Is it possible that we have hidden the evidence?

 In the old days, people could see the awesomeness of the heavens at night.  There were more stars than anyone could count.  Advances in science made it even more awesome when they figured out the size of a star compared to the size of our own planet.

However, as mankind became more advanced, the amount of man made light began to dim out the stars.  The more man advanced, the harder it has gotten to see the heavens with the naked eye at night.  Is it possible that as the heavens faded, people began to lose sight of God and as a result have begun to think that man is all powerful?  Is this where liberal thought has gotten it's boost?

I remember as a young kid in the 50s that we could go out and see the Milky Way and the Big Dipper.  As the years have gone by, it gets harder and harder to see unless you can go far away from the urban lights.  As you can see from this image Earth Lights, the areas with the most lights tend to be areas where people believe more in liberal thought such as man-made global warming.

If you can wait out the 15 second commercial, check out this video from Norwegian photographer Terje Sorgjerd of the Milky Way and see how the ancients saw the heavens and see the evidence that we have hidden.  If each star is a thermo-nuclear furnace that last billions of years and dwarfs all the nuclear devices that man has made, how many can you count?

Prisoner By Birth

 In the not too distant path, a person could go anywhere in the world they wished if they had the fortitude and the means to do so. They didn't have to carry any papers to prove who they were and if the land wasn't occupied, they could set up a place to live and live off of the land. Not so anymore.

 In this day and age, you think that some coutries are free and others are not but the truth is, you are a prisoner to the country you were born in.  If you can go to another country, it's only temporary and then you must return to the country of your birth or face possible jail.

  Was I just born too late?

Language of Heaven

Hispanics have a joke that is a play on words between English and Spanish. They say that Spanish is what is spoken in heaven. When you ask how that can be they say that Spanish is spoken in Los Angeles (which is the city of angels) and if the angels speak Spanish then Spanish must be the language of heaven.

Over the years, being a white person in a white church, it seems like the attitude of the church is that the only people in heaven are white and they speak English. I helped out with the sound system for a time in a black church and their attitude seemed to be that the only people in heaven were black and spoke English.

It's really funny when you think of it how narrow and closed minded the citizens of the United States are. If you get into other countries and cultures, it is not that way. Hispanics, for example, understand that there probably is a mixture of people in heaven; after all, hispanic culture is very mixed.

It will be interesting when that day comes and each of us has to face the final judgment. I think there will be an lot of very surprised people when heaven doesn't conform to the way they envision it.

Religion and Sports

Earl Pitts would always start his rants with “you know what makes me sick?  You know what makes me so mad I just want to….”  As funny as he was, like Rush Limbaugh says, there has to be an element of truth in it to make it funny.  And so, I come today to say that people pick their religion like they do their sports team.

How’s that you say?  Well, just as there are different sports, there are different religions and just as there are different teams in a particular sport, there seems to be a different sect, denomination, or whatever in each religion.

How do people pick their sports team?  Well, it is usually because they like the colors, or the symbols, or it’s from their area or it because their family are all fans.  There’s really not much logical thought put into it.  I’ve heard it said that people put more thought into choosing an article of apparel than they do choosing their life’s occupation and I believe it fits with picking their team as well.  People also seem to pick their religion for the same types of reasons.

Once people pick their sports team, then they wrap themselves in the colors, symbols, and traditions of that team.  Then, they rah rah for their team and have the us vs. them attitude; our guys are better than your guys, yay us.  Have we not seen the same thing with religion?

The problem though is that after a while, it becomes tiring to keep rah rahing and you need a break.  That’s why sports have seasons.  For religion though, there is no off season.  Usually what happens then is when the excitement wears off; people tend to drift away form whatever religion they chose.  They drift off unless there is someone to beat them or threaten them to hound them back into the flock.

True Christianity though is different (or it should be).  You don’t choose to become a Christian.  Jesus bluntly told this to the apostle when he said “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last.”  Just as the drowning person cannot choose who will save him or her, you cannot choose to be a Christian.

This is evidenced again when Jesus chose Saul of Tarsus.  Jesus told him “it is hard for you to kick against the goads.” In other words, when you are chosen, there will be goads or prodding by the Holy Spirit that you cannot ignore.  You can ignore and fight against it but eventually it comes to where you have to make the decision to accept or reject it.  

So if you pick Christianity as your religion like you’d pick a sports team, when all the hoopla fades away, you’ll fade away from church also.  It’ll become something that you are supposed to do instead of something you want to do.  However, if you sense the calling, and seek out how to tune into it (which is “seek ye first the kingdom of God”), your life will never be the same and you won’t need all of the emotion and hype to keep you going.