Tour Guides for Everlasting Joy!
"The places you take your children will influence them for the rest of their lives. You parents are their tour guides . . . I hope to encourage you to make your local church the center of your family's schedule and priorities."
This is how Scott Brown begins his book, The Family at Church: 20 Days to Transform Your Local Church Experience (p. 27). Our church family is reading this together during the month of October. At the end of each week (5 readings / chapters per week), I will offer some of the statements from each chapter that I found most personally edifying, challenging, and needed. I will do so with minimal commentary, so as to simply let readers continue to prayerfully soak up these principles and truths and exhortations, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God in Christ and the good of our families and church.
There’s No Crying In Baseball!
The famous line in the movie A League of Their Own (1992), uttered by the coach (played by Tom Hanks) of an all-girls baseball team was, "There's no crying in baseball!"
One can only imagine how politically incorrect such a line would be considered, at least by some, in today's wacky American society. The rebuke of the outward expression of female emotion via crying assumes some things to be true, doesn't it?
- Baseball, as played throughout history by men, is not a sport where emotions may be acceptably expressed by crying.
- If women are going to play baseball, a man's sport, then they must conform to the rules, spoken or unspoken.
- Men and women are different (and the coach's insensitivity to it only bolsters the fact).
Abortion: An Issue of States’ Rights or Human Rights?
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The 10th Amendment to the US Constitution. How does it apply to abortion? This, as always, at least in my lifetime, is a hot-button issue in this year's election cycle. The recent GOP Debate highlighted it yet again. With Roe rightly now struck down by SCOTUS, the issue has only gotten hotter. Debate Moderator, Martha MacCallum, asked a question which began with a faulty premise: "Abortion has been a losing issue for Republicans since the Dobbs decision." She then cited the actions of six ridiculously pro-abortion States, while ignoring the twenty-five (25) States that have enacted strong pro-life laws since the Roe reversal. Shame on you, Martha. You know better!
Lions and Tigers and Bears . . . and Conspiracies, O My!
"For the Lord spoke to me with His strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, 'Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread" (Isaiah 8:11-12).
Bitter-Sweet Father’s Day; Bitter-Sweet Days
Yesterday, June 16th, 2023, my Dad would have turned 77 years old.
That's ancient for a McWhorter man in my clan. My daughters do not like me to mention it, but fact is, genetics matter. They matter greatly. And to my knowledge, no McWhorter man in my clan has lived beyond the age of 72 for at least the last four generations, and perhaps well beyond.
Yesterday was sobering for me.
A New Algorithm
Just a few minutes ago, as I scarfed down a turkey sandwich during my lunch break, something spooky happened. I was eating my lunch while enjoying one of my favorite duck hunting shows on the Outdoor Channel. A commercial flashed across the TV screen promoting Ole Smokes Coffee Company. It caught my attention because I have recently come to cherish (yes, that's the right word), fire and wood roasted coffee. My daughter just bought me some from Summer Moon Coffee. So yummy, but I digress. This blog post is not an ad for coffee, I promise!
Get Out of the Shallows
Of all the books I read last year, the Bible excepted, one has made an indelible impression upon me. I try to read 2-3 books a month, in addition to my normal weekly reading that is focused upon sermons and Bible lessons. And this book reading does not include online reading of blogs and the such. The vast majority (over 90%) of my reading is theological and doctrinal, nonfiction. It's not that I am personally against fiction, I simply don't have time for it.
Baby Boxes: Worth Celebrating?
Several years ago, the movie The Drop Box about a South Korean Pastor brought to the forefront an idea now commonly called "Baby Boxes." The State of Kentucky recently passed a Baby Box law, and the first baby was dropped off in February (https://www.foxnews.com/us/first-infant-anonymously-dropped-off-kentucky-baby-box-surrender-location). The idea is simple enough:
Critical Theory Comes to Counseling
"If you are being counseled by a church to stay and die in a relationship that is mentally, emotionally, spiritually, sexually, financially or physically abusive, trust God and walk away from that deceived ministry. God's plans are to prosper you and not to harm you, and don't let a flying monkey, toxic patriarchal misfit, or abuser friendly ministry persuade you otherwise."
This was the counsel a Christian woman recently received. From another Christian friend who attends a different church. This friend no doubt means well. But she is sorely in error. She is herself deceived. She is a "miserable physician" to quote the old man Job.
Let me explain further. And let me warn my few readers of the insidious danger lurking within such misguided counsel.
Catastrophism Evidenced
When you and I look at the earth's geologic features all around us, we are looking at evidence of God's judgment on mankind's sin.
"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you" (Genesis 3:17).
This was the curse God pronounced upon Adam for his sin. The creation, the very ground, is cursed. From that day onward, what we call "natural disasters" or more accurately "acts of God" would become commonplace. What we call "famine" and "drought" and "floods" would become commonplace. Wars would now scar and scorch the earth. And, in the year 2023, chemical spills from train derailments.
The curse leaves its mark everywhere.