Who Is Moving?

Something To Think About, False Motion:

The picture might do it for some of you.  It generally happens to me while I'm waiting at a traffic light.  I have this sudden unsettling feeling that I'm moving.  My right foot reflexively mashes harder on the brake, then there is the split-second of panic because for some reason the brake has no effect on my drifting car.  Thankfully the terror is short-lived.  “Whew, I'm not the one rolling.  It's that semi right next to me." When I have that experience on the road it usually ends with a chuckle.  When it happens in the ethical realm, the disorientation lasts a lot longer.  Indeed, some Christians--even some Christian leaders--never get over it. We live in a world in which moral realities appear to swirl and waver like smoke rising from a just-snuffed candle.  It can be disorienting.  Are the "rights-and-wrongs" I grew up with really "wrongs-and-rights" or "maybes-and-maybes" or just a swirling spiral of choices spinning around even more options? An honest evaluation of the standards that we draw from the Word of God is always valid.  If we are going to say "God said," we need to be sure we heard Him correctly.  But just because we see relative motion between our culture and the standards drawn from the Bible does not mean that those standards are in motion or that they need to move.  In fact what we really need is a fixed point by which we judge everything else that swirls and drifts.  Part of the reason that the Bible is good news is it is dependable.  It is the rock that stands firm even in the storms of life. Don't loose sight of it. It's STTA. Here is a site where you can find out about Jesus Christ and His plan for you.  You'll find several opportunities to explore.  If we can help you, let us know.  covingtonbiblechurch.com

Erosion

Something To Think About, Erosion:

When I was in college at Baptist Bible College of PA, I had the privilege ofattending the Osterhout Bible Church, near Tunkhannock.  The church was near enough the to the Susquehanna River that it flooded a time or two during major floods.  Right next to the church was a lovely farm, run by one of the church families.  One time when my dad was visiting he had occasion to chat with the patriarch of this farm.  It was only a few months after a major flood.  Huge ditches had been gouged out of some the exposed earth on the farm.  "What do you do about it?" my dad inquired.   "Well, if you tried to fill in the eroded places, you'd just have to rob topsoil from some other part of the field, and that wouldn't be any good," said the farmer, "so we'll just do what we can to control further erosion and begin to fertilize the area with manure, and, in time, we'll again build a layer of productive soil."  Clearly my agri-friend was thinking long-term. We live in a time in which we have seen moral/ethical erosion.  Standards that once kept bad things from happening, or at least slowed them down, have been knocked down, or allowed to deteriorate over time.  There have been a deluge of rhetoric and cultural influences that have left jagged fissures in the moral landscape. What do we do? We don't have the power or the resources to fix years of decay in one fell swoop.  Forgetting the specifics of the previous illustration, we need to add that which is worthwhile, even if it is just a little.  To change the image--gladly, by the way--Jesus said we are to be salt and light.  Anytime we can cast the light of God's truth and His presence through our lives onto the rutted moral surface of our culture we should eagerly do so. This Sunday at CBC we'll take time to do that in regard to the way our culture views the life of the unborn.  Join us in person or via our Truthcasting channel. It's STTA. Here is a site where you can find out about Jesus Christ and His plan for you.  You'll find several opportunities to explore.  If we can help you, let us know.  covingtonbiblechurch.com