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Misc. Issues

【Abortion】In 1944, a forty-one-year-old woman sought an abortion from her doctor. He firmly refused, asserting that abortion was just not right, morally, ethically, or legally. The woman later gave birth to a baby boy and named him James Robison. This unwanted child grew up to become a well-known evangelist. God has a plan for every human life, even those who are not wanted.

【Adoption】In 1952 a probation officer in New York City tired to find an organization that would assist in the adoption of a twelve-year-old boy. Although the child had a religious background, none of the major denominations would assist in his adoption. Said the officer later, “His case had been reported to me because he had been truant. I tried for a year to find and agency that would care for this needy youngster. Neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Jewish institutions would take him because he came from a denomination they did not recognize. I could do nothing constructive for him.”

If the principles of Christian love had prevailed in the Bronx in 1952, perhaps a good home could have been found for that young, mixed-up lad. In fact, providing a better environment in which to grow up might have changed history. For, you see, the boy was Lee Harvey Oswald.

【Crisis】The Chinese word for “crisis” is a combination of the symbols for “danger” plus “opportunity.”

【Drugs】King Heroin is my shepherd,

I whall always want,

He maketh me to lie down in the gutters

He leadeth me beside the troubled waters

He destroyeth my soul.

--This is an nonymous poem, quoted by Francis Schaeffer

【Fame】A brilliant but bitter agnostic writer toured Europe with his wife and small daughter. He received honors from schools, royalty, and friends. After the family returned home, his daughter, impressed with her father’s fame, said: “Daddy, I guess pretty soon you will know everybody except God.”

【Fame】A reporter once asked Walt Disney how it felt to be a celebrity. “It feels fine,” he replied, “when being a celebrity helps me get a choice reservation for a football game… As far as I can remember, being a celebrity has never helped me make a good picture, or a good shot in a polo game, or command the obedience of my daughter, or impress my wife. It doesn’t even seem to help keep fleas off our dogs and, if being a celebrity won’t give me an advantage over a couple of fleas, then I guess there can’t be that much in being a celebrity after all.

【Consequences of Freedom】When a man decides to exercise his freedom to break God’s laws, he is like a person who ascends to the top of a tall building and jumps off. For the first several stories he feels great. There are no restraints, no restrictions, no hang-ups. But suppose, ten stories from the ground, he realizes that a sudden stop awaits him and that he doesn’t want to endure its consequences. Can he reverse the falling process? Can you or he stop the fall? Of course not. Thus, in the final ten stories, our tragic character will examine his definition of freedom and realize—too late—that it was wrong.

【Morality and Freedom】”Men are qualified for civil liberties only to the extent that they are willing to put moral chains of their appetites”—Edmund Burke

【Security and Freedom】At the University of Oklahoma, for many years a project was underway to teach a fifteen-year-old female chimpanzee named Washoe to talk by combining sign language with simple recognition. Since 1966, this chimpanzee learned 140 signs.

Finally, the project directors decided that Washoe was prepared to “conceptualize.” This meant that instead of merely imitating some human’s words, the chimp would express thoughts of her own. Now, understand, Washoe was a pampered animal in the university’s laboratory—well fed, physically comfortable, safe from harm. She had security. And yet, when she was able to put words together on her own into a phrase, these were the first three—and she has said them again, repeatedly—“Let me out.”

【Life Precious】Here are some of the untold statistics and facts that have to do with legalized abortion. In China, a country where government policy was one child to a family, people were opting for boys both to carry on the family name and so someone could help do the harder chores, especially on the farms. Families used abortion, even drowned female babies to be sure their one child would be a son.

And now, the inevitable result. Many of those boys will be bachelors because just in the age group of 0-19, there are 14,000,000 more boys than girls. Of every 100 unmarried adult Chinese, 93 are men. The trend shows no signs of reversing. --Associated Press 6-6-90

【Complaints】O.G. Wilson wrote, "I murmured because I had to walk four blocks from the parking lot to my office. Then I saw a man who was sick, hungry, and unable to take a step and yet whose smile was as cheery as the chirp of the first robin of spring. I complained because the light was poor. Then I met a man radiantly happy, from whose eyes all sight had been lost due to an accident. I complained about paying so much income tax until I visited a rest home where a penniless man was singing joyously the triumphant songs of grace."

A spirit of discontent shows a lack of faith in Christ and a streak of selfish egoism. Our Lord never promised His disciples days of sunny ease. How foolish, then, to complain and fret because unpleasant experiences come our way. Remember, if you murmur you'll reap an "overwhelmed" spirit (Ps. 77:3).

【Wise Counsel】The following is wise counsel from a mother to her daughter on how to live with joy:

Mend a quarrel.

Search out a forgotten friend.

Dismiss a suspicion and replace it with trust.

Write a letter to someone who misses you.

Encourage a youth who has lost faith.

Keep a promise.

Forget an old grudge.

Examine your demands on others and vow to reduce them.

Fight for a principle.

Express your gratitude.

Overcome an old fear.

Take two minutes to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Tell someone you love them.

Tell them again, and again, and again!

【Wise Counsel】A message from the late Muppet maker Jim Henson. Read at his memorial service in New York, it simply said, "Please watch out for each other and love and forgive everybody. It's a good life; enjoy it." --Associated Press 5-22-90

【Wise Counsel】William Seidman has decided to step down from his post as the head of the F.D.I.C. On why he's planning to leave government: "A good friend who was a member of the special forces sent me their motto which said, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get out of the way and let somebody else do the dying.'"

【Drunkenness】Dear Ann Landers: Please print this as a personal plea to all

your readers who might drink and drive.

Dear Friend: I'm 29 years old. When I was 4, my grandfather was killed in a car accident on New Year's Eve. He was struck by a drunk driver. My only memory of him is his funeral. When I was 10 years old, my brother was killed while coming home after serving in Vietnam. He was within a few miles of home when the car he was riding in swerved to avoid a car driven by a drunk driver.

Yesterday we buried my father, who was killed in a head-on collision while going to work. That driver was also drunk. Dad was 57. He had never touched alcohol. He and Mom were married 39 years and had five children and 15 grandchildren. My children will never know their wonderful grandfather because they were too young when he died. This is a tremendous loss. He was such a terrific person.

Please, dear readers of Ann Landers' column, if you drink I'm begging you to think about my family before you get behind the wheel of your car. Haven't we been through enough? - Wapakoneta, Ohio. --Ann Landers 6-29-90

【Inspiration of Example】In a personal letter to Charles Swindoll, Tim Hansel mentions a Harvard University study conducted rather extensively within recent months where they tried to determine the most effective way to change lives. Their findings surprised even those doing the study. Amidst the high tech sophistication and advanced techniques of our world, the number one way to change lives was modeling. When it is all said and done, the best way to impact another life is to demonstrate, to practice, what one teaches. You know that is why you cannot get out of your mind the model of your parents, nor can I. --From a letter from Tim Hansel to Charles Swindoll as shared on Insight for Living Broadcast 6-22-90

【Inspiration of Example】"You can impress people at a distance but you can impact them only up close.” --Howard Hendricks

【Legalism】Sometimes we tend to be amazed (and even snicker) at the minutia of Pharisaic legalism. We tend to forget, however, that sandwiched among our country’s sound and workable statutes, there are hundreds of cockeyed ordinances that remain to clutter up our law books because the powers-that-be-from state legislators to town fathers-have not gotten around to repealing them. For instance, in Amarillo, Texas, it is against the law to take a bath on the main street during banking hours. In Portland, Oregon, it is illegal to wear roller skates in public restrooms. In Halethor0e, Maryland, a kiss lasting more than a second is an illegal act. The list goes on and on. Suffice it to say that down through history man has been inclined to live by and enforce the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.

【Legalism】The sin of the Pharisees was paying attention to outward demonstrations of piety for appearance’s sake rather than giving attention to inward obedience. This can be well illustrated by two eggs. One egg is a normal raw egg that, when placed under the palm of the hand and pressed evenly cannot be broken because of the structure of the egg itself. The second egg is exactly the same on the outside, but its insides have been removed. When it is placed under the same palm pressure, it breaks easily because it is internally weak. So, too, one who gives himself to the sin of the Pharisees is empty of substance and will eventually crack under pressure.

【Legalism】The attitude one has toward doing what has to be done determines if the action is legalistic. An illustration makes this clear:

“A serious athlete has to keep training rules. Most athletes are glad to keep them, rigid as they may be, for the sheer love of the sport. A few athletes conform to make the team and glorify, show off, self. The former attitude is love, and the latter is legalism, but both attitudes are toward the same rigid code, and both result in conformity. Having to conform to a law is not of itself legalism.”—Charles C. Ryie

【Mediocrity】The highest order of mind is accused of folly, as well as the lowest. Nothing is thoroughly approved but mediocrity. The majority has established this, and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.—Blaise Pascal

【Prosperity】The danger of prosperity is simple: it binds us to the world. Prosperity leads us to think that we have found our place in the world. Of course, the reality is that the world has found its place in us.

【Reputation】Rabbi Simon said, “There are three crowns: the crown of (the study of) the Law, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of royalty, but the crown of a good name surpasses them all.—Mishnah Avoth

【Reputation】We may be known by the following, according to A.W. Tozer:

1.What we want most.

2.What we think about most.

3.How we use our money.

4.What we do with our leisure time.

5.The company we enjoy.

6.Who and what we admire.

7.What we laugh at.

【Self-examination】There is a proverb in the business world that the man who takes no inventories finally becomes bankrupt.

【Self-examination】The druggist of the town drugstore overheard a young boy talking on a pay telephone. “Hello, sir, I was calling to see if you needed a lawn boy. Oh, you have one. Well, is he adequate? Oh, he is! Thank you, I was just checking,” said the young boy.

The druggist then said to the boy, “Sorry you didn’t get the job, son.”

“Oh, no sir,” said the boy. “I’ve got the job. I was just calling to check up on myself.”

【Stress】As everyday experience often shows, stress and trials can strengthen a person. A seed that falls into a mere handful of soil next to a boulder can sometimes grow into a large tree by sending its roots down to the earth, roots that firmly wedge it onto the rock. The sequoia, the greatest of trees, grows best when forest fires periodically threaten its existence. The fires may scar it deeply, but they assure the proper composition of the soil needed for the tree’s survival.

【Stress】The head of the Menninger Institute has stated that up to 70 percent of minor ailments such as colds and fatigue are psychosomatic reactions to day-to-day stress, and also that they can lead to more serious problems.

【Television】On the table side by side,

the Holy Bible and the R.V. Guide.

One is well worn but cherished with pride;

Not the Bible, the T.V. Guide.

One is used daily to help them decide;

No, it isn’t the Bible, it’s the T.V. Guide.

As pages are turned, what shall we see?

It doesn’t matter, turn on the T.V.

Confusion reigns; they can’t all agree

On what they should watch on the old T.V.

So, they open the book in which they confide;

No, not the Bible, the T.V. Guide.

The Word of God is seldom read,

Maybe a verse as they fall into bed.

Exhausted and sleepy, and as tired as can be,

Not from reading the Bible, but from watching T.V.

So then back to the table, side by side,

The Holy Bible and the R.V. Guide.

No time for prayer, no time for the Word;

The plan of salvation is seldom heard.

Yet, forgiveness of sins, so full and so free,

Is found in the Bible, not on T.V.

【Television】The Twenty-Third Channel

The T.V. set is my shepherd,

My spiritual life shall want.

It maketh me to sit down and do nothing for His name’s sake

Because it requireth all my time.

It keepeth me from doing my duty as a Christian

Because it presenteth so many good shows I must see.

It retoreth my knowledge of the things of the world.

It keepeth me from the study of God’s Word.

It leadeth me in the paths of failing to attend the evening

worship services and doing nothing in the kingdom of God.

Yea, though I live to be a hundred,

I shall keep viewing my T.V. as long as it will work,

for it is my closest companion.

Its sounds and its pictures,

They comfort me.

It presenteth entertainment before me

And keepeth me from doing important things with my family.

It fills my head with ideas which differ from those set forth in

The Word of God.

Surely, no good thing will come of my life,

Because my T.V. offereth me no good time to do the will of God.

Thus, though I dwell in the place of the redeemed

Who have been washed in the blood of the lamb,

I will let the souls around me slip into Hell forever.

【Television】Karl Marx said that religion was the opiate of the masses. He could not say such in our day, for it is television that is now both the opiate and pagan religion of the masses. Think about it for a moment.

Television’s priests are its celebrities. Its denominations are the networks. Its morality is found in the ratings. Its shrines are the millions of T.V. sets that occupy honored spots in our homes, and its icons are the antennae that reach toward the sky. Its worshipers are found in its millions of regular viewers. And its rituals are the regularly scheduled programs that are habitually attended by its misguided addicts.

【Trustworthiness】A little boy walked down the beach, and as he did, he spied a matronly woman sitting under a beach umbrella on the sand. He walked up to her and asked, “Ware you a Christian?”

“Yes.”

“Do you read your Bible every day?”

She nodded her head, “Yes.”

“Do you pray often?” the boy asked next, and again she answered, “Yes.”

With that he asked his final question, “Will you hold my quarter while I go swimming?”

【Wisdom】A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew.

【Wisdom】A man approached a speaker and said, “You Christians are all brainwashed.” The speaker replied, “I think we are all brainwashed to a degree. The important thing is that we Christians choose what we want to wash our brains with.”

【Wisdom】One morning the young new president of a bank made an appointment with his predecessor to seek some advice. He began, “Sir, as you well know, I lack a great deal of the qualifications you already have for this job. You have been very successful as president of this bank, and I wondered if you would be kind enough to share with me some of the insights you have gained from your years here that have been the keys to your success.”
The older man looked at him with a stare and replied: “Young man, two words: good decision.”

The young man responded, “Thank you very much, sir, but how does one come to know which is the good decision?”

“One word, young man: experience.”

“But how does one get experience?”

“Two words, young man: bad decisions.”

【Wisdom】William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) was one of the greatest physicists of nineteenth-century England. When he was away at college, his father wrote to him: “You are young: take care you be not led to what is wrong. A false step now, or the acquiring of an improper habit, might ruin you for life. Frequently look back on your conduct and thence learn wisdom for the future.” – Cited in G.K.C. MacDonald

【Wisdom】Man’s wisdom is not enough. It is limited, partial wisdom. T.S. Eliot put it so beautifully when he said in “The Rock”:

“All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,

All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,

But nearness to death no nearer to God.”

Then he asks the question that hangs over this whole generation: “Where is the Life we have lost in living?”

【Wisdom】A leading economic expert, Professor Irving Fisher of Yale, had this to say about the bright future of the stock market and the American economy: “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”

His statement was spoken in early October 1929, just a couple of weeks before the stock market crash that ushered in the Great Depression.