Free Bird

A pastor by the name of S.T. Gordon from Boston had placed an empty birdcage next to his pulpit. Everyone became very curious…what’s an empty birdcage doing in a church? One man finally spoke up & asked Pastor Gordon about the empty cage. Pastor Gordon explained, “Well, I was out walking yesterday & came across some young boys playing with these wild birds in the alley, they were kind of torturing them, they were plucking at their feathers. So I went up to them & said, what are you doing? ‘We’re just playing with these birds’ they said. I asked them, what are you going to do with those birds when you’re done playing with them? The boys said, ‘probably just feed em’ to the cats…their no good’.

I said, ‘How much do you want for those birds?’ ‘You don’t want these birds,’ the boys said, ‘They’ll bite you, ignore you…you don’t want these birds, their useless!’
‘How much do you want?’ I said. ‘Two dollars.’ Said the one.
I paid them two dollars, took the cage & went on my way…then I released the birds.”

S.T. Gordon went on to say that once upon a time there was a similar exchange between the Devil & Jesus. Jesus said, “How much do you want for my people?” & Satan said, “You don’t want these people. They’ll spit on you, ignore you…you don’t want these people…they’re no good…they’re worthless.” Jesus said, “How much do you want for them?” Satan replied, “All of your blood & all of your tears…that’s the price.” So Jesus took the cage, paid the price & opened the door.

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8)

Vern

Nick At Night

“Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night…”
(John 19:39a)

It’s pretty cool that the verse above is stated the way it is, seeing how I honestly believe that Nicodemus truly came to Jesus that night. This man, who was a member of the Pharisees & a leader of the Jews, came to Jesus at night to speak to him about maybe joining with them to overthrow the Roman government. He came to Jesus in the name of the Pharisees, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God…” we? Where did he get we, wasn’t he alone? He was speaking to Jesus as if he was there as an ambassador for the Pharisees. See the Pharisees were waiting on a messiah that would as I said above, lead them in over-throwing the government that had long suppressed them & the Jewish people. They saw Jesus as a leader that the people were drawn to & thought that he didn’t know how to handle the politicians like they did, but if He would only join up with them…then what they had been long waiting for could be soon to come. But you know…I don’t think that Nick was prepared for what Jesus was about to say.

Jesus sort of said, lets cut to the chase, lets stop messing around or as some of our older Alabama paw paws would say, stop Hee Hawin’ around & let’s get to what you really need…Nick…“you must be born again”. Nick was shocked, he had no idea what Jesus meant by this statement, he thought that he meant physical birth…but he soon was to find out that Jesus meant spiritual. Jesus went own to tell Nick that He had come to save the world, not to condemn it. He also shared with Nick what has become the most known Bible verse in the world…John 3:16…“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” I would imagine that at this time the light went on in Nick’s head & heart. He had just had the gospel shared with him by the one the gospel was all about. He heard the good news of Jesus Christ…straight from the lips of Jesus himself.

It isn’t until later in John that we see why I believe that Nick’s life was changed forever. In John 7:50-51, Nick takes a stand for Jesus, a stand that would bring him persecution & reticule from his Pharisee peers. Jesus is speaking in Galilee during the Feast of the Jews, crowds were split, some believed Him & debated whether or not He was from God, while others wanted to arrest Him. The Pharisees were highly outraged & sent officers to arrest Jesus, but even the officers were overtaken with the words Jesus spoke & they returned to the Pharisees without making an arrest. The Pharisees then started talking about all the people & the officers being lead astray & they said “No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? ‘But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.” Then Nick spoke up, “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” Then the Pharisees turned on him, mocked him & I would think that he wasn’t welcome with them any longer. Nick took a stand for Jesus against the very men who would soon put Jesus to death. But this isn’t the only place that Nick is mentioned.

In John 19 we see Nick again. Jesus is pronounced dead on the cross, a man named Joseph of Arimathea a rich man who had a tomb & was a secret follower of Jesus came & asked for the body of Jesus so that he could properly bury Him. Along with Joseph came Nick who brought a mixture of Myrrh & aloes about a hundred pounds it says to help prepare the body. A real cool thing here is that when the Jews prepared a body for burial they used half the body weight in spices to do it. They used one hundred pounds, meaning that Jesus probably weighed at or around two hundred pounds…that’s just a note for those trivia folks. The important thing here is that Nick evidently had a change the night he met with Jesus, he stood up for him when no one else would & he came out very publicly at his death, when all of Jesus disciples were hiding in fear.
When I read all of this I thought that we just don’t give Nick enough credit for his transformation, a man in a very difficult situation & still willing to stand for Jesus…I pray I can be as bold.

Ask yourself this question: Are you a secret follower… at work, school, around your friends? Heck we at this time don’t have to worry about being stoned to death or being nailed to a cross…but we often stay silent. Why? Have you really met Jesus, as Nick did?

Vern

American Democracy or Not

I usually try to stay away from the political side of things when I’m writing for my blog…but there is really something that is bothering me.

The last two times that I went over my son’s history study sheets with him I noticed something…it doesn’t seem as though the school system is teaching our children that America is a republic. The questions all refer to our country as a democracy. I know right now that many of you are saying, who cares…what does that matter. Well to our Founding Fathers, it meant a great deal & should to us.

"Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." James Madison

"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." John Adams

"The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived." John Quincy Adams

"Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state, it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage." John Witherspoon, Signer of the Declaration

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” Thomas Jefferson

Our founding fathers called a democracy a “mobocracy”. Why? In a democracy style of government the mob rules. A pure democracy operates by direct majority vote of the people, whether those people are good or bad, they still rule, & as Karl Marx the father of communism, once stated “Democracy is the road to socialism” any government that follows a democracy style government will end up sooner or later a socialist or even worse a communist government.

In America we have gone from this…

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” Thomas Jefferson

to this…

“I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.” Barack Obama

But, what’s so amazing is that it’s not only Obama that believes that we are a democracy, but so did Bush Jr., Clinton & many other men who have held the office of President. They must not have known their history, this coming from a guy who would rather have watched grass grow or gouged out my own eyeballs with a spork than have sit through a history or social studies class. But I have learned the importance of knowing our history…it will be key to America’s survival.

Now, lets look at a republic. A republic is ruled by law, not a majority. A republic differs in that the general population elects representatives who then pass laws to govern the nation. So if the source of law for a democracy is the popular feeling of the people, then what is the source of law for the American republic? According to Founder Noah Webster:

“Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.”

Are you starting to see why we are having this drift from the use of the word “republic”? The inspirational values of Biblical natural law were the foundation of the American republic. Think about the stability this provides: in our republic, murder will always be a crime, for it is always a crime according to the Word of God. But, in a democracy, if majority of the people decide that murder is no longer a crime, murder will no longer be a crime.

America's absolute principles of right and wrong were not based on the ever changing feelings and emotions of the people but rather on what Baron de Montesquieu identified as the "principles that do not change." Benjamin Rush stated that “Where there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.” The Founders understood that Biblical values formed the basis of the republic and that the republic would be destroyed if the people's knowledge of those values should ever be lost. Now the question is… Are we loosing our Biblical values? Look around, if you can’t see it your blind. We have not only lost our values, but those who are still holding on to them of the most part are not teaching them to their children, hence my frustration about my sons study sheet.
I have included a video that will more clearly explain this blog, check it out below & remember, we can either do something about our decline or just try & enjoy the short ride to the hard rocky bottom of the end of our republic & freedom as we know it.

Vern

Is He Safe?

In “The Lion Witch & the Wardrobe”, Susan & Lucy ask Mr. & Mrs. Beaver to describe Aslan. They ask if Aslan is a man. Mrs. Beaver replies.

“Aslan a man? Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood & the song of the great Emperor-beyond-the-sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion…the Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he…quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, & make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you?” Who said anything about being safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

In C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia”, Aslan represents Jesus Christ. He is described as the great lion, the king of wild beasts, who is anything but “safe.” But, it’s added that he is good.

What do you think about Jesus? Is He safe & non-threatening to you & the way you want to live your life? If your vision of Jesus is the meek & mild Jesus that makes no demands on you…I want to tell you that you’ve got the wrong Jesus. Nothing makes me sicker, than to see the pictures of Jesus, the ones with the pasty white skin, the big puppy dog eyes & pouty lips…you know the one that looks like a sissy. Christianity is not a religion of sissies, nor was or is Jesus one. I believe that we need to mentally do away with this “sissy” Jesus view, He was anything but a sissy anything but weak, anything but safe & we should tremble at His presents…He is the Creator of everything, the Law Giver & Judge…He is the Great I Am. But when we are living in His will, we have no need to fear His wrath…He is good.

"A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3:8)

Vern

Fashion Faux Pas

“For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
(Galatians 3:27)

I was invited to a friend’s wedding party…my first question to them was “what is the dress for that night?” They said that it was shorts & a nice “polo” type shirt. The party was being held at a Doctor’s home & I knew that my friend’s family & a lot of their friends would be dressed up; most of them are very well off. Now me, you say shorts & I’m in, but in back of my mind, I couldn’t help but see everyone there in khakis & a nice shirt, & myself all goofy strutting around in shorts, looking like Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation.

I know this situation shouldn’t have bothered me… but it did. I was thinking the whole way there, that I would probably be the only one wearing shorts & that I was going to look stupid & sure enough as soon as we pulled up to the end of the drive, everyone was outside dressed up & waiting on ol' Cousin Eddie. 

Again, it shouldn’t have bothered me…but…it did. I got out slowly, feeling everyone looking at me (even though, I don’t think they were) I strolled over toward the sitting area where our friends were. Man did I feel like a real goof…but what I saw next made everything that I felt go away…walking out of the house was my friends dad, who at that time I referred to a savior…yes, you guessed it, he was in shorts…Hallelujah!!!! I felt so much better, I was no longer worried about my clothes.

This sounds so stupid, but I felt like I fit in…see, told yea it sounded stupid…but that’s the way I felt. I felt like I fit in, no longer an outcast, no longer the shorts wearing leper shunned to the outermost parts of the doc’s yard. In the immortal words of William Wallace was pure “FREEDOM”! I belonged.

That night as we all stood around talking, a thought came to my mind “What does a person, who doesn’t have nice clothes like suits, ties & such, feel like when they come & visit a church?” I thought about that for a while, do they feel like they fit in? Do they want to come back? Did they get starred at or receive a snotty look?

The more I though about it the more I realized that dressing up at church isn’t always good. Now don’t get me wrong, if someone wants to were a suit & tie there is nothing at all wrong with that…but in the same instance, I don’t believe it is at all wrong for someone to wear shorts & flip flops. As most know I’m a minister at the county jail & have been for about eight years. I thought about some of those men or women who may be released from jail & maybe they don’t have a lot, but they want to come to church & when they walk in they feel very uncomfortable, everyone they see is all dressed up, so they feel like they don’t belong…but wait, there’s a guy over there in a t-shirt & blue jeans…they think to themselves…I do fit in. Some would say, “They should come to worship God, not worry about how everyone is dressed!” But usually the one that would make that statement would be the first to look down their noses at someone who came in, in ragged clothes.

In James 2, we are told not to show favoritism to people because they seem to be well off. It talks about a well-dressed man entering your church & you walk with him up to the front & show him the best seat. Then the man who comes in wearing ragged clothing or maybe underdressed, well you just tell him to find a seat in the back or sit at your feet, or in our day you just look at him funny, like you don’t approve of his meager attire.

So the question is “Should you dress up for church?” Well, that I can’t answer for you, that’s between you & God. I don’t believe that God is as concerned about the clothes we were to church as He is about whom we clothe ourselves with.

“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”
(James 2:1)

Vern