Death Panels

Politics is an interesting sport to watch. Always remember that the policitican will put their own spin on whatever news they want to comment on. Thats why we had phrases such as "death panels" or "end of life care" or "counseling" used to describe certain procedures contained in the health care bill that may or may not be passed by congress.
Let' deal with some reality for a moment.
Several years ago when Roe vs. Wade became law, there were many who said the next step will be euthanasia of our elderly. That is where, for whatever reason, we either allow or assist an elderly person to die. Those supporting Roe v. Wade said that was not true and was just a scare tactic by those opposed to abortion.
My own opinion is that when you devalue life at anytime, you devalue life at all time.
There are political leaders who feel that the government knows best for all of us and we must trust them to make the tough calls about life issues.
We are now some approaching 40 years since abortion was endorsed by our government. Are we any closer to sending the elderly out to the permanant pasture?
Let's look to our friends up north who already have government controlled health care. According to the "Montreal Gazette" the time is come for them to debate euthanasia. One quote I found quite interesting was when the president of Quebec medical specialists told a National Assembly, "...the issue of euthanasia could not be discussed in Quebec 50 years ago, and compared it with evolution in thinking about abortion." He contined, "And like abortion, he said, limits must be established...It's a cascade, We can't invent it. We see it. There are safeguards."
Politicians, as stated earlier, will always shade their story to their spin. But just as Canada has shown us, once you start down the path of making life and death decisions at any time for any reason, then the slippery slop will eventually get to you and me.
You see, the law allows a person to abort regardless of reason. After we have been down that slippery slope, can we see in the future a son come in and say its time to put dad down because I need my inheritance now and not six months from now?
Who are we to define the quality of someone's life?
Who are we to define the time period that should be allowed?
I do not want some government committee to decide my time is up.
Jim

Heros still Live

Once in a while you come across a story about some men forgotten long ago, yet they still need to be remembered.
It was in the early hours of February, 1943, and the U.S. Army troopship "Dorchester" steamed in the icy waters about 100 miles off the coast of Greenland. The ship was carrying some 900 men.
At 12:55am a torpedo from a German sub ripped into the side and immediately the ship started to sink. Desperate soldiers rushed topside, stumbling toward lifeboats and even jumping overboard.
In the midst of all this confusion, four Army chaplains worked quietly, calming the troops down, directing men toward the lifeboats and handing out life jackets. When the supply of life jackets ran out these four chaplains gave their own to other men.
The four chaplains and their names: Jewish rabbi Alexander Goode, Catholic priest John Washington, and protestant ministers George Fox and Clark Poling.
As the ship slid beneath the surface, soldiers in the lifeboats took one last look at the "Dorchester". They saw the four chaplains standing on deck, arms linked, praying.
They paid the ultimate price. They could have been saved. They could have taken care of themselves first.
Even in the challenging times we live in, stories like this one remind me of the good that is still in many people. There are men and women all over the world living their faith out in hostile places and situations.
I do not know the truth of this next statement but I believe it to be so. When we get to heaven, the ones closet to Jesus will not be the famous preacher or powerful, rich believers. It will be the ones whose names we do not know on earth, but heaven sings their praises.
Jim Lagrone

Same old, Same old, Same old

I am an optimist by nature. I look forward to each day; forward to living another day in America; forward to serving the one I worship; forward to enjoy the precious moments God has allowed us to have.
The president's speech last night was met with the usual comments. One network thought it was awesome! Another thought it was a joke with no substance. Cnn announced a supporting poll yet the poll was made up of 38% democrats and 25% republicans. The rest were chosen by random. I will bet you could figure out the results of that all by yourself. The decisions that come next are the true test of any political speech.
Let me relate all of this with an Arkansas story that I know of because it happened to me.
Huckabee was Governor and was trying to fix our car tag situation which was archaic. I spoke directly to one of our state Representatives and asked him the question, "Why is there such opposition to fix a problem when everyone agrees something must be done?" I was young and naive in those days.
He said without hesitation, that no one wanted a republican governor to get credit for taking care of this problem. They would rather wait until a different governor was in office so they could take credit.
I am sure this attitude exists on both sides. And that is where one great problem for this country continues to be played out in front of us.
I long for the time when we can have healthy debate and then make a decision for the good of the country instead of the good of a political party. Americans are tired of political games. I believe that they want real solutions for real problems. I learned a long time ago that you can get a lot done if you do not care who gets the credit.
The combative attitude then bleeds over into other aspects of our life. In a church, opposition can come up just because they are always opposed to anything. I even had a man in a former church say he always voted against everything because decisions should never be unanimous.
I want to move on from the same old way of doing things. It would surely be nice to elect Americans to the offices that represent us. I am not talking about their birth location, but their heart location.
Jim

Lessons in Leadership

Have you ever been misunderstood? Has someone misjudged your motives? Have you been accused of something that really has no basis in truth? I have and I suspect any leader has had those moments. Let me remind you of an episode you know so well.
It is recorded in John chapter nine. "Some of the Parisees said, "This man Jesus is not from God, for he is working on the Sabbath." Others said, "But how could an ordinary sinner do such miraculous signs?" So there was a deep division of opinion among them.

One author asks this question concerning this passage: If people were confused about Jesus, what makes you think you can get them to understand you? Interesting question.
You remember those Pharisees don't you? Those were the guys that would go out of their way to make sure they stayed within the boundries of the law. It was their way or the highway. They would not tolerate anything less and they were quite proud of themselves when they put someone else down.
But yet, despite their wisdom on the law, they could not come to agreement about whether or not Jesus worked on the sabbath.
I would suggest they did not want to understand.
I will never forget the many times in my life when I have seen an incredible movement, large and small, by the hand of God, yet people complain about the smallest of things or misjudge the moment. Probably the first time I saw this was in a church in Texas. We had to vote on everything and a man wanted to donate a van to us. If we did not want it, he said we could sell it and keep all the proceeds for our student ministry. That seemed simple enough to me. I thought there would be no discussion on this. But I was wrong.
One lady launched into a vicious attack on the man wanting to donate and when she saw things not going her way, she stood up threw some papers in the air and ran out of the building. I was speechless! There were several of our members beginning to tear up. One lady asked, "why does this have to happen to us?"
If you have ever led people for any period of time, something strange has happened and someone has disagreed with you.
It seems too simple but here it is: You will never get 100% so why worry about it. Even Jesus did not get 100%! He brought a man back from the dead and the Bible said even then many chose not to believe.
Be encouraged. Do the right thing. Be concerned only with pleasing God.
Bro. Jim

Who caused the earthquake?

Reports are quite dramatic about the earthquake that caused massive devastation in Haiti. There are some saying the deaths could be in the hundreds of thousands and damage could be higher than any can imagine.
As always, the press go to a religious guy and asks, "why did this happen?" Pat Robertson once again, got himself in a little trouble with his comments. He did call for aid to be sent and talks about how much he and his organization have sent. However, he made reference to a long ago time in that countries' history where the people there made a pact with the devil. I am not kidding.
The year was 1791 and there was a slave rebellion led by Boukman Dutty, and according to some, he/they made a pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. A spokesman for Pat, Chris Roslan, on their website said that event, "has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed." One can easily understand how people would conclude that, since the country has suffered greatly since that time, well, you get the idea.
Does God cause earthquakes? It is a great question and I will answer it yes and no. You know, it is always fun to take both sides of an issue.
You see, Biblically speaking, bad things happen as a result of the sinful state of humanity and God punishes sin. Sometimes bad things happen for a purpose. However, sometimes bad things just happen.
I just left the hospital visiting a friend (not from Little Rock) who is facing a great challenge. She has a disease the doctor says will take her life. It is just a matter of time. This person has lived an incredible life; been faithful and honored God with her walk. But bad things still happen to good people.
One philosopher said that God spun the world into place and put the world under a natural law to rule His creation. And then He took His hands off of it. This idea was the only way he could justify natural disasters.
In Haiti, there were believers killed along with non-believers. Was God out to get them for a deal with the devil in 1791?
The answer is, no answer will come. No answer would satisfy. Those opposed to a belief in God will use the comments from Pat and others and justify their positions.
I am just a simple guy. But I learned a long time ago that bad things will happen in life. The only thing you can control is your response. I will respond to this event by sending help and maybe even going sometime in the future to help on the scene.
I will let the philosophers figure out the details.
Jim

The Coming Storm

I'm back!!!
Sorry I have been out and away from blogging, but the new year begins a new determination to continue the dialogue that should be occurring.
Now, I have a theory and it is just a theory:
There is a new god rising in America. I remember the god the first Americans brought across the ocean (with respect to native americans) and I remember how they worshiped. I remember that a popular writer, Josh McDowell, said that the real god in America was the god of tolerance. Well, it was true for a while, but I see a new one rising. But first, let me give you a little background.
Travelling around the world and seeing some incredible houses of worship from Notre Dame in Paris to the Dome in Cologne, Germany, to several smaller houses of worship allows me to make an unscientific observation. To me it seems as the power of government grows and as the entitlement mentality grows, then something begins to change inside the human spirit. I was even in a town where the taxes paid the priest salary and all church expenses!
It appears that as a people look to the government more and more for benefits, then they begin to look to the government as a divine higher power. It takes years and maybe generations to foster this idea but the government truly becomes god for many people. They look to the government, pay their required offering (taxes), worship those who are in power, sing certain songs, plead their case to them (prayer?) and expect the ones in power to take care of them. Maybe this is one reason Europe is filled with large beautiful, priceless, empty worship centers.
No one would actually say that they worship a government yet as the power rises the attitude changes. Do not forget that communism and other forms of that system get rid of churches as soon as possible.
It is that storm that is coming ashore in America. The rate of the growth of our faith does not keep up with the population growth, especially among the young people. We are turning away from our historic roots and it does not seem to matter to most of our country.
We will reap the Biblical rewards of a people who turn their back on Jehovah. The storm is on the way.
If our Lord tarries, it will sure be interesting to see what the church in this country will look like in 10-20-50 years.
Jim

America: A nation of Wimps?

Wimps, wuss, weenie---those are just some of the terms I have heard to describe men and boys through the years who are not "manly" or whatever that means.
But lets look at this subject and you decide for yourself how true it is. Hara Marano wrote in "Psychology Today" that America is turning into a "nation of wimps." The author went on to say it is maybe the cyclist complete with blue helmet riding along a designated dirt path---not too fast---on his tricycle. Or maybe it is the all cushioned surface where kids used to skin their knees and now they are not allowed to play alone. The author wrote, "Their mommies and daddies are playing with them, making sure that the little darlings don't experience even the slightest scrape, scratch, or scare." There is no such thing as allowing kids to figure some things out for themselves. Marano describes this as an attempt for parents to sanitize their children's childhood. Which is described as, "Our kids are growing up to be pampered wimps who are incapable of assuming adult responsibility and have no idea how to handle the routine challenges of life.
David Elkind, a child psychologist, says that "kids need to feel badly sometimes...We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope."
Steven Hyman, Harvard University's provost and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health described the problem of pampering is so great it is affecting the education of students even in college. He took note that Harvard once graduated 94% of the class of 2001 with honors. How do you say grade inflation? Caused from pressure from parents (donors).
One writer says parents turn to doctors and teachers to make their children into the people that parents want to believe their kids are. Interesting.
I even read where some blame this on cell phones and even things like "twitter". The reason is all kids are in contact with every little thing with their parents. They cannot stub their toe or experience a breakup or make a C without parents rushing to their defence.
I find this interesting and have a tendency to agree. I have dealt with far too many parents who seem to invent reasons why their child cannot make perfect grades or start on Friday night. Instead of learning through the experience, we want them to find fault in whoever made the decision that caused their heartache.
I think it might go further than that. We as christian parents need to pay attention and not seek the world's standards. Al Mohler wrote that, '"We must push our children toward excellence, but we must define excellence consistent with the Christian gospel."
Maybe we need to thankful for the lessons learn from skinned knees, other disappointments and the blessing of hard work.
Maybe, just maybe, this could be one reason for so many churches springing up and preaching a gospel centered around what somebody might want instead of what they need.
Jim