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.
Posts Tagged ‘Faith in practice’
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”
Thirteenth Sunday of Pentecost-B-August 31
Problem pregnancies. Our society glorifies sex but does not warn girls about the dangers. Pro-abortion crisis pregnancy centers prey on such girls by promising protection against pregnancy but do not tell them that there is a high failure rate or about the multitude of sexually transmitted diseases that go with sex with multiple partners. They encourage frequent sex and profit from these girls by selling both the “protection” and “the solution to the problem” when the protection fails. As a result many girls and women find themselves pregnant and unable to care for a child. Christian crisis pregnancy centers have grown up in most cities and many larger towns to help girls caught by unwanted pregnancy. Volunteer counselors are needed to let these girls know that someone cares and is there to help them, as well as to educate them on preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases in the future. Check out “National Right-to-life” on the web.
Thirteenth Sunday of Pentecost-A-August 31
Hospital Ministry- Those in the hospital are often not there by choice. Many people hate to go to the hospital when they are sick or injured, though it is sometimes necessary. In unfamiliar circumstances, away from family and friends, and often unable to do many things they normally do. Staff do not have time to stop and chat so days are long and boring. I spent a number of times in the hospital as a child and a couple times as an adult and I don’t like it either. When I was a child, I always looked forward to the “gray ladies” (retired women who volunteered in the hospital and would bring around pop and ice cream in the afternoons and stop to talk) and the “candy strippers” named after the red and white stripped uniforms they wore(teen girls who volunteered in the hospital who brought around books, magazines, games, puzzles, and crafts in the evenings and spent time with us playing games and showing us how to make simple craft items). When I was in the hospital at age 40 for my hip replacement, no gray ladies or candy strippers came around during the week I was there. They tell me they get very few volunteers these days. Many tell me they hate to visit friends or family in the hospital because it is so depressing. If you feel hospitals are depressing, think how the patients feel. In addition, many people work and don’t have a lot of time to visit. Lastly, many people have no friends or family close by who can visit. Days are long when someone is confined to bed all day and although hospitals have TV sets, they get old after awhile.
MAGA-A-C
Our society says it doesn’t matter what you believe but all we have to do is look around us and see the difference between America in the 1950’s and America today. The values of the culture have changed and it has deeply affected our society. The liberal attacks on the value of life, the value of the rule of law, and the value of the family have destroyed the fabric of our nation and opened the door to the violence that now grips our nation. Liberal politicians see situations and grab the easiest solution. Got an unwanted baby, abort it. It doesn’t deal with the problem that created it or the girl’s problem of dealing with it afterward. Got someone shooting up a school, take away everyone’s guns. It doesn’t deal with the anger. The shooter at Sandy Hook had a propane tank filled with explosives he intended to set off which would have killed dozens of kids but police were able to take him down before he reached it. If he could not have gotten a gun, he would have set off the bomb first which would have been far more devastating. They just try to put a band aid on a gaping wound which doesn’t solve the problem, it just sweeps it under the rug. We just saw where a shooter opened fire on children in a church. It was refreshing to hear Malania Trump call for a common sense solution. We need to identify potential shooters and try to defuse the anger or get them off the streets. Though the shooter did not give specific information, he broadcast his intentions long before the incident but nobody listened. Other shooters have also openly broadcast their intentions before hand but nobody was listening, they were too intent on taking away the guns from innocent people.
MAGA-A-B
When I was young, I was not taught about God but I was taught Christian values because my parents grew up in church. When we had massive medical bills from my illness, the church did not care about us, its only concern was that we pay our tithe so my dad demanded that neither God not church be mentioned in our home. Because I had Polio and was bullied a lot, my values were basically survival putting me first, yet I held Christian values as a standard because that is what I was taught by my parents. When I met a group of Christians in high school, they cared about others, including me. They encouraged me to join a church, and I found the same love and concern there. During high school, I worked for a while in the inner-city. It was vastly different then mainstream America. Christian values were so imbedded in mainstream society that even those who did not believe in God held them as a standard. In the inner-city, there was very little belief in God. Life was basically survival of the fittest. Over the years I have seen the influence of the church decrease as it no longer teaches Christian values, and its members no longer live out those values in their daily lives. Many of those in church now view life from a self-centered view and are very little different than those who don’t attend church. That is why I wrote the series on values.
Ninth Sunday of Pentecost Aug 3
Many churches started in the inner-city when the areas were more prosperous. As the areas deteriorated, many members moved out. The churches did nothing to reach the people living around the church. Eventually, the churches were made up mostly of non-resident members who came back to worship. The small remaining congregation was no longer able to support the big building which was too expensive to maintain. Eventually the churches decided to move to the suburbs where most of their members lived. Since the remaining members were often poor and elderly, they were not able to travel to the new church. Now some churches are seeking to reach the people in the inner-city but are finding it difficult because they have to rent facilities and they are often viewed as outsiders. The people are often geared toward survival and preaching alone will not attract the people here. The church must demonstrate God’s love through tangible ministry by meeting needs and showing they care. It must go beyond merely providing food and clothes to providing job training and teaching life skills.
MAGA-M-A
The second ingredient for life is to feel needed. Without that ingredient, we may survive but not really live. There are an increasing number of people who don’t see any meaning in life. The world says you are just the result of a series of accidents of nature. A blob of tissue has no purpose, it just exists. Many people seek meaning through their work or through seeking fame or fortune, only to see it rust, vanish in a fire, or get stolen. People used to find purpose through their work and men were prone to commit suicide after they retired because they no longer had any purpose. However, today many people no longer find meaning in work and simply put in their time until they can retire and enjoy life. Unless they find something meaningful before they retire, retirement will just be a continuation of the same old struggle to survive. However, the Bible tells us that God created us for a purpose. Each person is individually molded by God and has a unique purpose. The Bible says God has given each one of us gifts for the building up of the body of Christ. When we do not use those gifts, the church suffers. The church needs to seek to help its members find their gifts and use them through meaningful employment or through volunteer work.
MAGA-L-A
There are two ingredients needed for life. I am not talking about breathing and having a heart beat, those are needed for survival. To be truly alive, someone needs to feel wanted. We are seeing an increasing number of suicides because people feel they aren’t wanted. If people feel no one cares about them, they may feel the world would be better off without them. I am reminded of a young girl. I was called to a railroad bridge because she was thinking about jumping. She had no gross disfigurement, she had not lost anyone close, and had not been jilted by a boyfriend, she just felt the world would be better off without her. She felt she was only taking up space. She felt if she ended her life, very few people would notice and those who did would probably be glad that she was gone. In our world, people are increasingly isolated. They are lonely even in a crowd. Many cannot name a single person that would miss them if they were gone. They may look normal and act normal, but they are dead inside. They go through the motions of living but they are merely surviving. I was one of those. I was just a poor crippled boy from the trailer camps. The only ones that seem to notice me were those who enjoyed bullying me, until someone told me that the God who created the world, cared about me and gave His life on the cross for me. However, they didn’t just tell me, they showed me by the way they cared. That changed my life. There are people all around you who are just going through the motions. They are surviving but not really living. One great crisis could push them over the edge to where they feel the world will be better off without them. You can help them have a new life by sharing the love of God with them.
Eighth Sunday of Pentecost -B- July 27
Public schools also are facing increased pressure to use liberal textbooks and teach false and misleading information to support liberal causes. Many have banned the Bible and moral teaching in favor of sexual license, sexual disorientation, and racially divisive teaching. In addition, many seek to turn kids against their parents to counter moral teaching. Many also allow those who are sexually confused to use the bathroom of their choice, endangering women and girls. An increasing number of parents, both Christian and those with no Christian background are turning to homeschooling and Christian schools to remove their kids from such an environment. Some schools are allowing release time where kids can leave the school property to go to churches nearby for voluntary Bible training. Other schools still allow Christian organizations and churches to have Christian clubs on campus. Churches can start Christian schools and support homeschoolers, as well as supporting Christian clubs on campus to help counter the secular teaching the kids face in class.