4/5/14

From Jim McGuiggian... TREASURE HARDLY TOUCHED


TREASURE HARDLY TOUCHED

The story I heard as a boy said she lived in poverty out in the Scottish highlands. Her son had gone to America and gotten very rich, so they said. Neighbors wondered why she was so impoverished if her son was so rich. “Does he not send you money?” they wanted to know. I don’t know what he response was to that but I suppose she brushed it off somehow—mothers do that, don’t they? 

She said he sent her nice pictures. She took down the family Bible and scattered throughout it were scores of ten, fifty and hundred dollar bills. Her Bible was full of treasure and this isolated and elderly lady didn't recognize the foreign money.


Hard to believe? Maybe. Multiplied millions in the world don't know the treasure they have in their Bibles. For a thousand reasons people ignore it and their lives are narrower because of it. The Bible's not an ordinary book and you can be infinitely richer if you'll allow it to tell you its message.
Can There Really Be Treasure?
How's it possible that an ancient book can matter that much to modern men? What does it have that makes it the most influential book in the world? (Even the Islamic world reveres large portions of the Bible!) How do you explain the fact that down through the ages those who sought to enslave others have burned Bibles and outlawed the reading of it? Why did these governments go to the trouble to suppress the Scriptures? Why do countless thousands in every age ask for it to be read at their marriages and at their funerals?
The Power & Beauty of the Bible
Robert Evans met an old man in bombed-out Warsaw at the close of World War II, who, all his life had owned and cherished one page of the Bible. He wasn't sure it was from the Bible. "I have read this page again and again all my life," he told Evans. "I thought it was from the Bible, but I was never sure. There's something different about it—this I know. But I've always wondered what comes on the next page." And he wept as Evans let him handle, for the first time in his life, an entire Bible, page by page. How do you explain all this? The Bible is precious and down the centuries has gained a wonderful and an ennobling power over wistful hearts.

Of course the Bible has its occasional critics. (Can you remember any of their names?) But when you easily dismiss something as acclaimed as Shakespeare's plays, you're saying more about yourself than Shakespeare. Those who tell us they regard Beethoven or Mozart as rubbish don't impress us as qualified critics.

But maybe the Bible gets more criticism because of its "friends" than its critics. Some say they think it's precious but aren't nearly as thrilled about it as students of Shakespeare, Homer or Dostoievski are about those authors. Some say they revere it and find it deeply satisfying but spend no time delving into it. Thoughtful unbelievers note all this and wonder.

None of this is the fault of the Bible. It can't be right to dismiss Dvorak or Bach as trivial because some musician we know butchers their work. We can't be doing right to dismiss the work of Shakespeare or Goethe because some actor makes an awful mess of their material. And it can't be right to dismiss the Bible because its friends represent it pathetically. Hmm, well, maybe preachers….Never mind.

It's to the Bible's everlasting credit that despite its critics and its "friends" it remains the foremost book in all the world, generation after generation. Others feel the need to protect their holy book from criticism so they forbid even the translation of it. Enlightened Bible-believers have no such fears. The Bible, somebody said, is like an anvil and its critics are like hammers. The hammers wear out while the anvil remains. As long as there are people in darkness who need light, people in suffering who need comfort, people in despair who need hope, people who are lost and need to be found, people in bondage who need to be freed—as long as such people exist the Bible will be around and in demand!
The Nature of the Bible's Treasure
The Bible is glorious literature, don’t you know. It's right to say the Bible is glorious literature! It's right to remind people that all the noted writers from the earliest ages until now confess their debt to the Bible. Shakespeare, Hugo, Tolstoy, Dickens, Cervantes, Tennyson, Browning, Goethe and a host of others openly confessed their debt to the Bible. The themes with which they dealt, the themes that made their works live on and on, they had in common with the Bible. That's all true and it's right to say it--but it isn't enough to say that! The Bible is more than inspiring and glorious literature. It isn't Shakespeare or Tennyson people want to hear as they lie on or sit by deathbeds speechless with grief. In their millions they ask for the Holy Bible. Why is that?

The Bible promotes and defends all that mankind in its better moments cherishes and calls for. Imagine how the world would be transformed if it wakened one morning with the Bible supreme in everyone's life! Imagine how the world would be if everyone joyously believed Psalm 23 or John 3:16-17 or took Matt 7:12 and 22:36-40 to heart!
Imagine the opposite to be true! Suppose the world wakened one morning to the sure and certain knowledge that the Bible was a tissue of lies and errors! Worship would die—immediately! Prayer would be universally abandoned, it would be heard never again on the lips of children or in the hush of great sorrows. Hope would be snuffed out of life and the witness of multiplied millions of God-fearing people against oppression and evil would be silenced. Their restraining power against vice would crumble into ruins and the bereaved would weep tears without comfort. When the last Bible was thrown out with the rubbish, the last hymn would be sung, the last missionary would be recalled and the last sermon of comfort and challenge would be preached. The world would have died and the church buildings would have become tombstones marking out God's grave! The glory and power of the Bible could only be fully appreciated if we saw the horror of a world convinced it was lies and fallacies. But the Bible's treasure is richer even than this!
The Bible is and brings us the true word from God that he wants to live in loving fellowship with all mankind! There's the crowning message of the Bible! That's what makes the heart surge!
The Bible confronts our sad and narrow little lives with the picture of our startling possibilities! For our own eternal benefit it exposes our awful sinfulness and our profound need of God who will save us and bless us with life! It tells the amazing story of a God who bears his own judgment against Sin that he might offer eternal friendship to Man. It speaks of a God who shares our suffering until that day when suffering will end. It gives meaning to our living and glorious hope when we are dying!
It calls us to join with Jesus Christ in the most fantastic of all adventures, the rescue of the world. It shows us how to live with our weaknesses without being proud of them, how to fail without being crushed beyond repair, how to trust in spite of appearances. It brings us God's approval when we act nobly and God's forgiveness when we try and fail. It won't allow us to fritter away our lives with trivia. It calls us from a thousand scattered little loyalties to one grand "I must!" 

From: Kyle Butt, M.A. ... Whoever Digs a Pit Will Fall Into It

http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=12&article=935

Whoever Digs a Pit Will Fall Into It

by  Kyle Butt, M.A.

One of the most outspoken atheists of the past couple of decades is a man named Dan Barker, who wrote his most recognized work, Losing Faith in Faith, after he “deconverted” from a form of evangelical Christianity to naturalistic atheism. In 1992, he was the public relations director for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. In his book, Baker uses a host of arguments to attack religious people who have attempted to “reconvert” him. In a chapter titled Why I Am An Atheist, Barker lists several reasons that religious people have offered to explain his “deconversion.” Sadly, many of those people attacked Barker’s character. The following is a brief list of some of the allegations they made against Barker.
  • “You are arrogant and hate God.”
  • “Your heart is in the wrong place.”
  • “You are cold, empty, and pessimistic.”
  • “You are an angry person.”
  • “You are too stupid, limited, or afraid to see what is obvious to everyone else.”
After denying these allegations, Barker stated: “A strong clue that a person is arguing from a position of weakness is when character, rather than content, is attacked. Bertrand Russell pointed out that ad hominem is a last-ditch defense of the losing side” (1992, p. 88). Therefore, according to Barker (who agrees with Russell), a person who uses arguments that attack character is a person who is fighting desperately on the losing side.
While the truth of Russell’s statement may be questioned (since there are many ill-informed ad hominem arguers who happen to be on the right side), it nonetheless is quite interesting that Barker falls headlong into his own pit by repeatedly attacking character rather than focusing on real evidence.
In fact, only a few pages earlier, Barker wrote an entire chapter titled “Ministers I Have Known,” in which he proceeded to attack the general character of ministers he has known. On page 78, Barker commented, “When I think of ministers I have known…I picture the overweight perspiring Foursquare preachers, waving their hankies, shouting and prancing about the stage, ruling their churches like little kingdoms.” Just one paragraph later, he included in this list the “skinny Mexican pastor in Nogales whose second wife was pregnant with his twelfth child!… And the televangelist I know who ran off with his secretary and was back on the air in less than two years.” The rest of the chapter consists of the same attack on the general character of ministers, as Barker views them. Near the end of the chapter, Barker wrote: “I have a friend who says if you were to take all the preachers in the world and lay them end to end, it would be a good idea just to leave them there.”
Now, let us apply Barker’s own reasoning to his chapter on ministers. The entire chapter attacks the character of ministers, and thus would be classified as an ad hominem argument (from the Latin meaning “to attack the man”). But, according to Barker, those who use such arguments are using “a last-ditch defense” and are on “the losing side.” In this instance, I agree wholeheartedly.
Again, in his treatment of those who are against abortion, Barker stated: “This is the real drive behind the antiabortionists: misogyny [hatred of women—KB]. I don’t believe that any one of them cares a hoot for a fetus” (p. 213, emp. added) Such a statement is definitely a bold, ad hominem attack on the motive and character of those who disagree with abortion. I, for one, can say with certainty that I do not hate women. However, I also can say with certainty that an unborn baby is innocent, and that God hates the shedding of innocent blood (Proverbs 6:17). It is on this basis that I must stand as an antiabortionist. Once again, using Barker’s own thoughts, he must be “arguing from a position of weakness.”
Please note that this article has not attacked Barker’s character. He is not referred to as a misogynist or anything of the kind; nor are any moral indiscretions alleged in an attempt to discredit his arguments. On the contrary, his own words have been used to show that, if his thinking is indeed correct about ad hominem arguments, then he is arguing from “a position of weakness rather than content,” and such an argument is a “last ditch defense of the losing side.”
[For a more in-depth refutation of Barker’s book, see: http://www.tektonics.org/JPH_BWTB.html]

REFERENCES

Barker, Dan (1992), Losing Faith In Faith—From Preacher to Atheist (Madison, WI: Freedom from Religion Foundation).

From Mark copeland... Trials Of Poverty & Wealth (James 1:9-11)

                         "THE EPISTLE OF JAMES"

                   Trials Of Poverty & Wealth (1:9-11)
                                
INTRODUCTION

1. James has already discussed how we can turn trials into triumph,
   dealing with trials in general (1:2-8)

2. In verses 9-11, he discusses specifically the trials of being poor
   and being rich, and the attitudes we should have

3. In this lesson, we shall concentrate our attention on verses 9-11
   and passages elsewhere which deal with the subject of poverty and
   wealth

[Let's begin by noticing that both wealth and poverty can be a 
problem...]

I. THE TRIALS OF POVERTY AND WEALTH (cf. Prov 30:7-9)

   A. IN "POVERTY", WE MAY BE TEMPTED TO CURSE GOD...
      1. Like Job's wife wanted her husband to do, when they had lost
         everything - Job 2:9
      2. And as many do today when things don't go well

   B. IN "WEALTH", WE MAY BE TEMPTED TO FORGET GOD...
      1. As God warned Israel that it might happen to them - Deut 8:10-
         14,17
      2. And as it did in fact happen to them - Hos 13:5-6

[Having seen that both poverty and wealth have their own potential for
causing problems, let's now consider...]

II. THE REASONS FOR JOY IN POVERTY OR WEALTH (Jm 1:9-11)

   A. IF WE ARE "POOR", THEN WE CAN REJOICE THAT WE HAVE BEEN "EXALTED"!
      1. God has chosen the "poor" to be rich in faith - Is 66:1-2;
         Jm 2:5
         a. It is the poor who first had the gospel preached to them
            - Lk 4:18
         b. It is the poor slave who becomes Christ's "freedman" - 1
            Col 7:21-22
      2. So even if poor, we can still be "spiritually rich" and on
         equal par with all Christians - cf. Re 2:8-9

   B. IF WE ARE "RICH", THEN WE CAN REJOICE THAT WE HAVE BEEN "HUMBLED"!
      1. The rich are "humbled" by their:
         a. Becoming Christ's "slave" - 1Co 7:21-22
         b. Being placed on an equal par with all Christians...in which
            riches mean nothing - cf. Re 3:11-19
      2. Why it is good that the rich be so "humbled"...
         a. Riches are temporary - Jm 1:10-11; Prov 23:1-5; 1Ti 6:17
         b. Riches are unable to redeem our souls - Ps 49:6-9,13-20
         c. The love of money is a "quagmire" and a source of "self-
            inflicted injuries" - 1Ti 6:9-10
      3. In other words, it is good that in coming to Jesus Christ we
         find these things out...
         a. Or we might have made the same mistake many make today
         b. Thinking that money provides true security (remember the
            rich fool? - Lk 12:13-21)

CONCLUSION

1. Even in the trials of poverty or wealth, there can be a cause for
   rejoicing!

2. For Jesus is "The Great Equalizer"
   a. Exalting the poor who are rich in faith
   b. Humbling the wealthy by basing their salvation not on wealth, but
      on that which cannot be bought:  the blood of Jesus and the
      obedience of a humble and contrite spirit

3. Keeping these thoughts in mind will help us learn to be content in
   whatever financial conditions we may find ourselves; as Paul wrote:

   11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in
   whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content. 12  I know both
   how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all
   things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to
   abound and to suffer need. 13  I can do all things through Christ
   which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4)

The important question is not "How rich are you?" but "How rich IN FAITH
are you?"

Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011

From Gary... And the light leads to...


Reminds you that Indiana Jones movie, doesn't it?  I mean, that part where the bright light was showing the way to the treasure? And who doesn't want treasure? It is the stuff of success, the grease that makes the wheels of life turn and our ultimate goal in life, isn't it? NOT!!! And here is the "Why"...


Luke, Chapter 18
 18  A certain ruler asked him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 

  19  Jesus asked him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one—God.   20 You know the commandments: ‘Don’t commit adultery,’ ‘Don’t murder,’ ‘Don’t steal,’ ‘Don’t give false testimony,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” 

  21  He said, “I have observed all these things from my youth up.” 

  22  When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me.”

 23  But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was very rich. 

  24  Jesus, seeing that he became very sad, said, How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into the Kingdom of God!   25  For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.” 

  26  Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 

  27  But he said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

Because you really can't "TAKE IT WITH YOU", that's why!!!  Every single nickel stays behind you when you die. Go ahead, try and tell me that you wouldn't give up every single thing you own for the mere chance at living happily FOR EVER!!!  Or, maybe I am wrong and riches really are the most important thing in your life. Once again, NOT!!! There really nothing wrong in having possessions, but if they control what your goal in life really, truly is- then, boy, you are in very serious trouble.  How to resolve this problem? The answer is found in verse 27- GOD, HE is the one and only answer.  He makes the impossible ordinary and ultimately is our only hope!!!  I know that this is a very strange concept for some of you out there, but, just think about it, OK???....