“Dear Mom and Dad,” the letter began in a very ordinary way. Billy Joe was just finishing his freshman year at the university. Mom and Dad were excited that he would soon be home for the summer. As Dad read the letter in the easily recognizable but barely legible writing of his young son a picture dropped out of the envelope, a picture of a very lovely young woman. The parents’ smiles turned into a line of worry as they read further. “This is Lisa.,” Billy wrote. “We met at freshman orientation. I knew you wouldn’t approve but we really fell for each other and shared an apartment this last semester. She is a neat girl and, after all, you know two can live as cheaply as one. Ha ha, ha. I will bring her home so you can meet her. I know you will just love her. Love, Billy Joe” They have not discovered what Will Rogers said fifty or sixty years ago, “ . . . Sure two can live as cheaply as one as long as one don’t eat.”
Our society has broken down many of the taboos that our older generation grew up under. The common place in dress and social activity is the abnormal and even reprehensible of even two generations ago. Parents, have you watched the TV shows your children are watching? You should; you would get your eyes open and maybe know why your child has become so stubborn and rebellious against authority. The “children” played by at least 20 + year old actors are in charge. Mothers and dads are, at best. “In the way;” at worst they are shown as mentally incompetent.
Although there are many men and women who dress tastefully, who save their love for marriage and who honor father and mother as scripture dictates. There are many more young and older women who dress in public without modesty. It really does not matter that everyone is doing it.
There is hope. Every generation experiences youthful rebellion against the morals and mores of their elders. My parents could not stand Frank Sinatra … that is the truth. Old Blue Eyes was the one who would lead us to hell. My generation was turned off by hard rock. As to dress, each generation wears their own uniform. They very carefully dress alike while arguing that they are different. There is conflict in many churches over whether they will play old hymns or worship choruses. The great preacher and hymnist John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace had the same criticism. As they say, all music was new once.
Okay. What you do is your business. Yes? It is unless you claim to be a Christian. God has given us the playbook for living, if you let the Bible be your guide there are a lot of things you won’t do, not necessarily because they are illegal but because you may cause another to follow the wrong path. All that we do should be done to please our Lord. Ask yourself not what would Jesus do, but what does Jesus think?
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Christmas with a Capital "C"
Don't say “Merry Christmas;” it might offend someone. It is beyond me that in America, land of the free and home of the brave, where we hold religious freedom and freedom of speech with a holy grip there could be a movement to deny us the right to say a simple Merry Christmas. The naysayers are especially critical if it is used in public advertising. At the same time it is okay to use the sluttiest language on the radio and television but God forbid that anyone wish anyone else a Merry Christmas.
Most of you have heard the song, “One Solitary Life.” It tells about a man who was born in a stable, served as a lowly carpenter until he was in his 30s. He then became an itinerant preacher with only 12 followers and one of them was a crook. He never wrote a book, owned a house, married or had children. His only fame came when he made a blind man to see and a lame man to walk. He made the six o'clock news when he raised a friend from the dead. He lived over two thousands years ago, but today he is one of the leading figures in the history of mankind. It seems only reasonable that the world would celebrate the birth of such a man even if all that was known of him was that he was a healer and a great teacher.
Around the world we find Merry Christmas in every tongue. In Norway: God Jul; in Portugal: Feliz Nadal; in Thailand: Sawadee Pee Mai; in Ukraine: Strozhdestvom Kristovym; in Hawaii: Mele Kalikamaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou! Even the dictionaries of the world agree that the very meaning of Christmas is “a celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.”
For 2000 years men of goodwill have taken the time to recognize the fact of the life of Jesus Christ. Even His enemies have recognized the season of His birth. The two years we lived in Turkey our friend Ali Ghengis Doulonay brought us a Christmas tree for our apartment. The sweetest stories in the world's literature center around the coming of the Christ. Lew Wallace brought the man from Galilee to life in his epic novel Ben Hur. His book became second only to the Bible as the best selling book in the world. Even today we thrill at the great chariot race as Judah Ben Hur defeats Messala, his boyhood friend turned enemy, in the arena.
When we were children, in a simpler time, we were recovering from a greater depression than any today and fighting a two-ocean war but we still found time to gather around a Christmas tree and sing Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright . . . now the politically correct crew would take that away from us, too.
Well, not from me, friend. I am dreaming of Christmas, just like the ones I have known for a lifetime. You may have your Happy Holidays but I will keep my Christmas with a Capitol C.
Most of you have heard the song, “One Solitary Life.” It tells about a man who was born in a stable, served as a lowly carpenter until he was in his 30s. He then became an itinerant preacher with only 12 followers and one of them was a crook. He never wrote a book, owned a house, married or had children. His only fame came when he made a blind man to see and a lame man to walk. He made the six o'clock news when he raised a friend from the dead. He lived over two thousands years ago, but today he is one of the leading figures in the history of mankind. It seems only reasonable that the world would celebrate the birth of such a man even if all that was known of him was that he was a healer and a great teacher.
Around the world we find Merry Christmas in every tongue. In Norway: God Jul; in Portugal: Feliz Nadal; in Thailand: Sawadee Pee Mai; in Ukraine: Strozhdestvom Kristovym; in Hawaii: Mele Kalikamaka ame Hauoli Makahiki Hou! Even the dictionaries of the world agree that the very meaning of Christmas is “a celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.”
For 2000 years men of goodwill have taken the time to recognize the fact of the life of Jesus Christ. Even His enemies have recognized the season of His birth. The two years we lived in Turkey our friend Ali Ghengis Doulonay brought us a Christmas tree for our apartment. The sweetest stories in the world's literature center around the coming of the Christ. Lew Wallace brought the man from Galilee to life in his epic novel Ben Hur. His book became second only to the Bible as the best selling book in the world. Even today we thrill at the great chariot race as Judah Ben Hur defeats Messala, his boyhood friend turned enemy, in the arena.
When we were children, in a simpler time, we were recovering from a greater depression than any today and fighting a two-ocean war but we still found time to gather around a Christmas tree and sing Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright . . . now the politically correct crew would take that away from us, too.
Well, not from me, friend. I am dreaming of Christmas, just like the ones I have known for a lifetime. You may have your Happy Holidays but I will keep my Christmas with a Capitol C.
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