God’s Values vs Man’s values Man looks at things from his own perspective, while God sees the whole picture. Man’s values are those that appear to benefit him and fail to realize the fact that what benefits others will ultimately benefit him. Without God, we are centered on getting things for us. If there are four people and one pie, man sees the benefit of getting the whole pie, but everyone can’t have the whole pie. There will be a struggle and only the strongest will get the pie. They all will only benefit if they divide the pie. God laid down His values in the Ten Commandments and throughout the Bible, to provide for the benefit of everyone, but they seem foolish to man. Why should we give in order to receive when all we have to do is take it. If we give, the other person may not give back, but if we take it, someone else will want to take it from us. We will only find peace and happiness as we understand the love of God and see things from His perspective. In the weeks ahead, I will be examining the various values and how God and man see them differently.
Rosh Hosanna-A
Rosh Hosanna signals the beginning of the celebration of the Fall harvest which is the final harvest of the year. After the first day when good people are rewarded. The rest have ten days to repent. This parallels Revelation where the trumpet sounds, Jesus returns and collects His chosen people, and then begins the tribulation where the rest will have one final chance to repent before the close of the final harvest of the elect. This celebration has not been fulfilled but whenever it is, it will probably occur on Rosh Hosanna. Never-the-less, we need to be ready every day because we never know when we will pass out of this world into the next and seal our fate for eternity. (For more on the holidays, see “Before Your Eyes” in “Understanding the Path We Walk” by LULU Press or “Celebrations” on Udemy)
Third Sunday of Kingdomtide-Sept 21
organized teaching-In addition to a firm foundation, members need organized teaching. Often, the preaching and the adult Sunday Schools of many churches are very haphazard with no master plan. Sermons are often chosen week by week or from a series that hits the pastor’s fancy. Adult Sunday School classes are often chosen for each quarter at random. Without a basic foundation of knowledge and without organized instruction, bits and pieces of knowledge are tossed together in a heap. Many adult church members know many things about the faith but have no way to pull it together and do not understand how it applies to their life. The church needs to draw up a blueprint of what its members need to know and teach them in an organized manner. Using the Christian calendar gives structure to teaching and helps the church provide organized teaching. By going through the Christian calendar, it goes through all the major teachings of the church each year. I have a series of courses on Udemy to teach Christian beliefs. It begins with a course on Basic Christian beliefs. Next is a course on the Celebrations and how they help members understand the faith. Next I have courses on The values laid down in the Ten Commandments., including the value of life, the value of the rule of law, and the value of the family. See promos and links under “study courses”
Politics-AB-BB
Planned Parenthood and liberals in Congress are continuing to push abortion drugs to States that do not allow abortions because the pro-life laws hurt their profits and have forced them to shut down a number of abortion centers. They continue to teach young children to engage in sex and reassure them that they can be protected by contraceptives but do not warn them that the contraceptives have a high failure rate and do not protect them against sexually transmitted diseases so they can produce unwanted babies. Then they convince them that an abortion will solve that problem. They get paid by the government to teach the sex ed classes, distribute the contraceptives, and do the abortions. Then they get paid selling the body parts of the aborted babies. They have a very profitable racket going. Now that their profits are being threatened, they are adding gender confusion to their sex ed classes and selling kids on the idea that all their problems stem from the fact that they were born in the wrong body, which is a figment of their imagination. They then reap the profits when the government pays them to administer the body altering drugs and the body altering surgeries even though there is no evidence that they are even helpful, and they do great harm to the children.
Sanctity of Life-GD-D
Many liberals are celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk, saying he got what he deserved. He never attacked anyone or belittled them, he merely asked them to defend what they believe. They hate him so much because they cannot defend their positions and they know it. The positions are selfish and self-serving and they cannot be defended because they go against what is best for everyone. I have written a series of values comparing Christian values with the values of the liberals to illustrate how irrational they are. They only make sense if you are only thinking of yourself and what is best for yourself. To them, it is alright to kill a baby, an elderly person, someone who is gravely ill or injured, or who is mentally disturbed because they see no value in those people and feel we are better off without them. They feel it is alright to eliminate those who stand in the way of their happiness and celebrate his death because he forces them to defend what they cannot defend and they don’t like being exposed as fools.
Second Sunday of Kingdomtide-Sept 14
A firm foundation- Catechism. When I began my ministry, it was common for churches to have a concentrated time of study for those coming of age, generally considered about age twelve, to give them a basic foundation of understanding of the church and its beliefs. Few churches today, particularly evangelical churches, have any organized classes for twelve year olds to teach them the basic tenets of the faith. Even children who have been in Sunday School their whole lives need a concentrated time to pull together everything they have been taught. As a result, many children today do not have even a basic foundation of knowledge and cannot build their faith as they grow older. There is also no concentrated study for those coming into the church who did not grow up in church. The result is that few adult church members today have even a basic understanding of the faith. I have developed a basic catechism course of study for new members for that purpose (Understanding the Path We Walk-see “books” on website and Basic Christian Beliefs on UdemyURL- https://www.udemy.com/course/basic-christian-beliefs/?referralCode=45EA0BA6DAD6F47E7541)