The greatest sin ever committed by any man has never found its way to the headlines of any newspaper or as the lead story of Fox News. From O.J. Simpson to Timothy McVeigh to Ted Bundy, none of these come close to being the greatest sin, yet they dominated the news. From 9/11 to the Gulf War to World War 11, even these pale in comparison to what without a doubt is the pinnacle of all sins: the disobedience of a son to his Father:
A massive 10.0 earthquake has struck the Garden of Eden Friday at approximately midnight, inflicting escalating catastrophic damage to the human race as a whole. Authorities report the immediate deaths of the gardens two inhabitants, Adam and Eve and the subsequent death of the whole world. There are no survivors. All symptoms point to food poisoning.
An eyewitness named Michael was quoted as saying, “All of a sudden everything was just falling apart ... there was no place to hide.”
Authorities have confirmed the epic center to be at the root of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with an extending fault line now running north to south in the human heart. After shocks are expected until the end of time, increasingly worse.
Full scale looting, raping, and murder are reported as commonplace in all directions. The Liaban Terrorist have claimed responsibility for the attack and have declared the world to be now under Satanic Law.
Following the chaos,the owner of the garden made this declaration to the Lieban Terrorist Organization: "There will be another Adam of an altogether different sort. You will give him a heel bruise; He will crush your head." Sadly, after this statement an armed guard was stationed at the entrance of the Garden as man was ushered out with this sad indictment: "Your kind can never come back here again."
Well then, as one man's trespass [one man's false step and falling away led] to condemnation for all men, so one Man's act of righteousness [leads] to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men. ~Romans 5:18
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
BIG BOYS
I have heard recently that every child is a winner and should never be left behind. When I was growing up it was more like, every child is a sinner, and needs a switch on his behind. “Bend over, this is going to hurt me as much as it hurts you,” was an often heard phrase. “But . . . not in the same place,” was the common tale told by the recipient.
Once, my daddy told my brother Ricky and me to work in the garden. “Pull up weeds around the tomatoes. Do not get distracted and goof off. If you do you’ll get a spanking.”
Somehow we ended up goofy. Here’s the way I remember it:
“Hey Jeb, let’s play baseball.”
“No!” I answered. “We dare not disobey!”
“We won’t play for long,” Ricky begs.
Finally, twisted arm and all, I give in, “Well, okay.”
So we proceed to play and somehow never quite got around to doing what we were told to do. Later that evening, as we went to “Roses” in a 1968 white Chevrolet Impala, Daddy looks in the rear-view mirror and asks, “Did ya’ll work in the garden like I asked you to?” “No sir,” we replied.
“And why not?”
Now feeling some justified apprehension, we hem hawed around and said, “I don’t know. We played ball and just forgot . . .”
“You know what I told you would happen if you didn’t . . .”
“Uhh . . .”
“Well, when we get back home, you are both going to get a spanking. Maybe that will help jog your memory and next time I tell you to do something, you’ll do it.”
Boy did we ever start acting like we had some sense. We were most helpful, most polite, in the store. Surly he would see that it was all just a big misunderstanding. Surly he would forget his promise and see that we were all about wanting to be productive citizens, all about wanting to have a garden he could be proud of. And his boys too, “Daddy, do you think we need to pick up a bag of triple 8 for the Big Boy Tomatoes?
It didn’t work . . . but we worked the next time we were told to. In fact, we were inspired. Who’s to tell what it saved us from later, only God knows.
Come to think of it, you could say we got it honest— our disobedience in a garden. Our great grand-father, Adam, disobeyed his father and caused quite a mess.
Just a little thing, a piece of fruit.
But graves everywhere.
Once, my daddy told my brother Ricky and me to work in the garden. “Pull up weeds around the tomatoes. Do not get distracted and goof off. If you do you’ll get a spanking.”
Somehow we ended up goofy. Here’s the way I remember it:
“Hey Jeb, let’s play baseball.”
“No!” I answered. “We dare not disobey!”
“We won’t play for long,” Ricky begs.
Finally, twisted arm and all, I give in, “Well, okay.”
So we proceed to play and somehow never quite got around to doing what we were told to do. Later that evening, as we went to “Roses” in a 1968 white Chevrolet Impala, Daddy looks in the rear-view mirror and asks, “Did ya’ll work in the garden like I asked you to?” “No sir,” we replied.
“And why not?”
Now feeling some justified apprehension, we hem hawed around and said, “I don’t know. We played ball and just forgot . . .”
“You know what I told you would happen if you didn’t . . .”
“Uhh . . .”
“Well, when we get back home, you are both going to get a spanking. Maybe that will help jog your memory and next time I tell you to do something, you’ll do it.”
Boy did we ever start acting like we had some sense. We were most helpful, most polite, in the store. Surly he would see that it was all just a big misunderstanding. Surly he would forget his promise and see that we were all about wanting to be productive citizens, all about wanting to have a garden he could be proud of. And his boys too, “Daddy, do you think we need to pick up a bag of triple 8 for the Big Boy Tomatoes?
It didn’t work . . . but we worked the next time we were told to. In fact, we were inspired. Who’s to tell what it saved us from later, only God knows.
Come to think of it, you could say we got it honest— our disobedience in a garden. Our great grand-father, Adam, disobeyed his father and caused quite a mess.
Just a little thing, a piece of fruit.
But graves everywhere.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
EXCEPT YOU BE CONVERTED AS CHILDREN
In the innocence that accompanies a young boy, there are many memories I have of my dad that are, in and of themselves, nothing extraordinary. There were trot-lines baited and fished on the Tallapoosa River. Trips to the Montehand Farm to get Bermuda grass hay. There were early morning hunting trips every Thanksgiving for squirrels with stories about Button and Sport, which must have been the greatest squirrel dogs ever.
And yet they were God given because they reveal a father and son relationship, built on absolute trust and confidence with none of the hypocrisy of religious pretense. I wasn’t pretending to love him above girls, sports, and money; this was before all of that entered into my thinking. He had my undivided devotion. There were no rivals. There was no law that said I had to love him, and trust and obey him except the one written in my heart: I was not conscience of there being another choice.
He never gave me a reason to think any other way.
There was no doubt in my mind of his supreme ability to take care of any and all situations. He was the best carpenter; he was the best business man. The best hunter. The best everything. And when he was riding our horse, Zorro, there wasn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between him and Matt Dillon.
Or John Wayne.
His word became the final authority once spoken.“Never leave a nail sticking up in a board for someone to step on. Treat every gun as if it is loaded; never point it at anybody. Never shoot into a squirrels nest. Never climb over a barbwire fence or walk directly behind a cow. Say “yes sir” and “no sir”; “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am” to adults . . ."
And I can still hear him saying to me today, "If you can’t trust your daddy, then who can you trust?”
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. ~Matthew 18:3
And yet they were God given because they reveal a father and son relationship, built on absolute trust and confidence with none of the hypocrisy of religious pretense. I wasn’t pretending to love him above girls, sports, and money; this was before all of that entered into my thinking. He had my undivided devotion. There were no rivals. There was no law that said I had to love him, and trust and obey him except the one written in my heart: I was not conscience of there being another choice.
He never gave me a reason to think any other way.
There was no doubt in my mind of his supreme ability to take care of any and all situations. He was the best carpenter; he was the best business man. The best hunter. The best everything. And when he was riding our horse, Zorro, there wasn’t a nickel’s worth of difference between him and Matt Dillon.
Or John Wayne.
His word became the final authority once spoken.“Never leave a nail sticking up in a board for someone to step on. Treat every gun as if it is loaded; never point it at anybody. Never shoot into a squirrels nest. Never climb over a barbwire fence or walk directly behind a cow. Say “yes sir” and “no sir”; “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am” to adults . . ."
And I can still hear him saying to me today, "If you can’t trust your daddy, then who can you trust?”
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. ~Matthew 18:3
Saturday, February 20, 2010
A FATHER'S LOVE
Another job title I held at six years old was that of a framing carpenter, as an equal partner in Curwood Jennings and Son Construction. With my five ounce hammer, I helped daddy build a barn on the 100 acres he had bought from Baker Pinkston. For a $100 an acre!
My job description was pretty much the same as when I cut posts: stay in sight and out of the way, bring nails and water, carry on a conversation and ask a lot of questions. This was an important job. It never entered my mind that daddy could have done it without me. And if you want to know the truth, it never entered his mind either.
I belonged there, an express image of who he was.
Somewhere in the process I was told not to get near a board that he had half-way nailed as a brace. Somehow I didn’t quite get what he was telling me, and somehow it fell and then, I got it. Right across the arm. And I thought I was dying and did what all six years old do in that situation: I started crying and running around the barn. Daddy thought I had broken my arm and did what all fathers do that love their sons, especially when they’re hurting.
He chased me.
And somehow I’m getting it, years later, that this is exactly the way our Heavenly Father sees it. It has never entered his mind not to pursue us when we are hurting. He is not some hard man, as some would portray him, “You’re getting just what you deserve; will you ever get it right?”
Never! The scriptures teach us that his heart is bound up in the life of his children, as was Jacob concerning Joseph. We know from 1 Peter 5:7 that he cares for us, that it matters to him what we are going through. From Isaiah 63:9 we understand that in all of our afflictions, he is afflicted with us.
Ultimately, all of this is realized through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As the Everlasting Father, he has pursued us with an everlasting love. When we were hopelessly lost and dead in our sins, he paid the ultimate price for our redemption by shedding His Blood on the cross in our stead. That precious Blood is crying out today, the Life of a Father calling, and chasing a hurting son:
“Be washed in the Blood of the Lamb. There’s work to do! You belong by my side, we’ve important things to talk about!”
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. ~ Jeremiah 33:3
My job description was pretty much the same as when I cut posts: stay in sight and out of the way, bring nails and water, carry on a conversation and ask a lot of questions. This was an important job. It never entered my mind that daddy could have done it without me. And if you want to know the truth, it never entered his mind either.
I belonged there, an express image of who he was.
Somewhere in the process I was told not to get near a board that he had half-way nailed as a brace. Somehow I didn’t quite get what he was telling me, and somehow it fell and then, I got it. Right across the arm. And I thought I was dying and did what all six years old do in that situation: I started crying and running around the barn. Daddy thought I had broken my arm and did what all fathers do that love their sons, especially when they’re hurting.
He chased me.
And somehow I’m getting it, years later, that this is exactly the way our Heavenly Father sees it. It has never entered his mind not to pursue us when we are hurting. He is not some hard man, as some would portray him, “You’re getting just what you deserve; will you ever get it right?”
Never! The scriptures teach us that his heart is bound up in the life of his children, as was Jacob concerning Joseph. We know from 1 Peter 5:7 that he cares for us, that it matters to him what we are going through. From Isaiah 63:9 we understand that in all of our afflictions, he is afflicted with us.
Ultimately, all of this is realized through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As the Everlasting Father, he has pursued us with an everlasting love. When we were hopelessly lost and dead in our sins, he paid the ultimate price for our redemption by shedding His Blood on the cross in our stead. That precious Blood is crying out today, the Life of a Father calling, and chasing a hurting son:
“Be washed in the Blood of the Lamb. There’s work to do! You belong by my side, we’ve important things to talk about!”
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. ~ Jeremiah 33:3
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
FOLLOWING OUR FATHER
I’ll never forget cutting fence posts with my Daddy as a little boy of six. It was on the Baker Pinkston “place,” and the tree that yielded the posts was the “incense” cedar tree, which is known for its aroma. Our mode of transportation was a 1957 blue Ford pick-up truck—well known in our circle for never using a drop of oil. The saw of choice was a McCulloch 740, with a bow blade.
My job was simple: stay in sight and out of the way. And to bring water, and saw gas and wedges, which were used to bust the bigger posts into halves or quarters. I was an equal partner in this manly work: fifty pounds of trim muscle!
Looking back, I am sure that I was in the perfect will of God, a boy with his father. There was no place I’d rather been than with my dad. There was no grace lacking for the job at hand, we got it done. There was no pretending I was his son, no practicing of his presence, no doubts about whose voice I was following. There were no fears, no self-imagined greatness, no thoughts of having to earn his favor or his love. Just a boy with his father.
The way it’s supposed to be with us and our heavenly Father.
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children. ~ Ephesians 5:1
My job was simple: stay in sight and out of the way. And to bring water, and saw gas and wedges, which were used to bust the bigger posts into halves or quarters. I was an equal partner in this manly work: fifty pounds of trim muscle!
Looking back, I am sure that I was in the perfect will of God, a boy with his father. There was no place I’d rather been than with my dad. There was no grace lacking for the job at hand, we got it done. There was no pretending I was his son, no practicing of his presence, no doubts about whose voice I was following. There were no fears, no self-imagined greatness, no thoughts of having to earn his favor or his love. Just a boy with his father.
The way it’s supposed to be with us and our heavenly Father.
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children. ~ Ephesians 5:1
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
DOWN UNDER
The gaggle of geese was excited as they flew down for the seminar in Australia. Dr. Luke Downs was the keynote speaker and his message was quite liberating: “Present Truth Destroys Archaic Doctrines.”
“A goose under grace is no longer under the law,” Dr Downs said. “There is therefore no condemnation to a goose who wants to cross the road, whether by flying or walking. . . The important thing that we must remember is our core message: God is a God of love, not hate. There is no need to ruffle feathers because Jesus has paid it all-- his cross crosses out all danger of trying to cross the road . . ."
After the first session,the living large and super-charged geese dispersed for the afternoon break. To their horror, they were confronted by a street preacher named Donald, a feather of a different sort.
"The God of love is also a God of justice," Donald preached. "Behold the goodness and the severity of God--"
"Legalism!" the crowd shouted. "He's just honking his own horn . . ."
"Donald continued, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God. If you fly in the Spirit you will not walk in the flesh . . . What killed a goose a hundred years ago still kills a goose today! DO NOT WALK ACROSS THE STREET!"
So much for not ruffling feathers.
"That does it for me," said Goose Gossage, with his dander up. He had hung on to every word Dr. Downs had preached while rejecting all that Donald had said. " I ain't a going to let that legalistic quack put his guilt on me. I'm trading in my frequent flier miles for some Nike walking shoes . . . see you in a bit."
"Where are you going?" asked his wife Millie.
"I'm walking to the store," Goose said. "Don't worry, I'll be --"
"Let no man deceive you with vain words . . ." (Ephesians 5:6).
Monday, February 15, 2010
MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
It was a precedent setting day at New Canaan nursing home. The votes were in and soon the winners of the "Most Likely to Succeed” would be revealed. Not that everyone was qualified: you had to be over ninety to be considered for this distinction. “Surly they meant 'Most Likely to Decease,” said a grandfather of twelve.
Till now, no one had dared dream there could be any hope for someone seventy years over the age limit for “Egyptian Idol.” Even if they could sing, dancing would be . . . limited, at worse. As a famous preacher once said on T.B.N., “If you haven’t performed your first surgery, wrote your first novel, or won your first case by the age thirty, you never will.”
Good thing God doesn’t watch a lot of T.B.N.
The voice of reason was heard loud and clear through the silence of the no-votes. Only two votes had been cast, from the owner of the home and the recipient's of the reward: Abraham and Sarah. The truth is, it had never entered the heart or mind of man to cast a vote of confidence to the likes of a 100 year old man that was as good as dead. The truth is, it never entered the mind of God that Abraham would fail. From the moment God spoke his promise, success was inevitable.
“As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:17-21).
Till now, no one had dared dream there could be any hope for someone seventy years over the age limit for “Egyptian Idol.” Even if they could sing, dancing would be . . . limited, at worse. As a famous preacher once said on T.B.N., “If you haven’t performed your first surgery, wrote your first novel, or won your first case by the age thirty, you never will.”
Good thing God doesn’t watch a lot of T.B.N.
The voice of reason was heard loud and clear through the silence of the no-votes. Only two votes had been cast, from the owner of the home and the recipient's of the reward: Abraham and Sarah. The truth is, it had never entered the heart or mind of man to cast a vote of confidence to the likes of a 100 year old man that was as good as dead. The truth is, it never entered the mind of God that Abraham would fail. From the moment God spoke his promise, success was inevitable.
“As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform” (Romans 4:17-21).
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