(Editor's Note: The following is from an NPR news release, and therefore lam trusting that it is an actual occurrence, and not an urban legend.)

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn. He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,¹" Diaz says. As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this"¹

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.

Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says.

"The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?"

"He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"

Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.

Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.

The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.

When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."

Diaz says he asked for something in return — the knife — "and he gave it to me."

Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."

**************

Isn't that what Paul said in Romans 12:20— "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

Dan May

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible? Oh, and one more thing,

Perhaps you have been to a yard sale or a flea market where a vendor was trying to get rid of his wares, and was willing to throw something in for free to "sweeten" a deal. Most of the time that which is thrown in for free is of little value. Consider that the Bible says two sparrows were sold for a farthing (Matt 10:29), and five sparrows were sold for two farthings (Luke 12:6). The sparrow was so insignificant, one was thrown in for nothing. But free doesn't always mean cheap or unimportant. We live in a land of abundant freedoms and treasured privileges. This nation affords us the freedom to ex­press ourselves in unique ways. We have been granted the freedom to assemble, freedom of speech, freedom to worship as we see fit, freedom to vote for our government officials, and other freedoms and blessings too numerous to mention. I hope that we realize how fortunate we are to live in this great nation, for many do not enjoy the bless­ings that we do, freedoms that we often take for granted. These freedoms came at a terrible price—many men and women gave their lives so that we might enjoy and main­tain these privileges! As the old adage reminds us, freedom isn't free, nor is the price to obtain and maintain freedom cheap.

his debt, but because God loves us (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10) and because He desires that none be lost (1 Tim 2:4). Just because salvation is free doesn't mean that it is cheap. The greatest price that could be paid was paid for our sins. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation re­ceived by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet 1:18-19). Jesus gave his life on Calvary's cross so that we might be reconciled unto God in one body (Eph 2:16). For that body, his church, Jesus gave his life's blood (Acts 20:28; Eph 5:25). Salvation is free, but it is not cheap!

Sadly, many treat salvation as though it were insignificant. Some never come to realize their need to be saved from their sins. Some scoff at the idea of one dying in order to wash their sins away. Still others come to know the joy of salvation, only to turn from it and live as though it means nothing to them. Man may count salvation as immaterial, but God has put a great price tag on it. There is a great difference between cheap and priceless, and that difference is the blood Jesus shed so that you might be saved!

I had the meanest mother in the whole world. While other children ate candy for breakfast, I had to have cereal, eggs or toast. When others had cokes and candy for lunch, I had to eat a sandwich. As you may guess, my supper was different from other children's also. But at least I wasn't alone in my suffering. My sister and two brothers had the same MEAN MOTHER AS I DID.

My mother insisted upon knowing where we were at all times...you'd think we were on a CHAIN GANG. She had to know who our friends were and what we were doing. She insisted if we said we'd be gone an hour that we be gone one hour or less...not one hour and a minute. I am nearly ashamed to admit it, but she actually struck us. Not once, but each time we did as we pleased. Can you imagine someone actually hitting a child just because he disobeyed?

NOW YOU CAN BEGIN TO SEE HOW MEAN SHE REALLY WAS.

While the other girls were wearing miniskirts and smoking cigarettes we had to be little grandmas and were called OLD FASHIONED. Mother would not even let us go to the DRIVE-IN MOVIES. How could she be so MEAN!

My mother was a complete failure as a mother. None of us has ever been arrested, divorced or beaten his mate. Each of my brothers served his time in the service of this coun­try. And whom do we have to blame for the terrible way we turned out? You're right...OUR MEAN MOTHER.

Look what all we missed. We never got to march in a PROTEST PARADE, nor to take part in a RIOT, burn DRAFT CARDS, and a million and one things that other children did.

The worst is yet to come. We had to be in bed by nine each night and up early the next morning. We couldn't sleep till noon like our friends. So while they slept, my mother actually had the nerve to break the CHILD-LABOR LAW. She made us work. We had to wash dishes, make beds, learn to cook and all sorts of cruel things. I believe she lay awake at night thinking up MEAN THINGS to do to us.

She always insisted upon our telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, even if it KILLED us, and it nearly did.

She forced us to grow up into GOD-FEARING, EDUCATED, HONEST ADULTS. Using this as a background, I am trying to raise my three children. I stand a little taller and I am filled with pride when my children call me MEAN.

Anonymous; via Exhortations and Stuff

As I came to the office today (Friday, January 16) I noticed one little pile of snow on the east part of our lot and a little larger pile on the west side. I thought two things: First, will they still be here Sunday? and second, it reminded me of our weather the last few weeks and the devastation and disruption it has caused.

Thousands of people were displaced by the snow and flooding that followed. Hundreds had their homes damaged or even completely lost in the aftermath of these winter storms. The pictures on the news and in the paper and on the internet gave us a small sense of what was going on, but still it's difficult to comprehend.

Adding insult to injury you have the man-caused flooding of the little town of Pacific when the army corps of engineers released water from Mud Mountain bam. No one is taking the blame, of course, but there is still plenty being said. Take for example the less-than-comforting words of /Andrea Takash, corps spokeswoman, "We need to find out what happened and why. It's important because floods are going to happen again. It's going to rain, and this is the Northwest." No pun intended, but that is deep.

In the larger picture, our flooding here this winter is not worthy to be compared with another great flood in the history of Mankind. We have no way of knowing how many people lost their lives in the great flood of Noah's time. There's no system of accurately calculating what the world's population was then, but most scholars estimate that from Adam to Noah humankind could easily have grown well into the millions, even billions. But while we don't know how many died, we know with certainty how many survived: "eight souls were saved through water" (I Peter 3:20; Genesis 7:7,13).

When the flood waters came, they came suddenly. It wasn't as though people had no warning at all; for 120 years, Noah had been preaching to alert them to the impending danger (Genesis 6:3; 2 Peter 2:5). But on that dreadful day when the skies poured forth rain and the springs beneath the earth ruptured and erupted, life was proceeding as it always had until that time: "They

were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them away" (Matthew 24:38-39).

Jesus tells us there is a time of everlasting destruction ahead that will arrive just as unexpectedly: "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be... Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill'- one will be taken and the other not" (Matthew 24:37, 40-41).

One moral of the story of Noah is that we ought always to be prepared for the day of disaster. Noah was ready because he heeded God's warnings and followed His instructions to the letter: "By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith" (Hebrews 11:7).

Unlike Noah, we can't always be prepared for physical disasters. But we can most certainly be ready for the end of this physical life, if we recognize that it may come at any time. All of us were going about our regular business last week, eating and drinking, working at whatever occupations provide our living. Doubtless there were some who married, and others who gave their sons and daughters to spouses in marriage. Then the storm hit and washed  many possessions and memories away.

If disaster struck here today, would you be ready? If God called for your life this hour, by earthquake or flood or traffic accident or cardiac arrest, would your soul be saved or lost? "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming" (Matthew 24:42).

Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people (John 14:1-3; Matthew 25:13). How prepared are you?

Dan May

I am your greatest asset or heaviest burden.

I will push you up to success or down to disappointment. I am at your command.

Half the things you do might as well be turned over to me. For I can do them quickly, correctly, and profitably.

I am easily managed, just be firm with me.

Those who are great, I have made great.

I am not a machine, but I work with the precision of a machine and intelligence of a person.

You can run me for profit, or you can run me for ruin.

Show me how you want it done. Educate me. Train me. Lead me. Reward me. And I will then do it automatically.

I am your servant.

Who am I?

I am a habit!

Author unknown; via Exhortations & Stuff

Near Mobile, Alabama there was a railroad bridge that spanned a big bayou. The date was September 22, 1993. It was a foggy morning just before 3:00 a.m. when a tugboat accidently pushed a barge into the bayou. The drifting barge slammed into the bridge.

In the darkness no one could see the extent of the damage, but someone on the tugboat radioed the Coast Guard to inform them. Moments later an Amtrak train, the Sunset Limited, reached the bridge. The train was traveling from Los Angeles to Miami.

Unaware of the damage, the train crossed the bridge at 70 mph. There were 210 passengers on board. As the weight of the train crossed the damaged support, the bridge gave away. Three locomotive units and the first four of the train's 8 passenger cars fell into the alligator infested bayou. The darkness and fog was thickened by fire and smoke.

The tugboat operator immediately called in a frantic message to the Coast Guard. It was so far back in the swamp, emergency vehicles were only able to get within 6 miles of the site on land. Helicopters were called in to help rescue the survivors. Many people made it, but 47 people drowned or died in the flames and went out into eternity.

There were many heroes that morning. One was Michael Dopheide. He was a young man who had just finished college, and was heading to Florida after a visit with his sister in California. Jolted awake, he heard the screaming and cries all around him. He ran down the aisle to an emergency exit, and as the water was rising he removed the glass, and jumped into the swampy waters that were 25 ft deep. Treading water, he coaxed people to jump the six feet down into the bayou. Those who couldn't swim he helped to a metal girder 10' ft away. The thirty people he helped save included one two year old, an elderly lady, and a 11 year old girl with cerebral palsy named Andrea. Her parents, Geray and Mary Jane Chancey, were traveling home with their little girl. As they were waiting to get out, the car shifted and filled with water. They desperately pushed little Andrea out through the window to the hands of waiting rescuers.

This was their last act of love for their daughter. Instead of getting out themselves, they chose to give their lives to save their child. This is the same kind of love Jesus had when He chose to die on the cross for US!

Jesus said in John 10:18 — "No man taketh it (his life) from me, but I lay it down of my­self..." He chose to die for our sins, and now He offers to us Eternal Life!"

Potential can only be measured by accomplishment. No other system is as accurate.

Albert Einstein could not speak until he was four years old, and did not learn to read until he was seven.

Beethoven's music teacher said that, "As a composer he is hopeless."

When Thomas Edison was a young boy, his teachers said he was so stupid that he could never learn anything.

When F. W. Woolworth was 21, he got a job in a store, but was not allowed to wait on customers because he "didn't have enough sense."

Walt Disney was once fired by a newspaper editor because he was thought to have "no good ideas."

Sometimes we have to look very hard to see potential in others or ourselves. Each of us is uniquely gifted, though. We all have something to contribute to the world.

Anonymous; This page via Exhortations & Stuff

Super Bowl Sunday is notable not only for the National Football League championship, the 3-million-dollar 30-second ads, and the festivities surrounding it, but also for the fact that it is the single busiest day of the year for two of the most popular takeout food businesses — pizza and submarine sandwiches.

Do you enjoy a pizza or a sub now and then? Most people do, even on days when there's no big game being played. In fact, I'm not sure that I know anyone who avidly dislikes either subs or pizza. The two foods share a number of characteristics in common: both are Italian inventions that became far more popular and diversified in the U.S. than in Italy; both can be eaten without utensils; both are easily packaged for transport, making them ideal for the takeout menu.

The quality that makes pizza and subs (or hoagies, heroes, poor boys, torpedoes, or any of the other regional names attached to the sandwich) most popular, however, is the nearly infinite variety with which they can be garnished. When you walk into most pizza parlors or sub shops, you're confronted with an imposing list of possible ingredient selections. You can add all the ingredients you prefer, and leave off all the things that don't suit your taste. You can finish a sub or pizza as elaborately or as simply as you like. There are no "wrong" choices.

The Golden Rule? Oh, sure, I'll take some of that. Do not steal, do not kill, do not commit adultery! Why not, pile 'em on — I wasn't planning on doing any of those anyway. God is love! Plenty of that, please. If you love Me, keep my commandments! Hey, go easy on those commandments, will you? Remain faithful unto death! Sounds a little spicy for me. Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men! You know, I've never really been fond of anchovies — I think I'll pass.

The words of Jesus — including everything He directed through the Holy Spirit in all of the New Testament Scriptures — are not menu items from which we can pick and choose. We cannot both accept His "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28) and reject His "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me "(Luke 9:23). We cannot endorse "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast"' (Ephesians 2:8-9) while shunning "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). It is impossible to do justice to "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved"' (Romans 10:9) in the absence of "Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?" (Romans 6:3).

Our Lord is not in the pizza business, nor is He selling submarine sandwiches. Being His disciple is a total commitment, not a selection from among an abundance of menu items. With Christ, there is no "have it your way, "but only "not my will, but Yours, be done."

Michael Rankin

If the Lord put out a newspaper, would you make the front page? And, if you did, would it be because of something "good" you are doing, or because of something "bad" you have done? Unfortunately, most of the "front page news" in our local papers concern those things which are atrocious or ungodly or that violate our moral integrity! How sad it is to think that what it takes to sell newspapers is the morbid and the grotesque!

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO SELL RELIGION? What does it take to keep you interested in Christ? What IS your life? Without getting "down" on yourself or without being too "bold" ~ what is a ONE-LINE headline that would depict the present status of your life? Or, without being too vague, what kind of epitaph could you write for your tombstone RIGHT NOW?

The Lord urges us to constantly take inventory of our lives and make sure
WHERE we're trying to go and HOW FAR along the road we are! [2 Cor. 13:5- "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?"]
 

"...scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.' For they willfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." (2 Pet. 3:3b-7}

Peter wrote these words sometime before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, so the church is less than 40 years old, and already there are 'scoffers' in the body of Christ, who are questioning the second coming of the Lord. They have "willfully forgotten" their history. The word "willfully" includes, but does not limit, the idea of "desire" along with 'volition" or "exercising of the will". These people were not ignorant of the events that had previously happened to the physical world because they had not been told, nor were they uninformed on the subject, but chose to ignore the past.

It is a well known axiom that "history repeats itself". They were well aware of the flood, but what they willfully WANTED to forget was the very idea that God once again would bring destruction and woe upon the earth. So, they found a very simple solution... "JUST FORGET ABOUT IT!"

This is exactly how Satan has been able to keep so many people from obeying the gospel, by telling them that it has never happened, so it won't happen....just forget about it. God calls on man to "COME —LET US REASON TOGETHER!" (Isa. 1:18). but if man stubbornly refuses to consider the facts, then his salvation is impossible. He is willfully forgetting these things to his own damnation!

One can rationalize that if he doesn't know, then he does not sin. But again, he is willfully forgetting, or ignoring, God's word, which says, "If you know to do good, and don't do it, to you it is sin." (James 4:17) Others forget or ignore Hebrews 10:25. to forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. The things that people will to forget, avoid or neglect, are the very things that would be of everlasting benefit to them.

When Peter said that these "scoffers" would deny the second coming of Jesus Christ, he introduced arguments that were contrary to their desires. The world had once perished by water...and God promised that it would not happen again... IN THAT WAY! But He also promised that it would perish, but for now was being held in reserve for fire, when it would be destroyed again...and thus confirms the judgment as the final step in this promise...with drastic results for the ungodly.

It may seem inconceivable that any person would willfully forget what God has revealed to us. But history shows that they have existed from the beginning of time, right down to this very day. They run the gamut from those who want to predict the second coming within the next few months, or at least in the present decade, to those who deny that there will even be a second coming.

And now, as in Paul's time, we have a specific group of people who are claiming that they judgment has already come. That it happened in AD 70, and the de­struction of Jerusalem marked that event.

But, as we said, that's not new either! Paul told of some in Corinth who were willfully ignoring the future. Others were willfully forgetting the existence of God, as they do today; that Christ ever came the first time, that the Lord's church exists, and above all, that God provided us with a specific plan of salvation.

And Peter went on to show that these scoffers, while willfully forgetting the past, also refused to look at the future, when God would once more destroy the earth. But, he also says that God does not forget, and that man can still escape the consequences. God doesn't want any to perish, but He is "... longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

If we permit ourselves to be deluded by these scoffers and false teachers, we may be able to blame them when we stand before God, but that will not excuse us. "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God, and give an answer for the deeds (WE HAVE) done in the flesh."

By R. B. Rankin; via 2007 Proclaimer

Progress is a funny thing. Take computers, for example. When computers first became a prominent part of modern life in the 1960's, they were monstrous things that took up entire rooms and stored their data on paper-board punch cards and reels of magnetic tape. And so we thought it would always be: if you look at episodes of the original "Star Trek" TV show—set some 200 years in the future—computers were still the size of railroad boxcars. Flash forward to 2009, and see the present reality. We have computers capable of tasks Captain Kirk never dreamed that fit easily in a briefcase.

Why has computer technology developed so rapidly, while other areas of science and engineering have puttered along, relatively speaking? It's hard to say, but part of the reason is that we didn't realize how much we could do with computers, and we learned that we couldn't do as much in other fields as we might have thought. Take medicine: smallpox was eradicated, measles and mumps nearly so, but we still can't do anything about the common cold.

Jesus spoke this parable to His disciples: "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better™(Lute 5:36-39).

Sometimes old things and new things are incompatible. Well-worn cloth can't be patched with new, unshrunk material. New wine, in which fermentation is just beginning, can't be secured in aged and brittle wineskins. In the computer field, they call it "backward incompatibility" when files from a previous version of a program don't work with the upgraded model.

But as Jesus shows, the fact that something is new doesn't mean it's better. Vintage wine is a vast improvement over the fresh crush. Meat and cheeses are aged to gain character and flavor. Literature and music have their classic compositions that have not been superseded by more recent works. And, generally speaking, attempts to update the classics or recast them in modern style or setting are miserable failures. Sometimes, "the old is better."

We hear much clamor these days for the "new" in religion: new methods, new worship styles, new approaches to the Scriptures. Not everything "new" is bad—Jesus and the New Testament writers used the vernacular and illustrations of their day to speak to their audiences—but all too often the hue and cry for the new and different is merely an attempt to avoid responsibility for the tried and true. There is nothing wrong with framing the lessons of the Bible in ways that people living in modern society can understand. But we cannot alter the unchanging and unchangeable word of God in an attempt to appeal to the Athenian mindset, which rejects everything "old" and seeks only that which sounds like "something new}' (Acts 17:19-21).

Change can be positive, even necessary. As followers of Christ, we are challenged to mature and grow (1 Peter 2:2, 3:18; Ephesians 4:15-16). But there is a difference between growth and change for the sake of change. We must avoid trying to patchwork into the "old" gospel our "new cloth." Time marches on; technology advances; but as Solomon observed," there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10). The sins that condemned men and women to hell in the first century A.D. still condemn them in the 21st. The prescription for salvation remains the same (Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21). Some things never change.

Michael Rankin

Leftovers are such humble things,

We would not serve them to a guest

And yet we serve them to our Lord

Who deserves the very best.

We give Him leftover time,

Stray minutes here and there,

leftover cash we give to him,

Such few coins as we can spare.

We give our youth unto the world

To hatred, lust and strife; Then in declining years we give To Him the remnant of our life.

It was a sunny Saturday morning, and Joe was beginning his pre-shot routine, visualizing his upcoming shot when a voice came over the clubhouse loudspeaker - "Would the gentleman on the woman's tee please back up to the men's tee, please!"

Joe was still deep in his routine, seemingly impervious to the interrup­tion. Again the announcement - "Would the man on the women's tee kindly back up to the men's tee!"

Joe had had enough. He shouted, "Would the announcer in the club­house kindly shut up and let me play my second shot!"

I am very familiar with not being as far down the golf course as I am expected to be after my first shot! :-) And sometimes, I'm not as far along spiritually as others think I should be. There are some others who are not as far along spiritually as they probably should be.

What is to be our attitude toward these "weak" brethren? Sometimes the situation calls for some words of gentle rebuke (Heb 5:12-14). Some­times the situation calls for patient forbearance (Rom 14:1). In all things, our goal is to encourage and build up.

"We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up." (Rom 15:1-2. NIV).

May we truly encourage one another as we live our Christian lives, with those who are strong helping those who are weak. We need all the help we can get!

By -Alan Smith; via 2007 Proclaimer

Mary Ann Bird was born with multiple birth defects. She suffered not only from her physical impairments but also with the emotional trauma of "being different" from others. Here is her story in her own words from her personal memoirs entitled, The Whisper Test:

I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech.

When schoolmates asked, "What happened to your lip?" I'd tell them I'd fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one outside my family could love me.

There was, however, a teacher in the second grade whom we all adored - Mrs. Leo­nard by name. She was short, round, happy -- a sparkling lady.

Annually we had a hearing test. Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back - things like "The sky is blue" or "Do you have new shoes?" I waited there for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper,  "I wish you were MY little girl."

Because of our sin, YOU and I are in a dreadful condition - not because we are dif­ferent from others, for ALL of us share this common malady (Rom 3:23). The prophet Isaiah described our condition well: "ALL of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isa 64:6).

Yet because of His GREAT love for us, God says to you and me, "/ wish you were My child." And, because of His GREAT love for us, He has provided a way for us to be cleansed from our sins and "adopted" into His family. This provision came at a terrible price: the death of His Son, Jesus, on a cruel cross. "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive... the adoption as sons" (Gal 4:4-5).

God redeems us and "adopts" us into His family when we: by faith in Christ (Acts 16:31) turn from our sins in repentance (2 Corinthians 7:9-10). confess Jesus before men (Rom 10:9-10). and are baptized (immersed) for the forgiveness of our sins

(Acts 2:38: 22:16). Then, as His "children"... we are instructed to follow in the steps of Jesus for the rest of our lives (1 Jn. 1:7).

It doesn't matter how badly you have messed up your life. God's wish - His desire - is for YOU to become His child. Your acceptance of His offer will change your life -forever! Why not become a child of His today?

By David Sargent; via 2007 Proclaimer

My dad tells the story of when he was about four years old and my grandfather had to go away for a few days on business. After he had gone, my grandmother told my dad to do some chore. He told me he looked at her and said, "You are not the boss of me!" You can probably guess the rest of the story.

The final stanza of William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus may be one of the most oft-quoted selections in English verse:

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

We like the sound of that, don't we? Few concepts offer a more forceful thrill to the human ego than that of self-determination. In this country especially, we take immense pride in our love of individual action — the first official document of American society is aptly called the Declaration of Independence. We've fought wars over the right of every person to shape his or her destiny without overbearing government interference, and without the shackles of involuntary bondage.

None of us likes to be told what to do, or even that we have to do anything. We don't like taking orders from others. We prefer charting our own course. We enjoy telling the rest of the world, in the words of an older television show theme, "You 're not the boss of me. "

So militant are we about our insistence upon self-governance that many of us even try to tell God, "You 're not the boss of me. " We resist the concept of required obedience, of a God who issues commandments and expects his created beings to obey them. Far better, to our way of thinking, is a God who loves us, who cares and provides for and dotes upon us, then leaves us alone to do as we please — a God who will accept our worship, in whatever form or manner that worship may take, when we choose to offer it, and then stays clear of our business the whole rest of the time.

But our existence isn't that simple. We are the handiwork of a God whose written word describes him as "him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). This is a God who warns that he "will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14); a God who "has appointed a day on -which he will judge

the world in righteousness " (Acts 17:31); a God who will mete out to every person who has ever lived the due penalty for "the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10). This is a God who, whether we like it or don't — and whether we even believe in him or don't — is truly "the boss" of each of us.

Much of religious tradition, old-fashioned or newfangled, is built around man's feeble attempt to bend God to human will. The religions of men all try to make God subservient to the desires of men, rather than the other way around. We want to tell God how we will worship, how we will serve, how we will live, what law we will accept and which we will disregard.

Such a mindset has always been the ruin of humankind, even as it was of Israel in times of old: "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3); even as it was for the ancient Gentiles, "who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator " (Romans 1:25).

God tells us forthrightly that we are obligated to obey his directives or suffer the eternal consequences (Deuteronomy 6:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:8 -9). But he also assures us that his way is always best (Isaiah 55:8-9) and that his commandments, though stringent and demanding, are not intended to burden us (1 John 5:3), but are for our good (Deuteronomy 10:12-13; Psalm 19:7-11; John 14:21; Matthew 11:28-30).

If we reject God's will as revealed in his Son Jesus, we do so at our everlasting peril: "See that you do not

refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven " (Hebrews 12:25). Try though we might to assert our own will — to captain our own ships and master our own souls — there comes an awesome day when we will no longer be able to resist his authority (Romans 14:10-11; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 10:29-31). Better that I use this day to submit to Christ's supreme Lordship — to acknowledge that he is, indeed, "the boss of me."

Adapted from Michael Ronkin

The following satire should help us learn a Biblical lesson on respecting the limits of divine authority in our faith and practice: "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you" (Dent 4:2; Rom 15:4).

PRESS RELEASE: The world of archaeology was giddy with the sensational discovery in the Sinai desert of the long lost and previously unknown diary of two an­cient Jewish priests — Nadab and Abihu. These sons of Aaron had a short-lived career in Leviticus but managed to secretly record their enlightened spiritual aspirations. The compact papyrus diary was in remarkably excellent shape, except for the edges of the scroll having been singed by fire all around.

Here are some excerpts from Abihu's deep, soul-searching spirituality:

"As spiritual leaders, Nadab and I are excited about the possibility of bringing about positive change in our repressive, narrow legalistic sect. While we owe much to our religious heritage of belief in a covenant keeping God that sustained us in Egypt, the legalistic prohibitions of Moses chafe our loins from making strides into greater spirituality, self actualization, emotional fulfillment, and knowledge of spiritual mysteries. In this new age, brethren must learn to think outside of the tent.

Who are we, as Jews, to be so narrow minded and exclusive that God has only one way? How arrogant for Aaron and Moses to say we alone have the truth of God. How odd for our little group to stand apart from the world and say we alone can know the true way of God.

Legalistic rules will kill this movement, like this ridiculous rule that we are only authorized to get fire from only one place to offer incense! How superstitious! It's like this so-called "law of silence" that our forefather Noah was only authorized to build the ark out of gopher wood, since God was silent about any other wood. How silly!

True worship for us is not about keeping trivial rules but feeling the awesome presence of God. Rigid patternism is so deadening.

How sad that we Jews began, when God called Abraham, as a unifying movement of mankind. Did not God say to the founder of our movement, "Through you Jews all the families of the earth shall be blessed"? Somehow this movement has gone awry into sectarian narrowness. Instead of simplistic faith, we need a fresh wind from the Spirit of change to breathe new life into our movement. Now it is so emotionally stifling and rigid!

We need to send a delegation to grovel before the Canaanite God Convention to apologize for our intolerant narrowness and exclusive religion, so we'll be accepted into the Land of Promise with open arms. God is the God of all men, not just Jews. How arrogant to say that God only spoke to us and gave His blessings only to us.

We are all sons of Noah. Who is to say that the sincerity of our estranged fleshly brethren descended from Noah who approach God, as they understand Him, is any better than ours? In fact, they seem to be so sincere and wise, like the gracious wisdom of the insightful Egyptians, Ptahhote and Amenemope, or Hammurabi of Mesopotamia, and Ahikar of Assyria. We can't bring ourselves to say they are wrong and hurt their feelings - but we sure know our narrow-minded brethren are wrong and who cares how they feel!

We need to apologize to the Edomites, our brothers, for excluding them and being so arrogant as to say that God's covenant with us excludes them from the table of fellowship in Yahweh. God has surely been working through the wise men of Edom, who are world renown for their insightful spirituality.

Since Moses said at Mount Sinai that all Israel is a priestly nation to minister to the nations, we take this as a paradigm to broaden our fellowship. Don't the elders of Israel know that to broaden the appeal of the covenant that they must adopt the spirit of the age? Pluralism is the only thing that will work in our ministry before the world. We can no more believe and practice alike than look alike.

Monotheism makes us a laughing stock in the universities of Egypt. Nobody in the religious world believes this stuff except our own little group!

We feel led by God's Spirit to lead our fellowship of God's people into greater liberty of conscience and belief, as was done by the patriarchs.

Today, we will bravely experiment with offering a new and exciting type of fire in worship. We feel we will experience an overwhelming moving of the power of God."

And so they did, when they offered "unauthorized fire" (NIV in worship (Leviticus 10:1-4)!

So, we must remember "to not exceed what is written" (1 Cor. 4:6) in our religious service to God. The New Testament is a complete and perfect pattern for "life and godliness" (2 Pet 1:3, 2 Tim 1:13, 3:16-17). Let's remember this OT warning of Nadab and Abihu's unauthorized worship (1 Cor. 10:6). It is both spiritually safe and satisfying to abide only in Christ's Word (Jn. 8:31-32), to respect the limit of God's revelation (Isa 66:2), and not to presume upon His silence as permissive (Heb 7:14, 1 Pet 4:11, Rev 22:18-19)!

Message: The essence of reverence is respect for divine authority (Isa 66:2, Matt 7:21-23). The essence of love is sincere obedience to God's Word (Jn 14:15,15:14).

By W. Frank Walton; via email from Ron Haws

In about 57 A.D., as we now reckon the calendar, the apostle Paul was concerned about the churches in Galatia. (Galatia was the central region of Asia Minor, in what we would call Turkey today.) These churches were struggling with a number of spiritual crises: there were false teachers among them, leading many astray; division — social and religious — existed between the Christians of Jewish heritage and those who were born Gentiles; some of the disciples exhibited a tendency to fall back into the old ways of thinking and practice that predated their conversion to Christ. With these issues in mind, Paul (probably from Corinth, though some scholars think he was in Ephesus) wrote a letter to be circulated among the Galatian churches — the only letter he wrote generally to a group of congregations rather than to a specific church or individual — to snap them back into the faith of the gospel of Christ.

In writing about some of the troublemakers among the Galatian brethren, Paul said, "They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you " (Galatians 4:17-18).

Note that Paul makes three references to "zeal." He first refers to the eagerness with which the false teachers sought to gain disciples to their side ("they zealously court you"). Next, he observes the hope of the false teachers ("that you may be zealous for them"). Lastly, Paul describes the direction into which the Galatians' enthusiasm ought to be pointed instead ("it is good to be zealous in a good thing always").

Zeal, like almost all emotional states (including anger), is neither positive or negative by nature. Zeal is simply "eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something" (Webster's Ninth New Collegiate). What determines whether zeal is good or bad is its object. Zeal with the proper focus is to be commended; zeal for the wrong thing is itself wrong.

The false teachers in Galatia were zealous, but toward a bad end. They were eager to turn children of God away from the truth. Likewise, those who followed the heretics were zealous, but again to a bad end. They were eager to hear lies rather than truth (Galatians 1:6-7; compare to 2 Timothy 4:3-4). In both cases, zeal was not a quality worthy of

encouragement. All of these Galatians were like the devout Jews of whom Paul spoke in Romans 10:2: "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge " (Romans 10:2). Here again were people who were ardently in pursuit of something, but not according to the path they should have pursued.

There is, however, zeal that is commendable. As Paul said, "it is good to be zealous in a good thing always. " Zeal for the cause of the Lord is good (Psalm 69:9; John 2:17). Zeal for good works is good (Titus 2:14). Zeal in repentance and obedience is good (Revelation 3:19). Certainly, zeal for salvation — one's own (2 Peter 1:10; 3:14) and that of others (Colossians 4:13) — is very good. We must be zealous without faltering (Romans 12:11), but we must be zealous for the right things, for the right reasons.

Notice also the additional element Paul mentions. "It is good to be zealous in a good thing always, " he says, "and not only when I am present with you. " Genuine righteous zeal cannot come and go like the north wind. If we are zealous for good things only when someone is watching, or only when we are in the presence of others who are zealous, then we really are not zealous at all. We can easily become like the Christians in Sardis, who had a reputation for being alive when, in fact, they were spiritually dead (Revelation 3: 1). Doubtless many thought the Sardisian disciples were zealous. Perhaps they still thought of themselves that way. But Jesus knew the truth about them, as He does about us all.

Many religious people overflow with zeal for their particular "flavor" of faith, but it is zeal misdirected and therefore ultimately without merit. Many Christians are zealous about all manner of things, except the things they really ought to be zealous about. It is always good to be zealous for the right things, and God will always reward such zeal (Matthew 6:33). It is never any good to be zealous for the wrong thing. May God grant us zeal for His word, that by it we may learn the difference.

Most of the questions we face in life are really quite simple to answer. We can appropriately and effectively respond to these questions with one of two one-word answers. The first answer is "Yes." A straightforward, basic affirmative. The second, not surprisingly, is "No," as straightforward and basic a negative as "Yes" is an affirmative.

Many of the key decisions of our lives come down to our saying "Yes" or "No" at the right time. You'd think that wouldn't be hard—after all, we have a 50-50 chance of being right, don't we? The problem is that these decisions usually require more than the flip of a coin. We may appear to have an equal probability of being correct no matter what we choose, but the consequences are rarely, if ever, of equal weight. Our very future may turn entirely on the correct "Yes" or "No."

Think of Aaron at the foot of Sinai. The great nation he and his brother Moses had led out of slavery in Egypt was restless. Moses had disappeared onto the mountain to converse with God. Their surroundings were unfamiliar and hostile. They didn't know where they were headed or what would become of them. So they gathered around Aaron with a demand: "Come, make us gods that shall go before us " (Exodus 32:1).

Aaron had to answer. There were two choices: "Yes" and "No." Aaron chose unwisely. He said "Yes" when he should have said "No." He collected from the Israelites all of their golden earrings and melted them. With an engraving tool, he fashioned the image of a calf—a common object of worship in the country they had recently fled. And Aaron told the people, "These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4).

All Aaron had to say when the people confronted him was "No." "No, I will not make you an idol to worship." "No, I will not participate with you in wickedness." "No, I will not turn my back on or blaspheme against the true and living God who delivered us from the hands of our oppressors." But instead Aaron said "Yes," and very nearly precipitated the destruction of the entire nation by an angry God, but for the pleading of Moses (Exodus 32:7-14).

Aaron had an excuse, of course. "You know the people, " he told Moses, "that they are set on evil" (Exodus 32:22-24). Aaron even tried to deny that he had actually molded the idol: "/ said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let him break it off.' So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out. " Imagine that, Moses! I threw all

these gold earrings in the fire and— what do you know—this golden calf just magically appeared! But neither God nor Moses were buying the tale Aaron was attempting to sell. They knew the truth—Aaron had said "Yes" when he should have said "No."

How many lives have been ruined because someone said "Yes" to something—sexual immorality, intoxicating drugs, an opportunity to steal, a hunger for money, the enticements of the world that lead one away from God—when he or she should have said "No"? Ask David, or Samson, or Solomon, or Ananias and Sapphira, or Judas, or Demas. The replacement of one simple word for another at the right moment can avoid an unbearable agony of sin.

It's also important to know when to say "Yes" when it might be tempting to say "No." When Peter was asked three times on the night Jesus was betrayed, "Aren't you with Him?" again and again he found himself saying "No," showing himself both a liar and a cowardly turncoat. The bitter tears Peter shed when the rooster crowed—and that forsaken look cast his way by the Master he denied—could have been avoided by a plain, clear-spoken "Yes." How many times have we been faced with a chance to affirm our faith in Jesus to others only to imply by our actions, "I do not know the Man"?

When God called Isaiah to prophesy, he could have said "No, Lord," but instead replied, "Here am I! Send me " (Isaiah 6:8). Jeremiah was tempted to decline the Father's summons (Jeremiah 1:4-8), but instead said "Yes." Saul of Tarsus, called to follow the very Christ he persecuted, could easily have said "No, I will not obey," but instead replied, "Lord, what do you want me to do? " (Acts 9:6). When challenged to answer for our faith, we must always be prepared to say "Yes" (1 Peter 3:15), even though we might think we'd rather say "No" and avoid being attacked, humiliated or ostracized.

Two little answers to so many of the huge questions: "Yes" and "No." Jesus said, "Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is of the evil one " (Matthew 5:37). Careful study of God's word will train us to know which to use when (Hebrews 5:14).

Michael Rankin

My friend David has a knack for cutting through the smokescreens people throw up when they're trying to avoid making commitments, be they commitments to God or to other people. Last week, with one comment, he blew away all the smoke that a young agnostic was hiding behind. It was a demonstration of tremendous insight, and it required some courage to say.

For several weeks David was teaching through a series on Christian apologetics, which involves providing evidence for the truth of Christianity. In addition to the biblical mandate to provide such evidence, David thought it would be wise to do so because 75 percent of Christian youth stop attending church after age 18. Many of them abandon the church because they're bombarded by secularism in college and they've never been taught any of the sound evidence that supports Christianity.

Last week, after David finished a presentation refuting the "new atheists"— Dawkins, Hitchens and the like—a young man approached him and said, "I once was a Christian, but now I'm an agnostic, and I don't think you should be doing what you're doing."

"What do you mean?" David asked.

"I don't think you should be giving arguments against atheists," the young man said. "Jesus told us to love, and it's not loving what you're doing."

David said, "No, that's not right. Jesus came with both love and truth. Love without truth is a swampy, borderless mess. Truth is necessary. In fact, it's unloving to keep truth from people, especially if that truth has eternal consequences."

David was absolutely right. In fact, if you look at Matthew chapter 23, Jesus was more like a drill sergeant than he was like Mister Rogers.

But the young man would have none of it. Without acknowledging David's point, he im­mediately brought up another objection to Christianity. David succinctly answered that one too, but again the kid seemed uninterested. He fired a couple of more objections at David, who began to suspect something else was up—something I've noticed as well.

I've found that the machine-gun-objection approach is common among many skeptics and liberals. They throw objection after objection at believers and conservatives but never pause long enough to listen to the answers. It doesn't matter that you've just an­swered their question with an undeniable fact—they've already left that topic and are rattling off another objection on another topic as if you hadn't said a word. They don't really seem interested in finding answers but in finding reasons to make themselves feel better about what they want to believe. After all, a skeptic of one set of beliefs is actually a true believer in another set of beliefs.

David recognized that's exactly what was happening in his conversation. So after the kid fired off another objection, David decided to end the charade and cut right to the heart. He said, "You're raising all of these objections because you're sleeping with your girlfriend. Am I right?"

All the blood drained from the kid's face. He was caught. He just stood there speech­less. He was rejecting God because he didn't like God's morality, and he was disguis­ing it with alleged intellectual objections.

This young man wasn't the first atheist or agnostic to admit that his desire to follow his own agenda was keeping him out of the Kingdom. In the first chapter of his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul revealed this tendency we humans have to "suppress the truth" about God in order to follow our own desires. In other words, unbelief is more motivated by the heart than the head. Some prominent atheists have admitted this.

Atheist Julian Huxley, grandson of "Darwin's Bulldog" Thomas Huxley, famously said many years ago that the reason he and many of his contemporaries "accepted Darwinism even without proof, is because we didn't want God to interfere with our sexual mores."

Professor Thomas Nagel of NYU more recently wrote, "It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that. My guess is that this cosmic authority problem is not a rare condition and that it is responsible for much of the scientism and reductionism of our time."

Certainly the new atheists such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have problems with cosmic authority. Hitchens refuses to live under the "tyranny of a divine dictatorship." Dawkins calls the God of the Bible a "malevolent bully" (among other things) and admits that he is "hostile to religion."

It's not that Hitchens and Dawkins offer any serious examination and rebuttal of the evidence for God. They misunderstand and dismiss hundreds of pages of metaphysical argumentation from Aristotle, Aquinas and others and fail to answer the modern arguments from the beginning and design of the universe. (Dawkins explanation for the extreme design of the universe is "luck.")

Instead, as any honest reader of their books will see, Hitchens and Dawkins are outraged at the very thought of God. Even their titles scream out contempt (god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything and The God Delusion). They don't seem to realize that their moral outrage presupposes an objective moral standard that exists only if God exists. Objective morality—as well as the immaterial laws of reason and science—cannot exist in the materialist universe they attempt to defend. In effect, they have to borrow from a theistic worldview in order to argue against it. They have to sit in God's lap to slap his face.

While both men are very good writers, Hitchens and Dawkins are short on evidence and long on attitude. As I mentioned in our debate, you can sum up Christopher's attitude in one sentence: "There is no God, and I hate him."

Despite this, God's attitude as evidenced by the sacrifice of Christ is: There are atheists, and I love them.