If, “because I said so” isn’t enough.
How many of you have asked the question, Why do I have to do that, or Why can’t I do that? If we are honest, we all have asked why, why, why, at various times most of our life. Smaller children sometimes drive us batty with the borage of questions. Sometimes they are actually looking for answers to things they don’t understand, other times it seems it has just become a habit to question everything. When you were a child, were you ever given the answer “because I said so”? Being a child, if the answer was coming from mom or dad or someone of authority, as in, teacher, leader, etc. It is best to listen. Why? Because they have experience, and with that comes knowledge.
As we get older, we are less likely to take that as an answer and more likely to try to find out why. If indeed our question of why was motivated by wanting to know, rather than by just not wanting to do something. You do understand the difference? Many ask why do I have to_____ just to get out of doing something.
You would think that with God being our Creator, we would take what He said as fact. We sing a song about it “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me”. We see it on bumper stickers. But does it really? We are no different, we still want an explanation as to, Whyyy do we have to___. And you fill in the blank. Most of the things He has asked of us are pretty straight forward with why. Honor your father and mother. We should do that. They are responsible for us being here and under normal circumstances raised us. Don’t Kill. Ok, I get that one. If I shouldn’t kill then neither should the other people, so I’m safe. Stealing, same thing. Commit adultery, ok I shouldn’t have to worry about someone running off with my wife, if they are playing by the same set of rules. Bare false witness, ok I shouldn’t lie, got that. You should not covet anything that does not belong to you. Wow, if that was followed the others would not be needed, for most of them are committed after you coveted something that belonged to someone else. Ok, that one makes sense. That covers the last six commandments about how to treat out fellowman. The first three covered out relationship to our creator, worship Him and putting nothing before Him, got it. He is our Creator and has every right to our allegiance.
But what about the fourth? Why is it there, and why is it important? Or is it? It does start with the word “Remember” and is the only one that does.
I’m not going to go through a lot of text with you, though I may use a few to back up my thoughts, and I’m not going to point out a lot of do’s and don’ts as that has been done for centuries. What I am going to do is ask you to do is use some logic and reasoning. I know, that is in short supply but I tend to believe that my group of youth, likes to reason things out.
Let’s go back and look at the first Sabbath in Eden and see what it was used for. God didn’t need the rest. He spoke and things were made. Adam and Eve were one day old, they didn’t need rest. What was its function?
A little different perspective. What is in a day?
As most of you know, I lost my wife Beatrice, my life mate last December.
Anyone that has ever lost a close friend or family member, know that there are always things that you wish you had done or said, always unfinished things that you wish you had accomplished with or for that someone. For some it may be a disagreement you wish you had settled “in their favor”, or a promised vacation that you didn’t get to. These are things that we each have to work through in our own way and time. For me it is, I wish I had made more of an effort to make special day’s more special for and to her. Special days meant a lot to her. If you knew Bea at all you were probably the recipient of one of her many cards. She kept up with your birthdays, anniversaries, and all other days that were of importance to you and you would receive a card and note from her on or before that date. It was her way of saying, “you are important to me, I care about you”. If she let a date slip past, she felt terrible about it. Sad to say, that flow of cards that were signed “Bob & Bea” were from the Bea half of that team and most of you knew that. I’m terrible on dates and she was the one that kept my calendar and kept me going. So, Hallmark and the other card companies will take a hit in loss of revenue as a result of her death.
You can define a day as a measurement of time, as in a day has 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds and you could break it on down into smaller segments. Or you can choose to define it by what we set it aside to do as in, work day, holiday, vacation day. Or by who we decide to honor with it as in, birthday, mothers’ day, fathers’ day, bosses’ day, secretaries’ day, Valentine’s day, etc. Days are important to us. How we choose to spend them is what makes important days, important. The Work Days, for most are the ones spent trading eight or so hours doing something for someone else in exchange for $$$ so we in turn can exchange those $$$ for something we want that someone else spent their hours making or doing. It really has very little or nothing to do with how physical it is.” Work” can be physically exhausting, or it can be mentally taxing, or it may be neither one. The old saying “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life” is based on that. If you love it, it won’t be work to you. I may take a day off from “work” cut and split up a load of wood for the fireplace next winter, work up and keep a sweat all day long, be totally exhausted by evening and enjoy doing it at the same time. Others do that for a living. As a commercial driver, I drive for a living. But I also enjoy driving and going places on Sabbath when I’m not working. So is it the getting paid for it that makes it work? Or is it that it is simply your chosen profession?
I ask the question because as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian I believe that everything our Creator / God asked of us was for a reason, though we may not always understand the reason at the time.
Colossians 1: 15,16 All things were created by Him, and for Him. If you are a creationist and take the Bible as our reason for existence, then we were created by Jesus and for Him. (Context of the verse identifies it as Jesus, God’s Son that was the creator, as well as many other places.)
Have you ever made something just because you could, and wanted to do it? If you are a craftsman or painter or, you name it, it is enjoyable to step back and see what you have just done. God just finished His creation, stepping back each day and declaring, that looks good, made Adam and Eve, and I can imagine Him exclaiming, I like what I see. It is just as I had envisioned it to be. And he gave us the ability to think, reason, and to talk with Him. Then He gave us the Seventh- day in the cycle we call week, and said “I set this day aside as a day to rest. Why; again, I say “He wasn’t tired’ and “we” were only one day old.
According to Jesus as recorded in Mark 2:27 “the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
If we look at different Time measurements, we have the year defined as the length of time it takes for the earth to travel around the sun. We have the month defined as the length of time it takes for the moon to travel around its orbit. (I know it is 28 days and the month is variable, but they used to refer to it as so many moons ago instead of months ago. For simplicity sake, and the 12-month calendar, man made that adjustment. But it is still based on the moons orbit.) We have the day based on the revolution of the earth on its axis. But the week, the week is the only measurement of time that is not based on an event. Or isn’t it. Only in scripture do we find a reason for the existence of the seven-day week. The event: Creation. And even there, it is not a six-day week, as in the actual days spent creating, but seven because God established it to be so. Why?
I want to suggest to you that “Our use of that day shows where our priorities are”.
What your Priorities say about you.
There are many events in life that cause us to pause and re-evaluate our priorities, but probably none greater than the death of spouse with whom you have spent your life. It is unfortunate that we cannot, or at least do not have that session on establishing our values and our priorities at a much earlier time in life to be able to take advantage of the findings. To some degree that is what is done at a pre- marriage counseling session. Good sexual relationship is not something that will keep two people together. It may result in children that both parents love, and that may keep them together until the kids are grown and gone but then what.
Common interest and the value placed on those interest is a start in the right direction. If you both love horses and plan to spend a significant amount of your time and money on the care and maintenance of farm, fences, barns and the horses themselves then neither of you will begrudge the other spending a big part of their time and income on the mutual love, horses. But if one of you had just as soon or rather get on a motorcycle seat instead of on horseback, and spend your day crushing the byways rather than fence rows, then there is sooner or later going to be a problem of the time, money, and energy spent on your priority. And you can replace “horses” with anything of value that will take of your time and money.
That does not mean that you both need to have all the same interest, but if it is a high priority to one and of no interest to the other then it will pull you in opposite directions at some point. And the more costly it is in either time or money, the sooner and greater the affects. In a good relationship, time spent together normally results in both parties learning to enjoy activities the other likes. Back to the horses. If one of you does not like horses, (or whatever the object) and the other spends most free time and money on the object or sport, sooner or later the neglected party will say, you love that “horse / or whatever” more than you do me. You may argue the point with them but the fact of the matter is, you are spending more time and money on it, than on them. Priorities. Others already know by watching and listening to you, what has your priority. Admitting what has your priorities, and rearranging priorities, has a positive affect and will say without words, I care about this relationship.
I’m not a marriage counselor, (though I was married for almost 50 years before my Bea died), and this is not meant to be a counseling session, but I did want to establish a line of thought for what I am going to say, and this is not new or rocket science. Luke 12:34 says “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Or as a modern translation puts it, “where you put your money, that’s where your heart is”. You could also say “it shows your priority without saying a word”. We can try to deny it but the “action has spoken”. Where we place things and people in our priorities tells them and God the value, we place on them.
God / our Creator has given us six days in which to do everything that we have come to consider as the necessities of life but has asked us to take the Seventh day and set it aside to spend with Him. I’m suggesting that what we do with it shows Him and others where we place Him in our priority table.
We structure our days, our weeks, and yes, even our lives around our values, our priorities. Some of us more so than others but we all do to some degree, often without even giving it much thought.
If we want to accomplish certain things in a set time, we bump these things up on our priority list of to-dos. If we did not, then other things would consume our time and we would not accomplish our objectives, our goals. Sometimes we give a task a priority for the day, or a few days until the task is completed. Other times we re-prioritize things and make it permanent. Sometimes referred to as a lifestyle change. If a person wants to be a superior athlete, he gives that a top priority and devotes the necessary time and energy into training, which in turn tells his / her coach, this person wants to win. The flip side of that is, if the person does not devote the necessary time into training, it tells the coach, this person is not serious about winning, why should I spend my time and effort on him / her. If a person is serious about losing weight, (and yes, I know there can be medical reasons, but for the most part) they have got to want it enough to make it a priority. Same holds true in business or any vocation in life, if it is to be a success. And relationships, if it is going anywhere, we must prioritize and spend time working on that relationship. Time spent showing, not just telling the other person that they matter to us.
According to Genesis we were created in Gods image and after His likeness. Do you not think for a minute that what we do with our time tells Him where we place Him in our priority list? He who gave us the abilities to accomplish and acquire, does not watch us and say, “I see where I fit in”? And yes, I think the Sabbath plays into that. Do we fill it with everything but Him? Or can’t wait until it is over so we can get on with our pleasures. What do we take pleasure in that is so important that we need to rush Him off? I’m deliberately not filling this with quotes. How you spend your time with your Creator/Savior is between you and Him. He is the one that said, if you are not willing to forsake all for Him, you are not worthy of Him. What I am trying to point out is that you can say, “you love Him above all else but don’t expect Him to believe it when He is at the bottom of your priority list for whatever time is left over. If there is any.
Priorities are essential part of life. Some we have no control over. Breathing takes priority over most things when it comes to medical needs, but if the heart stops, that takes immediate priority, as the body can last a few minutes without air but only seconds without blood flow.
Our job takes priority over personal things we want to do during the time we allocated to work. That is the reason it’s an advantage to find an occupation that you enjoy.
Family time generally takes priority during our “free time” as it should.
Even many phones have the ability to set priorities levels to different numbers, some going directly to voicemail while others ring to be answered. As in during a business conference meeting you do not want to be disturbed but if an emergence arises, you want to be able to be reached.
If you are in conversation with someone and your phone rings, you have a decision to make, you look at your phone to see the incoming caller id, then decide, do I take this call, or, let them leave a message returning the call later, thereby saying to the one you are with, you have my priority. Many offices have signs that read “turn off your cell phone” including banks, driver license office, and Post Offices. In other words, “if our time is not your priority, then wait until it is before taking it up”.
Priorities. They make a HUGE statement about us. They declare, like it or not, where we have placed our values. It doesn’t take a person with a Doctors’ degree to spend a little time with someone, watch and listen to them, and determine their priorities, where they place their values.
Now, I am going to give a few texts to show what I think scripture says should be our order of priorities.
- God: He made us. He purchased us back. We rightfully belong to Him… 1 Cor. 6:19,20 And Matt.10:37 which places Him above parents and family.
- Spouse: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother…. Gen. 2:24, Eph. 5:31 Ok, this would seem to places spouse above parents for a married person. I can see that.
- Parents: Honor thy father and thy mother. First commandment dealing with relationship between humans and the only one with a promise, …that thy days may be long… Ex. 20:12
4. Family: He who does not provide for his family is worse than an infidel. 1 Tim. 5:8
5. Work: Ecc. 3:13, 5:18
Realize that “order” does not = time spent. You will most likely spend more hours at work than at anything else. It is just that you should not let the other things crowd out what is the more important.
At least that is the way I see it and have tried to structure mine. Doesn’t mean I’ve always made it, but it is the pattern I’ve tried to go by.
You get the picture. We can say it’s not so, but how do our actions line up. Who has top priority on the day He has asked for, clear back when He created us? Do we spend it joyfully with Him? Or fill it with everything else? Do we spend our time debating what is appropriate and approved to do? Or look forward to the time we can spend getting to know Him and His will for our lives.
Just as actions tell our spouse much more than our words ever will, so do our actions toward our Creator/God. Doesn’t mean they don’t like to hear it vocalized, it’s just that if our actions are screaming one thing, don’t expect a few choice words to make up the deficit. I can promise you it won’t with your spouse, and I doubt that it will with our Creator/Savior/God after all He gave up for us.
To know Him, is to Love Him. Do you know Him? Or do you know about Him?
Just for thought.
If you have not bothered to make God a priority in your life, then how do you expect to hear and understand His leading in your battles of/for life. And as for the law. We will say with David,” I delight to do your will my God, for your law is in my heart”. Law? What law? There is nothing about it that does not just make good sense. A close relationship with our Creator/God, spending the time nurturing that relationship and getting to know Him. Whom to know is to love. There it is. That is the reason Satan can not stand you getting to know Him. Because he knows that if you spend time getting to know your Creator/Savior you will want to make Him Lord of your life and he has lost you to his cause. And the rest of those do’s and don’ts? The other six? They all make good sense as to how we want to be treated anyway. Oh, and that forth one that keeps getting left out, the one that starts with “Remember the Sabbath day”, that is the time He allocated, set aside, made holy, “and said rest and spend that time getting to know Me”. Yes, I added that part, but how better to spend that “added” day He gave you. How do you think Adam and Eve spent it? Creation 6 days + 1 added day = 1 week. What took your priority this week?
To know Him, is to Love Him. Until next time.
Law? What law?
There are those that would like to believe that the “Ten Commandment Law” as given to Moses at Mt. Sinai was given to the Jews.
First off, check your history. These were Israelites, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yes, there were descendants of the tribe of Judea among them, but only as one of the twelve tribes. All were considered followers of the true God, Jehovah, their Creator and Deliverer out of Egyptian bondage. The Jews did not become a nation themselves until generations later. Also, most of the world will readily except the last six commandments as needed to give some boundaries as how we should behave and minimum requirements to get along with our fellow human beings. Most Christians and Jews alike, that believe in a Creator/God will except the first three commandments as minimum allegiance to our Creator. This is the reason Jesus; centuries later could sum up these with “love God with all your heart, and love they neighbor as thyself” Mark 12:31. This was not new, in fact, in scripture many locations where this quote is used, it is others quoting it to Jesus in response to His question, as in Luke 10:26,27. The lawyer knew the law stated, love God, and your neighbor, but, as is typical of we as humans, we want it spelled out to us as to who we have to treat this way, rather that except that as a way of living life. So, the lawyer asked the question “who is my neighbor” with Jesus responding by giving the parable of the good Samaritan.
To the question, was there no law before Mt. Sinai and the Ten Commandments? I would ask another question; was it not wrong for Cain to kill his brother Able if there was no law? That was not included in the law, “don’t eat of that tree”. Of course, it was wrong, then as it is now, though it had not been spelled out. We read, (and hear) the law is but a verbal expression of Gods character. I can see that. Gods character is one of love, and we, as His created were made to share in His love, and to reciprocate this love and behavior to the rest of His creation.
Satan on the other hand would have us believe that the survival of the fittest is the best way. That the only way to know your own strength is to fight or be the aggressor, to see who can beat who. This has been his way, since he allowed enmity and jealousy to become a governing part of his character. Isa. 14:12,13. Through out a lot of this worlds history this seems to be the way it played out. Kings and empires fighting against each other for property, possessions, or simply the right to rule over the people. Each thinking that if he had control, the world would be a better/safer place. Really? Even the dominant Christian church through the middle ages tried to force the rest of the world into submission, many times using some of the cruelest methods of torture to try and scare their subjects into obedience.
Today, it is the strength of a few large nations that keep the others from trying to flex their muscles and test their strength, but the primary player in this is the United States, which has always been considered a Christian nation. It has from its infancy tried to protect the rights of its people, and for that matter, all people. It has tried to enforce the last six of the commandments as the behavior pattern needed to get along with each other, and the right of the people to obey the first four, as their conscience leads. There are those today that do not want the United States to be called a Christian nation, and it is slipping away. Being a Christian nation is at the very core of our value system. It is what has made us value life and family, our own and that of others, to the point of giving up our own life to defend it from those that would take it from us and our family’s. Not as an aggressor but as a defender of freedom. Jesus life and death were the ultimate example of a defender of freedom, the human race’s right to choose once again.
Remember, there was war in Heaven, Satan has successfully continued his propaganda campaign here on earth. Survival of the fittest as we would coin it. It plays out in all our games, only the best survives to the finals. Hollywood has capitalized on the fact that we love to watch others survive or be destroyed, thereby not having to be close enough to be involved ourselves. Ask a return wounded veteran how that played out for him. It is no game when you are the player on the battlefield. And you are a player in this battlefield called life. Satan is a strategist and a liar with thousands of years of experience in both. He takes no prisoners, cares not who gets hurt in the process, has no remorse, and we are no match for him on our own. If you are planning to do battle on your own, you have already lost before you start, for you have inadvertently joined his side simply by not taking Christ with you. I read a sign in front of a church this week which read, “a part-time Christian is no match against a full-time devil”. So true.
Satan seems to enjoy seeing humans killing humans, for in it he knows the hurt it causes their Creator. He also delights in instilling doubt into our minds as to whether we were actually Created, or whether we just happened along through a process of evolution? After all, if we had no creator, we owe allegiance to no one. Also, with no future beyond this life, what difference does it make what I do or how I live. Much easier to get these to do his bidding at a later date to wreak havoc with those that do believe. But for those that choose to read the scripture for themselves and are convinced there is a Creator/God that cares, and that it does matter how we live and treat our fellow humans, he is not giving up on you yet. “Just believe”, and if you want to add treat your fellow humans decently, that’s good too, but not necessary. Really? What do your priorities say about you? Do they say you really believe/trust in a Creator/Savior/God? Or do they tell a different story? What does, how you spend your time, say about you and your priorities? Is God top priority in your life? Where does He fit in as you plan out your day? Your Week? Your life?
He did say, “He that believes shall be saved.” But can you truly say you believe, and in the same breath say He doesn’t know what is best for you?
Cause & Effect Action & Reaction
We live in a world that is reeling in the effects of things that were done decades ago. Things that were, at the time considered advancements in technologies. No one will deny that coal helped fire the industrial revolution. Giving us hotter fires, easier to control and automate. Making various metals became faster, and thereby cheaper. Coal fired power plants made it possible to build them where you needed them rather than where you had rivers for the hydro electric plants. Add trains for faster transportation and we opened up the continent decades ahead of what it would have taken otherwise. No one wants to go back to horse and buggy, at least not many, but now we deal with trying to find a replacement because of the bad side affects of coal. Same goes for gas and oil. No one would want to go back to life without the automobile, but fact is even electric cars, if you have to plug it in for a recharge, you are still using something to generate that power you get from the plugin. Plastic has had a major impact on our lives in many ways with cheaper more affordable lightweight products that effect everything we do today. Yet, we are now skimming our oceans to try to retrieve that which has floated down stream and down river to create the problems in the oceans. No one will deny the problem exist, but there is no cheap, easy, fix. As in these and many other problems the world faces, it didn’t acquire overnight and neither will there be a quick, cheap, fix. And there are about as many suggestions on how to fix it as there are people making suggestions.
In the world of science, we know that for every action, there is a measurable reaction. Some are immediately felt, others take much longer to realize the effects, but it will happen, wait and expect it. It will happen and right on time, for whatever the reaction time is for the particular event.
I grew up in a Christian home with a set of rules and values established, the youngest of five boys. My brothers said, I got it easy, as our parents had mellowed by the time I came along. I don’t know about that, but I do remember dad’s belt, and mother’s switches. Every day I live, and deal with people that never learned the meaning to no, I can appreciate my parents more. Our home had rules as do most. Some spoken, many unspoken. But in our home, there were consequences if you disobeyed. Some were quick and delivered by mom and her switch, others I had time to worry about as they were promised for delivery when “dad gets home”. As I said, I’m grateful my parents cared enough to not only establish rules, but to enforce them. I never doubted their love, that wasn’t the issue, the issue was I needed to understand the cause & effectprinciple. When there was deliberate disobedience, it was going to have an adverse effect on me. I recently had opportunity to visit a friend that I’ve known since childhood days. He shared with me how envious he had been of me and my home. Notice I said home, not house. His family had the newest house, the newest and largest car, a TV in his bedroom and the list could go on. But in his house, there was constant shouting, discord, heated temper and you were never certain where you stood. To the outside community they were a happy prosperous family, but he shared that he had longed to be a part of my family, and had spent all the time he could at my home. In my home I knew where I stood, and even the discipline, showed my parents cared. Cared enough to enforce what was for our best good.
Our Creator/God has asked nothing of us that is not for our own best good. Weather we are willing to take the time to discover that is up to us. Satan, the father of lies, had much rather us be to busy accumulating than take the time to “get to know our Creator/Redeemer” who “to know is to love”.
Until next time.
