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Seeking A Friend For The World’s End

June 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A recently released comedy starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley entitled Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, addresses the age old question, “Are you prepared to face death?”  In the movie, we learn that a 70-mile wide speeding asteroid is on a collision course with earth.  Obviously, if the earth collided with an asteroid that large, it would knock our planet off its axis and destroy most, if not all life forms.

The idea to base a movie off of this premise is not new, however it does bring to light the question of eternity.  It is not going to take a head-on collision with a space rock for you and I to meet death.  Death is truly  inevitable.  The Bible tells us in Psalms Chapter 139, Verse 16 that we have a certain number of days to live and God knows that number.  In fact, it tells us that God knows so much about us that He even knew us before we were born.  Ultimately what we all understand is when our number is up…we die.

Are you ready?  Does standing before the throne of God get you excited or scared?  Only you know that answer.  If you are uncertain about the answer, check out John Chapter 3, Verse 16 in your Bible.  After you read it…I think the answer will become very clear.

By the way, I have not seen the movie so please do not take this blog as an endorsement.  Enjoy your weekend…

Filed Under: Biblical Principles, Headline News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

7 Deadly Sins

June 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Photo by Julien Tromeur

Although the so called “7 Deadly Sins” cannot be found in Proverbs or Galatians as it is so often professed, I believe the majority of us would agree that the practice of any of these sins would result in a miserable life, not to mention a possible eternal separation from God.  Let’s remember the word “gluttony” for the purpose of this blog.  The 7 Deadly Sins include:

Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.

“A 2006 Purdue study found that the fundamental Christians are by far the heaviest of all religious groups led by the Baptists with a 30% obesity rate…Similarly, a 2011 Northwestern University study tracking 3,433 men and women for 18 years found that young adults who attend church or a Bible study once a week are 50% more likely to be obese.”

This is a stumper for me.  I have no idea why Christians would be leading the religious population in obesity.  I know the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has listed one of the most dangerous concerns for a visitor entering the U.S. is obesity.  But why are Christians leading all religions in obesity?  Don’t get me wrong, I have had my battle with my weight off and on over the years so this is not a finger pointing article.  My issue is the fact that these statistics truly have me baffled.  If you have any thoughts on this matter, I would like to hear from you.  You can e-mail me at rickmayhew@hotmail.com.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/06/03/obesity-epidemic-in-america-churches/

Filed Under: Biblical Principles, Headline News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

For The Betterment Of Others

June 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Most of the time it is firefighters, police officers, and military personnel receiving the acknowledgement that they have chosen a profession that may require them to lay down their lives for the betterment of others.  Very rarely do we hear of other occupations that occasionally require self-sacrifice to the point of death.  I have discovered that National Park Rangers are heroes in the true sense of the word.

One of Mount Rainier National Park ranger’s fell to his death the other day while attempting to rescue four climbers who found themselves in need of help.  It appears that two of the four climbers fell into a crevasse.  The Ranger, Nick Hall, 34 years old, was one of the Rangers that responded to the cell phone call from one of the climbing party members.

Jesus said in the book of John Chapter 15, Verse 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”  I can’t help but wonder what Jesus would say when one loses his/her life for a stranger, as is the case with Nick Hall.

Please remember to pray for Nick’s family as they try to grasp the magnitude of this loss.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/22/mount-rainier-ranger-plunges-to-his-death-trying-to-rescue-climbers/?test=latestnews?test=latestnews

Filed Under: Biblical Principles, Headline News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Coke and Communism; It’s The Real Thing

June 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Coke and communism appear to be going hand in hand in the near future.  The Union of Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, has just found out that Coke will be selling its product for the first time in 60 years.  The U.S. government is about to remove its investment sanction because of the country’s democratic reform.

I can speak to this issue from personal experience.  While I was in Thailand this past October, we crossed over into Myanmar.  The reason for crossing the border into a communist country is a topic for another blog.  However, I can verify that Myanmar has definitely embraced the democratic way.

The minute we crossed from Thailand to Myanmar, we were greeted with solicitors that made the Tijuana border street vendors look like amateurs.  We could buy everything from hand carved wood workings, to clothing with famous labels.  How do I know they were legitimate labels?  Because the price was the same as though I was shopping in Times Square in New York City…no deals to be found in Myanmar.

However, the most amazing item I discovered for sale was right outside a Buddhist temple.  The item was a necklace with the cross of Jesus.  That’s right, the most famous symbol for Christianity for sale right outside the Buddhist temple and on Buddhist land.  If that is not an example of democracy, then I don’t know what is…I guess the biblical scripture found in the book of Mark Chapter 16, Verse 15 is truly occurring:

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.’”

 

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Pictures of Dinosaurs

June 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Some science educators are critical of a Kentucky museum that has pictures of dinosaurs in an advertisement to draw people into their museum.  One may wonder why all the hubbub?   The twist to the story is that the museum is known as the “Creation Museum” and it is designed to have people experience Old Testament exhibits surrounding creation.  I guess that means the scientists that are in protest must be “Big Bang” theorists.

In my honest opinion, I have no idea if dinosaurs were around and roamed the earth or not.  Frankly, it does not make a difference in our eternal destination and therefore I do not place a lot of my time or efforts debating this topic.  However, I do know that God did create the animals before He created mankind and the Bible does refer to some of those animals as “sea monsters” and “beasts”.  Here is what Genesis Chapter 1, Verses 20 – 27 has to say on the subject:

“Then God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.’  God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’  There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind’; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

http://myfox8.com/2012/06/12/ky-biblical-museum-ad-campaign-features-dinosaurs/

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Sex Education

June 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Fifth grade students at Onalaska Elementary School in the State of Washington just recently received an eye opening and mind disturbing, sex education lecture from their school principal.

It appears the principal thought it was a good idea to talk to these 10 and 11-year-old children about oral and anal sex during the state adopted sex education lesson.  There is no indication that the principal taught abstinence on this topic; instead she gave a graphic description as to how these acts are performed.

We sure have ventured a long way off from having our schools teach reading, writing, and arithmetic.  The idea of having our teachers handle the sex education for our children does not seem to be going so well.  Here are some disturbing statistics from Kaiser Family Foundation:

  • Genital herpes has grown by 30% in the last two decades; more than one in five people over the age of 12-45 million Americans-are now infected with this incurable viral STD.
  • The diagnosis of symptomatic genital warts has risen dramatically during the last two decades and its asymptomatic counterparts, HPV infections of the cervix and vagina, have emerged as the most common STD among young, sexually active people. While some 5.5 million new HPV infections occur each year, it is estimated that at least 20 million people have been infected with HPV.
  • Despite the availability of a vaccine, 77,000 new sexually transmitted cases of hepatitis B (HBV) occur annually; 750,000 people are now infected with sexually transmitted HBV.
  • The annual number of new HIV cases in the United States has been stable for several years, with about half of new cases-20, 000 infections per year-acquired through sexual transmission, and the majority of new cases occurring among minorities. About 560,000 people are now infected with HIV as a result of sexually transmission.

Maybe it is time we go back to the biblical foundation of how to raise our children.  Proverbs Chapter 22, Verse 6 gives parents this advice, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/parents-furious-after-school-teaches-5th-graders-about-oral-anal-sex.html

http://www.kff.org/womenshealth/1445-std_qa.cfm

Filed Under: Biblical Principles, Headline News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

People Helping People

June 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Lately the news has been revealing stories about people helping people in need.  For example, an Ohio female track star stopped in the middle of her race to pick up a competitor who had collapsed.  The track star put the competitor’s arm around her should and basically carried her across the finish line, forcing the collapsed runner to finish before her.  In another story, a high school girl stood up for a mentally handicapped student getting bullied on a school bus.

These cases remind me of the biblical scripture found in Luke Chapter 10, Verses 30 – 37:

“…A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

 

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1 Way To Celebrate Mediocrity

June 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It amazes me how we continue to invent ways to celebrate mediocrity and then wonder why we are struggling to compete on a global basis.  Below is an excerpt from the news article that created my cause for concern:

“Dustin Do, 16, scored the 2012 BMW 128 Coupe, but it was his parents who were feeling lucky:  They get to drive the $36,000 car until their son comes of age.  Dustin, a sophomore at Sam Houston High School in Arlington, was one of 10 local students randomly selected from a pool of students who didn’t miss a day of school for the last six weeks.”

Not missing a day of school for six weeks earns this student a brand new BMW?  I truly hope this is a misprint.  Not missing school for six years may be something to celebrate but not six weeks.  If we continue to lower the bar of the exceptional then for the first time in our society we will no longer strive for excellence because we will have truly lost sight of the meaning.

According to the Encarta Dictionary, the word “excellence” is defined as “The quality or state of being outstanding and superior.”  With this definition in mind, here is what the Bible has to say in Philippians Chapter 4, Verse 8:

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

For what it is worth, I am proud of Dustin for not missing school for six weeks…but a new BMW?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/08/kid-wins-car-cant-drive-it-off-lot/

 

 

 

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Social Media Is Dangerous?

June 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

For those of you who are convinced that the social media is dangerous and has nothing healthy to offer, it looks like the Billy Graham Evangelical Association (BGEA) is about to make a run at changing that stigma.  For over the past several months, the BGEA has been beta testing a website that offers salvation to those interested in changing their lives.  The website is based on John 3:16, which reads:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have ever lasting life.”

So far the website indicates that over 476,000 people have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior since the trial basis began last year.  In true Billy Graham spirit, the website does not leave a new believer on their own after they make a decision for Christ.  Once the person chooses to believe in the Son of God, they have the option to sign up for a five week training session.  Then at the conclusion of the training, the website will attempt to find a church in a local community for that person to start attending.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/06/billy-graham-ministry-aims-to-take-revivals-online/

 

 

 

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Church In A Day

June 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The United Pentecostal Church International’s “Church in a Day” program just completed its latest construction project.  The organization has been building churches for over 30 years and it has honed its craft to perfection.  They deemed their program “Church in a Day” because they are now constructing buildings from foundation to “turn-key” in a little over 24 hours.  The project started out because they found their Bible study groups were growing at such a rapid pace that they needed a larger building to meet.

This reminds me of the short-term mission trip I took to Thailand this past October.  We came across church buildings that were built in the middle of the jungles.  These buildings were constructed by a group of people that had no idea if the buildings would ever be used.  I guess they lived by the adage from a movie with Kevin Costner that said, “If you build it, they will come.”

Consequently, they did come.  The pastor that was showing us around the jungles of Thailand happened to be the pastor that was leading the locals to Christ.  Once he developed a body of believers and established a leader for that flock, he would then find a church building already constructed but never used.

The two organizations have never met.  Yet, one group comes along and builds a church building in a remote part of the world while the other arrives sometime later and teaches the people in those areas the ways of Christ.   Is there any doubt that God has a master plan?

“For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/29/faithful-volunteers-build-church-in-one-day-in-iowa/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz1wZ9Nqtyp

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