SELF: Burying The Old Nature!

"Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry."

Colossians 3:5

I love to scour old cemeteries; the history and the intrigue manifested in grave markers is fascinating. While in Boston about 17 years ago I made it a point to visit the old cemetery above the harbor near North Church. What a treat.

D. Gene Strother tells of a visit to Evergreen Cemetery in Paris, Texas. He describes all the monuments that fascinated him … the shrines, the crypts, the old-west styles … one had a statue of Jesus in a pair of cowboy boots.

A common sight was the family plot, where there is a central monument, with the family name on all four sides, and family members spread out from the center.

On one drive through Evergreen, Strother said he noticed one tombstone of particular note … not for its beauty but rather for its simplicity … the occupant was identified simply as SELF. Every family, every home in the world, needs a family plot with a grave marker like this … a place to put SELF.

God knows unbelievers won’t do it on their own; He expects, however, the believer to do so. Every believer, every soul, that trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ should have a place for self in his or her home!

[Adapted from a message by D. Gene Strother, Pulpit Helps, September 1995, p.1]

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion, Self

CLEANSING: In Touch With Self!

"But a voice from heaven answered a second time, 'What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.'"

Acts 11:9

Health-savvy women like to think they’re in touch with their bodies. Whenever there is something wrong, they believe their bodies tell them. They search for lumps and scrutinize every mole-like blemish.

They claim they let their bodies talk; they “listen for any bad news.” But with diabetes, the rules of the conversation are different: the disease works silently. It can ravage the body for years without showing any outward signs. Diabetes rots the kidneys, numbs the nerves in the lower legs, clouds vision and damages the heart. All while you feel just fine.

The good news is that a simple, and relatively inexpensive, blood test can tell you whether your body is managing its glucose levels properly. If you know you have diabetes, a doctor can help keep blood sugar in a safe range and prevent long-term damage.

Even better, a new study has shown that exercise can greatly reduce any genetic inclination we may have inherited toward developing the disease.

[Adapted from an article by Linda Carroll, MSNBC, November 16, 1999]

Similarly, worldly-savvy people like to think they are in touch with their spirits and souls. They like to believe they know themselves well enough to know when something is wrong.

They claim to let their hearts speak to them and they “listen for any bad news.” But with sin, the rules are different: sin works silently. It can ravage the spirit and the soul for years without any telltale signs. It rots the spirit and numbs the mind, clouds vision and hardens the heart. All while you feel just fine.

The Good News is that a simple, but extremely expensive, application of shed blood can eliminate the effects of sin. If you know you are a sinner, an disciple can help limit temptations and prevent long-term damage from past exposure. Even better, Bible study has shown that spiritual exercise can greatly reduce any genetic inclination we may have inherited toward giving in to temptations.

Christianity, Cleansing,
Illustrations, Religion

FALSE TEACHING: Untrue From the Beginning!

MUSEUM OF SELF: [Romans 1:20]

In recent years, several art museums in Europe and the United States have discovered that not a few of their “masters” were actually reproductions. Apparently, in many cases, the phonies were better than the originals … which evidently attracted attention. Regardless, whether they were better or not, they simply were not from a master’s hand.

Today, secular humanists are being frustrated in their efforts to diminish God and elevate man; it seems several of their theories have fallen upon hard times after examination by their own scientists.

The fakes failed to provide the needed proof of their authenticity; they could not show the Creator’s fingerprint. Only the original work of the Creator-Master offers evidence of His hand; fakes never will, even if hung on the walls of man’s Museum of Self for centuries.

PRIDE: First sin in the Garden!

THE PARABLE OF THE WHALE! [Proverbs 16:18]

Remember, it's when a whale surfaces that it gets harpooned. Whales blow to clear their air passage of water in order to replenish their air supply.

Man doesn’t blow to get air; he blows to get attention. So, beware, if you plan to rise to the top in order to blow your horn, keep the parable of the whale in mind … that’s when you’re most likely to get harpooned.

[Neil Anderson (Practical Theology class notes); edited for publication]

Modern Man - Same Old Problem [Genesis 2:7 (11:6)]

Edie Lau, Science Writer at the Sacramento Bee, writes, “The cute and healthy-looking ones get names such as Dolly, Amy, Betty and Daisy. They get their pictures taken. But for every good-looking lamb and calf conceived in a laboratory dish, a confounding number of animals come out oversized or malformed or aren’t born at all.”

What is Lau talking about? He's talking about cloned animals. The problem is so tenacious in “artificially reproduced and genetically engineered animals that some scientists are devoting their full attention to what they call Large Offspring Syndrome.”

Lorraine Young, a research scientist at the Roslin Institute, said, “I think at the moment, (the syndrome) is the norm.”

Nowadays, animal cloning is not as impressive as it once was; chances of producing healthy young from cloning and other reproductive techniques involving genetic orchestration is quite low, ten percent at best. Scientists want to know: Why doesn’t it work more often?

Lau quotes Dr. Torben Greve, a veterinary researcher in reproduction at the Royal Veterinary Agricultural University in Denmark, “The prospect of hidden health problems troubles [me].”

Greve says, “The main problem ... is the subtle differences that nobody wants to admit to. What if life expectancy is changed?”

In discussing in vitro fertilization, the scientists note that the same technique has been used for 21 years to assist humans to conceive, with no obvious ill effects in their babies. They ask, “What is the difference?”

“It’s extremely curious,” remarked Young, noting that mice also seem not to experience the syndrome. “We don’t understand that yet. .... [But] just because it hasn’t happened in people doesn’t mean it won’t,” Young lamented. ”I would feel happier knowing (the cause),” she said.

Young said scientists believe “imprint genes” from the male promote growth because it’s in the father’s best interest to have the biggest and strongest babies. The mother’s interest, on the other hand, is best served by limiting womb damage so she can bear several babies, so her genes limit growth.

Somehow, so the theory goes, manipulations external to the body topples the balancing act. If true, Young says, the challenge will be to identify the factors controlling these genes. “I don’t think (the problem of abnormal offspring) has to be the norm,” she said. “We think we can improve it.”

Man always thinks he can improve on it: he continues to build his Towers of Babel, when what he really needs is the Ark of the Lord. Man, it seems, will go on and on trying to elevate himself to the same level of God; if that doesn’t work he will try to pull God down to his level.

As they said, “It is in the Father’s best interest.” [Adapted from “Dark side of cloning perplexes scientists,” The Sacramento Bee; Aug. 18, 1999]

Christianity, Illustration,
Pride, Religion