Thus Saith God's Word
by Rev. Ted Brooks
Religion
What is religion? We define religion as an> person's reliance upon a Pis otal
Value in which the person finds essential wholeness as an indiv idual and as a
person-in-community. For that person all other values are subordinate to this
central value. The pivotal value spoken of in the definition is authentic to the
individual though it may not be meaningful to others. The pivotal value may be
shared by others. In such cases, we speak of a religious tradition such as
Christianity Buddhism. Hinduism For a person's professed religions commitment
to be authentic the person's life must be governed by the religion's pivotal
value.
There are those who feel that their denomination of doctrines are better than
others and their pivotal values seem to differ greatly and may therefore have
great difficulty in understanding one another. An Orthodox Jew who emphasizes
(whose pivotal value is) the living of all life in accordance with God's
revealed law (the Torah)may find it difficult to understand or sy mpathize w ith
a Hindu mystic or a Christian Pentecostal for whom an overwhelming sense
of the presence of God within is the ultimate goal. Even vv ith the same religious
tradition this difficulty may appear. Religion can be found among Secular
Humanism which is the most dangerous religion in our country today.
My friend, too long we have been led to believe that our denomination is
more authentic than those down the street. We have been against anyone who
did not share our kind of belief. In doing so. we have lost the essential
wholeness as an individual and as a person-in-community. Something has
developed in our midst and it seems we have been moved from our direction
and lost sight of that essential wholeness as a person in our community. We said
last week that God had given us a choice and that he said to Cain "But thou shalt
rule over it." When temptation came upon Cain. he made the wrong choice and
killed Abel his brother.
My friend, the most dangerous religion in America is Secular Humanism.
Look around you and see the morals. Do you not see the decline in moral values,
corruption in politics and business? It seems there is no return and that we have
passed the point of no return. Right now all over this country people are making
plans for the coming economic crash. What could we have expected when other
things crept in and we lost sight of our reliance upon the true God and we .
inherited "a moral deterioration? Unless we once again make God our pivotal
value. America will become a dark age.
Right now w e are on the verge of the largest revolution the world has ever
seen, the control and shapingof men through genetic engineering and chemical
and psychological conditions, and my friend, it looks like American people will
accept it because we are already.Jike a runaway express on a downhill grade.
My friend, this war and blowing up of buildings is not about you. It is about
God. For a long time now humanism has become the religion which deifies man
and dethrones God. Its avowed aim is to replac'e theism with humanism, which
they mean to be temporal rather than spiritual. Secularism is a doctrinal belief
that morality is based solely on regard to the temporal well being of mankind
to the exclusion of all belief in God. a supreme being or a future eternity. While
you have been busy losing sight of your pivotal value, losing sight of your
family, we now have a country which is now almost non-theistic and has
excluded the basic tenets of theism.
Our churches have come to the point now that human interest and values is
more pivotal than God. How did all this happen? Man deifies man collectively
and individually.
We can go back to the time when the people came to Sinai. And it was here
that the people said to Moses. "All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do."
(Exodus 19:8) It was here that the people made a choice. "All that the Lord
said, we will do." What God had given them became their religion. It was here
that submission, a merging of self this is our one supreme duty, this is life was
established. Here we see biological truth that constant self restraint is a
necessity of existence as much for the strongest as for the weakest. It was here
that God gave the Ten Commandments to be kept, knowing when these are not
kept or exercised they waste away, man ceases to be man. When we replace
the Ten Commandments man can no longer make a right choice. Man becomes
lost and can no longer make God his reliance. He can not say I ought not steal
or I will not s.teal. It was here a law was given and only to those who have the
power to obey it. The fetters of obligation are meaningless except to bind those
who are free. Only those who have power to choose the evil can be commanded
to choose the good. Freedom, as a great philosopher declares, is the postulate
of morality. That is to say there can be no such thing as duty with out it. I ought
implies I can.
"Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said unto him, what is
written in the law? How readest thou?" (St. Luke 10:25-26)
You may not have value on the Old Testament, my friend, but Jesus went
back to it, and if Jesus refers back to it, then it means more than an old row of
peas. If you want to know what real religion is, here it is: "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength,
and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself." (Verse27) Jesus was saying,
ifyou want to go to heaven and be able to stand before a Holy God, do this. And
make sure that it is authentic and be a person-in-community. This, my friend,
is life eternal. Religion, my friend, can come in many forms. You can be a
religious person in a business. You can be religious playing golf, any sport that
is done on a regular basis. But to be religious with God, you have to do what
God says do. "And he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing
of the people and they said, all that the Lord said, we will do and be obedient."
(Exodus 24:7) My friend, these followers of Moses could never do as they
promised. Oh they were religious in their rituals, but they could never do what
God said do, from Egypt to Canaan land. Then for over four hundred years God
was silent. Then one day God spoke. "A voice which said this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him." (Matthew 17:5) "And as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God." (John
1:12)
Hear ye him said the father, if you are going to have a duty, responsibility,
be obedient unto Jesus, the Son. This is pure religion. Love the Son. Hear ye
him. "Except a man be bom of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the
Kingdom of God." This same man whom we owe our reliance upon our most
pivotal is Jesus who said "Ye must be bom again.," You cannot suicide your
way into heaven. You must be bom again. (John 3:1-7)
This world is filled with religion. It has slipped into the churches among
God's people. Now we in order to secure converts, the exalted standard of the
Christian faith has been lowered. Now we have the customs, practices, flowing
into the church.
We now in America have a profession of religion that has become popular
with this world. We now see rulers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, merchants,
join the church as a means of securing the respect and confidence ofsoc iety and
advancing their own worldly interest. They seek to cover all their un-righteous
transactions under a profession of Christianity. As we look across these lands
of ours we see little fulfilling the design of its Lord. We see very little ofye must
be bom again, but we do see a tide of worldliness and pleasure seeking self
denial and self sacrificejor Christ's sake are almost wholly lost.
We now have in many of our churches men and women now in active life
when called upon to make a sacrifice or to give or do something for Christ's and
if funds are needed, we put on a mock trial, a benefit dinner, car wash, bake sale.
Folks are afraid of sacrifice.
The church which we have gone about to build has its pivotal value and 1
am afraid we have made them essential and we rely upon them to get us an
audience with God. This church age has made an attempt to us such things as
gift concerts, gift enterprise and raffles, sbmetimes in aid of religious or
charitable objects, but often less worthy purposes, lotteries, prize packages,
etc. They are all devices to obtain money without value received. Nothing, my
friend, is so demoralizing or intoxicating, particularly to the young, as the
acquisition of money or property without labor.
Respectable people engaging in this chance enterprise and easing their
conscience with the reflection that the money is to go to a good cause. Do you
not see why our children her in Robeson County think selling drugs is a way to
make money without labor? My friend, when a person comes to know the Lord
JesusChrist a Lord, all, and I mean all, other ground is sinking ground. All other
values which you once held dear to your life are subordinate to Him. The
wisdom of God is pure, said St. James. It makes you wonder how those who take
the precious name of Christ upon lips defiled by tobacco, those whose breath
and person and contaminated by the foul odor and who pollute the air of heaven
and force all about them to inhale the poison from them. Had any of the
Apostles come in contact with a practice so opposed to the purity of the gospel,
would he not have denounced it as earthly, sensual, devilish?
My friend, when Jesus becomes Lord and master of your life, you will no
longer be a slave of tobacco, claiming the blessing of entire sanctification, talk
of hope of a heaven; but God's word plainly declares the there shall in no wise
enter into it anything that defiles. (Revelation 21:27)
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God; and ye are not your won? For ye are bought with a price,
therefore, glorify God in your body and in your Spirit which is God's. (I
Corinthians 6:19-20)
My friend, he whose body is the temple of the Holy Ghost will not be
enslaved by a pernicious habit. His powers belong to Christ who has bought
him with the price of blood. His property is the Lord's. Now do you wish to
explain how you can be guiltless in squandering this entrusted capital? it is hard
to realize how professedChristians yearly expend an immense sum upon such
useless and pernicious indulgences while souls are perishing for the world of
life, while god is robbed in tithes and offerings, while they consume upon the
altar of destroying lust, more than they give to relieve the poor, for the support
t
of the gospel.
If all who profess to be followers ofChrist were trul> sanctified, their means
instead of being spend for needless and even hurtful indulgences would be
turned into the Lord's treasury and Christians would set an example of
temperance, self denial and self sacrifice, then they would be the light of the
world.
The world is given up to self indulgence. "The lust of the flesh and the lust
of the eve. and the pride of life." Control the masses of the people.
But. we the church have a holier calling. "Come out from among them and
be >e separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing. " To those who
w ill make this their pivotal value which is above all else, here is your promise.
"I will receive you and will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." (II Corinthians 6:17-18)
My friend, it is the privilege and the duty of every Christian to have a rich
and abundant experience in the things of God. Jesus declared "I am the light of
the world." Jesus said.
He that followed me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
(John S: 12) What is religion? That which a person finds essential to wholeness.
There are many religions but only on Salvation. Jesus, my friend, is worthy of
your life. What an honor to serve him. to trust him w ith my lie. family and
friends.
Have you trusted him as Lord? What a joy to have for a friend who will take
your shame, burden, guilt and roll them away. "Whosoever beliiveth in him
shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43) "Him God raised up the third day
and showed him openly. (Verse 10) And they that were with me saw indeed the
light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice ofhim that spoke to me. (Acts
22:9)
When I was a young boy I remember a song that was often played on the
radio. It went something like this: "Praise the Lord, I saw the light. One like
a bird in prison I dwelt, no freedom from my sorrow I felt, but Jesus came and
I istened to me. and praise the Lord 1 saw the light. I saw the light. I saw the I ight.
no more in darkness, no more in night. Praise the Lord. I saw the light." This
light was God's Son. Jesus.
Fish for Pond Stocking
Delivery will be Wednesday, October 3
Pembroke Farm, Home &
Garden Supply ^
? ? 12:00-1:00 p.m. ^
Phone #910-521-2801 |
To place an order call the Store above v
or call 1-800-247-2615
Farley & Farley Fish Farm
Cash, Arkansas 72421
A beaver has 20 teeth?four curved front teeth for gnawing and 16 (/;
back teeth for chewing.
Your Family
Is Our Specialty
At the FirstHealth Family Care Center in Pembroke, you can always depend on
the care we provide your family from our primary care physicians to the visiting
specialists you need. Services include family and internal medicine, laboratory,
X-ray, and physician specialty services that include cardiology, orthopaedics,
dermatology, general surgery, gastroenterology and obstetrics and gynecology.
Specialty Care
Neil Conti, M.D.
Orthopaedics
Pinehurst Surgical Clinic
Robin Cummings, M.D.
Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery
Pinehurst Surgical Clinic
Keith Davis, M.D.
Cardiology
Pinehursl Medical Clinic
Coming Soon...
Peter Duffy, M.D., Robert Sisson, M.D.,
Allen Strunk, M.D., & Peter Vassalo, M.D.
Cardiology
Pinehursl Cardiology Consultants
David 1. Klumpar, M.D.
Chris Benigar, PA-C
Dermatology
Carolina Skin Care
Wayne B. Lucas, M.D.
Gastroenterology
Pinehurst Medical Clinic
R. Clayton Steiner, M.D.
General Surgery
Moore Surgical Center
Stephen Szabo, M.D.
Obstetrics/Gynecology
Pinehurst Surgical Clinic
Frank Y.Yang, M.D.
General Surgery
Moore Surgical Center
For an appointment, call
521-6029
FirstHealth Family Medicine
Connie Brooks-Fernandez, M.D., Family Medicine
Rhonda Lowry, M.D., Family Medicine
521-6029
West Primary - Urgent Care
Danny West, M.D., Family Medicine
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522-8888
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?Halloween HINTS?
Popular Treat That Won't Cause Cavities
(NAPS)?This Halloween, parents
are helping trick-or-treaters
avoid mining their teeth by giving
out sticky treats that kids don't
eat.
A safe, healthy and fun alternative
to candy, that trick-ortreaters
will be pleased to get in
their goody bags, are stickers and
temporary tattoos.
This year, you can even get special
Halloween packages of nine
stickers or eight tattoos, individually
boxed. They come in six popular
themes: The Powerpuff Girls,
Digimon, Clifford the Big Red
Dog, Unicorn, Retro and X-treme
Sport designs.
"Parents can dress their kids in
reflective clothing, plan their
route and equip them with a cell
phone, but they still worry about
the health effects of all that
candy," said Margaret Vergeyle,
vice president of marketing for
Mello Smello, the company that
created the Halloween packs.
The stickers and temporary
tattoos were developed in direct
response to feedback from parents
who were looking for alternatives
to candy for Halloween. There is
A great idea for Halloween le to
give away stickers and temporary
tattoos Instead of candy.
no need to worry about excess
sugar on stickers and tattoos.
"Parents like stickers because
it's one less piece of candy for
their kids to devour. Kids love
stickers?getting and trading
them as well as collecting and decorating
with them," said Vergeyle.
Mello Smello creates about five
million stickers a day. In fact, if
placed end to end, the firm's
sticker packets would reach
halfway to the moon.
Where on Earth can you see
these products? The Halloween
stickers and tattoos can be found
at mtyor retailers nationwide.
You can learn more online at
www.mellosmello.com.
! Successful i
i Psychology!
Teenagers And Stress
(NAPS)?Stress is a word generally
reserved for adults. Yet
teens face stress every day, and in
different ways. Their coping skills
aren't as effective or mature as an
adult's, and they're often left wondering
what to do about what they
are feeling.
A
sTaste-Berry
Teen's Guide
Managing
the Stress and
' Pressures
ot Life
HP VV.jh (ontnbuHom
3TV (row trm k* *rm
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^PfenrtWer Leigh Youngs
1?* **?*? QN
A new book talks openly with
teens about the stress they face
In dally life.
In their new book, A TasteBerry
Teen's Guide to Managing
the Stress and Pressures of Life
(Health Communications, Inc.,
$12.95), authors Bettie B. Youngs,
Ph.D., Ed.D. and Jennifer Leigh
Youngs get teens to talk openly
about the stress and pressures
they face.
The pressures of getting good
grades at school, finding a parttime
job, getting into a good college,
meeting the needs and expectations
of parents and teachers,
even making and keeping friends
are just some of the issues weighing
heavily on teens' minds.
The book offers real answers?
coping skills to help teens traverse
today's stressful times. It
provides valuable help for teens
feeling overwhelmed with their
lives, including:
what exactly stress is and
what it isn't;
how stress shows itself in
behavior and emotions; and
strategies for minimizing
stress and staying cool under
pressure.
A Taste-Berry Teen's Guide to
Managing the Stress and Pressures
of Life is available at bookstores,
or directly from the publisher
by calling (800) 441-5569 or
at www.hci-online.com.
The desert fox's huge esrs
help it lose body heat.