Many of us would like to think that evolution is how we came about ...even if we believe in God.

Do we claim God used evolution as the chosen, best possible alternative?

The problem with believing in evolution is ...that evolution does not have to exclude God, it advances its purpose of minimizing God.

To believe in God and evolution at the same time, would be to significantly reduce God's role in our lives.

Evolution promotes a heartless "survival of the fittest" attitude, while Creation speaks for relationship, and often insists upon it. At times we may fear being frowned upon, but God inspires boldness with love ...and a desire to stand up for the values He has impressed upon us.

These other religions, or spin-offs from faith ideas ...often form ideologies that may not even be the belief of the person it's named after.  And they promote a very limited, cold perspective of our purpose here on earth.

There is no humility in thinking that our cumulative thoughts can exceed God's wisdom.

We need to be directed, by God, for our own good.

During the telling of Creation, the Bible repeatedly says, "And God saw that it was good."

It is certainly not good to move away from God.  But we do seem to have a tendency to not seek out the best.

Our children were playing the board game Life, and many parallels came to mind.  


Each gets life insurance, and each can take stock in their lives ...to the degree each of us want to invest in various aspects of life.  


I looked at the money as time, as the saying goes, "Time is money".  


And time is actually how we decide to divide up a finite day, dispensing our priorities, and our love. 


Along with our investments in each other, we all have our accounts and accountability.  We deposit love, and we withdraw it at times.  There are mutual funds, and mutual fun.  Often we take time to invest in other things, yet expect others to maintain that which we left little time for.  


We often wonder why we are not collecting as much interest ...and we tend to blame others, stating they should have invested more to keep it growing.

An old TV show, I think it was the Waltons ...my memory is not always that good, and what I remember seeing is not what you may remember. But let's not pretend we have to exactly see, as we know God sees ...as we never exactly do.

The couple who owned the store were Mr. & Mrs. Godsey ...however you see it.  Some friends of theirs had a visitor named Octavia, but let's just call her Via.  


Mr. Godsey tells Mrs. Godsey, "I think Via is stealing from our store."  


They watch, and sure enough, Via steals a music box.  Mr. Godsey wants Via to face the music, "I'm calling the authorities, she is nothing but a common thief."  


Via admits it, and admits to stealing other things.  Mrs. Godsey contends that Via is not a thief, she suffers from cleptomania.  


Via agrees that the hospital will vouch for her, that she indeed does have a condition called cleptomania ...and she is enrolled in treatment, and is allowed to steal anything she wants.  


Via smiles at Mrs. Godsey, "You must really have a terrible life, living with that husband of yours.  Men like him, you can never please them, and they think you're never good enough.  Always looking for faults."

I have a certain belief about Martin Luther King.

I haven't researched it, but if you think I'm wrong, then you can research it ...because I feel like I shouldn't just let you let me do everything.

He was a man of action ...in the correct sense. And I was just kidding about telling you to research it yourself.  You can if you want, since I am subject to error.  But, it's not that I'm too prideful to admit an error ...I don't want to make any that could possibly lead you astray.

So, I did research it myself, and though you can't trust everything you read on the internet, Wiki is a quick way ...so,here it is:

King Sr. became leader of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in March 1931. With the country in the midst of the Great Depression, church finances were struggling, but King organized membership and fundraising drives that restored these to health. By 1934, King had become a widely respected leader of the local church. That year, he also changed his name (and that of his young son) from Michael King to Martin Luther King (though he never changed his name legally) after becoming inspired during a trip to Germany by the life of Martin Luther (1483–1546).

I will not name the 95 or 99 theses ...whatever the number was, he had lots to say.

If you figured as much ...that I wasn't going to get into that, well, you hit the nail right on the head.  

I believe the point that they both believed, is that we all can read the Bible for ourselves. We don't need all the confusion from multiple leaders, with endless interpretations.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe we need leaders ...to think that we would not, would only lead to an increased variety of interpretations.

It's sort of like gravity and planetary motion. We need gravity to hold us.

If a planet was not under the restraint of gravity, it would continue to hurl itself through space, until it would eventually crash and burn. 

Planetary motion allows a certain amount of freedom to move about, but within certain well-defined boundaries, regulated by gravity. 

I don't know, maybe magnetism has something to do with it also.

I might be stretching my point, but it seems that if we were a planet, our most satisfying moments would be the occasions when we'd find ourselves at the far-reaching limits (of our orbit).  We don't often favor being kept close.

It seems that we prefer the old concentric theory, where the universe revolves around us, instead of the fact that there is a center that we revolve around.

And though Martin Luther encouraged us to read the Bible for ourselves, he must have also understood that we need leaders ...one of which was him.

We all know there are bad leaders ...though they often don't cause us the most problems.  We know they are clearly bad leaders. My concern is with those we consider good.  

With leaders we consider to be good leaders, we have those who lead to what is right, and those who lead against that which is wrong.  Both are necessary at times, but both can become a hazard if they are just leaders ...and not fully followers also, of Him whom they should be followers of.

Those who lead us to what is right, need to lead not towards what we perceive ---but to what He has shown us.  Pastor Tom always says we are to follow no man, but the One who came to die for our sins. Pastor tells us that there is much he feels inspired to share, but we should always go to the Word.  We can be against things, but always make sure what we are for ...is stronger than what we are against.

Those who lead us to stand against, can find ourselves as those addressed in the Book of Revelation ---unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, bearing out them which are wrong and leaving our first love.

In Martin Luther's case, his struggle was with those God first showed His love towards.

“Receive Jews Cordially”

In 1523, Luther accused Catholics of being unfair to Jews and treating them “as if they were dogs,” thus making it difficult for Jews to convert. “I would request and advise that one deal gently with them [the Jews],” he wrote. “ … If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either.”

Why God Deserted Them

Fifteen years later, however, rumors of Jewish efforts to convert Christians upset him, and he wrote a treatise venting his frustration. In it, Luther concluded that converting Jews had become hopeless.  It seemed to him that God had deserted the Jews, leaving them to wander homeless without a land or temple of their own. And if this was God’s attitude, then one might with good conscience ignore the Jews. Why would God desert his own people if he did not despair of them? He had rejected them and turned his attention to the “new Israel,” the Christian church. Luther thus accepted the existing notion that the promise given to Jews was now transferred to Christians.

Measures of “Sharp Mercy”

By 1543, Luther was ready lo go one step further. He had become utterly frustrated by the Jews’ refusal to convert to Christianity: “A Jewish heart is as hard as a stick, a stone, as iron, as a devil.”

Luther did not, however, hold Jews responsible for the death of Christ. As he wrote in a hymn, “We dare not blame … the band of Jews; ours is the shame.” And he felt that at least a few Jews might be won for Christ.

Yet rabbinic teaching was madness and blindness that blasphemed Christ, Mary, and the Holy Trinity. Luther could not “have any fellowship or patience with obstinate [Jewish] blasphemers and those who defame this dear Savior.” Blasphemy was a civil crime. To allow it to continue, Luther feared, meant Christians would share in the guilt for it.

Thus, Luther now proposed seven measures of “sharp mercy” that German princes could take against Jews: (1) burn their schools and synagogues; (2) transfer Jews to community settlements; (3) confiscate all Jewish literature, which was blasphemous; (4) prohibit rabbis to teach, on pain of death; (5) deny Jews safe-conduct, so as to prevent the spread of Judaism; (6) appropriate their wealth and use it to support converts and to prevent the lewd practice of usury; (7) assign Jews to manual labor as a form of penance.

There was a big problem here.  Luther had begun with a seemingly sincere attitude, but seemed not to fully understand God's love ...ending up rather void of it himself.  He had done much to point out the errors of the church, but had slipped into a very dangerous role of deciding how things should be done.

Luther may have benefited by taking a closer look at himself, as time went on. 

Sometimes it is exhausting, trying to get others to realize what we are trying to get them to understand.  And especially, if we are being highly criticized or persecuted for it ...our own burden may unleash feelings that can possibly lead us to respond in a similar fashion to those we've felt misdirected us. If God gives us discernment, it is to be used to help understand others, and hopefully aid in our prayers.  Whether others listen to us, or not ...should not be the focus of our emotions.  Truth should be our focus.  And the Holy Spirit is He who guides each of us to prompt us to accept that which is God's truth.  If we decide to take this into our own hands ...likely we will end up not in our own minds.

The Gospel of Luke (11:25) ..."When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any ..., then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

We all need constant cleansing ...and to guard and protect, to be sure we don't fall into temptation.

Many times we look at temptations only as those things that tempt us that can be visibly discovered by others, or that are commonly mentioned as temptations.  But, we can be tempted even in a more subtle manner than when the serpent tempted Eve.  We often don't know it when we slip into a bit of pride, a bit of envy, a bit of common gossip.

We may say, "Let me slip into something a bit more comfortable."  But, that bit might nibble for a time ...then take a huge bite out of us.

And if we are uncomfortable, unsatisfied, or unhealthy ...it compounds the struggle.  

And the thing that drew so much negative attention to Martin Luther was that he was open about what he felt shouldn't be.

I'd rather live freely in a world where many things exist that shouldn't be, than to live in a world where there aren't any "shouldn't"s.

The beginning "shouldn't"s don't usually appear that big of a deal. We actually feel we can live quite nicely with loosening up a bit, and moving some of the "shouldn't"s to the "could" column.

After all, we aren't hurting anyone ...and anyone who disagrees are just being self-righteous. 

But let's look at it a bit closer. Aren't we hurting someone?

Aren't we hurting ourselves?

There's that self-righteous attitude again, and you've heard that you can be too heavenly minded to be any earthly good.

We know God loves us ...we know God knows how we are, and He still loves us. Actually, when God looks at us, he doesn't see our sin ...He sees His Son, Jesus, who died for us.  God's grace is wonderful.

Among all these awesome truths, how can we still be missing something?

Yet, are we? 

We say we invite Jesus into our hearts ...but often we only invite certain characteristics of Him into our hearts.

We welcome the love and grace, knowing God even forgives the "big" sins.  And actually, since we're all so familiar with the big sins, we begin to think the smaller ones aren't actually sins at all.

It's not politically correct, nor very popular in social circles to even use the word sin ...so we try to avoid using it.

And certainly we would never judge another ...God is our judge, and God loves us.

It's true we shouldn't judge others, so we take that to mean we shouldn't judge actions or behaviors either.

And our "could" list grows, and we soon have difficulty judging right from wrong. 

We still pride ourselves with not doing what is on our "wrong" list ...though that list has become smaller, we still feel we have a definite idea what is wrong.

We seem to think that our "could"s are so close to one another that it would be easier to split atoms than to separate some of the "could"s and "shouldn't"s.

We still acknowledge the love of Jesus, but we don't acknowledge so much what we read in the Bible, the written record of what He said, and has done for us.

The Holy Spirit helps us interpret he difficult things we don't understand, but with a large "could" list, we don't realize how much influence it has upon us, often unable to discern our long-standing rationalizations from the quiet voice that always speaks to us to draw us back.

But there are so many voices ...that quiet voice becomes difficult to hear.

Sin is separation from God ...we all have freedom of choice, and separation from His thoughts and what our thoughts are at any given moment becomes inevitable.

But God uses us ...He uses all sorts, and all sorts of characters.  We may say we don't want to be used by someone else, but it is an honor to be used by God. 

There are many sins we don't know about, because they aren't huge steps away from God, they are just our free nature ...exploring, having fun, experiencing, and learning.

But we aren't like Pinocchio either.

Jimmy the Cricket was his conscience ...we have the Holy Spirit.  But we can hide much better, not from God ...but at least from each other.

Our nose doesn't get bigger ...our noses are not our accountability partners.

So sometimes we ignore the quiet leading of the Holy Spirit ...as Elijah experienced, in I Kings, Chapter 19, the powerful wind, earthquake, and fire got most of the attention, but the stillness of a quiet voice was God's leading.

God doesn't expect us to succeed in everything all at the same time, but if He puts something in our heart, we can listen.

When we don't listen, we should be thankful that our sins grow.  What does that mean?  That doesn't really make sense ...how could the growth of sin be a good thing?  If you've read this far, would it suffice to stop now?

Our oldest son and second daughter had a concert they were to play in. It was not at the usual place. I was familiar with the area, but didn't know they'd re-named the church. But the directions we had that described where to turn, didn't seem to match the map. I allowed them to take me by the directions, but then when they started to become worried, I drove to where I thought it might be. We all could give arguments for both ...but following directions, or by going by what we think we know ...both are subject to error.

The good thing is ...the longer we travel on the wrong path, the more clear it becomes that it's the wrong way. 

God uses this to help us learn.

And I'm thankful that absurdity often rises to such heights that even those who feel they are high-minded can see it.

But though traveling on the wrong path should be realized after traveling in the wrong direction long enough for us to realize we need to change directions ...we are sometimes too prideful to admit it, but more often there are signs along the way, trying to convince us we are on the right path.

In this case, it's good to have one reliable map ...the Bible, and trust the One who came from heaven, to come here ....Jesus.

Going in the wrong direction, may take us way off course if we are trying to cross the wide ocean. And it is very difficult to correct ...especially the longer the error is not corrected.

If we are trying to travel in space, being slightly off in our direction could be tragic. 

Should we be motivated to hasten our exit from this earth?  Would we dare consider the probability that we would remove others from earth ...whether tragically accidental or frighteningly negligent?

So, when we find ourselves being led in every direction, we do need to choose the best direction.  And if that direction isn't somehow defined, then we can get pulled in every direction, until we find ourselves in total disrepair.

Do we have to sadly admit that there are those of us who put little thought into it?  We like a new direction, even if it takes us off center.  We find it exciting, being like an asteroid, getting a little attention for a time ...until we crash.

Four years ago, an election was won with the slogan "hope and change".

Well over 200 years ago, our country was founded with somewhat the same claimed vision in mind.  But that vision creates the greatest of contrast.  They were forming a vision, and writing the Constitution of the United States.  Now the vision leans towards re-writing the Constitution, and destroying much of the foundation it was built upon.

Over 2,000 years ago, people were looking for a hope and change ...and many found it.  

Now, many are trying to re-write, or re-interpret the Bible.

If one asks for forgiveness, forgiveness is there.  That doesn't have to be re-written or re-interpreted.  But we don't avoid the asking, by presenting or representing the behavior as something different than Jesus sees it. 

I worked in a prison, and I'm thankful that most prisoners are not "lifers".

But I'm also thankful when rehabilitation is viewed as an important issue.

But I'd also hope that prison would not serve as convenient contacts, and the development of shared skills ...for the betterment and success of future criminal activity.

We should not simply provide them the opportunity of shared information to increase the probability they not get caught next time.

We call rehabilitation, rehab, not to be confused with Rahab, who had a rather healthy grasp on truth ...but that was nearly 3,500 years ago. 

We won't go back quite that far ...let's only go slightly over 3,000 years ago.

We learn what happens when we try to hide behavior ...the more you hide it, the worse it gets. 

How bad does it get?

Well, consider this:  King David let it build up inside him ...ignoring the guilt, living in denial.  It gets so bad that when he hears a story, a rather sheepish story, or a story about a sheep that was taken from a poor man by a rich man, he gets furious, "The man that has done this thing shall surely die." 

Of course, that was his first vent of anger.

That having been said, he said the man shall restore the poor man fourfold ...which the rich man couldn't quite do if he first called for the man's death.

King David was told, "You are the man." 

King David could have refused to acknowledge it and become even more furious, but he didn't.

He truly was the man who God wanted to restore the heart of.

Rehab is not done through the "us against them" mentality, nor is it through "feel-good" groups. 

Rehab is acknowledging wrong behaviors, taking responsibility for behavior, and changing the patterns of behavior.

It does not come about by blaming others, while excusing your own behavior.  It does not come about by focusing on injustices, comparisons, or any form of putting "me" ahead of "us".  And it doesn't come about by putting "us" ahead of any "them".  It is through putting Him ahead of everyone.

I don't believe the 200 years ago can be affected unless the 2,000 years ago is affected.

We only have to seriously look at the past 2 years to see whether we are comfortable with that direction, or hope to change it.

In the news recently, there was a report of a man who had to go to court ...I think it had something to do with his inability to make child support payments, for 21 children. He reportedly told the judge he was through having children. I don't know how much time passed, but he was back in court ...his children now numbering 30, so he obviously did not stop at the 21 as he said he was going to do.

Two points here:  Is he really that smooth? (http://songofstephen.blogspot.com/)  And secondly, I'd say there is something wrong here ...beyond looking at the lack of discretion of the many women involved with him.

What was once scorned upon, became tolerated, then widely accepted.

As Arthur Gordon says, "A sense of outrage is a fragile thing; it crumbles under a succession of shocks until finally it vanishes, leaving us accepting almost automatically what once we would have despised."  He goes on to say, that one of the casualties along the way was the slow death of true romance. 

Our society is filled with indiscriminate relationships ...and all who support it, are of equal fault. 

There certainly is a divide.

The divide is not because we are unwilling to be tolerant ...it is the result of those unwilling to accept what God has said to us in the Bible.

We should not live to the "letter of the law", ignoring what is ...without compassion. But we also don't have only compassion without direction.

We don't cry, "Intolerance!" while we become intolerant of those who attempt to preserve a standard they believe in.  We don't celebrate one freedom, while taking it away from another.  We have to be careful ...as we soon don't want to find ourselves free from the calling of God's Holy Spirit.

If we were going to answer only intellectually, most of us would admit we like gravity, we just prefer to not acknowledge it much. We like the sound of science fiction ...and we like our lives to have free travel, with minimal friction.

So, though many of us like fiction, we don't like friction in our lives, and we try to convince ourselves that it is easier to say we believe in God, without adhering to what He says.  But isn't that more like believing of God, not in God ...or God in us.

Do we prefer to think God believes in us?

If we believe in God, shouldn't we believe rather that our lives should include Him in us.

Shouldn't we get with the program?

I see our main purpose here on earth is two-fold:  First we accept Jesus ...and 2nd, we witness to others, to encourage then to accept Jesus, and to live according to His teachings. 

We have lots of work to do ...if we want to work at a more intimate relationship with God.  We also should feel obliged to helping restore others.

We're all responsible, in the name of tolerance, in allowing things to happen. We've allowed them to remove the focus off God ...and even tolerated the twisting of the truth as they say we are intolerant.

But it is not just them ...it is us, who've moved our focus.  Those who believe in God should have a high tolerance, but never tolerate a lowering of who God is.

Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler talk of a cultural movement which they say threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children, in their book, The New Tolerance.

If you are one to rally the cry of intolerance, I'd challenge you to read this book, if you are at all genuine to your own claims.

In my opinion, one of the best pieces of writing is the first chapter of Ray Comfort's "Hell's Best Kept Secret". The setting is on board an airplane. One man is instructed to put on a parachute to "improve his flight". The analogy is to our embracing Jesus, and He will certainly give us joy, peace, and fulfillment ....improving our life. The analogy continues, showing how the weight of the parachute is a burden, and it is rather uncomfortable. But other passengers smirk at him as he is the only one wearing a parachute. The man then unstraps the parachute, and throws it to the floor ...concluding he was told a lie. A second man then is instructed to put on the parachute, because at any moment he will be jumping out of the plane at 25,000 feet. This second man does not mind the weight on his shoulders, nor that it is a bit uncomfortable. And when they laugh at him, we can all imagine that they won't be laughing long, as they too will be scrambling for parachutes if they suddenly realize the plane is going to crash.

Ray sums it up, "During some unexpected turbulence, the stewardess accidentally drops a cup of hot coffee onto the lap of our second passenger.  What is his reaction?  Does he cry out in pain, then rip the parachute off his back in anger?  No!  ...he doesn't even relate the incident to his parachute ...it only makes him cling more tightly to the hope of his salvation and even look forward to the jump!"  (Some call it a leap of faith.)

Yes, life is filled with choices and some risky choices.  And there is responsible behavior, and responsibility for behavior which is not responsible.

When we want things to revolve around us ...it's like taking threads of our own life, and twisting them into a string or even a thicker rope ...then taking a huge weight in our life, and twirling it around, causing one thread at a time to break ...until that heavy weight is being held only by one thread.

As it frays, we seem not afraid, even though one last spin, one last turn, and it will go flying.  It may feel good to let go of the heavy weight, but we are oblivious to where it may go, or the damage it may cause. 

And those round and round revolutions of the weight, leaves us with a perpetual ever increasing speed ...of not just carrying our own weight, but throwing our weight around and around, until others join our revolution. Those participating in the wrong, will soon enough, and often way too soon spin out-of-control.

As participation grows, our nation takes up the cause.  The problem only grows, unless we stand for the cause of Christ, and place the weight at the feet of Jesus.  Then our center will change, where we gravitate to.

We have redefined many things in the name of tolerance, not in the Name of God. Current trending includes claiming government should pay for contraceptives; downgrading the Bible ...not presenting like Jesus said, "Go and sin no more," after He forgave the woman; and any sort of talk that didn't exist until recent times ...such as that ever popular homophobic talk. There are big marquee issues, but I've talked about those and more on other blogs I've written.

I'm going to give two more analogies before I finish.  I know I've begun one point, then made many others, but here are my "not" final thoughts, but closing for now.

If twenty people were onboard an airplane, and you experienced a little turbulence in flight ...and one of the passengers demanded a parachute, stating he was going to jump, what would you do?  What if nineteen of the twenty people onboard said they were going to jump, and that included the pilot and co-pilot?  Would you then grab a backpack too?  And what if, when everyone was ready to jump, they were told that one of the backpacks did not contain a parachute ...but the only way to know, is by jumping and pulling the ripcord.  Nineteen of the parachutes would work by pulling the cord ...and the other one would simply pull out a banner which read:  R.I.P..


                                                          Re-think drinking & driving!!

Or if you were on a huge ocean liner, like the Titanic, would you toss someone off the life raft, just because it may be an inconvenience to you ...to not have your suitcase with you, to allow you to change into something more comfortable once you come ashore?   And be careful to look what it would be that you'd change into.

Re-think ...suppose you were one of the ones onboard the Titanic. You know something is wrong ...even though no one has alerted you, there is just this sinking feeling you have.

Let me say it again, would you throw someone off the life raft, simply for your own increased comfort?  
                                                       Re-think abortion!