Dumb Laws

Here is a list of laws regarding Sunday that are still on the books in some US states and cities.

In Denver it is illegal to drive a black car on Sundays.
In Hartford Connecticut it is illegal to kiss your wife on Sunday.
In Oregon you may not eat ice cream on Sunday.
In Marion oregon ministers are forbidden from eating garlic or onions before delivering a sermon.
Providence Rhode Island forbids selling toothpaste and toothbrush to the same customer on Sunday.
Nicholas County WV does not allow a member of the clergy to tell jokes or humourous stories from the pulpit during a church service.
In Georgia no one can carry an ice cream cone in their back pocket if it is Sunday.
In Columbus Georgia you cannot carry a chicken by it's feet down Broadway on Sunday.
Florida has a special law that prohibits unmarried women from parachuting on Sunday.
In Idaho it is against the law to ride a merry-go-round on Suncays while Boston forbids the eating of peanuts in church and taking a bath on Sunday.
In Trenton NJ pickels are not to be consumed on Sundays.

And then there is this classic: In Ohio it is illegal to fish for whales on Sunday.

When the Law is looked upon as a list rather than a whole then people will come up with their own rules has to how to keep the Ten Commandments. Why don't we let the Word of God speak.

Last Lesson

Tonight was our last lesson on the Ten Commandments. I will still continue to blog as I work through Joshua. There were so many lessons I learned. What started out as a reaction to Grace Walk turned into eleven lessons that were deeper, wider, higher and richer than I ever imagine. I do not think I can look at the Ten Commandments the same again. My thanks to Mike who partnered with me through these lessons. What a joy to work with him and I appreciate how much he taught me. God bless you Mike as you take your needed Sabbath rest.

Shameless Commerce

I love to listen to Car Talk on US Public Radio. One of the things they do is give away a prize that can be used in their shameless commerce division. At least they are honest about it. Some of the things that I see advertized by Christians make you shake your head. There is the WWJD bookmark, the Prayer of Jabez mug, the Purpose Driven Life journal and thousand more including T-shirts that advertize everything.
The other day my wife found this gem in the jewelry for the thrift store while she was shorting and cleaning.


Now I am not sure what that little braclet sold for but here is a plastic braclet that has all ten of the commandments hanging from your wrist. Makes you want to rush right out and buy one, doesn't it?

Demas and the Deceit of Riches

One of the sad stories in the New Testament is the story of Demas. In Philemon Paul describes Demas as a fellow-worker. In Colossians he sends greetings from Demas but in 2 Timothy Paul says, "for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica." A ministry is lost because someone loved this world more than he loved the Lord.

Grace Walk

A number of weeks ago I wrote a report on the book "Grace Walk" by Steve McVey. Though I found the premise of the book to be something I agreed with I did find his approach to be more of a knee jerk reaction to a life of legalism. He often made it sound that the problem was the Law but that is not true. If you read the New Testament carefully to realize very quickly that it is us that is the problem and not the Law. One cannot blame the "Do not walk on the grass" sign for the fact that we wanted to walk on the grass. The sign only woke the sinful nature that is in each of us. No one can tell me what I can or cannot do.That problem is the fact that we want to be on the throne of our lives. The Ten Commandments make it very clear that the problem is our inablity to keep the Law and not the Law itself. One thing is that we do not understand the Law. The purpose of the Law shows us what God is like. The effects of the Law show us that we need a Saviour. We are by nature undisciplined and that is why Paul told us that we are to discipline ourselves to Godliness. Let us not blame the sign for our disobedience. If you want to read my report on Grace Walk you can send me an email and I will send it to you.

Happy Birthday Son

Today is our third son's birthday. When he was born 27 years ago we had no idea what he would do for a living, where he would live or anything else. Even five years ago we had no idea but today he is a police officer. I wonder if we would need police officers if people took the Ten Commandments seriously? I know that we would need some officers to help us in situations that come our way because we live in a fallen world but so many times the police officer's time is taken up with lying, stealing, and other violations of the Ten Commandments. All of this starts in the heart that does not trust in our God.
I am proud of my son. I am proud of what he does and I know he does it well. I am even more proud in who he is. God bless you son as you uphold the laws of our land. Happy birthday.

Justice System

PROSECUTOR KYM L. WORTHY made some interesting comments in her press conference following the charges laid by her office against Mayor Kilpatrick of Detroit. She said:"You know the fundamental principles of the justice system are fairly simple – they aren’t hard. We learned them all as children:
Tell the truth
Take responsibility for your actions
Admit when you are wrong
Be fair and play fair
Don’t take or use things that aren’t yours
There are consequences for bad behavior
Even children understand that lying is wrong. If a witness lies, innocent people
can go to jail or prison, people can literally get away with murder, civil litigants
who deserve money may not get it or may get money they don’t deserve. And
lying cannot be tolerated even if a judge or jury sees through it."

The Law of Christ

In Galatians 6:2 we read, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." What is this Law of Christ? In Matthew we read: Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus also told His disciples in John 13:34, 35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

What do you desire?

There is a wonderful verse in Hebrews that talks about our desires.
"Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." Hebrews 11:16
God is not ashamed of those that desire what He has prepared for them. If we desire something we usually buy it, make it, ask someone to give it to us as a gift, steal it or obtain it through our own efforts. However, God first made the inheritance for us and then we are to desire it above all else. His part was to make it. Our part is to desire it. The result is that He will not be ashamed to be called our God.

The Most Toys

I think we have all seen this bumper sticker:
Then there is this one in response:


Someone wisely said, "The things that are important are what money cannot buy and what death cannot take away."

Bookends

The first and the tenth commandment are wonderful bookends for the Ten Commandments. The first commandment tells us that there is only one God and we are to worship and adore Him. Anything else is a false God. Then the tenth commandment reminds clearly that we cannot look at the commandments as a list and say we have "kept all these from our youth, what more do you expect of us?" but it strikes right to the thoughts and intents of our heart. When we covet we replace God with the god self. We cannot have one God and then covet something of another person.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

For 12 years Robin Leach hosted a program on television called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The show featured the extravagant lifestyles of wealthy entertainers, athletes, and business moguls. Why did we watch it? We have always been fascinated with how the rich and famous live. We may have dreamed of what we would do if we had the kind of money they had. We may have dreamed of the extravagant lifestyle. If we only had their money, their fame, their success then we wouldn't have these problems. The interesting thing about the show is that we didn't really see the people enjoying their possessions. I am sure that they did but I am also sure that their possessions brought about a series of other problems. It is one thing to look at their lifestyle and another to look and desire that lifestyle. Psalm 16:6 says it well. "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance."

Desires

The tenth commandment deals with our desires. The problem is not that we have desires but that we desire the wrong things or persons. We desire wealth on earth rather than treasures in heaven. We desire need to exchange the lesser for the greater, the temporal for the eternal. When we covet we have replaced God with another god. It is not that desires need to be eradicated from our life completely because that would be Buddhism and not Christianity but instead our desire must be in Christ.

The Ninth Commandment

Last Sunday night Mike Pankrac and I did a round table discussion on the ninth commandment. You can listen to our discussion by going to http://gdac.mypodcast.com/ and March 16 PM.

Enough

G. K. Chesterton said, "There are two ways to get enough, one is to accumulate more and more and the other is to desire less." In the 1920’s, a reporter asked John Rockefeller: “How much is enough?” His answer was fascinating: “Just a little bit more.”

Jars of Clay

We have now come to the last of the Ten Commandments. Just in case you could go down the list and check off the other nine saying I have never broken these commandments we come to the one that says, "Don't covet". Coveting is once again about trusting God. We like to think that we know better than God about what we need. However, Paul reminds us that true treasure is found in a jar of clay. To remind me of this I have a clay vase that sits on my dresser. Here are some of the things that are in that jar of clay. There is a watch that doesn't run any more but is engraved with the words, "Love Marjory 25 12 72" This is the first Christmas gift given to me by my wife after we were married. There are two nickels dated 1944 and 1951 that remind me of when I was born and when Marjory was born. There are five pennies date 1975, 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1986 which are the years when each of our children was born. I have a penny from 1967 which reminds me of the great country I live in. I have Sunday School pins from both the Penticostal church and the Christian and Missionary Alliance which reminds me of the great teaching I received as a child. I have a metal from the Mathematics Contest which reminds me of the years I spent teaching Mathematics. There are two swimming patches that I earned as an adult having never learned to swim as a child. There are three pins from Christian Service Brigade and Pioneet clubs because I worked with children in our church for many years. And finally there is a "Fish Pin" to remind me of my Saviour.
I know that there should be other treasures added like something from the Philippines for the year that we spent teaching at Faith Academy; some reminders of my four grandchildren which must be included in the real treasures of life; and maybe something from Bibles for Missions which has been my work in retirement.
However, I know that the real jar of clay is this body that seems to develop more lines and scars as it gets older but in this jar dwells the gift of eternal life and the very presence of God the Holy Spirit. How can we not trust God when we have true treasure in an old clay pot?

Early Easter

This year Easter is the earliest it has been since 1913. Easter is determined by the Sunday following the first full moon following the equinox. Therefore Easter can occur between March 22 and April 25 usually occuring around April 15.
There was a group who tried to fix the date of Easter and the date that was suggested was to correspond to earth day. In this the signifance of Easter could be lost to a secularized world.
Why do I write about Easter on a blog that deals with the Ten Commandments? First, we see very quickly that we cannot keep the commandments and if we had to keep the Ten Commandments to earn heaven then heaven would be empty. However, because of the cross and Easter there is grace to approach our God and to find favour in our time of need. Second, just as the world would like to push the Ten Commandments out of the public forum so they would like to push Christ out of Easter and make Easter about "Mother Earth" and eggs and bunnies. The Ten Commandments are offensive to the world because they speak of the exclusivity of God. Easter is offensive because it speaks of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ.

The Innocent Man

I am currently reading John Grisham's non-fiction book, The Innocent Man. One thing that is so evident in the book is how quick people were to bring false evidence or believe false evidence if it would benefit them. The Bible is clear that no one is to be convicted upon the evidence of one person and each of the people bring evidence must be interviewed seperately. This did not happen to Ron Williamson.

Lies and Statistics

When our oldest son was about 9 years old he had to do a project for school on a Russian Composer. He choose to write about Aram Khachaturian. He produced a project to be proud of with interesting stores and statistics. When his mother asked him where he got the information he said that he had made it all up. Edmond Morris wrote the biography of Ronald Reagan and much of the material he had in his book was fiction rather than fact because he thought it would make more interesting reading.
I taught High School and College Mathematics and one of the courses I taught was Statistics. Statistics can help us in understanding data but it can also mislead us. For example, someone did a study and found that the more churches there are in a community the more bars there are. His conclusion was that either people who drank felt guilty and needed to go to church or people who endured boring sermons needed a drink to refresh themselves. Of course both of those conclusions are incorrect as there is a third factor that needed to be included and that was the size of the town.
Should we believe statistics or are they lies told in a scientific form? Someone once said that 93.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot. When doing a survey questions asked one way can lead to an entirely different conclusion than if the questions were asked differently.

Trust

The Ten Commandments are about trusting God and certainly we see the element of trust in the ninth commandment. In a world where we cannot trust our neighbour, our courts or our government we find that people will not even trust their God. Satan is the father of lies and he tells us that we cannot really trust God but we need to remember that God is the God of all truth.

But it Works!

One of the big lies we face everyday is that of advertizing. Buy this car, this soft drink, this product and you will be happy. It is as if happiness could be found in a car or in a bottle. Is there truth in advertizing? Maybe the closest comes with Buckley's Cough Syrup, "It tastes terrible but it works."

The Big Lie

I typed in "the big lie" into google and I got Hitler, Hussan, George Bush and many others. However, I think the big lie is Satan convincing people that every path leads to God and there is no need to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and Saviour. With this lie Satan not only deceives people but they fail to acknowledge the author of all truth. It is very simple, either Jesus Christ is Who He said He is or He is telling us a lie. If He is the truth as He says He is then He is the only way to heaven for no one comes to the Father except through Him.

Finders Keepers - Not According to this Employee or the Bible.

The following story by the Associated Press was reported on Yahoo News.

SoCal thrift store worker returns $30g

Sun Mar 9, 6:13 AM ET

A thrift store worker in Southern California says she didn't think twice about returning $30,000 she found in donated clothing.

Barbarita Nunez was sorting clothes on Tuesday at the Veterans Thrift Store when she found a small box. Inside was an envelope of cash. Nunez said at first she thought the money was fake. But just in case, she gave it to her supervisor.

The money turned out to belong to a woman who had recently died. It was returned to her family, who gave Nunez a cash reward.

Nunez said she will send some of the reward to Mexico so her mother can have an eye operation and will use the rest to buy a digital camera.

Doing what is right.

I think all of us at one time or another have been victims of robbery. Just a few months ago someone broke the window on my van and stole a camera from the car. It was in the middle of the day, in a church parking lot, in front of windows where there were people who could see what was going on. When we were in the Philippines I had my wallet stolen by a workman who came to deliver water to our house. Fortunately we were able to get the wallet back without losing anything from it.
But how many times have we been in a position to steal something. One day I went into the bank and put my card in the bank machine to withdraw money. Before I started I noticed sixty dollars in the machine that the person before me had forgotten to take. Fortunately the person was still in the bank and I was able to give her the money. Another time I purchased some items from the store including five quarts of milk. When I got home I saw that I had only been charged for four quarts. The next time I was in the store I told the clerk to charge me for an extra quart. She asked me why I would do that since no one would know what had happened. I told her, "I know." Also I could have said, "and God knows."

Taking Advantage

The other day someone said to me that they were afraid that a customer at our BfM store was taking advantage of us. I cannot get too upset if someone takes advantage of me if that is the only advantage they may ever get in their life.

Who is the Victim?

I have been robbed a few times but the one time I was robbed where I was not the only victim was when I was teaching High School in Thunder Bay. I was teaching a senior Mathematics class and it was the day before the big test at the end of a unit of study. I had just learned that some of my students would be gone the next day so they had requested that they write the test early. I had a file with the tests on my desk and the students were studying, working in groups, working at the black board and asking questions as they prepared for the test. At the end of the class one student dropped a note on my desk which told me to check the test file as one of the students had taken a test from the file. The next day I confronted the class telling them that one of the test was missing and I needed to know who took it. After several days in which the student services and the administration was involved one the students came to me and told me that she had taken the test. The administration had already made the decision that she would receive a 0% for that test. As I talked to her she had not realized that what she had done would hurt anyone. However, the student who had left me the note told me later that he had done that because he felt that she was getting an unfair advantage over the other students and they were competing for placement in University. He also told me that though this student was a good friend of his he felt that what she had done had both hurt the class and had hurt me. He said it was wrong for her to do that to him, the others and to me. I had great respect for the student who came forward to make known the incident. Who was the victim and who suffered for the crime?

Just Do It (Or Don't Do It).

There are times that will go to a store such as Walmart to save money and there are times that I would rather pay the extra money than shop there. Much of this feeling comes from the where the cheaper products come from. Christians have always been split about whether it is right or wrong to buy materials made in third world countries. Those that say we shouldn't say that we are exploiting the workers in those countries many of whom are children. Those that say we should say that we are helping the economy of those countries and thus helping them prosper. Most of the time we shop in those places because we just want to save money. If we are shopping there just to benefit ourselves then we should stop. Exploiting others for our own personal gain is wrong.
It is reported that in the year after Michael Jordan retired (the second time), he earned more endorsing Nike shoes than all the workers in Malaysia who made the shoes. Contrast this with Chris Webber, who was also a pro basketball player, who severed ties with Nike because the refused to lower the price of its basketball shoe named after Webber. "How can I charge that price for my shoe when I speak to all those inner-city kids and preach to them?" THe shoes, priced at $140, actually cost Nike $5 to make in foreign manufacturing markets.
The eighth commandment forbids us to take advantage of another person for personal gain. Thanks for your example Chris Webber.

Honest but not Faithful

A few years ago a couple went into McDonalds and order a lunch to go. They took their lunch outside to eat on the grass and when they opened their bag they found that instead of giving them their food the clerk had accidently given them the money for the deposit from the day before. They took the money back to the clerk and explained what had happened. The manager was so impressed that he wanted the newspaper to run a story about their honesty. The couple quickly said no to that as they did not want their picture in the paper as they were not married to each other but were actually having an affair.

Society and Trust

When I was growing up we never locked our doors or our cars. Maybe it was because it was rural Saskatchewan but we trusted our neighbours. When my parents moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario they continued that trust. My father even went to England for six weeks and never locked his house when he left. Today we lock everything. Sit in a parking lot of a store for a few minutes and hear the chirping of the cars as people press their lock buttons on their remotes twice so that they can be sure that their cars are locked. We are surprised if we leave our cars unlocked that no one bothered to take anything. I volunteer at the local Bibles For Missions Thrift Store and many things are locked up around the store not only to protect against stealing by the customers but also from the staff. Many of these staff members are legalistic about keeping the Ten Commandments but when it comes to something that has come in that they want they will take it or pay a small amount for it without having another person price it. Where has the trust gone?

Come to Church and win a new car

When we were driving through Georgia last week we heard an ad for a church (an evangelical church) that invited people to come to their church and enter their name and they could possibly win a new car. I do not wish to comment on the marketing ploy used by that church but I also heard a church advertise on the Detroit station to buy tickets on a classic car and help raise money for their homeless shelter. I wonder waht George Mueller or Hudson Taylor would have said about their methods? Instead of trusting God to be their provider these churches have followed the ways of the world.

Jehovah Jireh

One of the things that I have learned by studying the Ten Commandments is that they show us how much God cares for His people. When He said, "You shall not steal" He was saying much more than we have the right of ownership. He is really saying, "I am the Lord your God who provides for you, can you trust Me in that?" I have learned a great deal about trusting God from the study of the commandments. When God tells us to honour Him by observing the Sabbath rest He is telling us that He will provide for us as we trust Him.