America is moving and removing the boundary stones....
Proverbs 22
1 A good name is more desirable than great riches;to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
2 Rich and poor have this in common:
The LORD is the Maker of them all.
3 The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
4 Humility is the fear of the LORD;
its wages are riches and honor and life.
5 In the paths of the wicked are snares and pitfalls,
but those who would preserve their life stay far from them.
Saying 5
28 Do not move an ancient boundary stone
set up by your ancestors.
Proverbs 23
Saying 10
9 Do not speak to fools,
for they will scorn your prudent words.
Saying 11
10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone
or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
Proverbs 24
Saying 29
19 Do not fret because of evildoers
or be envious of the wicked,
20 for the evildoer has no future hope,
and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.
When God repeats Himself, it is no accident. As the Jews were quite careful with copying the scriptures, it is obvious that the admonition to not "move an ancient boundary stone" is not an accidental repetition but is rather a means of underlining the concept. Boundary stones were set out to mark out the property lines that were agreed upon by contract amongst men. To move them would be to defraud the owner.
In society, God set up boundary stones in the Law, prohibiting some actions, admonishing people to worship God and to love their neighbors, and so on and so forth. Many centuries later our Founding Fathers depended upon these same boundary stones to set up the laws of the land. Never in his wildest dreams would Thomas Jefferson or George Washington imagine that society would try to move the boundary stones of marriage (for all of human history the joining of a man and a woman) or murder (by attacking our most helpless citizens while they are still in the womb) and many other precepts of the Judeo-Christian ethic It would be unthinkable to them that society would decline to the stage of the inhabitants of Canaan before the Children of Israel took back the Promised Land. Then Canaanites worshipped creatures and false gods and sacrificed children on alters and engaged in sexual sins both privately and in public rituals. Now in the USA so many people, including a large number of our legislators, judges, academics, scientists and celebrities fully endorse and even fight to move the boundary stones of ethics and morality!
Because the Bible tells me the fate of the wicked who do these things and aid others to do these things, I am not concerned about ultimate justice. God is Judge and He will judge rightly...those who fight against God in this life will beg on their knees for a second chance after they have thrown their temporal lives away and they will spend the rest of eternity in a state of perpetual death.
Revelation 20:12-14 (New King James Version)
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
So my only chance to reach out to people is while they still live. Those of you who agree with these wicked modern attacks on morality and do them are in great peril. So I appeal to you to reconsider your lives.
and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.
Yes, if you persist in doing evil and living in contempt of God you will pay. So therefore I ask you to consider the phrase "no future hope." You see, Christians have a future hope, we will live with Christ in a new heaven and a new earth where sin is done away with and all evil has been banished. God will have his world renewed without sin, for Jesus Christ has paid the price for sin and risen to lead the way for all who believe and trust in Him. Christians also have a philosophy that applies to this lifetime, in that we are to love others as we love ourselves. So the Christian philosophy is to worship and follow God and to obey God by living according to His precepts.
Since we know that the Universe had a beginning then we know it requires a First Cause...unless you believe in multiverses or the concept that life is but a dream or perhaps that we are all simply characters in a massive video game and other such nonsense. All of the basis of Darwinism, every aspect of it, is speculative and doesn't provide the simplest and most logical answer to the questions of life and meaning and existence. How did we get here? Why are we here? Where did all this stuff come from and why does it all work? Why do we live when no one can find a way that life could come from non-life, in fact it is statistically impossible beyond any possibility at all. Compared to the odds against winning Powerball, life on Earth coming about by chance is like comparing the land masses of the entire globe to a grain of sand...no, even that is too conservative. Naturalistic Materialism not only makes no sense, it is crummy philosophy. It is bad for society and it is bad for the individual. The pathetic hopelessness of "No Exit" by Sartre or "Something Happened" by Heller or the magical baloney of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Pirsig are all simply crappy neurotic precursors to clinical depression or an invitation to substitute fantasy for reality.
One reason I continue to present evidence supporting creation as historically documented in the Bible is because people need to know that there is a better choice than *poof* for the truth of it all. There are simply no absolutes in the Naturalistic Materialistic world. There is no firm grasp of right or wrong. There is no purpose for your life. You are born you die and you do stuff in between and then you are eventually forgotten. Does that work for you? Really? Not for me, sorry.
John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Another Proverbs reference:
Proverbs 20:27 (New King James Version)
27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD,
Searching all the inner depths of his heart
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Searching all the inner depths of his heart
God can see you inside of there, He hears your thoughts, knows your pains and desires, and remember that Jesus became a man so that He could understand all of your temptations and live the sinless life you should have led and then paid the price you should have paid so that you would have the eternal destination God had destined you to have! If you have a dead spirit, it remains God's way in to know you better than you know yourself. If you are born again, a new creature, you have welcomed the Holy Spirit to live within you and be your guide and strength.
There is nothing hidden from God. I find this to be incredibly liberating. I do not try to hide anything from God because I cannot anyway. Since I have asked Him to live in me in then His Spirit is with me always, guiding and leading and prompting me to help me resist sin and do good. I do not always follow the leader, I do not always think pure thoughts, I do not always do right...yet I know God knows my weaknesses and helps me win most of the battles.
For this reason and to follow God I also live a very transparent life in front of my family and friends. The guy at work is the guy at home is the guy at church is the guy in the automobile. Oh, it was hard to work on my lead foot. And oh, it is hard to stifle my pride and not be a sarcastic grump on my blog. So many comments cry out for being sliced up with a rapier wit and yet, when I really come down hard to defend myself instead of defending God then I am wrong. So behind the keyboard and behind the steering wheel are two places I have trouble obeying, more than most.
But then I have been transformed from a drunk druggie who lived for himself into someone who has at least three outreach ministries that I give my time and effort to for no monetary gain already. When I see 3, 4 or even 6 thousand visitors to this blog in one week's time I realize it is worth it. When I wade into the political muck trying to clean up the Republican side while firing broadsides at the liberals it pays me nothing and causes more stress and trouble than I need to have. When I mentor a student or when I am teaching the small group or the entire high school youth group I must prepare powerpoints and pull material together into a cohesive whole while asking God to lead. In all these things I am seeking to please God and not myself. If it was about me, I would not blog nor mentor nor deal with politicians nor spend hours working with teens.
I was offered paid positions working for a sports team, twice so far, and both times I turned the offers down even though I could use the money. But I would have had to abandon my blogs and my ministries for the money. I love sports and I love fantasy sports and so you might think it was a hard decision. But really it wasn't. It was cool to be asked...but no I must follow God first!
Psalm 37:4Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
But God gives you the desires of your heart. Not that you want to be rich or famous, but rather when you worship Him and seek His will he gives you the love for what He has planned for you. It is God that has given me love for teenagers, to help them grow. It is God who has given me love for the propagandized, to help them see that Creationism is fully science and fully comprehensible. It is God who has given me the love of country and way of life to fight. There are famous people who know my name and with whom I sometimes have conversations or trade phone calls or emails. I work behind the scenes so I am not famous, for I do not run for public office. I am an officer for a couple of well-known organizations but it all is for the sake of country and for the American people. Because God has given me the love to give of myself even to people who despise and mock me and make false statements about me. This is why I will not quit. I have mission fields. Missionaries minister from love and dedication. We know missionaries who have been on the field for decades now, they have become part of the countries and the people they were called to live with and they will likely die in those countries, serving God with their last breath.
God has richly blessed me with a big family, all Christians, and the man who led me to Christ is still ministering to others and sends me emails all the time. My teenagers are awesome, and I rejoice in their big wins in football games or swimming or their performances in musicals or as they go off on mission trips or college. I pray for them when they are in difficult times. I laugh with them, I admonish them or even scold them and kid with them and feed them massive amounts of pizza if I have them over for football or something. I encourage them to reach out and be real Christians in words and deeds and that begins with thoughts and habits.
Let me encourage you. Some of the most devoted Atheists can be converted to Christianity. My old buddies in the drug gang and my old friends who knew me before I moved to my previous city would never imagine me being a preacher or teacher. But it happened. So anyone can be redeemed! This means you.