The Fallacy of Full-Time Christian Work

by Os Hillman
11-11-2009

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Colossians 3:16,17).

Jonathon was a twenty-five year old son of a pastor who was working in his local Christian bookstore. He started seminary but was unable to finish because of a lack of finances. He was OK with working in the store, but felt it was second-best. In fact, sometimes he felt he had "missed his calling."

Then one day a young woman wondered into the store. She was distressed. She was not a believer. Her husband had just left her and she did not know where to turn. She was walking through the mall when she noticed the store. She decided to walk in, not knowing why.

"Hello, may I help you?" said Jonathon. "Well... I don't know. I saw your sign and just came in." Right then, she began to cry. She told Jonathon about her plight, not knowing why she would do such a thing with a perfect stranger. Jonathon listened and began to talk with her. Before the conversation was over, Jonathon had prayed with the woman and led her to faith in Christ.

That night Jonathon pondered what had happened that day. He realized he had personally led a woman into eternity by being available in his workplace. He felt a new sense of purpose behind what he thought was simply a job to put food on the table until he could get to his real ministry. He confessed to the Lord his wrong view of his work. For the first time, he realized it was ministry too.

We have incorrectly elevated the roll of the vocational Christian worker to be more holy and committed than the person who is serving in other arenas. Yet the call to any workplace is as important as any other calling. God has to have His people in every sphere of life. Otherwise, many would never come to know Him because they would be separated from society.

Wherever you are called, serve the Lord in that place. Let Him demonstrate His power through your life so that others might experience Him through you today.

The Value of Age and Wisdom

by Os Hillman
11-13-2009

"But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him" (2 Chron 10:8).

Age and wisdom do not always equate to one another, but they often do. Rehoboam was the son of Solomon. It appears that Solomon had become heavy-handed in his employment practices by placing an overbearing burden on the workers. This was causing a problem with the northern tribes. It was the equivalent to a threat of a labor strike. Jeroboam was like the head of the labor union. In fact, he had fled from Solomon because of the abuse he perceived was happening. When Rehoboam was selected as the new king, he came and appealed to Solomon about the plight of the people.

"Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." Rehoboam answered, "Come back to me in three days." So the people went away (2 Chron 10:4-5).

So, Rehoboam asked for advice from the older men who had been a part of Solomon's reign and then he asked for advice from his younger contemporaries. The elders advised Rehoboam to not be too concerned. They told him that if he did, they would be loyal workers the rest of their days. He chose not to take this advice. The younger advisors told him to tighten the reigns more. This turned out to be bad advice. As a result, the northern tribes rebelled, and the kingdom was permanently divided.

Today there is a tendency to discount input from older people. However, God has placed wisdom in older people that the young can learn a great deal from. Do not despise input from those who may be considerably older than you. God has placed a level of wisdom in them that can help you avoid major mistakes.

I said long ago that this man had no spine... He now proves it

Obama: President In Search of a Spine

By Proof on November 14, 2009 at 02:46 pm

It’s a lot easier to bow all the time when you haven’t got a spine!

This would be less embarrassing if this guy were just some star struck American tourist. Could someone please inform him that he is the President of the United States?

90% includes ME

I graduated College. A BS and a BA. Over educated fool some might say. But, to this day I don't understand basic algebra. It appears that neither does most of the rest of the college folks.

I never figured out what the purpose of it was.

I never used it.

This coming from a guy who has a pretty good handle on complex economic theory and interrelationships of numerical values in charts graphs and statistics. I can interpolate the numbers pretty well.

I don't think algebra would have helped me there.

So, I don't feel too bad.

What Sarah Palin has been doing with her Spare Time

In case anyone has been wondering what Sarah Palin is up to, it's not insignificant. I know good political people and she has been working hard. She is no piker. She works intensely and is a good study. She has run marathons, so she knows how to prepare.

In addition to writing her new book that comes out as a best seller in a few days, she has been doing more than baking cookies.

I guarantee she has been studying the issues. She will not be blindsided again. She has been coached and coached again on how to act, how to talk, what not to say and most important what to do when you get a Gotcha Question from Charlie Gibson.

I used to help train business people and politicians on how to handle themselves in front of the camera, on the platform, in front of a hostile audience and while in public. It took days but they learned. And, they are working on her Sarahisms. "You betcha" for instance will be carefully if ever crafted into a speech.

Look at actors who's normal accent is British or Australian (house and mentalist) yet when they speak it sounds like they are from Nebraska.

Sarah is NOT wasting time. She is on the case and will make it happen.

So, relax. Sarah will be fine and if you read this WSJ op ed you will see someone who believes as I do, Sarah will be fully ready to be POTUS in 2012. Margaret Thatcher is her model. Watch for Sarah to take a page from her playbook.

I am going to enjoy this. And campaign I will.

Just so you don't miss out when the world comes to an end

Here's about a dozen end of world thingys that you need to be aware of.

With the soon open of the movie 2012 we will have a whole new set.

I've seen the end of the world, it's not that bad.

Confessions of a Hillary Clinton Supporter

When McCain was the candidate before he selected Sarah I was committed to voting for Hillary over McCain. She would be the better POTUS. Certainly better than Obuma, the ditherer in Chief.

If we were going to lose to a democrat, the one I wanted was Hillary.

There is a blog called Hillbuzz. It's a blog dedicated to Hillary Clinton and written by people who supported her for Pres.

They have published a piece about George W Bush that is worth reading. I wish Hillary would have won. We wouldn't be in the mess that McCain or Obama brought us to.

Here's a bit from the Blog:

We know absolutely no one in Bush family circles and have never met former President George W. Bush or his wife Laura.

If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.

Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush. We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11. He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone. More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us.

Honestly, we don’t think President Gore would have been much better that day. The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indomitable spirit that day…and we will forever be grateful to this man for that.

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

READ THE WHOLE THING

A thought on Veterans Day

The brave and noble that go to war in our behalf cause me to bow my head on this veterans day. Not in shame, in honor.

Today in a nursing home is Earl Redlin, WWII vet. Crawled up the beachhead at Anzio. Bravery is doing what you must do, not what you want to do.

Now we do what we MUST.

To Athiests---"Hating God is not a search for the truth. It is a conclusion without having all the facts.

That statement was made to a Former Atheist of my Acquaintance. His comment to me was to disagree with the idea that they didn't have all the facts:

They have them. As a former atheist I can say with confidence that it is never a genuine intellectual position; only a moral one. "I wanted life to have no meaning," said atheist Aldous Huxley, "because it freed me to my own erotic pursuits."

I am haunted by the phrase, "I wanted life to have no meaning". How pitiful and pitiable. When they woke up this morning they believed in something. What happens when the eternal alarm clock (the one that decides if you live or die) doesn't wake them? Then they know face to face.

This keeps me driving on.... IF just one soul finds the truth it's enough.

Global Warming or Global Cooling??

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

• Temperature Highlights - October
• The average October temperature of 50.8°F was 4.0°F below the 20^th Century average and ranked as the 3^rd coolest based on preliminary data.
• For the nation as a whole, it was the third coolest October on record. The month was marked by an active weather pattern that reinforced unseasonably cold air behind a series of cold fronts. Temperatures were below normal in eight of the nation's nine climate regions, and of the nine, five were much below normal. Only the Southeast climate region had near normal temperatures for October.

The REAL unemployment rate is 22%.

Everyone is excited that the market is going up. This is a house of cards stacked very high.

There is nothing holding this up.

No fundamentals.

When it collapses it will be sudden and catostropic.

You can't have economic recovery with a quarter of the people not working. It doesn't compute.

Sarah Palin on the fall of the Berlin Wall

We were there twenty years ago today when the Berlin Wall Fell to the Ground.

We were NOT in Berlin, but we were in Germany. I know Sarah didn't write this alone. She has speechwriters like every good Politician does. Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama. They all lean on these writers. But this article is good.

Commemorating a Victory for Freedom

Twenty years ago, the ultimate symbol of the division between freedom and tyranny was torn down. The Berlin Wall was constructed for one purpose: to prevent the escape of East Germans to the freedom of the West. The Wall’s cold, gray facade was a stark reminder of the economic and political way of life across the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.

Ronald Reagan never stopped regarding the Berlin Wall as an affront to human freedom. When so many other American leaders and opinion makers had come to accept its presence as inevitable and permanent, Reagan still hammered away at the Wall’s very premise in human tyranny, until finally the Wall itself was hammered down. Its downfall wasn’t the work of Reagan alone. Our president’s actions were joined with the brave acts of many individuals who stood firm and united in facing the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall came down because millions of people behind the Iron Curtain refused to accept the fate of enslavement and their supporters in the West refused to accept that the “captive nations” would remain captive forever.

Though that long, tragic episode in human history had come to a close finally with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, it wasn’t the “end of history” or the end of conflict as some had hoped. New conflicts confront us today throughout the world which call for courage and resolve and dedication to freedom. The new democracies and market economies that have emerged in Central and Eastern Europe still require our friendship and alliances as they continue to seek security, prosperity, and self-determination. But as we reflect on present and future challenges, let’s take time to celebrate the anniversary of this awesome victory for freedom. The downfall of that cold, gray concrete Wall should be a lesson to us in hope. Nothing is inevitable. Tyranny is no match for the hope and resolve of those who work and fight for freedom.

- Sarah Palin

He who killed in the name of Islam was just mentally ill

Disturbed. Upset. Confused. Deluded. Not happy with the situation as it was. Then religious leaders by the words they spoke caused a man who was on the edge to do a crazy thing. A man who needed to make a mark for Allah in his mind. A man who saw America as the enemy even though he lived here. So he planned carefully the whole thing. Cleaned out his apartment and deliberately carried out the deluded act of violence driven by religious fervor.

His name? Mohamed Atta al Sayed

He was one of nine we now call Islamic Terrorists. They flew planes into buildings and killed many.

How is that different from the terrorist attack last week? Why is the news media trying to dodge this issue? What is the agenda?

Like Sarah Palin keeps saying, “Why don’t ya just stop making it up”?

How to be sure you will get to heaven without Jesus

Take your net worth, divided by your age, times your IQ.

Then add 10 if you are white, middle class, male.

Minus the number of times you have been overdrawn in the last yr.

If a member of service club, country club, fraternity, or a military vet, add 20 for ea.

Add 30 for ea. college degree you have.

Add 10 for ea. legitimate child you have born and raised or are raising.

Subtract 5 for ea. illegitimate or non raised child.

Subtract 20 for ea. divorce you have had.

Subtract 1 trillion for ea. and every sin you have committed.

Scores of 1 or more will get you into heaven.

And That's YOUR ACHIEVEMENTS WITHOUT THE CROSS

Newest Member of the Redlin Arboretum

When I was in Tennessee last week I saw a plant that had caught my eye the weekend before. Cucumber Magnolia is a unique and beautiful native plant. Magnolia accuminata is actually native clear up into Wisconsin. In it's native format the flowers are green. Showy but green.

The Yellow Lantern is a Hybrid of Accuminata and Solangiana. Fully hardy. Mid May bloom. Bright Yellow Flowers and huge leaves.

There was one in the parking lot of Weber Hotel in Ann Arbor. I mentioned to Peggy when I saw it that I wish I had one. It was a bit pricey, but I will spend money for plant material sometimes when I shouldn't.

Here's what it will look like in the spring. Looking forward to it.

Tolerance or Truth - The Muslim Massacre of American Soldiers

From New Wineskins.

Why would you believe tolerance to be a higher value than truth? But more importantly it’s critical to separate two kinds of tolerance: intellectual and interpersonal.Sadly, the two have become conflated.

Interpersonal tolerance is to be lauded. My muslim neighbors (and I mean literally the people who live next door to me) have every right to go about their lives as freely as I do, with all of the protections that the Golden Rule, our Constitution, common courtesy and our system of laws affords them.

Intellectual tolerance, on the other hand, is tantamount to saying “whatever” and failing to engage with issues or persons. It is the essence of contempt. It is surely not wise to press such distinctions in every conversation, but to fall into the habit of not making them for oneself is to fall into a swamp of half-truths and, ultimately, bald lies.

Its opposite involves distinctions and thus forms the basis for reason and truth. (I cannot tolerate you saying the light is green when it is red because that puts both of us in danger — it is untruthful, perhaps even insane. I cannot tolerate fraudulent information and expect my business to thrive or escape legal censure. I cannot tolerate the belief that the earth is flat — at least not when espoused by an airline pilot or navigator. One can think of myriad other examples that a small child could understand.)

When fears of interpersonal intolerance (e.g., we can’t say that because it might cause some people might beat up muslims!) cause us to steer clear of facts or other rational distinctions that are important to explore for other reasons, we allow fear to hold reason and open dialogue hostage. And that, I should hope, would be something we could all agree is not a good or healthy thing.