This Months Featured Topic
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Principle vs. Pragmatism
From Tabletalk magazine, January 2009
by R.C. Sproul
Some years ago, I drove along the Pennsylvania Turnpike about two o'clock in the morning with a friend after having spent all day at a steel corporation in eastern Pennsylvania dealing with labor management issues. My companion was a man who had lost his job as a highly paid executive in the industry for being too concerned about the welfare and dignity of the laborers in his plant. As we were making this drive in the wee hours of the morning, I noticed my friend was at the point of exhaustion, and so I asked him the question: "Why are you doing this?" He looked over at me as if to indicate that my question was a foolish one, and he replied simply: "Because it's the right thing to do."
In stark contrast to that, in this past year I have witnessed the worst type of corruption within the church that I have seen in my lifetime. I was chairing the board of a Christian institution of learning as we dealt with a question of the propriety of the teaching of one of the professors. The task of the board was to guard the purity of the doctrine of the institution. The motion was made to suspend the professor for a brief period of time in order to give him an opportunity to amend his views. As chairman, I did not vote, but the motion carried by a vote of eight to two.
During the discussion, one of the men who voted against the resolution asked this question: "Can't we deal with this question in a more pragmatic way?" Another board member responded by saying, "No, it is our responsibility to act not according to pragmatism but according to principle." The motion to suspend was passed by a margin of eight-to-two. The pragmatist who was outvoted, instead of submitting to the vote or bringing in a minority report, went around the board and did everything in his power to have the board's decision overthrown. Accomplishing this, his next move was to see to it that board members with whom he disagreed were ousted from the board. Through Machiavellian machinations of corruption, this pragmatist was able to succeed. In his wake, he left the demolition of a strategically important institution of Christian learning.
What is pragmatism? Pragmatism is the only philosophy native to America. Pragmatism eschews any hope of discovering ultimate truth. It is skeptical with respect to objective principles of righteousness and defines truth as "that which works." In this philosophy, the end always justifies the means. The driving force behind decisions within the scope of pragmatism is the force of expediency. We remember in the days of the trial of Jesus of Nazareth, two of the important players were Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate. Both men made their decisions to have Jesus executed on the basis of expediency (Mark 15:15; John 11:45-53). Caiaphas and Pontius Pilate were pragmatists with a vengeance.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a ranking senator of the United States Congress. During our discussion, I raised an ethical issue that the Senate faced at that time and asked him why the Senate didn't act on that particular issue. He replied that he agreed with me that the Senate certainly should act on it, but he added that they could not do it that year because it was an election year. I moved to my second question and asked about another issue that needed the Senate's attention. Again he agreed that it should be addressed, but not that particular year because it was an election year.
After we got to the sixth or seventh question where the mantra was repeated again ("not this year because it's an election year"), I looked at the senator and asked, "Is there anybody up here on Capitol Hill who thinks about the next generation instead of the next election?" I guess it was too idealistic of me to think that our nation's leaders would be a bit more concerned for the welfare of the nation than for their own political war chest. No nation (or Christian institution, for that matter) can survive when its leaders are driven by a spirit of pragmatism or make their decisions according to political expediency.
Expediency is an obscene word. It is the word that is ever and always at war with principle. A person who is a Christian is called of God to live by biblical principles. The principles that the Bible reveals to guide our steps are the necessary elements for authentic righteousness. Take away principle, and righteousness is slain in the streets. We need an awakening in the culture and in the church to principle - to working according to truth and to living according to biblical revelation. Without principle, the church as well as the culture will decay, and the church will become a mere echo of the unprincipled pragmatism of secularism.
Dr. R.C. Sproul is founder and president of Ligonier Ministries, and he is author of the children's book The Prince's Poison Cup.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Daily Devotions
Ethics
1 Comment- Add comment Written on 03-Feb-2009 by JVarner
February 3, 2009
ETHICS
by Charles R. Swindoll
We need heroes. I mean genuine heroes, authentic men and women who are admired for their achievements, noble qualities, and courage. Such people aren't afraid to be different. They risk. They stand a cut above. Yet they are real human beings with flaws and failures like anyone else. But they inspire us to do better. We feel warm inside when we think about this rare breed of humanity. The kind we can look up to without the slightest suspicion of deception or hypocrisy. The kind who model excellence when no one is looking or for that matter when half the world is looking.
I'm concerned that we seem to be running shy of folks like that. Certainly, there are some, but not nearly as many, it seems, as when I was a small boy. Back then I distinctly recall looking up to numerous people in various segments of society---politics, athletics, education, science, the military, music, religion, aviation---all of whom not only stood tall during their heyday, but they finished well. Society mourned their passing. This was no childhood fantasy, you understand; these were not make-believe movie idols. I can still remember my dad being just as impressed as I was with certain folks---maybe more so. Some of our father-son conversations are still logged in my memory bank. And because he was inspired, so was I.
You may be surprised to know that for any number of people, you are the person others point to. It may be in the place where you work, and no one has even told you. It may happen where you live, and no neighbor has been brave enough to encourage you by saying, "You're the one everybody watches. You're very unique. We all respect you." It may be in your school where you are admired by colleagues and peers. If you knew how many felt that way, I'm convinced you would be all the more careful how you live.
I am certain of this---if you are one of those people, then you're not like the majority. You're living differently, and I commend you for it. It takes unusual people to make a difference in our world. Mediocre people impact no one, at least not for good. But one person of truth can impact the whole world!
Reprinted by permission. Day by Day, Charles Swindoll, July 2005, Thomas Nelson, inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Purchase "Day by Day" here.
Send to a friend Service Award
0 Comments- Add comment Written on 31-Jan-2009 by JVarner
Friday, January 30, 2009
Service Award
Each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it...
—1 Corinthians 3:13
As believers, we will one day stand before Christ and our earthly works will be judged:
No one can lay any foundation other than the one that is already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will bring it to light, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test the quality of every person’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11–15)
This story is not about whether you are going to heaven. It is about what you will have to show for your life on this earth after you get there.
God will evaluate all of your accomplishments on that day. The wood, the hay, and the straw Jesus speaks of here do not symbolize gross sin as much as they represent putting more importance on the passing things of this world than on the eternal things of God.
This is not a judgment for sin. It’s a judgment of time that was spent in a worthless way. If you had more passion or more excitement for your career, for a sport, or for clothes than you had for the things of God, it’s wood. It’s hay. It’s straw. It will all be burned up and it will come to nothing.
But God sees, hears, and knows everything about you. And as you faithfully serve Him, one day in heaven He will reward you openly.
Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org.
God's Blessings
0 Comments- Add comment Written on 28-Jan-2009 by JVarner
January 28, 2009
God’s Blessings
Psalm 81
Our heavenly Father delights in meeting His children’s needs and fulfilling their desires. Yet many Christians walk through life with less than God’s best. How can we avoid missing His blessings?
Psalm 81 provides insight. The writer refers to a time when the Israelites missed out on God’s best for them. As we know from Exodus, the nation gratefully praised Him for their release from bondage. But they quickly forgot and worshiped other gods, complaining about their circumstances in the wilderness. This unhealthy pattern continued throughout the Old Testament, as the people would turn to Jehovah in time of need and then drift.
Verses 8-10 reveal God’s perspective: “O Israel, if you would listen to Me! Let there be no strange god among you . . . I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it.”
We, too, might have needs and desires that are unmet because of disobedience. Today, most people don’t worship statues, as the wayward Israelites did. Our idols are less obvious—they might include a relationship, job, hobby, or anything else we put ahead of the Lord. Even making decisions based upon what others think can be idolatry; our choices should be based upon biblical principle and the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
Ask the Lord to reveal anything that hinders your receiving His blessings. Listen carefully, and let Him help with the areas He brings to your attention. He is ready to guide you and bless you.
Benefits of Praise
0 Comments- Add comment Written on 27-Jan-2009 by JVarner
January 27, 2009
Benefits of Praise
Psalm 150
Consider your most recent prayer to the Lord. Did you spend as much time praising Him as you did making requests?
In our selfish society, many people even attend church to get needs met--singing helps emotions, sermons "feed" the flock, and the choir entertains. Our own preferences can overshadow the primary purpose the Creator has for our lives: to exalt Him.
Praise both magnifies and pleases the Lord, but we actually benefit from the practice as well. First, adoration of God modifies our estimation of "self"--it's impossible to truly elevate God while clinging to pride. Instead, we come to recognize our sin, weakness, and dependence upon Him. As Scripture tells us, the Lord's power is manifest when we show genuine humility (2 Cor. 12:10).
Next, praise appropriately humbles us, as it is a reminder of God's greatness and our dependence upon Him. But at the same time, exalting Him strengthens our sense of assurance, thereby increasing our faith. Then we are able to look beyond ourselves and our circumstances to see life from God's perspective. And consider one additional benefit of praise that involves our physical bodies: when we focus on Jesus' goodness, tension leaves and we find new strength. All these supernatural effects of exaltation are possible because as we lift His name, God is present--Psalm 22:3 tells us that He inhabits the praise of His people (kjv).
Think about the Lord's attributes and His work in your life. What can you praise Him for today?
Is Anything too Hard for the Lord?
0 Comments- Add comment Written on 25-Jan-2009 by JVarner
January 25
Is Anything too Hard for the Lord?
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Genesis 18:14
A little boy was trying to roll a rock as his father watched from a distance. The boy was heaving and sighing, but he couldn’t turn the stone over.
His dad, with a smile said, “Son, are you using all of your strength?” He said, “Yes, Daddy, I’m using all my strength.” And the father said, “No, you’re not because you have not asked me to help you. My strength is your strength.”
Sometimes we wrestle with problems and say, “I don’t know what to do.” Our Father wants us to say, “I’ve run out of my strength,” and run into His. He is there.
There is no problem too big for Jesus to solve.
Do you believe that? I hope so.
Is there a problem too big for you to solve? Give it to Jesus. He can handle it.
The Goal of God's Love May Not Be What You Think It Is
0 Comments- Add comment Written on 22-Jan-2009 by JVarner
Week of January 19
The Goal of God's Love May Not Be What You Think It Is
John Piper
Do people go to the Grand Canyon to increase their self-esteem? Probably not. This is, at least, a hint that the deepest joys in life come not from savoring the self, but from seeing splendor. And in the end even the Grand Canyon will not do. We were made to enjoy God.
We are all bent to believe that we are central in the universe. How shall we be cured of this joy-destroying disease? Perhaps by hearing afresh how radically God-centered reality is according to the Bible.
Both the Old and New Testament tell us that God's loving us is a means to our glorifying him. "Christ became a servant ... in order that the nations might glorify God for his mercy" (Romans 15:8-9). God has been merciful to us so that we would magnify him. We see it again in the words, "In love [God] destined us to adoption ... to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:4-6). In other words, the goal of God's loving us is that we might praise him. One more illustration from Psalm 86:12-13: "I will glorify your name forever. For your lovingkindness toward me is great." God's love is the ground. His glory is the goal.
This is shocking. The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy.
Take the cross of Christ, for example. The death of Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of divine love: "God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Yet the Bible also says that the aim of the death of Christ was "to demonstrate [God's] righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed" (Romans 3:25). Passing over sins creates a huge problem for the righteousness of God. It makes him look like a judge who lets criminals go free without punishment. In other words, the mercy of God puts the justice of God in jeopardy.
So to vindicate his justice he does the unthinkable - he puts his Son to death as the substitute penalty for our sins. The cross makes it plain to everyone that God does not sweep evil under the rug of the universe. He punishes it in Jesus for those who believe.
But notice that this ultimately loving act has at the center of it the vindication of the righteousness of God. Good Friday love is God-glorifying love. God exalts God at the cross. If he didn't, he could not be just and rescue us from sin. But it is a mistake to say, "Well, if the aim was to rescue us, then we were the ultimate goal of the cross." No, we were rescued from sin in order that we might see and savor the glory of God. This is the ultimately loving aim of Christ's death. He did not die to make much of us, but to free us to enjoy making much of God forever.
It is profoundly wrong to turn the cross into a proof that self-esteem is the root of mental health. If I stand before the love of God and do not feel a healthy, satisfying, freeing joy unless I turn that love into an echo of my self-esteem, then I am like a man who stands before the Grand Canyon and feels no satisfying wonder until he translates the canyon into a case for his own significance. That is not the presence of mental health, but bondage to self.
The cure for this bondage is to see that God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving act. In exalting himself - Grand Canyon-like - he gets the glory and we get the joy. The greatest news in all the world is that there is no final conflict between my passion for joy and God's passion for his glory. The knot that ties these together is the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Jesus Christ died and rose again to forgive the treason of our souls, which have turned from savoring God to savoring self. In the cross of Christ, God rescues us from the house of mirrors and leads us out to the mountains and canyons of his majesty. Nothing satisfies us - or magnifies him - more.
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.
Guiding Grace
0 Comments- Add comment Written on 21-Jan-2009 by JVarnerJanuary 21, 2009
GUIDING GRACE
by Charles R. Swindoll
In his letter to the Romans, Paul goes into great detail regarding the issue of personal freedom---greater detail than almost anywhere else in his writings. In the fourteenth chapter, for example, he sets forth four very practical guidelines that can be followed by all who are serious about releasing others in grace. My hope is that we not only learn what they are but, equally important, that we spend our days following them.
Guideline 1: Accepting others is basic to letting them be. The problem was not a meat problem; it was a love problem, an acceptance problem. It still is. How often we restrict our love by making it conditional: "If you will (or won't), then I will accept you." Paul starts there: "Accept one another!" In other words, "Let's allow each other the freedom to hold to convictions that are unlike our own . . . and accept them in spite of that difference." Those who didn't eat (called here "weak in faith") were exhorted to accept and not judge those who ate. And those who ate were exhorted to accept and not regard with contempt those who did not eat. The secret lies in accepting one another. All of this is fairly easy to read so long as I stay on the issue of eating meat. That one is safe because it isn't a current taboo. It's easy to accept those folks today because they don't exist!
Guideline 2: Refusing to dictate to others allows the Lord freedom to direct their lives. I especially appreciate the statement at the end of verse 5: "Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind." Give people room to make up their minds. Do you have a few new converts who are a part of your life and ministry? Do you want to help them grow toward maturity? Here is how: Let them grow up differently. Let them learn at their own pace, just like you had to learn, including failures and mistakes. If you really want grace to awaken, be easier on them than others were on you. Don't make up their minds---let them! Don't step in and push your weight around---give them plenty of space. Whatever you do, don't control and manipulate them to get what you want.
Be an accepting model of grace. Refuse all temptations to be a brother hasher or sister smasher. We already have too many of them roaming around the religious landscape. And nothing catches the attention of the unsaved world quicker than those times when we Christians beat up on one another. Don't think the unsaved world doesn't notice our cannibalism.
Guideline 3: Freeing others means we never assume a position we're not qualified to fill. This, in one sentence, is enough to stop any person from judging another. We’re not qualified. We lack full knowledge. How often we have jumped to wrong conclusions, made judgmental statements, only to find out later how off-base we were---then wished we could cut out our tongue.
Guideline 4: Loving others requires us to express our liberty wisely. In other words, love must rule. I'm not my own, I'm bought with a price. My goal is not to please me; it is to please my Lord Jesus, my God. It is not to please you; it is to please my Lord. The same is true for you. So the bottom line is this: I don't adapt my life according to what you may say; I adapt my life according to the basis of my love for you because I answer to Christ. And so do you.
Reprinted by permission. Day by Day, Charles Swindoll, July 2005, Thomas Nelson, inc., Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved. Purchase "Day by Day" here.
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Prayer Request
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Is anyone even READING this page anymore??? Should I stop investing my time in to something that NO ONE IS EVEN LOOKING AT? I realize some have said they LOOK but DO NOT comment! As long as it is serving a purpose I will continue but if I don't hear from some of you, I will have to assume that I am the only one remaining, and there is really no need to talk to myself online!
PRAISE THE LORD FOR YOU KAT!!! I was really encouraged with your sharing this morning at YCI. I am very proud of you and see Gods clear hand of blessing upon you. I would encourage you to continue to seek after Him whole heartedly as you prayerfully discern His will for your life. PLEASE, let me know if I can ever be a source of help and I look forward to seeing what God does in your life in the days, months, and years ahead. KEEP MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR HIS KINGDOM!!
Good Stuff! Also, I understand that HAPPY BIRTHDAY might be in order? When is the big day? and how young are you? I hope your day is special and full of Gods goodness! Happy Birthday!!!
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haha, well, the flyer was 'presented' in a rush, but if you think that thats something that would maybe draw attention, use it as you wish, or i could print more, idk, whatevers cool. :] haha
and i would definitely be open to sharing about the trip sometime in janruary! we'll have to talk about that later!
Kat thanks again for the flyer. See below comments for more. Praying for ya!
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These are few of the Links that will help you when it comes to defending your Faith. Please take the time to visit these sites, listen to broadcast, read articles, and grow in your Faith.
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http://www.answersingenesis.org/
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Merry Christmas to you too!!!!!
Yes, be praying for kathryn [and her family]!!! 
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!! (Don't forget to keep Kat in your prayers as she is away on a missions trip.)
Don't forget this Saturday night at 6pm is MOVIE NIGHT at SHS. Be sure to bring a friend it will be lots of fun!
Hey Kat, Thank you for the Flyer!! It looks great! I gave it to Aubrey to make copies. We will try to get those handed out ASAP. How did you enjoy the speaker yesterday? I'd love to hear your feedback. Talk with ya later!
Hey Kat! Good to see ya on here again. We've really got to get others to start spending some time on this page. Take your time and check out some of the broadcast & articles. Also, chime in on one of the forum questions if you'd like. Spread the word about this page, or as the website advertises, spread the jam! The Webjam! lol. anywho, we'll chat later!
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