■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
From the Garden of Eden to the present, God has given us the privilege of
choice. We can embrace Him or rebel against Him. The choice is ours. The
consequences are not. Many folks who dutifully darken the door of a church each
week live lives of obdurate, secretive rebellion against the Lover of their
soul. William Henley, a cripple since childhood, one of the early humanists,
penned these defiant words in 1849. His is the quintessential statement of a
life centered on self. A life in rebellion against God:
Out of the night that covers me, black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
A century later, Dorothea Day answered Henley’s “Invictus” with this lovely
poem entitled, “My Captain”:
Out of the light that dazzles me, bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be for Christ the conqueror of my soul.
Since His the sway of circumstance, I would not wince nor cry aloud.
Under that rule which men call chance my head with joy is humbly bowed.
Beyond this place of sin and tears that life with Him! And His the aid,
Despite the menace of the years, keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.
I have no fear, though straight the gate, He cleared from punishment the scroll,
Christ is the Master of my fate, Christ is the Captain of my Soul.1
In life we have the choice to captain our own ship or surrender to the Captain
of our soul. Both choices have temporal and eternal consequences. Consider
wise old Solomon: “They [who] rejected my advice and paid no attention when I
corrected them…must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way. They must
experience the full terror of the path they have chosen. For they are
simpletons who turn away from me?to death. They are fools, and their own
complacency will destroy them. But all who listen to me will live in peace and
safety, unafraid of harm." (Pro. 1:30-33 NLT)
Two paths. Two consequences.
QUESTION: Which path are you really choosing?
1 Dorothea Day, “My Captain,” in The Best Loved Poems of the American People,
selected by Hazel Felleman (Garden City, N. Y.: Garden City Books, 1936), 73,74
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
#1 Define your ministry. Answer the question, “What am I going to do?”
Write it down.
Launching a ministry, like launching a business cannot be a hit and miss
proposition if it is to succeed. A quarter of a century ago a young man, fresh
out of formal training asked the question, “Where is the fastest growing place
in American where I can plant a church?” Well, he found it and on very limited
resources studied the people in that area, defined his target, and figured out
how he was going to reach them. And reach them he did! Many feel that Saddle
Back Church in Southern California is one of the most dynamic and significant
churches in America today. If you have read, “The Purpose Driven Church”, or
“The Purpose Driven Life” you realize that Rick Warren had carefully thought
through in defining his ministry.
“Live life with a due sense of responsibility, not as men who do not know the
meaning and purpose of life but as those who do. Make the best use of your
time, despite all the difficulties of these days. Don’t be vague but firmly
grasp what you know to be the will of the Lord.” (Eph. 5:14-17 Philips)
QUESTION: Are you crystal clear as to what God would have you do ministry-wise?
If not, it might not be a bad idea to take your Bible and notebook and get a day
alone with God, asking Him to clarify it for you.
#2 Define your mission field. Answer the question, “Where am I going to do
it?” Write it down.
Is your primary ministry to children at risk? Or to fellow financial
professionals in the marketplace? Or to folks in your neighborhood? Both Jesus
and Paul had a clear sense of the people to whom they were to minister:
Jesus: “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent
the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and
chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.” (Lk. 6:12,13)
Paul: “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and
begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the
vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had
called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Act. 16:9, 10)
QUESTION: Are you clear as to your target group? Or does easy opportunity
define the will of God ministry-wise?
#3 Work out a simple plan. Answer the question, “Do I have a strategy to
accomplish this ministry?” Write it down.
Ask: Who needs Christ in my target group? Write their names down and begin
praying for them. Who needs discipling? Write their names down and begin
cultivating their trust. Ask God to help you with a simple, workable plan.
QUESITON: Do you have a carefully thought through strategy on how you intend to
influence these people for Christ?
#4 Keep it going. Answer the question, “How do I plan to sustain this
ministry?” Write it down.
“But this precious treasure?this light and power that now shine within us?is
held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see
that our glorious power is from God and is not our own. We are pressed on every
side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we
don't give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get
knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. Through suffering, these
bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus
may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death
because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying
bodies. So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for
you.” (2 Cor. 4:7-12 NLT)
QUESITON: Have you already resolved in your heart that you will stay in the
battle no matter how daunting the circumstances?
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
#1 Define your ministry. Answer the question, “What am I going to do?”
Write it down.
Launching a ministry, like launching a business cannot be a hit and miss
proposition if it is to succeed. A quarter of a century ago a young man, fresh
out of formal training asked the question, “Where is the fastest growing place
in American where I can plant a church?” Well, he found it and on very limited
resources studied the people in that area, defined his target, and figured out
how he was going to reach them. And reach them he did! Many feel that Saddle
Back Church in Southern California is one of the most dynamic and significant
churches in America today. If you have read, “The Purpose Driven Church”, or
“The Purpose Driven Life” you realize that Rick Warren had carefully thought
through in defining his ministry.
“Live life with a due sense of responsibility, not as men who do not know the
meaning and purpose of life but as those who do. Make the best use of your
time, despite all the difficulties of these days. Don’t be vague but firmly
grasp what you know to be the will of the Lord.” (Eph. 5:14-17 Philips)
QUESTION: Are you crystal clear as to what God would have you do ministry-wise?
If not, it might not be a bad idea to take your Bible and notebook and get a day
alone with God, asking Him to clarify it for you.
#2 Define your mission field. Answer the question, “Where am I going to do
it?” Write it down.
Is your primary ministry to children at risk? Or to fellow financial
professionals in the marketplace? Or to folks in your neighborhood? Both Jesus
and Paul had a clear sense of the people to whom they were to minister:
Jesus: “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent
the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and
chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.” (Lk. 6:12,13)
Paul: “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and
begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the
vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had
called us to preach the gospel to them.” (Act. 16:9, 10)
QUESTION: Are you clear as to your target group? Or does easy opportunity
define the will of God ministry-wise?
#3 Work out a simple plan. Answer the question, “Do I have a strategy to
accomplish this ministry?” Write it down.
Ask: Who needs Christ in my target group? Write their names down and begin
praying for them. Who needs discipling? Write their names down and begin
cultivating their trust. Ask God to help you with a simple, workable plan.
QUESITON: Do you have a carefully thought through strategy on how you intend to
influence these people for Christ?
#4 Keep it going. Answer the question, “How do I plan to sustain this
ministry?” Write it down.
“But this precious treasure?this light and power that now shine within us?is
held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see
that our glorious power is from God and is not our own. We are pressed on every
side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we
don't give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get
knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. Through suffering, these
bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus
may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death
because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying
bodies. So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for
you.” (2 Cor. 4:7-12 NLT)
QUESITON: Have you already resolved in your heart that you will stay in the
battle no matter how daunting the circumstances?
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
If we are honest, an awful lot of us are stressed out and discontented with our
lives. Yet our standard of living is the envy of the world. In a hundred years
our life span has gone from 41 to 77. Few in our society do back breaking
manual labor so common a generation ago. Many of us fear that we as a nation
are on a downhill slide and that the future is uncertain for our children. What
exactly is at the root of our national malaise? And what does God’s word have
to say to us? + Five observations:
#1 Dissatisfied expectations. We possess a certain gloom, not of what we have
but of what unforeseen thing might happen in the future to shake our well-being.
We harbor a fear that the West cannot sustain its current high standard
materially and liberty-wise. The more we see that might be available, the more
anxious we become to obtain it.
“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have,
because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’…I
have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be
in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of
being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether
living in plenty or in want.” (Heb. 13:5; Phil. 4:11b, 12) (See Matt. 6:25,
34; 1 Tim. 6:6-8)
#2 Abundance denial. We think only the super rich are the really well off
ones. We believe that no matter how much we make, we need much more to “live
well.” No matter how much we have, we fail to appreciate it.
“…Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily
bread…Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God…All things
are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor
the ear its fill of hearing…Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever
loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.”
(Prov. 30:8b, 9; Ecc 1:8; 5:10).
#3 The unsettled character of progress. We live with a sense that with
“progress” new unsolvable problems arise to replace the old. Global warming,
gridlock, escalating housing costs, the spiraling HIV epidemic, global
terrorism, etc.
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we
will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart
of the sea…” (Psa. 46:1,2) (See Lk. 21:34,35)
#4 From material want to meaning want. Now that our material wants are
relatively satisfied we live with the conundrum of meaninglessness. An
increasing sense of no purpose.
“For to me, living is for Christ, and dying is even better…I once thought all
these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because
of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with
the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything
else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ…And when Christ,
who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his
glory…If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish
ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your
life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you
will find true life.” (Phil. 1:21;3:7,8; Col. 3:4; Lk. 9:23,24 NLT)
#5 The high cost of ingratitude. What we have we expect. It is our “right”.
Never mind the fact that most of the world struggles from one meal to the next.
“But Israel was soon overfed; yes, fat and bloated; then, in plenty, they
forsook their God. They shrugged away the Rock of their salvation… They did not
worship you despite the wonderful things you did for them and the great goodness
you showered upon them. You gave them a large, fat land, but they refused to
turn from their wickedness…But when you had eaten and were satisfied, then you
became proud and forgot me.” (Deut 32:15; Neh. 9:35; Psa. 106:7, 21; Hos.
13:6) (See Deut 6:11-14; 32:18; Rom. 1:21; Lk. 17:15-18)
+Adapted from, “The Progress Paradox” Greg Easterbrook, Random House
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
SEVEN LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM ON GOD’S TESTING
Many of us who grew up in California live with the mythical idea that we are
owed a Disneyesque existence of sun, surf and … well you name it. Anything but
the pain and character-building suffering most mortals experience. God’s
testing of Abraham in calling him to sacrifice Isaac reveals a number of lessons
for us as we face life’s trials, and yes, God’s testing. As I was mulling
over Genesis 22, I was reminded of several close friends who today are suffering
severely. Is it possible that God is testing some of them as he did Abraham? I
wonder. Among them are two spouses whose partners recently died of cancer, two
others who are approaching death unless God intervenes, a couple whose two
adopted children (now adults) are giving them unimaginable grief, and a
delightful and accomplished couple whose son, through his peccadilloes, is now
on the brink of divorce.
Seven lessons from Abraham’s testing:
#1 God’s testing in our life may follow His great blessing: The joy of the
birth and early life with Isaac was followed by God instructing Abraham to
sacrifice this precious lad. (Gen. 21)
#2 Everything we have in life is expendable, as God may test us in that which
is dearest to us: For Abraham, it was Isaac. For us it may be our family, our
privileged life style, our reputation, health, sense of significance, hope, or
career. Just yesterday Julie Andrews was interviewed on television, having now
lost her voice and capability of singing.
#3 The ability to trust God during severe testing may follow God’s program of
character building: In old age, Abraham finally seemed able to trust God
totally, having learned a valuable lesson of faith through his experience with
Abimelech (Gen. 20), and through the miraculous birth of Isaac. (Gen. 21) His
trust in God is again exhibited in how he approached obtaining a wife for his
son Isaac in Genesis 24.
#4 God may call you, as He did Abraham, to do something that makes no rational
sense to you: “ For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the
weakness of God is stronger than man's strength…‘For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts.’” (I Cor. 1:25; Isa. 55:8, 9)
#5 God, in his testing may take you to the brink, as he did Abraham: “When
they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and
arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on
top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his
son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham!
Abraham!’ ‘Here I am,’ he replied. ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he
said.’ Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you
have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’" (Gen. 22:9-12)
#6 God’s character building through testing may be a necessary precursor to
His blessing and his choice of entrusting you with greater responsibility: “The
angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear
by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not
withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your
descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.
Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and
through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have
obeyed me." (Gen. 22:15-18)
#7 If believing God, as evidenced by uncompromising obedience is the ultimate
test, then Abraham passed: “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to
believe in the one he has sent.’ Now faith is being sure of what we hope for
and certain of what we do not see. And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Jn. 6:29; Heb. 11:1,6)
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
To begin with, it is important to understand that this is God’s work in which
he allows us to participate:
2 Tim. 2:24, 25 “The Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind
to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently
instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a
knowledge of the truth.”
John 6:44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I
will raise him up at the last day.”
Isaiah 55:11 “My word that goes out from my mouth…will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
When you study Jesus’ method of getting the Gospel to people, it is difficult
to find a set pattern because there is none. He crafted his approach to each
person to fit their particular need. The more experienced we become and the
more familiar we are with God’s word, the easier it will be for us to mirror
Christ in his fluid approach. In the mean time, let me propose to you three
simple steps that you can use with many of the people with whom you desire to
share the Gospel.+
Step One: Use questions that determine where God is working in the person’s
life:
1.. What is your spiritual belief?
2.. To you, who is Jesus Christ?
3.. Do you believe there is a heaven and a hell?
4.. If you died right now, where would you go? If heaven, why?
5.. If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it?
If the answer to the last question is “Yes,” then proceed to Step Two.
Step Two: Let the Bible speak. Ask the person to read the verse aloud. Then
ask, “What does this say to you?” Listen carefully to what the person is
saying:
1.. Jeremiah 31:3- “[God has] loved you with an everlasting love.”
2.. Romans 3:23- “All have sinned.”
3.. Romans 6:23- “The wages of sin is death.”
4.. John 3:3- “You must be born again.”
5.. I Peter 3:18- “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the
unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
6.. John 14:6- “I am the way...the truth…and the life.”
7.. Romans 10:9- “If you confess…you will be saved.”
8.. Revelation 3:20- “I stand at the door, and knock.”
Step Three: Close with key questions:
1.. Are you a sinner?
2.. Do you want forgiveness for your sins?
3.. Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for you and rose again?
4.. Are you willing to surrender your life to Christ?
5.. Are you ready to invite Jesus into your heart and into your life?
If they answer the above questions in the affirmative, lead them in this or a
similar prayer: “Heavenly Father, I have sinned against You. I ask
forgiveness for all my sins. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and
rose again. Father, I give you my life to do with as You wish. Right now I am
inviting Jesus Christ into my heart to live there forever.
I ask this in Jesus’name. Amen.”
+ Adapted from ”Share Jesus Without Fear Edition” of The New Testament, New
International Version, Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1998
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved
●VIP東久留米クリスマス
VIP Higashikurume Christmas Tea Party
VIP東久留米からクリスマス・ティー・パーティーのお知らせです!
Announcing our Christmas tea party for the VIP Higashikurume.
日頃の皆様のVIPクラブへのご参加に感謝して今月23日(土・祭)
にささやかなクリスマス・ティー・パーティーをひらかせて頂きます。
On Saturday(national holiday), December 23, we are having a
Christmas tea party to show our appreciation for those who
have attended our International VIP Club meetings.
会場内のクリスマス・デコレーションにも力を入れました。とても
好評です。楽しい交流の時になると思いますので、ぜひご参加
ください。
Our house is completely decorated with Christmas decorations,
so please by all means come as we're sure you'll have a very
wonderful time.
当日、午後3時45分頃 東久留米駅西口(みずほ銀行側)1階ロー
タリーより会場までのお迎えの車(黒色の日産ワゴン車)を皆様の
必要に応じて出させて頂きます。
詳しいお問合せは下記のWebページまでお願いします。
There will be a black Nissan van arriving at Higashikurume Station
west side exit (Mizuho Bank side) at 3:45pm for those who are
coming by train or who need a ride from the station.
Please confirm if you will need a ride from the station
*お飲み物・おやつ代として、お一人様500円の参加費となります。
*There will be a 500 yen charge per attendee to help cover
refreshments. Thank you !
★プレゼントの交換を行いますので、300円相当のおもしろく、
またユーモラスなプレゼントを包装してお持ちください。
★When you come, please bring an inexpensive gift (about 300yen)
that is funny or perhaps humorous, and make sure it is wrapped.
Be prepared for an enjoyable time together!
** この会は、日本語と英語で行なわれます。
**This meeting will be conducted both in Japanese and English.
日時: 12月23日(土・祭)
午後4時より午後6時過ぎ頃まで
Date: Saturday(national holiday), December 23, 2006
Place: Neal Hicks (former General Motors employee)
Resident: Higashikurume, Tokyo
Directions:
Get off at Seibu Ikebukuro Line "Higashi Kurume" Station
Go to bus terminal #1 at West Exit of Higashikurume Station
Take Seibu Bus #21 for "Musashi Koganei"
Get off at "Kurume Nishiko Iriguchi"Stop
More information, Check the ULR below↓
詳しいお問合せ、連絡先は下記HPよりお願いします↓
http://vip-club.tv/200610/chapter/higashikurumebc.htm
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
●今週のメッセージ
WINNING IN A CULTURE THAT IS ADRIFT FROM ITS MOORINGS
As you navigate the treacherous waters of the rapidly changing currents of
American culture, do you get the sense that you are on a raft on the Colorado
River during the height of the flood season, being pulled along in a manner that
literally is out of your control? Here, I believe is one way of understanding
what is happening:1
In America today, we for the most part believe in nothing, or perhaps we should
say we don’t believe in anything. Whatever we believe in it is generally
determined by mob consensus. We believe we have total liberty to choose what we
believe, want, need or possess. Our will, after all is sovereign. It is the
highest good. By that we mean, it is ours to accept or reject, want or not
want…whatever. But never to obey anything beyond what we deem to be the
highest good. Perhaps Justice Kennedy best expressed it when he wrote, “At the
heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of
meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."2
After all, we have to protect ourselves and society from any force that would
impose on us any value or authority that impeded the freedom of our individual
lives. Thus we have become morally indifferent to the natural order of things,
or to our past history of values and absolutes. So we are free to splatter
feces on a surface and call it art. Or gaze forever at pornography, or
vicariously engage in brutal violence fed to us by the media, or to wallow in
kinky sex of every variety, or to destroy our own unborn (40 million of them
since Roe vs. Wade). It all is intrinsically good because it is all an
expression of our inalienable freedom of choice. The only authority is our
individual will “whose impulses and decisions are their own moral index.”1 We
take as a given our individual right to not only obey or defy the moral law but
also to choose which moral laws to adopt and which values to withhold.
If we are not too depraved to comprehend the long term implications of what is
happening here, we should dread the rough beast that is being bred in our
increasingly vulgar, nasty, inarticulate, empty-headed pop culture. We have
become a “culture that is ascetically arid, culturally worthless, and
spiritually depraved, [whose main focus is] to believe in and adore ourselves.”1
Paul warned of such a society: “As the end approaches, people are going to be
self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of
parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild,
savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and
allergic to God. They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're
animals. Stay clear of these people.” (2Tim.3:2-5 Msg.)
So how do you and I, as follows of Christ not only survive, but win spiritually
in such an environment? Consider Jesus’ statement: "These words I speak to
you are not incidental additions to your life…They are foundational words,
words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a
smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river
flooded, a tornado hit?but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your
life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.
When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of
cards." (Matt. 7:24-27 Msg.)
QUESTION: Are you daily “working the Scriptures into your life” as a defense
against the cultural storm that is engulfing us? Or are you blithely allowing
yourself to be swept along wherever the current of pop culture happens to take
you? If the answer is “no” to the former and “yes” to the latter, are you
prepared to pay the high price of being party to the unprecedented
disintegration of America, and to how that will impact you and your family in
the years ahead?
1 Key thoughts and quotations derived from “Christ and Nothing” by David B.
Hart, First Things, October 2003; 2 Writing for the majority in Planned
Parenthood vs. Casey
■ ご意見 ご希望 お問い合わせは http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/mail_voice.htm
■ 購読中止 変更は http://vip-club.tv/weeklyvip/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Copyright(C) 2006 International VIP Club All rights reserved