that the district’s kindergarten classes include sex education, fulfilling a proposal President Barack Obama supported in 2003 when he served in the Illinois state senate and later defended when he ran for president in the 2008 election cycle" (8-30-2013)

EXHIBIT H: Homosexuality and transgender ideology are so pervasive and “acceptable” that such individuals touting their sexual preferences and perversions are given awards, accolades, and their own TV shows.

EXHIBIT I: Devin Kelley walked into the First Baptist Church with an assault rifle, authorities say he took 25 lives and that of an unborn child. Reports indicate that a large percentage of the total included babies and children.

EXHIBIT J: Heated debates arise over questions such as, "Should little girls avoid dressing up as Moana for Halloween if they aren't of Polynesian descent?"

EXHIBIT K: The acceptance of  Nietzsche's philosophy, "There are no facts, only interpretations."

EXHIBIT L: "A majority of Americans, including three-quarters of Millennials and nearly a third of practicing Christians, say that morality is based solely on their personal feelings, according to a new Barna survey that shows moral relativism has a firm grasp on many adults. In the poll of 1,237 people, 57 percent agreed that "whatever is right for your life or works best for you is the only truth you can know," while 74 percent of Millennials affirmed the statement and 31 percent of practicing Christians did so. (The Christian Examiner, quoting Barna)

EXHIBIT M: Our schools have come to resemble prisons--there's a law officer in the school to maintain order; students and their belongings pass through metal detectors before entry; students must secure permission to speak or to go to the restroom; they eat at prescribed times and only the  foods offered; they are under electronic surveillance, they are locked in the building. Any one wishing to enter must go through the secured doors and stand in front of an all-seeing camera for validation.

EXHIBIT N: At the University of New Hampshire, the word “American” is deemed offensive and should not be used. (Reason: There's another "America." South America, and they might be offended.

EXHIBIT N: An Idaho State University and College of the Canyons study declared that we must accept people who identify themselves as vampires.

EXHIBIT O: At Quinnipiac University, a sorority had to cancel a fundraiser for foster children because one student complained that having maracas on the promotional posters was racist.

WHY?

Why this insanity? The above reference to Proverbs 9:10 gives the reason. "The fear of the Lord" is a positive response to God and His Word. Without that response, there is no wisdom in the society.

On June 25, 1963, in a decision by the U. S. Supreme Court, the Bible became a banned book in all public schools. As Dr. Richard Grubbs has pointed out, "No God means no rules." The Book has been banned for over 50 years now, and we're living with the poison fruit of the decision. The problem is further compounded by what Romans 1 declares: God has turned us over to desires of our heart; that's what we want and that's what we've got.

As Dr. Grubbs points out, only a revival can stem the tide.


 

THE MASK IS COMING OFF

"The amount of anti-Christian hate on Twitter the same day Christians were massacred [at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX] is stunning and chilling." David French

The killing of 27 people, half of them children and babies, in a Baptist church demonstrates that the mask is coming off: there is a rising tide of hatred against Christians and Christianity in America. No longer hidden, it's open, bold, militant, strident, loud, emboldened, and confident.

The rising tide of atheism, paganism, and secularism have brought death threats to Christians as well as sentiments wishing for their deaths.The reasons for this hatred are illogical and need to be examined.

Michael L. Brown has categorized the reasons for the hatred:

1. Since evangelical Christians voted in a large percentage for candidate Trump, whatever he does, whatever he says, IS Christianity in the minds of millions. (This is the danger of prominent Christians allying themselves with candidates and political causes.) But, it could be argued that when millions of Christians voted in 2016, their votes were more against the other candidate than for Trump. The thinking of such voters was ABC reasoning, "Anybody But Clinton."

AN EXAMPLE

When asked by "Christianity Today" in 2011 if he would go back and do anything differently, Billy Graham, whose relationship with President Richard Nixon drew considerable controversy replied:

I also would have steered clear of politics. I'm grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to. But looking back, I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldn't do that now.

In 2012, Michael S. Hamilton, chair of the history department at Seattle Pacific University wrote:

"Billy Graham has long been a registered Democrat and has supported politicians on both sides of the aisle. In the 1980s and 1990s, he declined to embrace the Religious Right. The exposure of Richard Nixon's corruption made Graham wary of future involvement in political partisanship, and he privately warned leaders of the Religious Right to stay away from politics."

We need to be constantly reminded that the church's purpose is not to clean up the world; the world system is doomed. No matter who your candidate is, you need to heed Psalm 146:3.

BACK TO BROWN

2. Christians, Christian opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion draws the fury of the atheistic tide. They brand Christians as Nazis, fascists (without knowing the meaning of the word) and haters, They compare Christianity to ISIS, and charge Christians with wanting to impose a Mosaic Law theocracy on America. Irrational? Yes.

3. The hostility is the natural result of the poison of atheism. Rabbi David Wolpe posted a  suggestion in "The Huffington Post." Here's what he said about what he wrote and the reaction to it:

"How harmless is it to post an article about why people should read the bible (sic) on a site devoted to religion? I did on this very page, and it evoked more than 2,000 responses, most of them angry. I had previously written a similarly gentle article about how God should be taught to children that evoked more than 1,000 responses, almost all negative and many downright nasty.

"It is curious that a religion site draws responses mostly from atheists, and that the atheists are very unhappy. They are unhappy with the bible (sic) . . .  unhappy with the idea of God (the “imaginary dictator” whose task in human history, apparently, is to ensure that oppression and evil triumph) and very unhappy with anyone (read: me) who presumes to offer religious advice to the religious. Only the untutored assume that religious people predominate on websites."

4. There is a supernatural component to the hostility, all from the dark side of the universe. John summarizes this reason in John 1:5-11: the darkness hates the Light which has come into the world in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus' earthly life clashed head-on with the forces of darkness. As the psalmist predicted, "They hated ]Him] without a cause." Irrational. And as Jesus warned His followers, "If they have hated Me, they will hate you." The reaction of the rising tide evidenced a hatred, a deep down, ingrained, bitter hatred of Christians and Christianity.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Two thousand years ago, a somewhat parallel incident occurred when Herod took off his mask and slaughtered children and babies, as he unknowingly cooperated with the satanic side of the universe to prevent the cross.

NOW FOR THE POSITIVE

Michael Brown points out the positive biblical stance for the believer by citing II Peter 4:12-16; Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:21. A summary of those texts: 1) Don't be surprised by the hostility 2) rejoice 3) love your enemies 4) pray for your enemies 5) take the offensive, that is, overcome evil with good.

We might add another text to the list: II Timothy 2:24: "The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,"

I SAW THE CHAPTER AND VERSE

I was privileged to be in the audience when a grace-oriented Dallas Seminary professor was speaking to a group of pastors (and a reporter from the city's local newspaper) about the new book he had written to refute lordship salvation. The event was hosted by a local Christian bookstore which had invited the pastors.

After his presentation, the question and answer period began and, lo and behold, most in the room were hostile. The tone of their voices, their sarcasm, and their condescending attitude, in a addition to the questions themselves, showed their anger. Some were downright rude.

What's interesting is that I don't remember a single question or comment the pastors made. I don't remember a single answer the author gave to their questions. What I do remember is that the professor was the epitome of II Timothy 2:24.

Although under attack, every syllable in his response was kind and patient. He was gracious to everyone in the room. It was as if he was enjoying the entire session. He was.

Funny what we remember, isn't it? I went away from that meeting, having learned one of life's important lessons because I saw II Timothy 2:24.

The mask is coming off. 

DAN RATHER REPORTING

It's 1 PM CST in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy has just been pronounced dead at Parkland Memorial Hospital after being assassinated by communist Lee Harvey Oswald.

The world is about to reel in shock when TV and radio stations make the news public. People in the streets will cry, Wall Street will shut down the New York Stock Exchange at 2:07 PM EST. For the next three days, and CBS, ABC, and NBC will cancel all commercials until Tuesday of the next week.

One more thing-- some schools dismissed the students for the day. And for those teachers, students, and parents in one particular school, in addition to the assassination, it would be a day they would never forget, all because of Dan Rather.

In Dallas, thirty-two year-old CBS news correspondent Dan Rather is reporting the events that are unfolding. One of the stories Rather is reporting to the nation is that when the principal of the University Park Elementary School in Dallas made the announcement over the loudspeaker that the President was dead, the children cheered.

Cheered? What kind of a city was Dallas where kids cheerrd the murder of a President? What was wrong with those people?

There was nothing wrong with those people, but there was something wrong with Dan Rather: the story wasn't true and he knew it. Eddie Barker, the news director of radio and TV CBS affiliates in Dallas had been approached by a liberal Methodist minister with the same story earlier in the day. Barker had three children in the school and contacted the principal and some of the teachers for verification.Each one adamantly denied it.

What had actually happened was that the principal, upon hearing the news of the shooting, dismissed the students at 12:30 without telling them why. (At 12:30, no one knew that the President was dead. The announcement of the President's death wasn't made to the nation until after 1 PM.) What the children were cheering was an announcement that school was being dismissed for the day. They had no idea why; their parents could tell them.

When Barker refused to report the minister's second-hand information, the pastor had gone to Rather with the story and Mr. Rather went to Eddie Barker who told him, "My kids are in school there, and I checked it out, and there's nothing to it,'" 

"Well, great--I'll just forget it,' Rather said. Later Barker said, "But instead of forgetting it, he went out and did a number on Dallas and its conservatism, with the preacher's story at the center of his report." 

The way Rather did it was to sidestep the customary process of filming such a report and having the news director look at it, evaluate it, and he would decide whether or not to air it. Instead, Rather made the announcement live on the air.

Did the story of the monstrous, cheering school children take hold? Yes, the story is still in the public consciousness more than 50 years later and is included in the book, "Dallas 1963" as something that was "rumored," but the authors didn't go on to say that the story was false. Either they didn't check it out, as reputable authors would do, or they did, knew it was false, yet left it hanging.

"Barker's local TV and radio crews scrambled to arrange on-air interviews with teachers to rebut the story, but the lie had already traveled halfway around the world and would become an enduring part of JFK assassination lore." (Philip Chalk, member of the University Park Elementary class of 1974)

Livid at being lied to, Barker laid into Rather as soon as he returned to the newsroom, expelling the reporter and all his national-news colleagues from the building, yelling, "Get out of here--you and this whole bunch!" 

This shows us something about the human race: we can know that something is a lie, yet repeat it and even broadcast it to the world if it advances our agenda. Satan was the first to do this--he knew that Adam and Eve wouldn't become gods if they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but he told them they would. He told the lie because it fit his purposes and so the Bible says of this "angel of light" that he was a liar from the beginning. 

If that weren't serious enough, another of his lies is that all religions lead to God. He knows that's not true, but millions and millions of people believe it. Why? Because they want to. That's another thing about homo sapiens: if we like a story, we'll believe it without giving it a fact check. 

 Satan knows that faith alone in Christ alone is what saves a person (Luke 8:12), but he promotes the lie that works do. Millions of people believe that lie. Why? Because they want to.

In order to make conservative Dallas look evil, Rather used a lie about elementary school children to do so because the lie fit the narrative he wanted to present. 

How about us? Do we stick with the truth about those with whom we disagree or do we exaggerate their faults, shade the stories we tell about them to make them appear worse, or, heaven forbid, do we propagate rumors about them? 

The New Testament says, "Speak the truth and speak it in love."  


  

BURNING BRIDGES

The Mike Curb Congregation (they had nothing to do with a church) sang a song in a 1970 hit movie, a song called "Burning Bridges." To use the sophisticated terminology of musicians, it's a tune that can be described as "catchy." (I like to toss around technical terms.) The lyrics of "Burning Bridges" always bring to my mind Jesus' description of a man no longer on this earth, but separated from God forever and ever.  Read the lyrics and see if they remind you of Luke 16:19-31.

Friends all tried to warn me
But I held my head up high
All the time they warned me
But I only passed them by

They all tried to tell me
But I guess I didn't care
I turned my back and 
Left them standing there

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore

Years have passed and I keep thinking
What a fool I've been
I look back into the past and
Think of way back then
I know that I lost everything I thought I that could win
I guess I should have listened to my friends

All the burning bridges that have fallen after me
All the lonely feelings and the burning memories
Everyone I left behind each time I closed the door
Burning bridges lost forevermore

Burning bridges lost forevermore

THE REQUEST

In Jesus' account, the man is in a place of eternal torment; his memory is intact; he remembers his family, the brothers he loves and wants them to be warned not to suffer the fate he is. He asks that a miracle occur and through that miracle, they hear the truth, the truth of the gospel. 

But the answer is, "No," and for a good reason: if they don't believe the Bible, they won't believe Lazarus sent back from the dead because Lazarus would only say what the Bible says.

BURNING BRIDGES 

Using our sanctified imaginations, we see that with his memory unimpaired, he can think about the bridges he burned in his lifetime when he had opportunities to be as Abraham and David were, justified by faith. 

We note that he burned the bridges, and that people are burning their bridges today, bridges God has instituted to draw all men to Himself (John 12:32--"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”) There are six bridges:

1. The bridge of creation which testifies 24/7 to God's existence. (Rom. 1; Ps. 19)
2. The bridge of the concept of eternity in the human DNA. (Ecc. 3)
3. The bridge of the Bible, His complete and connected thought toward man. 
4. The bridge of His Son to provide the payment for our sins by His death on the cross, a public death of which Paul said, "This was not done in a corner."
5. The bridge of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. 
6. The bridge of various Christians God puts in the path of the unbeliever. These are the friends who "tried to warn" him, the ones who "tried to tell"him, but he "didn't care." He "turned his back and left them standing there." They were the "everyone" he "left behind" "each time he closed the door." 

In our sanctified imaginations, we can hear the man in torment declare, "All the burning bridges that have fallen after me/All the lonely feelings and the burning memories/Years have passed and I keep thinking/What a fool I've been/I look back into the past and/Think of way back then/I know that I lost everything I thought I that could win/I guess I should have listened to my friends. Burning bridges lost forever more."

ONE LAST TIME

To engage our sanctified imaginations a bit longer . . . would it change you if, for ten minutes, you could hear the screams in hell? 

HIGH NOON IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

We're in a Sunday school class and in that class are some who are hostile to grace. Their gifted, gracious, and humble teacher has been teaching that salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone,  but they aren't buying it.  Instead of accepting the Bible's clear teaching, they're angry and their anger shows. It's growing weekly.

HOW TO EMPTY A CHURCH

There's one way to empty a church and a Sunday school class--start teaching what salvation is and what it is not. The what-it-is-not-part will especially do the emptying and leave those who don't leave marinating in their anger. To explain what the gospel is not, the teacher makes it clear that salvation does NOT come by faith in Christ PLUS a hodgepodge of works such as abandoning sin, baptism, putting Christ on the throne of your life, walking an aisle, praying through, confession of sins, and making this or that vow. It is when some hear what the good news is not, then the clash begins.

One lady in the class has had enough and already left the class. Another has sworn that the youth under her auspices will never be exposed to such teaching.

Many of the ones who remain in the grace class sit there every Sunday thinking, "Surely a person has to do something for salvation, doesn't he? Surely he has to abandon his sins, doesn't he?" (Somehow, it never occurs to them that neither they nor anyone else in this life has ever abandoned sin.)

THE REAL ISSUE

One Sunday, what's really bothering them craw-deep finally comes boiling to the surface, and, like Mt. Vesuvius hurling rocks and ash 20 miles into the atmosphere in 79 AD, two people in the group express why they're so angry.

They fume, "Our parents never believed this [faith alone in Christ alone]!" By that admission, they're expressing the sentiments of others (not all) in the class.

There we have it--their parents! They're middle-aged (or above) and their parents are still controlling them. Way down deep inside, they have a really huge problem--their authority isn't the Bible; it's their parents, not Christ and His word. Instead of imitating the noble Bereans and searching the New Testament to see that Christ and the Apostles condition salvation on faith alone over 150 times, they've rejected the grace message out of hand because their parents are ruling them from the grave.

Although they've memorized John 3:16, they're so spiritually blind that they can't see there are no works in the verse. Not one. Some have the New Testament requirements for discipleship mixed into the gospel. Others have the Ten Commandments and the Golden rule in it. They can't even discuss the matter because the "discussion" consists of their repeating the same memorized phrases over and over again. After that, they begin to level personal attacks. Brush fires are erupting all over the place.

Like a pack of Ismaels on the loose, they're attacking Isaac and it all goes back to their parents and, upon examination, to their grandparents, truth be told. Mom and Dad rule them from the grave.

Their number is legion inside and outside the church, they are the tares among the wheat. Grace sounds foolish to them, even moronic; they ridicule it (I Cor. 1:18, 23).

The question: Is someone ruling you from the grave?

THERE'S NO FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN HEAVEN

Free speech is a huge issue today, huge to the point that it's being questioned and, in some cases, opposed if it's deemed, "hate speech." Universities ban certain speakers from their campuses if their views are not deemed politically correct. In addition, there are those whose speech is censored if someone deems himself offended by it, thus "offensive" is defined subjectively by the hearer. Our American heritage from the Bill of Rights is staunchly opposed to such encroachments.

But did you know that there's no freedom of speech in heaven--no boasting.

Eph. 2:8-9 declares: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Elsewhere, Paul writes, "For the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith."  

"For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God" (Romans 4:2). "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,  so that no man may boast before God" (I Cor. 1:27-29). 

Jeremiah 9:23-24: but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,  so that no man may boast before God."

Do you get the idea? God hates boasting.

THE FIRST BOAST IN THE UNIVERSE


Lucifer was the first to boast, and, interestingly enough, his bragging concerned five things he planned to do:

‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’

PAUL'S PROPENSITY

Paul had an area of weakness in his sin nature: a propensity to brag. This bent toward bragging was a serious matter, so serious that God blocked it and Paul was honest about what God did. He describes it in II Corinthians 12:7: "Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself!" That's what bragging is, it's "exalting myself," and wasn't that what Satan did? Bragging is such a serious affront to God that its prevention necessitated a thorn in the flesh for Paul.

IT'S OURS TOO

We are so curved in on ourselves, bragging wasn't only Paul's problem; it's ours. To listen to some preachers/missionaries/evangelists, everyone they come in contact with trusts Christ as Savior or finds himself "put down" by his keen intellect. Then there are those who never let us forget that they overcame smoking or some other bad habit; they incessantly tell us of the riches they accumulated because they were such good Christians that they tithed the gross and not the net. (Yet, truth be told, their largess came in spite of their tithing.)

IT'S ALL OVER THE PLACE

Every political campaign is one boast after another. This candidate is gong to "Bring us together.Another is going to "Make America Great Again," Then that one will bring "Hope and Change." The next one is going to send us to college and make others pay our tuition. There's an old saying for someone who overestimates himself: "He believes all his geese are swans."

Our sports heroes sorely lack a Lou Gehrig humility. It's catching. Those we make our pop culture heroes tear down their barns to build bigger and more impressive ones; they buy a new car or two every time they change their socks. Their want their possessions to do the bragging for them. Their conspicuous consumptions are their silent boasts.

THE BOWER BIRD

The male bower bird is so desperate for female attention that he builds an elaborate nest with incredible skill, featuring incredible colors. The birds use trash and garbage to create beautiful works of art. They choose objects of brilliant blues and whites, things colorful with which to build their bower.

All of this is to attract attention and it works. Such is the human race with it's innate desire to say, "Hey! Look at me! And while you're looking, I'll tell you all about me." It reminds me of the author who was going on and on about his accomplishments and his plans. Finally, he said to his friend, "Well, that's enough about me. What do you think about my latest book?"

NO IMMUNITY

No one of us is immune. I was once in the home of a very fine Christian man, a preacher/speaker/writer well-known in Christian circles and whenever I was with him (very rarely), I always enjoyed his company and his keen wit. Once, while visiting with him in his home, he asked me a really, really strange question: "Would you like to see the place where I mail my books from?" (I silently pardoned his ending a sentence with a preposition.)

I had given him no hint that I was interested in his postal affairs; they seemed mundane and inane to me anyway. Matters of the USPS aren't of consequence to me.

I wondered why I needed to see the place of mailing, but agreed. So we made our way through the house into his garage. Sure enough, there were the books he'd written and the postage meter on which he weighed the packages and by which he affixed the proper postage. His garage was his post office, but that wasn't a big deal to me, or anyone else, most likely. Yawn.

But I suspect that's not what he really wanted me to see in that garage because in the garage from which he mailed the books was his car, a "Car" with a capital C. But what a person drives is wasted on me--I don't know anything about cars and I don't care anything about cars (except when mine has a problem). They mean nothing to me, so it was a wasted trip into the garage.

I think he wanted me to see his new BMW convertible (or whatever it was) so it could be a silent brag, one that exalted its owner. It didn't work because he didn't know how little attention I pay to automotive trinkets, his or anyone's. (But I would pay maximum attention had he taken me into his garage and shown me Mickey Mantle's autographed bat or Roger Staubach's cleats!) 

Like I said, he was a mighty fine fellow and a true servant of the Lord, but he, like we all, have that inbred bower bird tendency to exalt ourselves or certainly, at the very least, we crave to do so.

God will not allow boasting in heaven. (Without our sin natures, we won't even think of such a thing.) His plan of salvation won't allow it--we just receive by faith, without cost to us, the free gift of the work of His Son for us.

Instead of self-exaltation, we can practice today what we'll be doing in heaven by following the psalmist who wrote: "My soul will make its boast in the Lord." And the words of the wise man, "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips."