The News that is the News on December 19, 2008

News in KC Star for December 19, 2008

 

In a study of corrupt states, Kansas is rated as one of the three least corrupt states in USA. Florida has the highest rate of convictions for public officials while Illinois is 7th in the country. Louisiana has the highest conviction rates per capita and Illinois is 6th. Kansas is unranked.

 

The William J. Clinton foundation has raised $492,000,000 to build the Clinton library and other projects the Clintons are involved. Foreign governments including Saudi Arabia, Norway and India gave $46,000,000. Other high profile givers include Bill Gates and a whole host of the Hollywood crowd. Saudi Arabia alone gave $10,000,000. Other government donors include Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Italy, Jamaica, and Tenerife. The Dutch national lottery gave between 5 and 10 million dollars.

 

Also of interest in the article is the note that Hillary Clinton served on Wal-Mart's board of directors. Wal Mart gave between one and five million dollars to the Clinton foundation.

 

It is foolish to assume that Hillary Clinton will not be influenced in her decisions as Secretary of State by those whom support her husband's library. (WP)

 

On the more serious side Burger King has launched a new men's body spray called "Flame." It is described as having the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat." (Guys using this should be careful that their dates are not hungry! WP)

 

In Rogers, Arkansas Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar had their 18th child, a little girl, delivered by C-section. Jim Bob is 43 and Michelle 42. Their oldest child is 20.

 

 

That's all the news that is the news for today.

 

Il Divo and Amazing Grace

This is one of the finest renditions of Amazing Grace I have heard.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrnB4FZ-yc

“This Little Light of Mine”

"This little light of mine"

Years ago small children were taught a popular song—"This little light of mine." Not really heavy on theology, but actually loaded with meaning. Especially in the area of light.

At Zeandale we are going through Max Lucado's 3:16 in the morning Bible study. Today's lesson dealt with Hosea and Gomer. The focus was on Hosea's love for Gomer which was descriptive of the love God had for his people Israel. One of the greatest lessons we got from the lesson was the fact that God loves regardless of how people respond.

God's love is not exclusively for believers. We become believers by responding to God's love, but that doesn't change the fact that God loves unconditionally. Everything we have is a gift from God. Everything that the Muslim, Hindu, atheist, or evolutionist has is a gift from God. Whether or not people do not recognize the source of the gift does not change the fact about it's source.

There are believers who brag about their accomplishments. Sometimes they will include God up to the point that they must be very special in the sight of God because of all that God's for them. I used to have a good friend that no matter what I accomplished he did something either faster or better or he was obviously better blessed. Once I wrote him about some of medical experiences and his answer was to let me know that his medical experiences were worse than mine. The guy never changed!

Charles Chaffin led in the devotional time for the offering this morning and he focused on the fact that we have received light from God. Everyone receives light from God. Paul talks about this in Romans 1. So just like everyone receives everything they have from God, so also do they receive God's light as well. Charles suggested that the light could be seen in the fact that everyone has a conscience.

Again, it is a gift from God. If one studies anthropology he/she discovers that there is no culture without a moral system regardless of how "primitive" they may be. Where did they get their information? The earliest culture systems which began to use writing also developed legal codes. How did that happen? And how is that there are so many parallels found among the various legal systems? Some would suggest they just copied from one another. Even if they did copy they still recognized the value of a controlled value system.

A Socialist America takes another step forward

When Joseph rescued the Egyptians from the upcoming famine he took 20% of the grain grown and then sold it back to the Egyptians. The Egyptians first used up their money to buy food, then they sold their livestock, and finally their land to the Egyptian government. When the famine ended all the money, livestock, and land belonged to the government. After the famine the government let the people use the land and taxed them 20% of their produce. In essence, Joseph set up a socialist government. 

Our government is spending over a trillion dollars to bail out banks and industries who mismanaged their funds and businesses. But the one item that no one may have noticed is the placement of "czars" to oversee the industries that the government is helping. This is a giant step toward socialism in which the government takes control of industry and banking. Someone might say, "Never in America." But it is happening.  The republic the founders of this nation produced is long gone. It is also noteworthy that anything the government manages becomes notorious for waste.  

The Year of the Jubilee

When Moses received the Law, part of it included both environmental and economic sanctions placed by God upon his people. The environmental part was called the Sabbatical year. That law stated the Israelites were to let the land lay fallow (unplowed) every seven years so that it could renew itself. Back in the 1960s I lived in southern Illinois. While there I was given the chance to learn how to farm. A godly man, one of the elders in the church where I preached, took the time to train me how to farm. I learned how to harvest, plow, and cultivate. For some reason Frank Shepard never let me plant. That part he always handled. 

Farmers in that era practiced crop rotation. Part of the rotation was to leave a section of the land fallow every seven years. They would plant alfalfa on it and the next fall plow the alfalfa under. They were using artificial fertilizers by that time, but they still practiced crop rotation.  I'm not sure if this practice is observed anymore. 

The next part of the Law of Moses we want to consider is the year of Jubilee. This law stated that every 50 years all debts were to be forgiven and the land was to be restored to its original owners. This meant ever person had the opportunity to start over with a clean slate every fifty years. Certainly such a practice would not be popular with bankers, but it was the law of God. 

It is my own unhumble opinion that the Israelites never observed the year of Jubilee and it is possible that they were also careless about the sabbatical year as well. 

But, Praise the Lord, we are observing the year of Jubilee in 2008. Billions of dollars are being given to bankers and automobile manufacturers who are going broke. This is all being done on the premise that the little guy about to lose his home will be able to save it. So far I have yet to hear of one little guy getting so much as a nickel of the $700 billion. But the bankers and industrialists are all standing in line for their handout. It is almost a comedy to watch the auto makers pleading with Congress for billions. 

Here is my concern. I have debts--mortgage on my house, a credit card or two, an automobile.  Is there some way that I could get a small portion of that $700 billion? Now if I were making $22 million a year or more I would have a better chance. But my income is a bit less than that. I have friends that deserve a portion of that money since it is the year of Jubilee, but I doubt that they will get any either. I work for a non-profit institution that could use a bit of this bailout money and we work across from a major university that needs a minimum of $56 million to simply do the maintenance needed that has been delayed for years. Let me know if I am wrong, but I bet neither we nor the university will see a red cent from the big bailout. We have done nothing dishonest nor have we taken advantage of the foolishness of people. But that's not the way the bailout will work. Those who made financial fools of others will receive the reward. 

I'm sure that Moses would see this as an odd way to observe the Jubilee. 

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

One of my colleagues called this afternoon and invited me to go with him and his wife to see "The Boy In the Striped Pajamas." My wife and I went with them to this powerful statement about the most tragic part of World War II. You can look up movie reviews to get a sense of the direction of the movie. But you will have to see it to fully appreciate the way it ends. It is, to say the least, a moving experience. It is not a film to enjoy, but it one from which we can be reminded of lessons from the past. Every adult needs to see it. It is not a movie for children. 

A question that must accompany such a movie and the events it points to is, "How in the world could such a situation develop?" 

We need to realize that after World War I Germany experienced a horrendous depression. People needed wheel barrows to take their money to the grocery market. The Allies had punished Germany severely for World War I and this added to the depression. In the midst of this economic circumstance a messiah arose. Adolf Hitler promised to lead the nation to the heights to which Germany belonged. People would have to put their trust in him and follow the direction of Hitler and his henchmen. Although there was some protest, Hitler's government quickly evolved and Hitler soon declared himself the dictator of Germany.  

In order to make people feel better, Hitler led them to believe that the Jews were the real problem in the nation. To get rid of this pox on the nation, the Jews needed to be annihilated. This would solve another problem--bring a great of wealth into the hands of the government. 

In Hitler's case, Nazism became the religion of Germany with Adolf himself being the high priest of the religion. 

Such messianic scheme dot the landscape since World War II. One that started much earlier in 1917 was the Communist party in Russia. Vladimir Lenin, Trotsky, and Josef Stalin were involved in this political experiment that promised to correct the financial abuses in Russia and the wealth of the rich would be distributed among the poor. 

The Pol Pot regime in Cambodia that massacred a million people. Fidel Castro and Che Chevera led people in South America and Cuba on the basis that each man was a messiah who was going to deliver his people. Such individuals are scattered all over Africa. The results of the work of these messiahs has been horrific. 

Some wise acre once said, "Those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."

Zeandale Makes the news for Community Good Will

Community Good Will

Recently the local newspaper, the Manhattan Mercury, has made mention of the community service provided by Zeandale Community Church. The first was in an article about the Angel Food Program. Zeandale was instrumental in helping bring the program to the Manhattan area. For the time being our people as well as the rest of the churches involved in the Manhattan area, go to Topeka to pick up the items to be distributed. An hour after they leave Topeka a crew of busy people get the boxes ready and usually by 12:00 noon on Saturday the food is all gone, much of it to needy people who were wondering where their next meal was coming from.

The Angel Food program is unique in that it is open to anyone who wants to participate. One box of food, which is loaded with high protein products, costs $30.00. There is enough food in the box for one person for a month and for a family of four for a week. Purchases can be made either by cash or food stamps and the orders have to be placed and paid for three weeks before delivery. Last month we gave away 18 boxes of food to needy people.

Zeandale was again mentioned by Gary LaGrange who set out to raise school supplies for children in Iraq as an act of good will from our country to theirs. Gary noted that they had raised 38,000 pounds of goods—school supplies and backpacks—and $20,000 to help ship the supplies. Zeandale was mentioned as one of the contributing churches.

When this project started I asked one of new member if he and his wife would take this project on. They did gladly. In a short period the couple reported they wanted the stuff moved because they had one bedroom in their home fully packed with school supplies. Gary LaGrange was impressed. He was impressed enough that he remembered the little stone church in Zeandale that helped out in a big way.