The real (and only) solution to our nation's problems

Read the letters from Paul to the Corinthians, the Thessalonians, the Philippians ... and you'll hear him constantly correcting the church, bringing them back in line with what Christ intended - with what God wants.

We go astray, meandering off the path. It's what we do. We are truly like dumb sheep.

This has happened throughout church history. People with modern sensibilities, whatever modern meant at the time, would try to inject their extra or slightly altered ideas into the pure and perfect truth that God has laid out for us in His Word. The same thing is happening today. It's a constant struggle to hit the reset button and bring us back to the heart of our faith.

And today the struggle is no different, except that - at least in America - most aren't even starting with a basic understanding of what God said in the first place, let alone how a given Church may have started to bastardize what God said based on their own sensibilities. In fact, they believe it's irrelevant, maybe even made up like a common fairy tale. This is because it is no longer set as a core of our education. Out of sight out of mind. And ignorance is anything but bliss.

In the meantime, we wonder how we're going to fix the increasingly secular, relativistic, immoral society we find ourselves living in. We put politicians in place who we think will save the day. We vote this way or that way. We march. We speak out. And all of that is good and well. Valiant really.

But before any change can happen in our society, people have to accept Christ. Nothing we do in our human efforts will fix the mess we're in. We can struggle, and argue, and vote (and we should continue to do so), but even if we make strides, inevitably it's going to slip right back into the mess that it currently is.

It's a heart thing primarily. But secondarily it's an ignorance thing. Not stupidity, but ignorance. Most people have absolutely no idea that Christianity ... God's way ... is what will give everyone what they need. Maybe not what they want (because most times what we want isn't what's good for us at all - we all know this at a gut level), but absolutely what they need.

If we want change in our society we must do three things:
1. Know and embrace the Gospel.
2. Actually follow what the Gospel teaches. Yes, actually obey.
2. Share the Gospel with EVERYONE.

No one can save us but Him.

It is good for a man not to marry

Before you jump to the conclusion that Meredith and I are having trouble, read on ...

Now for the matters you wrote about: it is good for a man not to marry. But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourself to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift another has that.
1 Corinthians 7:1-7

What does Paul mean here? He says it's a concession not a command, and that he wishes all men were like him? What was he like? Well, he was unmarried. He did not want anything to distract him from his relationship with God, and devoting his life to Christ alone. He wanted as much of his time on Earth devoted to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul had a gift. That gift was a lack of sexual temptation. And he said that if you have that same gift, the ideal is to devote your life fully to God, not letting yourself be distracted buy a spouse.

That sounds like a negative perspective. But let's unpack that.

I can't imagine a life without Meredith. And I don't want a life without her. But she is a distraction, as I am a distraction for her. I spend much of my married life worried about what she thinks or how she feels about things. I think about what I could do to please her, to love her, to support her. This is absolutely time not pointed at God. Is it bad? Absolutely not. But it's not ideal.

We were placed here on this Earth for this time, for His glory, to please Him. We should be undistracted by good or bad things as much as possible. We should be constantly looking up to Him and seeking to understand what would glorify Him.

Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: it is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
1 Corinthians 7:8-9

Burning with passion, just like burning with any emotion (think: anger), leads to bad things. Self-control is paramount. And if we cannot self-control, then we marry to create a commitment that provides the necessary control.

I need Meredith. No doubt. But what I need most of all is my Heavenly Father, my Saviour, and my Counselor.

May everything I do, from the profound to the mundane, be for His glory and His glory alone. He is worthy.

If you believe God alone is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving, you also have to conclude that He's the only one with the credentials to guide your life and the only reason you have a life in the first place.

"I think I know better than God. I know He's infinite and all-wise and all-knowing and loves me with a love that I can't even contemplate, but I think on this one thing, I know better."

We may not say it out loud, but when we choose to go against God, this is exactly what we're saying.

Be rational. Do you really believe that anything you think could possibly even approach what He knows?

For your own sake, just trust Him. You don't need to understand. You just need to obey and follow His lead.

... but as one escaping through the flames.

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
1 Corinthians 3:11-14

Do Works matter? Absolutely they do. As Paul says, we will be saved based on the foundation of Christ, but rewards come for our works. As in the Parable of the Talents, do we take the time, talent and treasure that God has given us and make the most of it? Are we constantly seeking to please him and glorify him? Or do we sit back with what looks like a complete lack of appreciation for what He's done for us?

God is not concerned with your past. He cares about what you decide to do From This Moment forward. What will you do? Please him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength? Or will you present to him the minimum you believe is necessary to get by? That's up to you.

God doesn't need your stuff. But He does want your appreciation.

God does not need your works, or your stuff (FYI it's not your stuff, it's His). He
does want your obedience, which shows that you trust Him and appreciate what He's done for you.

Time to put things in perspective ...

God is infinite. He is complete in and of Himself. Your works aren't even atomic particles dropped into his ocean of completeness. So don't think for a second that you're doing Him a favor or that He needs you.

But He does want you.

He wants to know that you know who He is and what He's done for you. He created you  and the time  and place you live in . He suffered and died  to pay a debt you owed. He wants to know that you appreciate and trust Him. He wants you to obey, not because He needs your obedience, but to show that you realize that HE is all-knowing, all wise, and all-powerful ... an infinite being who simply knows exponentially better than you.

He is your ultimate Father. He wants your love and respect, just like we want love and respect in the relationships we have with others. Again, He doesn't need it. It doesn't make him more complete, because how do you become more than infinitely complete?

Trust Him in His promises, and show that you realize becoming more like his Son is what's best for you. That's obedience. And that humble heart is what pleases Him.

Even if you don't believe in God, do you wish you did? What are the BENEFITS of belief?

Even if you don't believe in God, do you wish you did?

Even if you're an atheist or an agnostic, is there still good reason to act religiously?

Peter Kreeft, philosophy professor at Boston College, explains why even atheists should want

there to be a God, and how acting as if there is one may actually lead to you believing it.

Sooner or later you discover that it is better to help someone plant a garden than to wait for someone to bring you flowers. -- Matthew Kelly

Sooner or later you discover that it is better to help someone plant a garden than to wait for someone to bring you flowers. Let it be sooner for you. 

-- Matthew Kelly, taken from the Rhythm of Life

I learned the very very hard way that if I am constantly worried about what I get out of the relationship, I will be sorely disappointed, and the relationship will be a mess.

In another great book called Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs, Dr Eggerichs discusses a concept called the crazy cycle. If you are married, you have likely seen this play out. Both men and women desire love and respect, not just from their husband or wife, but from everyone. But in the marriage specifically, a man most desires respect from his wife. And the wife most desires love. The crazy cycle begins when one thinks, "As soon as he loves me the way I should be loved, I will respect him." Or, "As soon as she respects me the way I deserve to be respected, I will show her the love she wants."

The result is the opposite of what both are hoping for. He doesn't show her love, and she responds by holding back the respect he needs. And as she does not show him respect, he does not love her the way she needs to be loved.

Again, this is called a crazy cycle. And it is a perpetual motion machine. This will not stop until something changes.

What to do then?

Well, thank God (literally) that there is an energizing cycle, too. It begins when one or both chooses to obey God's instructions with respect to how this whole relationship thing works.

God says in His Word that a man should love his wife as Christ loved the church: sacrificially serving her ... filling her with what she needs. In this case, that is love. Unconditional love.

Equally, God says in His Word that a wife should submit to her husband as to Christ: by respecting his leadership, trusting him, looking at him as though you can do anything. She should respect him unconditionally.

Remember, this unconditional love and unconditional respect was what drew the couple together during courtship. The crazy cycle began when one stopped unconditionally loving or respecting the other.

The beautiful thing about this energizing cycle is that once just one trusts in God's promises on this topic, the cycle begins. As he begins loving her without condition, simply because God said to love her unconditionally, and even though he may not believe she is lovable at that moment, something magical happens. As she begins to respect him unconditionally, submitting to him as God commanded, something magical happens.

As the man receives the respect he so desires, he automatically, naturally begins to give her the love that she so desires. 

And as the woman begins to receive the love that she so desires, she naturally begins to give him the respect he so desperately needs.

This is God's beautiful design.

So instead of waiting to receive flowers, is Matthew Kelly prescribes, put effort into helping the other to plant the garden from where those flowers will come.

These four words: Thy will be done

I'm so confused

I know I heard you loud and clear

So, I followed through

Somehow I ended up here

I don't wanna think

I may never understand

That my broken heart is a part of your plan

When I try to pray

All I've got is hurt and these four words:

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

I know you're good

But this don't feel good right now

And I know you think

Of things I could never think about

It's hard to count it all joy

Distracted by the noise

Just trying to make sense

Of all your promises

Sometimes I gotta stop

Remember that you're God

And I am not

So

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

Like a child on my knees all that comes to me is

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

Thy will

I know you see me

I know you hear me, Lord

Your plans are for me

Goodness you have in store

I know you hear me

I know you see me, Lord

Your plans are for me

Good news you have in store

So, thy will be done

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

Like a child on my knees all that comes to me is

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

Thy will be done

I know you see me

I know you hear me, Lord

Hillary Scott - Thy Will 

On Sex Slavery: The Lord says I have seen violence done to the helpless and I have heard the cries of the poor ...

"The Lord says I have seen violence done to the helpless and I have heard the cries of the poor. Now I will rise up and rescue them as they have longed for me to do."  - Psalms 12:5

SOSresponds.org/hope2015 

(Enter the password EOH2015)

SOS helps rescue women and children who had been trafficked into sexual slavery in on of Asia's largest and most notorious red-light districts.

This is happening in our world. Right now. Let's stand up and do something.

Do you doubt the existence of God? If so, what would it take to change your mind?

Do you doubt the existence of God? If so, what would it take to change your mind? What if, for example, belief in a higher power could provide you with answers to life’s most profound questions? Watch this video with Peter Kreeft, author and professor of philosophy at Boston College and Kings College. He tells us that whether or not God’s existence can be proven, the simple act of faith itself brings to life a wealth of adventure, depth, meaning, value and hope that is absent in a world without belief. And, if that’s not enough to convince any atheist, there’s always this: 

people who believe in God and act religiously tend to live longer and be happier than people who don’t. 

So take a few minutes to watch the video and then ask yourself: 
isn’t a life in which God plays a part a happier and more comforting life?

The faith that the Bible requires is intelligent faith. It is neither blind nor irrational….

The faith that the Bible requires is intelligent faith. It is neither blind nor irrational. No one is asked to sacrifice his intellect when he puts his faith in the God of the Bible.

Don Stewart 

There is a distinct difference between intelligence and awareness. One is based upon an "ability to comprehend". The other is based on "a lack of ignorance to complete information pertaining to a given topic".

I believe most so-called "intellects" believe they know everything already, so they see believers as dumb or blindly believing in something that is mythical. What's actually true is, most of these intellects are UNAWARE - I daresay ignorant in the true sense of the word - of the data that actually exists. Unfortunately, though that data/information is no longer taught in public schools. And to even bring it up in the scientific community comes with a real risk of being blackballed. This is fact.

So, the scientific community, from whom we get all of our information, who change their stance on what is correct decade by decade, and who all begin with a purely naturalistic and secular starting point, are believed BLINDLY by most. Icons of evolution and our origins are used in textbooks, while it is well known that they are highly flawed, if not complete guesses or even outright false.

The faith of the Bible is intelligent - aware of all data, not just one side of an argument, but both sides. In fact, when all the data is in, it is wonder that anyone has enough faith to be an Atheist.

I know I don't.

Why is this gate here?

Reading Chesterton yesterday on my flight back from Cancun, where I read of a man walking along a path. He comes upon a gate blocking the way he wishes to go. But the gate is locked. The man has two choices:

1. To say, "I don't know why this gate is here. It's in my way. Let's get rid of it."

2. Or to contemplate, "I wonder why this gate is here. Perhaps I should educate myself on the history of why it was built and why it may be necessary. Then I can make a better decision on whether to keep the gate locked or to remove it entirely."

Those who look at religion and tradition and decide upon the first option are simultaneously arrogant and ignorant. And this is what most choose to do in our modern age. But keep in mind, every age is the modern age to the generation living in it. This group of people decide for themselves that they are smarter, wiser, and more logical and reasonable than every generation that has preceded them.

Those who look at religion and tradition and decide upon the second option are both humble and reasonable. They realize that the gate is probably there for a reason. If they do not know the reason, they do not assume that it is unnecessary. They first acknowledge that they do not themselves know all things. They then logically take the next steps of learning, researching, and ultimately understanding why the gate was put there in the first place. Then they can decide without arrogance or ignorance.

Humility takes courage.
Pride, on the other hand, is simple.

Love, for the day is near

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The Commandments, "do not commit adultery", "do not murder", "do not steal", "do not covet", and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule:

"Love your neighbor as yourself."

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Romans 13:8-10

Don't wake the dreamer

I just saw this statement on a t-shirt while waiting at the Cancun airport with my family. And it's deeper than simply a t-shirt slogan ...

Because a life of dreams that ends in disappointment is far better than a life without dreams.

Don't wake someone who has dreams.

Dream, believe, and trust.

Argument against Christianity #3: organized religion has ruined societies with bitterness and gloom

This third general argument, that Priests and organized religion darken and embitter the world, is a compelling argument, except for the fact that it just isn't true.

The place is where they're is rich culture of Art and music and creativity exactly the places for the church has been most prominent. The countries that are "still influenced by Priests are exactly the countries where there is still singing and dancing and colored dresses and art in the open air." (Chesterton)

Common Sense 101, Alquist

Argument against Christianity #2: The religion originally arose out of ignorance and fear

The argument that religion began in some darkness or terror is also untrue. When we examine the foundations of his modern idea we find there are no foundations. All the legends of mankind point back not to prehistoric fear but to paradise. The idea of a lost paradise is precisely the opposite idea of evolutionary progress.

"The whole human race has a tradition of the Fall. Amusingly enough, the very disseminating of his idea is use against its authenticity. Learned men literally say that this prehistoric calamity cannot be true because every race the mankind remembers it." -- Chesterton

Argument against Christianity #1: Humans are mere animals, just a variation on the same biology shared by the rest of the animal kingdom

This argument against Christianity is quite logical and legitimate ... except it is untrue.

Is you really look at beasts and man, the startling thing is not how much they are like beasts, but how different they are. Apes may have hands but they don't do much with them. They don't play the violin or eat with a knife and fork. Elephants don't build ivory temples, even in a primitive style. Camels don't paint pictures. In be hives, there are no statues of the gorgeous "Queens of Old". And so on.

"We talk of wild animals; but man in the only wild animal." -- GK Chesterton

Only man can be unpredictable and act against type. Only man can be a criminal or a monk.

Common Sense 101, Alquist

Thoughts on the Tragedy in Orlando

There is evil in the world. Without a doubt. What could possibly motivate someone to kill another human being, let alone 50? It saddens me, confuses me, and makes me angry. I want to talk to the guy and ask him what ideology could possibly lead him to do something like this. But that's not possible. He's gone too. Regardless of his answer, any ideology that leads someone to murder is wrong. God would never want this.

I know quite well that homosexuality is displeasing to God. But so is gossip, thinking lustfully, and believing in your heart that you are better than someone else. All things that I have struggled with and with which I continued to stumble. All of these are displeasing to God, but it's no one's place accept God's to deal with this. To make yourself judge and executioner is to make yourself God. And you are NOT God. As Christians, we are called to love the person regardless of their actions, and whether we agree with them or not. We are not meant to be judges. Only He is the judge. Remember, Judge not lest ye be judged.

The man who did this is squarely in hell now. That is for certain. He is no hero of some faith. He is no man of God. What He did was atrocious, despicable ... pure evil.

With all that said, I'd like to comment on our use of this situation to forward agendas. In my mind, I start to take exception to all the rainbow flags. But then I pause and realize that this was done against these people because they were living a gay lifestyle. I'm not a big fan of the term "hate crime". I believe that all crime is centered on hate, regardless of the specific reason. But this was done based on a certain type of hate, for sure. More so, though, these were humans, Americans, someone's brother, sister, cousin, best friend ... The part I take exception to, I suppose, is the hyper-focus on one aspect of them ... their lifestyle choice. Focus is done because this was done because they were in a gay bar, but it seems many are HYPER focusing on this to further a cause. To "use" this horrible event for this purpose is the issue I have. Lighting up government buildings with rainbow colors? Not okay, just like it wasn't okay to light up the White House the same way when the Supreme Court made its ruling recently. Not okay.

I mourn for those souls lost in the shooting in Orlando. I hope and pray they had accepted Christ into their hearts. Because that's what matters. What sin they struggled with does not matter. Whether they accepted Jesus into their heart, making Him Lord of their life, that's all that leads someone to reconciliation worth our Creator and gives them the right to be called Children of God.

I pray for their souls, and I pray for the fabulous and friends if these lost souls.

Pray with me:
Father, I feel discouraged and confused when something like this senseless killing happens. Why? How could you let this happen? I know you are sovereign and this is not what you desire. I know this is the work is the Enemy, but why would you allow it? I want to know, but I don't need to know.ultimately I trust in you and your plan. Come soon. This place had so much beauty and goodness, but so much pain and suffering. Come take us, if that is Your will. THY WILL BE DONE. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Given the choice between an atheist or agnostic, I'll take the atheist every time.

An atheist has at least made up his mind. The agnostic takes great pride in the fact that he cannot make up his mind. The agnostic tries to pass himself off as impartial, but the word "agnostic" doesn't mean impartial; it means ignorant.

"You see, thinking is a narrowing process. It leads to what people call dogma. A man who thinks hard about any subject for several years is in a horrible danger of discovering the truth about it..."
-- Chesterton

But let's not let the atheist off the hook. Believing in God is more normal than not believing in God. "Atheism" says Chesterton, "is abnormality." It goes against what every normal person believes, namely, "that there is a meaning and the direction in the world."

Everybody is religious because everybody has an ultimate view of things. Most people have not taken the time or trouble to articulate it. And if they did they might be troubled by how incomplete a view of things they have, which is why they too often say, "it doesn't matter what you believe." Because they are hoping that what they believe doesn't matter, since they have given so little thought to it. Still, they believe something, even if they seriously believe that what they believe doesn't matter.

Man is a creature of Faith. Man is a religious animal. Man is an animal who makes dogmas.

Common Sense 101: Lessons from GK Chesterton, Dale Alquist

If this free gift from God is so free, how come it sounds like I still have to do a whole bunch of stuff?

I'm reading from Paul this morning out of Romans. He says, Therefore, I urge you, Brothers, in view of God's Mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

The free gift is sometimes confused, I think, by people. We are freed from sin.  Before being freed from sin, we were slaves to it. Only those who stay in sin think it's actually better somehow. I don't blame them for thinking that way. I was there for 38 years. But it's simply not better ... not even close. It's empty. The only full life is a life sacrificed to him.

We don't stop being a slave.

We simply change Slave Masters.

Here's the rub: We don't stop being a Slave. We simply change slave masters when we accept the free gift. No more a slave to sin, in exchange for being a Slave for God. So much better. But that means repentance (turning away from all sin and trying our best not to stumble), renewing of our heart, with our eyes on eternity, not the pleasures of this world, etc.

The free gift means, you have God's grace and mercy, and you have been washed clean and perfect, which means you now have the right to be called a child of God and spend eternity with him in his glory with his blessings and his Joy, versus the opposite.

Once you actually begin your life of obedience, dropping your idea that worldly stuff is better somehow, you'll then come to the realization but it is far better to live God's way, obeying him because we realize he knows better, even if we don't get it. Until then, you'll be under the delusion that the things of this world could somehow be better.

This too takes the leap of faith.

Reason number 48 why unbelievers don't take the time to consider Christianity

Reason #48 why unbelievers don't take the time to consider Christianity:
They think Christianity is equivalent to Puritanism (e.g. legalism).

Now there are two reactions against paganism (a.k.a. living a life of unbelief focused on only the natural world and the self): a right one and the wrong one. Let's talk about the wrong one. Let's talk about puritanism.

The problem with the Puritans is that they attacked the pleasures of the pagans which are only the pleasures of all mankind ... good things that can be abused like all the good things that God created. It was the abuse of those pleasures that led to puritanism. But it was not a principled response; it was simply a mood.

The Puritan is a "man whose mind has no holidays". It's an enemy of righteousness, or, more subtly, a rival of righteousness. The Puritan substituted a God who wishes to damn people for a God who wishes to save them.

This is the essential Puritan idea, that God can be praised with only our brains; [apparently] it is wicked to praise him with your passions or your physical habits or your gestures or your instincts of beauty. Therefore it is wicked to worship by singing or dancing or drinking wines or building beautiful churches or repeating magnificent prayers. We must not worship by dancing, drinking, building, or singing; we can only worship by thinking. Our heads can praise God, but never our hands and feet. That is the true impulse of puritanism, and there is a great deal to be said for it. It is a bleak, but blazing truth. But it doesn't relax. It is pure austerity. Asceticism without joy. It is not something positive; it is only a negation.

Common Sense 101: Lessons from GK Chesterton, Dale Ahlquist

God has no wish to damn people. Conveying that image of God is incredibly displeasing to Him. When people refer to using the Lord's name in vain, this is a prime example of it. This image of God does not draw people to Him. In fact, it does the exact opposite. Don't get me wrong, we shouldn't be painting a cartoon-like picture of God where is only about love but He is love, not a tyrannical dictator waiting to squash you.

God wishes to love people. He wants a relationship with them . He wants a relationship with YOU. God does not damn people ... people damn themselves by rejecting Him. Real Christians obey God and try each day to be more and more like His son Jesus because they know that is what is best for them, because they know that God is a good and loving God whose promises are always kept.

Call to action:
Don't be a Puritan. Be a loving and obedient Christian who tries his or her best each day to please our Heavenly Father, not because she believes she'll be thrown into hell, but because he trusts Him with all his heart.

Don't chase a list of to dos. Chase God.

Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”

-- Eric Metaxas paraphrasing an idea from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Too many confuse Christianity with other world religions, assuming it too is about following rules and avoiding sin. But that's not Christianity at all. In fact, if you're a Christian and you're reading this, and you find yourself primarily worried that you're not following the rules well enough, you're doing it wrong.

Christianity is about a loving relationship. It's about having such an incredible Father-son or Father-daughter relationship with God that you can't help but love Him back through following His direction and the purpose He's laid out for you.

A relationship of trust and perfect love creates courage and action.

Want a relationship like this with God? Then stop doing things and focus instead on cultivating your love for Him. The best way to do that is to learn more and more about how much He loves you.

Those who don't get why you would want to be in a loving relationship with Him haven't been studying their Bible. Simple as that.

God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that could they could not see and ears so they could not hear, to this very day.

God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that could they could not see and ears so they could not hear, to this very day.
Isaiah 29:10

I will be so humble as to say, I don't know how this works, but there is something to predestination. Predestination is the idea that God has selected certain people to see the light and to be saved. Others remain with hearts hardened, blinded and deaf to the truth.

I'll be blunt, I do not want to believe this. I want to believe that everyone has a chance to be with God for eternity. I want to believe that no one is a lost cause. But the more I live as a Christian, the more it seems like predestination is just the case.

I have had myriad conversations with unbelievers who are quite bright and good people by worldly standards ... better than me in many many cases. But no logical reason seems to permeate. They believe what they want to believe and will not look into the piles of evidence for God and our faith. I always thought they wouldn't look into those things out of fear that they would be fooled or tricked, or made to look silly. That was my apprehension for a long time, so maybe I'm just projecting that on them.

There are other verses that counter this sentiment, like God desires that none should perish. So that gives me hope that there are no lost causes. But I believe that it means that those who don't want to believe will have their wish.

They are hard-hearted, stubborn and prideful. And God will not force their hand. That is not love. And God is love and does nothing that is unloving. He can only offer up the free gift of Grace. It's up to us to accept it.

I pray for the lost and blind souls. I pray for humility in their hearts ... that they not simply believe just because, but look into it and discover the mountains of evidence for the truth of Christianity. Then, upon that discovery, make the decision that will alter their destiny.

I pray.

It is the traditional things, the permanent things, that have always kept men free. Family and faith and Friends. Chesterton says, tradition is a truth of the Common People. It is always distrusted by snobs.

It is the traditional things, the permanent things, that have always kept men free. Family and faith and Friends. Chesterton says, tradition is a truth of the Common People. It is always distrusted by snobs.

It is the snobs who sneer at our values and at our common sense. For instance, in the past few years we have seen an open conspiracy among the Elites in the entertainment industry to portray homosexuality as something normal and natural. This is in absolute defiance of the common sense of common people.

Decadents like living in a dream which they can alter at any moment to suit themselves, and which they can create causes without creating consequences, and which they can prevent the future or unmake the past. But I think a decent working man of any class, whether he is working at cube roots or cabbage roots, ought to be glad that, as he sows, so shall he surely reap. -- Chesterton

The homosexual fad (and yes, it is a fad) is another attack on the family, and it has to do with the same argument about feminism. There's a difference between men and women and there is a reason for that difference. They have distinct roles, even while our society tries to muddle what those distinct roles are. The problem today, says Chesterton, is that each sex is trying to be both sexes at once; "and the result is a confusion more untruthful than any conventions".

Not only are the differences between men and women obvious and elemental; they are, well, necessary. If Chesterton exaggerates the differences between men and women, it is because only the truth can be exaggerated. Nothing else, it says, can't stand the strain. So Chesterton emphasizes those amazing differences between men and women as being quite necessary for a true romantic love.

The differences between a man and a woman are at best so obstinate and exasperated that they practically cannot be got over unless there is an atmosphere of exaggerated tenderness and mutual interest. To put the matter in one metaphor, the sexes are two stubborn pieces of iron; if they are to be welded together, it must be while they are red hot. Every woman has to find out that her husband is a selfish Beast, because every man is a selfish Beast by the standard of a woman. But let her find out the best while they are both still in the story of "Beauty and the Beast." Every Man has to find out that his wife is cross - that is to say, sensitive to the point of madness; for every woman is mad by the masculine standard. But let him find out that she is mad while her madness is more worth considering than anyone else's sanity. -- Chesterton

Worldly wisdom is narrow and limited, and it passes away. The fads and fashions have also found their way into the place that should be least susceptible to such a fleeting phenomena: the Church. There are always attempts to "update" the faith, as if eternal truth can somehow go out of date. These schemes always have secular sources. There is always an attempt to get the church to follow the world, not the other way around.

Common Sense 101, Lessons from GK Chesterton, Dale Alquist

It does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy

Christianity is entirely unique as a religion. First, because it's true, and it's the only way to God. Second, because it's not works-based like every other major religion.

Regarding my first point, don't get me wrong, I still love everyone regardless of what they think or believe. I just know that they're wrong. That's why I tell them about Jesus, so I can lovingly correct them. This is not arrogant or condescending, it is just love and concern for their eternal destination. And it's true faith, based on evidence, fact, and history. Most importantly, it's based on personal experience.

But this post is for the purposes of addressing the second point: It does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. Romans 9:16

Jews and Muslims believe that it is all (and only) based on laws that must be followed or you will not go to heaven. They believe that somehow OUR efforts matter. Now, don't get me wrong, it definitely matters what we do. But it matters far more why we do it.

Muslims, for example, believe there is a set of laws that must be followed perfectly otherwise you will spend at least a bit of time in hell. And when I say a bit, I don't mean a small period of time, I mean in comparison to Eternity. If they truly think about it, this leaves an overwhelming weight over your head. "Am I doing enough? And how do I make up for all those things that I've done that are displeasing to God?" In short, it's hopeless. Without salvation, pardon my French, but we're all screwed.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...

And therein lies the difference ... and it's a dramatic difference. In fact, it makes ALL the difference. Jews and Muslims will agree that someone must pay the debt owed to God for our sins. When Jesus came, He made us painfully aware that the sins we thought were bad weren't really the depth of sin. We thought murder was bad. But Jesus said if you hold anger in your heart for your brother, you have already murdered him. We thought adultery was bad. But Jesus said that even looking at a woman lustfully, you have already committed adultery.

We cannot make up for our erase our sins. There is not some magic equation that says X good acts makes up for a sin. And if we aren't perfect (a.k.a. without sin) we cannot be near God. And being near God is the Heaven we all talk about.

On our own, or based on any other chosen belief structure, we are doomed. Bluntly, we are destined for hell because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and then we rejected His free gift of Grace ... salvation from those sins.

But the hardened among us... those with so much pride that they can't not find it in their hearts to humble themselves and admit that they need to be saved, will go down with their pride.

God does not want this. But He will allow it. That is free will.

Call to action:

This matters. In fact, nothing matters more.

Eternity is a very very long time to be wrong on this. That fact is not a reason to believe, but it is a reason to humble yourself, open your mind, and seek Him.

So seek Him. I'm pleading with you.

And when you do, I promise you will find Him. I know this, because He promised it to me. And He kept that promise.

What's the best possible investment you can make? Well, I'll tell you.

My company offers up a matching program for any money I contribute to my 401k. Pretty sweet. They also offer up an employee stock ownership program that if I invest, I buy in at 15% below the 52-week low. Double sweet. And the stock is doing pretty darn well.

I have a rental house back in Georgetown what does well too. A little bit of cash flow, but the big deal is someone else is paying down my mortgage for me. In essence, I have that house for free and it's getting more valuable every day.

I'll pass on my commentary about the stock market, cuz that's not really my point.

Here's my point: None of these is the best possible investment I can make.

Any investment takes trust in the promise of a healthy return on investment. If we are fiduciarilly responsible, we will put our money - as well as our time and abilities - into what will gain us the highest yield.

So what is the greatest investment with the highest yield?

For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also. Matthew 6:21

I think you know. Reinvest the capital that had been gifted to you in His Kingdom. He's saying, "Here's a bunch of time, talent, and treasure. Let's see what you do with it. Let's see if you've been listening. Let's see if you trust me."

Do you trust that anything invested in the Kingdom will bear the greatest return?

"But I don't sin!" Yes you do. And so do I.

This is not a condemnation. It's just the truth. We all sin. The reason why people say but they aren't sinners, or they don't sin, is because they don't understand the depth of sin or how sin is defined by God.

I used to think the same. In fact, most people would say, "that Greg is a good guy." And I suppose I was by worldly standards, as far as anyone could tell. I seemed to be kind, giving, thoughtful, compassionate ... but that was the surface. I'm not saying I was rotten to the core inside or anything, but I most definitely had lust in my heart, I most definitely told a little white lie periodically (not to mention the large ones), and I most certainly didn't acknowledge the Creator of the universe or the fact that everything I have is from Him - in fact, he outright rejected Him. These were all sins, but I didn't necessarily see it that way. My problem? I wasn't using God's measuring stick to determine whether I was good or not. I was using a hybrid between Greg's measuring stick and the world's.

I hear from many who believe that it all averages out in some unknown Cosmic equation. That somehow God is grading on a bell curve, and you just need to be "better than average". This is a false faith. Absolutely wrong. Absolutely untrue.

Sorry to be blunt, but the truth has been so watered down over the last 30 to 40 years, that people actually believe some of this nonsense.

When it comes to the final Judgement, you can liken it to worldly judgement in a court of law. Let's say you are a fantastic person by anyone's standards, however you're on trial for a very small count of tax evasion. Of course, alleged tax evasion.

But if you did it, is it right or wrong? And if you did it, will you have to pay through time or money? Unless of course someone steps in and pays for you.

Many people in the world would say that in the grand scheme, I'm a good guy so they should let me go. But that isn't how it works, is it? God is a loving God and cannot let even the little things go.

Some might say, "But why? Why does God need to be so mean?"

He's not being mean. That's not his nature. He's being who He is: a righteous God. He is perfect. And perfection cannot be around imperfection like mud cannot be around a perfectly white dress.

Through one man, Adam, sin entered the world. Before the forbidden fruit, our relationship with God was perfect. But that all changed when we decided to do it our way ... when we decided that we wanted to be God. Like a child thinking that they know better than the parent, except exponentially worse.

But through one man we were reconciled to God. Our relationship was made whole again. We were made perfect so that we could be in relation and proximity to His perfection. That one man is Jesus Christ, and He offers a gift of salvation from the sin we can not escape without Him.

Are you a sinner? Absolutely yes. And so am I. But I am sinless and blameless through Him you saved me.

That is amazing grace. That is amazing love. That He would take my place. That He would bear my cross. He laid down his life, so that I could be set free.

Jesus I thank you for all you've done for me.

Amen.

The Role of Science is Out of Proportion in our Society

We need to put science back in its place, because in its rightful place, science can do a great deal of good, instead of adding to the confusion and doubt of the modern world.

"Science is a splendid thing,

if you tell it where to go."

--G.K. Chesterton

But the only thing that can put science in its place is religion. Only the supernatural can give the proper context for the natural.

They will say that "... religion will persecute science or inhibit scientific progress! After all, look at how the church persecuted Galileo!" 

Chesterton says that the name "Galileo" has become "imbedded in journalese and preserved there like a fossil." You cannot read an article on science and religion without seeing the name "Galileo". Chesterton suggested a tax be put on the word "Galileo", which would force journalists to come up with some other example of a scientist who has been persecuted by the Church. It would force them to do some research and perhaps learn something about history. They might even learn that Galileo's "persecution" was pretty minor, if you can even call it persecution. 

"Every leader-writer who thunders 'Galileo' at us assumes that we know even less about Galileo than he does." --Chesterton

And, of course, Galileo's idea about the earth going around the sun was not Galileo's idea. It was first suggested by a Catholic priest from Poland named Copernicus, who was never persecuted for his idea  but was always held in the greatest esteem by the Church. 

The heliocentric theory is called the Copernican Revolution and not the Galilean Revolution.

As for the tired argument about Galileo, the questions need to be updated: 

• Is the Church obstructing science? 
• Or is science obstructing the Church? 
• Who is being persecuted now? 
• Whose creed is taught in the schools, fully underwritten by the government? 
• Who's creed is silenced under penalty of law?

We need to put science back in its place. 

One of the best ways to make that happen would be for everyone to read G.K. Chesterton.

Common Sense 101, Dale Alquist

Darwinism failed as a true philosophy, but it has succeeded as a false religion

Even if the evolutionary theory is true, it is totally useless for human affairs. "It is enormous, but irrelevant. Like the solar system, it is a colossal trifle."

Darwinism has become ingrained in our thinking. And we have gone from talking unphilosophically about philosophy to talking unscientifically about science.

Science itself is not the villain. Science is either a tool or a toy. We should never make it more than that. Putting science up on a pedestal and putting our trust in it, giving it a primary function instead of a secondary one, causes us to neglect our responsibilities, our moral and artistic standards, and our ability to think for ourselves. We end up using our choices to lose our choices, to enslave ourselves, and then we put our hope in science to set us free. We expect science to take care of us, to watch over us, to make our future safe. We stand up and demand a cure for a disease, when it is our own immoral behavior that has caused the epidemic.

It is ironic that we have put all our faith in science and then claim to be autonomous in supreme. We've intoxicated ourselves with self-esteem.

"What I complain of is a vague popular philosophy which supposes itself to be scientific when it's really nothing but a sort of new religion and an uncommonly nasty one. When people talked about the fall of Man they knew they were talking about a mystery, a thing they didn't understand. Now that they talk about the survival of the fittest they think they do understand it, [but] they have ... no notion of what the words mean." -- Chesterton

Darwinism was embraced by its first great proponent, Thomas Huxley and Herbert Spencer, because they were agnostics who use Darwin to support their own skepticism about religion.

"It would have been better if they had cultivated a little more agnosticism about Darwinism." -- Chesterton

The problem is not that they opened the evolutionary question, but that they closed it. Evolution is no longer a subject for debate.

There are any number of weaknesses in Darwin's theory, including the rather remarkable lack of fossil evidence. The missing link is still missing. Chesterton says, "If there were a missing link in a real chain, it would not be called a chain at all."

The real problem with Darwinism has not been its implications for science, but its implications for everything else. It has fed "the absurd necessity for maintaining that everything is always getting better."

Common Sense 101, Alquist

Darwinism has firmly planted the idea that we must always be progressing, that progress is always a good thing, and that we are progressing toward some beautiful perfect future state.

What that state is? No one seems to know. But, as they'll tell you, it's going to be wonderful.

Rejoice in your suffering ... huh?

Yeah. Much of the Christian faith is a paradox, quite the opposite thinking of this world. To live you must die to yourself. To be the greatest you must be the least. To be strong and you must be weak. The meek shall inherit the earth. And so on and so on.

This is why the world sees us as foolish. They don't understand. They're focused on the things of this world, not on eternity.

And then there's this:
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 5:3-5

Suffering stinks. Or does it? I suppose that depends on your perspective. If your goal is not to be fit or muscular, I guess working out until you're on the verge of passing out, and holding back from eating sugary food stinks. But if your goal IS to be fit, the "suffering" the comes from  intense workout and restricting in your diet leads to the shaping of your body toward your end objective.

My end objective is to be like Christ. I am a long way off from that, so any suffering results in gain, not loss ... in ultimate terms. So, being it on. Please Lord.

Without suffering we will not gain perseverance. Without perseverance we will not gain character. And without character we will have no hope.

God's perfect design.

Faith is not blind, faith is knowledge

In modern, it seems the word faith has had the adjective blind appended to it. And while many people blindly believe many things (including things in a scientific arena), this is not the case with Christian faith.

The Christian faith, so called, is based upon reason, logic, historicity, and fact. And that Faith trumps our feelings.

So when a Christian says they have faith, it does not mean that they blindly believe some myth or fairy tale. It means, rather, that regardless of how they feel, they know that Jesus is the solid rock on which they can firmly stand, versus the ever-shifting sand of feelings, or the ever changing waves of public opinion.

On Christ the solid rock I stand.
All other ground is shifting sand.

Tell me if I've got this right, world ...

Let me repeat back to you what I think you're saying, world:

There is no intelligent creator. All of the complexity, engineering and symbiosis we see today is a product of random selection, survival of the fittest, and complete random chance. We have no purpose. No rhyme nor reason.

We are nothing more than bags of chemicals and firing neurons that make up all of what we are and who we are. Love, fear, compassion and altruism, and all the rest that we experience are nothing but illusions caused by chemical reactions in our brains.

All of what we have today, at one point, was nothing. No thing. And then the first "thing" - whatever that was - came from a complete void of anything (a.k.a. nothing).

And from that first thing came life. Absolutely no life at all, to life all of a sudden because, we think, a bolt of lightning hit some chemicals and created... life.

Then, that initial life form evolved into every form of life that exists today, from plant to animal to you and me. So a fern, originally, comes from the same origins as a hippopotamus, as well as a tse tse fly, a blue whale, a dandelion, and my dog Charlie

And when you say "evolution", you don't just mean microevolution, which resulted in my dog's mutt status, having been derived from different types of dogs. You mean, one species came from another species entirely.

We are the smartest, most advanced generation in history. All the people of the past 6000 plus years were delusional, simple-minded, and/or just plain wrong. We, on the other hand, know better.

Am I getting that right?

Only in America ... Top 10 (written by a Canadian)

# 10 Only in America... could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000.00 

per plate Obama campaign fund-raising event.

# 09 Only in America... could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when they have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 20% of the federal workforce is black while only 14% of the population is black, 40+% of all federal entitlements goes to black Americans - 3X the rate that go to whites, 5X the rate that go to Hispanics!

# 08 Only in America... could they have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner (the head of the Treasury Department) and Charles Rangel (who once ran the Ways and Means Committee), BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.

# 07 Only in America... can they have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.

# 06 Only in America... would they make people who want to legally become American citizens 

wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, while they discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just 'magically' become American citizens. (probably should be number one)

# 05 Only in America... could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by 

the country's Constitution be called EXTREMISTS.

# 04 Only in America... could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.

# 03 Only in America... could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies 

are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. Oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes (Nike).

# 02 Only in America... could you collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in 

recorded history, still spend a Trillion dollars more than it has per year - for total spending of $7 Million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money.

# 01 Only in America... could the rich people - who pay 86% of all income taxes - be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

Slavery existed for greater than a 5000 year span, but in the course of 40 years, Wilberforce was able to turn it from a common and widely accepted tool of economics and industry into something despicable and horrific as we consider it today.

Slavery existed for greater than a 5000 year span, but in the course of 40 years, Wilberforce was able to turn it from a common and widely accepted tool of economics and industry into something despicable and horrific as we consider it today.

Truth is, it was always despicable and horrific, but people did it, and it was considered "normal". In the Dred Scott decision, African American men were said to be 3/5 of a white man. Can you even imagine someone suggesting this today? Of course not - it's ludicrous.

Up until 1973, even the staunchest of feminists were 100% against abortion. It was considered deplorable. Then the sexual Revolutio (so called) came about. The pill was invented, disconnecting sex from reproduction. This desensitized people in our society to the gift that is sex.

And in 1973, the well-known case of Roe versus Wade ruled that a woman could choose to kill her own baby if still in the womb. Even the ancient Romans considered killing a baby in the womb as deplorable. However, as the intellectual elite of the time, thy were perfectly fine with taking an infant and putting it on the side of the road when it was not wanted. Eventually it would be eaten buy wild animals or die from exposure or starvation. The norm of the time.

In America alone, we are now over 59 million abortions since that Roe versus Wade ruling in 1973. That is more the World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the war in Vietnam, 9/11, and a number of other mass casualty events COMBINED.

Oh, and Congratulations America ...

we are #1 in volume of abortions

followed only by North Korea and China.

Very few abortions are in response to rape or incest. Very very few. Let's be honest - the purpose of abortion in America is as a final step in birth control. While you can define it - if you wish - as birth control, it is actually the murder a baby that's already been conceived. 

Killing of the most innocent of us all.

Science has proven definitively that once an egg and a sperm combine, a new human life is formed. It is not tissue as many seem to believe. We can not say surreptitiously that life begins when the baby "feels pain" or when she breaths his first breath, or even when we can detect her heartbeat. Life begins when the two raw materials come together, one fertilizing the other. The miracle of life has occurred at this moment.

Slavery existed for 5,000 years, then someone stood up and put full effort into eradicating this horrible practice. And in a short 40 years, it was gone.

The same will happen with abortion. We have already seen this trend happening. People will look back at this time in history and cringe at the horror that we allowed.

Abortion is genocide. 

And it's primarily a genocide against people of color and against girls. There is no getting around this fact. Most abortion clinics - greater than 85% - are within walking distance of extremely low socio-economic areas, made up predominantly of African-Americans.

Call to action:
Wake up, sleeping Christians. The non-believers don't know any better, but we do. It's long past time to do something about this. Light a fire, and let's eradicate this horrific practice in our lifetime.

My fence-sitting and unbelieving friends need to hear this

The Bible tends to use legal imagery to illustrate our salvation. As willful violators of God's perfect law (and that means every one of us), we stand guilty before the Judge and Creator of the universe. Our crimes against Heaven call for the ultimate punishment of spiritual separation from a holy God - a never-ending punishment worse than we can even fathom.

Into this eternal crisis steps the sinless and perfect Christ. He offers himself as our substitute. He takes our punishment upon himself. Then, He gives us His right standing with God. To trust in Christ's person and work is what it means when church people say "justified".

This is no joke. You can roll your eyes and scoff at this, but it does not make it less true. I know you likely believe you haven't seen enough evidence, although I'm betting you haven't gone looking for it either. It is no one else's responsibility to prove this to you. It is your responsibility to do true research and determine whether it's true or not.

Personally, I know that it's true. But that only because I went seeking Him sincerely, with an open mind. I directly asked for Him to show Himself to me. And he did. Clearly and in high resolution. Bright lights were turned on in a pitch-dark room, with truths around me that I did not know were sitting there right in front of my face the entire time.

However for my first 38 years of life, I was just like you - skeptical and unbelieving.

Here's where the rubber meets the road:

If I'm now delusional (and have been for the past 7 years) and God is not real, I was simply silly. But meanwhile, I lived a selfless, humble, giving and compassionate life, focused on the needy, the poor, the innocent, the downtrodden.

If God IS real, then sitting on the fence until it's too late (or worse, outright rejecting Him), will place you apart from God for eternity, as a result of your indecision, or per your request. That means hell without time (infinity).

You will get what you've requested, as will I.

Do not "wait and see" on this one.

Call action:
1. Pray to God asking for him to reveal himself to you. Even if you feel silly or awkward doing it, do it with sincerity in your heart and with a humility. He may not respond immediately, because he works on His time, and is not your puppet.
2. Read the gospel starting with John (that's the 4th book in the New Testament). I prefer ESV or NIV versions, which are both fully accurate and reliable.
3. Read other resources from authors like C.S. Lewis, Tim Keller, Francis Chan, David Past, Geisler, Lennox (peers with Steven Hawking at Cambridge), Stroebel, and so on. The data you do not have currently is immense. The world and public education will not tell you the facts and truth contained in these writings. They are factual, rational, logical, scientific and lucid.
4. When you're ready pray a simple, humble prayer to Jesus. Something like this:
Jesus, I am ready to accept you as my Lord and Savior. I understand now that I am a sinner, and that I can not be perfect or righteous on my own. I would like to accept your free gift of salvation, to turn away from my sins, knowing that I may continue to stumble even as I try. You were beaten, crucified, and rose again from the dead in order to pay the debt that I owed. I am so thankful. I will spend the remainder of my days glorifying you and everything that I do, allowing you to transform me into your likeness. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The cause of all the problems in modern education can be summarized in three words: Darwin, Marx and Freud

Darwin. Marx. Freud. 
That's right.

The theories of these three men have pervaded all modern thought. Their ideas are much alike in that they are narrow, materialistic, fatalistic, and utterly anti-Christian.

Their influence has been felt far beyond their limited fields.

• Darwin's ideas have contributed to a blind belief in progress. They have also served for justification for cut-throat capitalism and the survival of the fittest mentality in our commercial and political relations.
• Marx's ideas plunged half the world into darkness for most of the last century, but in the other half of the world, they have served as the justification for the extended growth of the State and the loss of the authority of the family and the centrality of the home.
• And Freud's ideas have led to an overemphasis on sex and have served as the justification for the normalization of the abnormal, and the pervasive decline in morality. 

The academic's utter sellout to these three figures has elevated science, economics and psychology above religion. In fact, all of these three have been invoked to explain away religion.

Chesterton says that the primary public duty today is 

"... not to educate the uneducated but to uneducate the educated." 

We can start this process, the process of bring common sense back to education, by tossing out Darwin, Marx and Freud, and all their minions, or studying them solely for the purpose of finding out what the enemy is up to. 

Chesterton does not say there is absolutely no truth in Darwin, Marx and Freud; he says that the minor truths that they got hold of, they stated entirely out of proportion to a thousand other truths.

[Common Sense 101, Alquist]

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Romans 3:20

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Romans 3:20

Ask 7 out of 10 people on the street in America what it takes to be saved or what it takes to go to heaven. The response will likely be something like, "I don't know, just be a good person I guess." Sad thing is 3 out of the 7 of those people will be a self-proclaimed Christian.

I heard someone say once, "Heaven is not filled with good people. It's filled with saved people."

When we say that we are a pretty "good person", we assume we are able to be good by ourselves ... on our own steam. We believe that if we just do a few nice things (or even LOTS of nice things), that it will make up for all of our failures both in the past and coming up in the future. But here's the rub - we aren't graded on a bell curve. It's pass/fail. Either we were perfectly righteous and holy as God is and as Christ was while here on Earth, or we weren't. Unfortunately, that's the difference between spending eternity in Heaven or in Hell.

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Romans 3:11-12

This sounds pretty hopeless. If we can't be perfect then we're going to hell? The blunt answer is yes.

Oh, but God made a way. THAT'S the good news.  THAT'S the Gospel!

How do we escape this conundrum?
Believe in Him. Put your faith in Him. Make Him your Lord and Savior, and when God looks on you he will see Christ, the righteous one, the perfect one. Through Christ you are made perfect, not through what you have done or can do, but through what He did for you.

But if you truly believe that you're a good person on your own, and that you don't sin, 1) you are delusional (as well as wrong) and 2) you will not be aware that you need to be saved.

"... through the law we become conscious of sin."

The reason God gave the Israelites the law was to make them aware of their sinful nature. He gave us the law to make us aware of our sinful nature, so that we would look to Him for our righteousness, not to ourselves.

We cannot be good on our own. But that's good news. He has made a way for us to have both the most fulfilling and joyful life possible, have purpose, and - most importantly - to spend eternity with Him.

"This is Amazing Grace. This is unfailing love. That He would take MY place. That He would bear MY cross. He laid down His life, so I could be set free. Jesus I sing for all that You've done for me."
-- Phil Wickham, This is Amazing Grace

"The purpose of compulsory education is to deprive the common people of their common sense." -- GK Chesterton

"The purpose of compulsory education is to deprive the common people of their common sense." -- GK Chesterton

As is so often the case in the modern world we have things exactly backward. In the process of turning your children over to the public education system, we have turned our backs on the home and the family. And we have somehow mislaid the primary purpose of going to school.

The one thing that is never taught by any chance in the atmosphere of public schools is this: that there is a whole truth of things, and that in knowing it and speaking it we are happy. -- Chesterton

Our schools change their standards more often than they change the light bulbs. The modern mind cannot make up its mind. It has no eternal philosophy, no eternal reference point. But the irony is that the more doubtful we are about the value of philosophy, the more certain we are about the value of education. This is the same thing as saying that "the more doubtful we are about weather we have any truth, the more certain we are apparently that we can teach it to our children. The smaller our faith and Doctrine, the larger or faith in doctors".

It is perfectly obvious - it is common sense - that we cannot have a system that claims to provide a complete education, and then leave out theology and religion. But that is precisely what we have. We pour money into education because education is the answer to everything. The more education the better, except, of course, if it includes theology.

By turning public education over to "the experts", we have undermined the natural authority of the family.

The schools were painfully aware of the decline in education. And so they scramble to try new things, you serious, new ways to teach. Most educational theories are not as old as the children being taught. We are not educating students anymore. We are desperately educating the Educators and then giving them a group of students on which to experiment with the latest techniques of teaching.

"Our schools are swept nowadays with wave after wave of scientific speculation; by fad after fad and fashion after fashion."
-- Chesterton

There is utter rejection of tradition, of the truths that built our civilization, the truths that were handed down through the generations.

[Common Sense 101, Alquist]

My two cents: In an effort to be hyper-tolerant and even-handed, avoiding any potential to make anyone feel uncomfortable about the strange ways they believe, we have ruined education. We have put our children's minds into the hands of people who've been gagged, blindfolded, and handcuffed, then told to swim the English Channel. Failure is the only result.

What do we truly want for our children? Do we want them to make a lot of money, have a job we can brag about, be incredibly powerful in this world until they die? Or do we want them to be of good moral character, with integrity and honor, realizing there is something greater than themselves and that they should live their lives with humility and with selflessness. The only way the latter happens is through teaching our children about God, then letting them make their own decision.

But by not doing so, we have crippled them.

If we can afford nothing more than public education, so be it. But we cannot leave our children without the education that really matters, assuming that they get all they need from perfect strangers paid by the government. We, as parents, must fill that gap. Must. It is imperative.

Sin is a weed.

Sin is a weed. It starts out small and subtle. But left unattended it becomes an infestation and covers everything.

We have traditions that preserve mankind. Our parents have taught us certain truths, certain commandments; we, in turn, teach them to our children. If we do not teach them, soon comes "the detail of the sinning and the denial of sin."

The moral tradition of the human race is never secure. It is active, hard work. We can never take it for granted.

As the Russian Chesterton scholar Ekaterina Volokhonskaia says, "It is not the moral tradition that keeps us, it is we who keep (or do not keep) it."

Words are deeds. Sins are weeds.

Paraphrased from:
Common Sense 101, Lessons from GK Chesterton, Dale Alquist

Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened ...

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for [other gods].
Romans 1:24-25

So easily we look to man-made things, or our own abilities, or the creation itself instead of the Creator.

I have heard and seen (and personally been guilty of) thousands of examples of this.

We can see clearly in the world today that thinking has become futile, and foolish hearts have become darkened.
Tolerance has trumped telling the truth as a virtue. So we never talk about things out of fear of being seen as a "bigot".
We hold up what is wrong as right, and what is right as wrong.
Narcissism is applauded, while humility and kindness and forgiveness are seen as weak. We make up or own subjective definitions of "good" and "bad", not acknowledging for even a second that an objective Creator of the concepts of good and evil even exists.

What seems to be the popular opinion on any given topic seems to be what most go with. This is a "lambs to the slaughter" or a "lemmings over a cliff" approach.

We were were created for one purpose: to give glory to Him in everything we do and to acknowledge Him in thanks. Everything we do that does not give Him glory or acknowledge Him is a rejection of Him.

It is sin.

We are smart, but let's be humble enough to acknowledge that we're not that smart.

We are strong, but let's be humble enough to acknowledge that we're not that strong.

We gain and have wisdom, but let's be humble enough to acknowledge where wisdom comes from and that our wisdom is extremely limited.

Lean not on your own understanding. God and God Alone is infinitely strong, infinitely intelligent, and infinitely wise. It is not evil unless God says it's evil. And it is not good unless God says it is good.

Choose to take your lead from the Creator of this universe, and fear Him, not man.

Amen?