PastorTim

Good Advice

The commencement address is in fact the last formal speech that most graduates of colleges and universities will ever hear. They are tailored to be a spring of practical wisdom that I have always thought deserves more attention than they usually receive. They have been referred to as a sermon, secular in nature yet filled with lasting principles, timeless wisdom and real-life lessons designed to give lasting advice and counsel to those who are about to move the tassel from the right to the left thus bringing to an end a very long journey of learning. 

On Saturday, May 11, 2024, Harrison Butker, 28, the placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League, delivered the commencement address at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. This little speech has made quite an impact! For my part, though not a member of the Catholic faith, it was not only spot on, but it has brought criticism which is quite revealing to the fabric and condition of our culture in America today! 

Here is a small excerpt which has set ablaze the collective hair of many a liberal mind… “For the ladies present today, congratulations on an amazing accomplishment. You should be proud of all that you have achieved to this point in your young lives. I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.

I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabelle, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. I'm on the stage today and able to be the man I am because I have a wife who leans into her vocation. I'm beyond blessed with the many talents God has given me, but it cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker. [Applause lasting 18 seconds] She is a primary educator to our children. She is the one who ensures I never let football, or my business become a distraction from that of a husband and father.” How about that! For some, this is scandalous and offensive? For most Americans however, we all said, “thank you Harrison for the spot-on perspective!”

The advice he shared is based on and balanced by the word of God. As a Pastor, one of my favorite verses to focus on during a graduation Sunday service was 2 Timothy 3:14 which says, “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.” Paul’s advice in context referred to the scriptures and the important place they must always have in the life of those who were about to turn the page on a new chapter in their young lives. My advice to the graduates present was, you’ve earned some respect…you’ve sharpened your edge…but don’t “fly off the handle” in the pride”, rather, whet the edge and keep your edge in life!

John Adams wisely said, “There are two types of education: One should teach us how to make a living, and the other how to live.” Knowledge of the scriptures gives substance to faith and stabilization during times of testing. There needs to be in you something that keeps you pure and true! Psalm 119 tells us “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

Knowledge of scripture enables us to handle the Bible accurately. In academia where liberal theology or often no theology abounds, it is paramount to know how to defend your faith in God. When someone walks away from faith it usually doesn’t happen intellectually. More often they grow cold in their experience and are drawn away from righteous living. They then find ways to justify their actions, a system of thinking… casuistry… a system of justifying wrong behavior. Knowledge of the scriptures equips us to detect and confront error.

There was a young boy who was the son of a drifter. This boy worked as a store clerk for a while, but the store failed. He bought a partnership in another store, but it failed also. He ran for legislature and lost both times. He ran for vice-president and lost. He became the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. His life and legacy reflect that he knew the value of the scriptures. With the right advice and influence, God can do great and lasting things!

 

 

 

 

Texting like an old man!

A great blessing I enjoy when I am not on traveling the highways and byways of America is to be the designated Uber driver for my sweet grandbabies Spencer and Kairi, providing transportation to school early in the morning. On one such occurrence recently, my phone began to announce a text had arrived and since Ubering and texting do not mix my darling Kairi, from her front seat perch, asked if she could provide assistance.

The text was from a colleague in ministry and thus several texts were received and answered accordingly, setting up a meeting later in the week. When the exchange finally came to an end and my new assistant in the seat next to me placed my phone back its respective holder, she then remarked with a side of pre-teen laughter, “Papaw, you text like an old man!” “Why, whatever do you mean young lady?” I responded with a curious smile. “I mean, you text just like you speak.” Came the quick response. “How else could I text?” came my puzzled reply.

It seems that there is a great chasm between the way those in my generation communicate via text and that of a younger sort! Social Links for Ben Cost in the New York Post recently provided much needed insight. In an article titled, “The way you text reveals if you’re a boomer, millennial or Gen Z”; fashion, vernacular and musical preferences aren’t the only cultural indicators of age. A digital wizard claims he can tell whether someone’s a boomer, millennial or Generation Z solely based on how they text. 

Tech influencer Tyler Morgan proceeds to rattle off the telltale signs of each like the digital equivalent of a wine vintner determining a tipple’s vintage. Texting with one hand is the hallmark of Zoomer phone… typing accurately with both thumbs is a habit that straddles both millennial and Zoomer generations, per the digital detective.

In fact, Morgan declares that people stay at this “thumb tapping” age until their 50s — the threshold for most Gen Xers, born from 1965 to 1980 — after which they start typing with a thumb and index finger. Meanwhile, the elder baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — tend to do away with the thumb and just poke the buttons with their pointer digit. “You’re getting up there when you’re doing that,” declared Morgan of the “one finger tap” method.

He continues, it’s not just typing techniques that potentially indicate a person’s age — users can reportedly glean one’s generation from the style of their digital correspondence, as well. For instance, Zoomers claim that using proper punctuation and capital letters while texting is the telltale sign that someone’s older.” Who me?

Words matter. In fact, God used words to create. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Over and over in this first chapter of the Bible we are told that “God said”, and boy, when God said, things happened! But did you notice it was all good?

Located in the book of John, the last gospel penned for us in the New Testament, we find these words, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” God wonderfully inserts in his book, for all of us to hear, the intentions that lay behind all that is written. That we might have a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

Words are important, aren’t they? Our words hold great significance. What we do with them, how we use them, what we say and how we say it. But perhaps more important are the words of God…what we do with them, how we use them and how we respond to what God says. A businessman well known for his ruthlessness once announced to writer Mark Twain, "Before I die, I mean to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I will climb Mount Sinai and read the 10 Commandments aloud at the top." "I have a better idea," replied Twain. "You could stay in here in America and just keep them."

Kairi in her mode of conversing with her friends employs several short and fast acronyms to effectively spell out her thoughts and engage in conversation, I, like many reading this column, prefer a more detailed and punctuated approach. However you type it, truth is still the truth, and the bottom line is, young or old, what we do with the word of God is all that matters when the last chapter is written.

 

 

Hazard Ahead

I’m sure you’ve noticed that with spring showers, flowers, and lush green grass, there appears to be a fine crop of those welcome orange hazard road cones that warn us that road construction season is well under way! Even more hazardous is the continuing rise of mis-information and the flagrant re-writing of our America’s Godly heritage, leaving a greater hazard before us. The multi-generational vacuum of historical truth!     

Benjamin Rush, who signed The Declaration of Independence and ratified the Constitution, gives us a glimpse into the worldview our founding fathers were guided. “The only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible. The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effective means of limiting Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools.” Critically speaking, that makes sense!  

Don Feder, columnist with The Washington Times writes, “Where the mission of public education was once to create a sense of solidarity among a diverse population, today it promotes ignorance, skepticism, and fragmentation. Only 32% of Americans know the three branches of government, and one-third can’t name a single right protected by the First Amendment.

Schools are too busy indoctrinating to educate. Popular tools of brainwashing include Marxist Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” published in 1980, which teaches that America is based on genocide, suppression, and exploitation. When he was a political science professor at Boston University during the Vietnam War, campus conservatives, of which I was one, called him Ho Chi Zinn.

Critical race theory is enshrined in our schools. Over 3,500 high schools use a 100-page magazine supplement in the 1619 Project book, which proclaims that racism and White supremacy are woven into the fabric of America. The state functionaries who mold the minds of our children agree. In 2021, the 3-million-member National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, reiterated its support for CRT and the 1619 Project in the face of a growing parental backlash.”

I am convinced that critical race theory is morally inaccurate. Ben Carson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021 and founder of the American Cornerstone Institute shared, “As we continue to be bombarded by racially charged narratives, there has been a subtle shift in the conversation: Its focus has moved from equality to equity. That is, instead of pursuing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideal of judging people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, equity would reward and punish people because of the color of their skin. Rather than equality of opportunity, equity would mandate equality of outcome... Instead of treating people only as representatives of larger groups, let’s get back to treating people as individuals. Instead of tearing down institutions, let’s work together to make them better. Together we must strive for a more perfect union in which people are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”

My friend Ken Blackwell, Senior Fellow for Human Rights and Constitutional Governance at Family Research Council said that critical race theory (CRT) is based on flawed and destructive assumptions. Its actual purpose is the complete opposite of its stated intent. Its leftist creators in academia and media claim it encourages racial understanding. The truth is that its cynical methodology further divides us when racial understanding and acceptance is key to our survival as the freest nation on Earth.”

Critical race theory is also filled with historical inaccuracies. The 1619 Project is a New York Timesfort aimed at reshaping the history of America. Its primary goal appears to be the tarnishing and tainting our Godly heritage to a greater degree than our present academics and textbooks seek to accomplish. This effort is facilitated using A People’s History of the United States, by author Howard Zinn and is sadly making inroads into classrooms throughout the country. It is another voice perpetuating the myth that America is evil, that it was born with evil principles and that the things that presumably you would celebrate in America shouldn’t be celebrated.

Tom Tancredo writes, “The abandonment of America’s unique character begins with the loss of historical memory, which is why the subversive rewriting of American history has been the first priority of leftist ideologues for over a hundred years.” As Victor David Hanson observes, "Destroying history will not make you feel good about the present... Learning from it might." The good news as I see it is that God has always used a remnant of believers to change the course of history. May the hand of God’s blessing and the faithfulness those who serve him bring a blessed and hazard free future!   

Times like these

“What a day to be alive! “It’s 2024, and we are living in schizophrenic times. Dickensian times: the best of times, yet the worst; times where we demand the truth while reveling in our lies; times of great material gain but of even greater moral loss; times of calling good evil and evil good; times of saying bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter; times of the “tolerant” not tolerating what they find intolerable…” writes my friend Dr. Everett Piper in the Washington Times last week.

He continues, “These are times when those who claim to champion democracy openly work to upend the democratic process; times when cultural elites no longer even attempt to hide their disdain for the self-evident truths upon which our country was founded; times when freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of expression, and freedom in general are now considered products of Zionist colonialism that should be discarded and replaced by the whims of a racist mob so proud of its “anti-racism.”

These are times when students at schools such as Columbia University, whose motto is the Jewish psalm “In Thy light shall we see the light,” proudly vilify Jews and align with those who deny their holocaust, rape their women, behead their babies and call for the destruction of the millenniums-old Jewish state. These are times when Karl Marx’s “useful idiots” promote intolerance under the banner of “tolerance” and fascism under the flag of “freedom.”

History often repeats itself we are told. In Israel’s case around 600 BC, they rebelled against God by serving other gods and God punished them by having them carried into captivity. The Northern Kingdom of Israel was carried into captivity by Assyria followed by Southern Kingdom, Judah, which was carried into captivity by the Babylonians.

This wasn’t the end of the story for Israel because God had a plan of salvation for them. His intention was to bring them back from captivity, The book of Esther gives us a glimpse of God’s plan of salvation. In fact, God had in mind a much larger plan of salvation than just bringing the Jews back to their homeland. God planned all along that a savior would be born in Bethlehem to a Jewish family, and that that child would grow up to be the savior of the world.

The account of Esther begins in 483 B.C. some 37 years before Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls. King Xerxes was throwing a big party that lasted 6 months. At the end of this opulent display of wealth, he had a final 7-day party/drinking binge and on the 7th day he ordered Queen Vashti to appear before him to show off her beauty. The Queen refused and this caused King Xerxes to burn with anger.

The King banished her from his presence forever and that was that until sometime later he began to miss her. His palace officials were quick to offer a solution – a beauty contest. They would round up the most beautiful and desirable virgins in his kingdom and he could have his pick of a new Queen. Well, for some reason that idea really appealed to the king, so he told them to get on it right away.

Esther’s parents died when she was young and her cousin, a Jewish noble named Mordecai from the tribe of Benjamin raised her like his own daughter. As the Miss Persia talent search progressed, Esther was selected as one of the contestants because of her beauty. When her time came to be considered by the King, he was so impressed with her that he made her the Queen. Mordecai, however told her to keep her identity as a Jewess concealed, and so she did.

Queen Esther must have helped Mordecai get a job at the palace, because the Bible tells us that while on duty at the palace, he uncovered a plot to assassinate the King. Mordecai told Queen Esther who in turn informed the King and the assassins were caught and hung. The incident was quickly forgotten. God was setting in motion the plan of salvation for the Jews, and he was using an unknown, virgin, Jewish girl to make it happen. Sound familiar?

God had Esther in just the right place at the right time to respond to a diabolical plot by one of the Kings advisors, Haman, which would have exterminated all her beloved Jewish kindred. Her obedience in standing strong in the face the impending threat, her willingness to risk everything by approaching the king and her faith in God not only brought judgement to the evil plot of Haman but brought salvation to those she loved.

It is as if God has placed us in a similar circumstance. The demonic forces of evil seem to abound and flourish all around us leaving no hope in sight. We, however, have a special relationship with the King of the Universe who will not be silent forever, but with the same mighty power, protect, defend, and deliver those who love him from the hand of the enemy once again!