Manhood

It is not one's age that makes that person a man, it is character.

To be a man is not to grow taller in stature only, but also in favor with God and man.

Physically one must stop growing. Yet spiritually, if one believes that they have attained full stature, than they have just betrayed how small they truly are.

 

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The pursuit of knowledge

I have met young men who, in the pursuit of knowledge, have forgotten the pursuit of almost anything else.

The pursuit of knowledge is no excuse for not pursuing wisdom, which is much more precious. Knowledge without wisdom is like a deadly weapon in the hands of a child.

 

This is not to say that knowledge is bad, it is very good is many senses. However, the ultimate pursuit is not knowledge; it is the glory of God.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Biographies

“Study men.”
Patrick Henry-

Biographies. From John G. Paton's Missionary Patriarch, to tales of Livingstone, Knox, or Calvin. The scriptures tell us to seek out wise men and learn from them. While many great men have lived and died, their wisdom, their stories, their lives are still with us, and can teach us many things. The life of Richard the Lion heart can teach us to guard against pride, the lives of the martyrs can encourage us to stand fast, and the life of Earnest Shackleton can give us a passion for exploration, so yes, "Study Men", however, recall with Job's friend that "Great men are not always wise." (Job 32:9)

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

On the Shootings

Last Friday, December 14 2012, a tragedy occurred in a school in Connecticut. Twenty seven precious lives were lost to a gunman's fury. Twenty six lives not only precious to their friends and those around them, but also precious to their Creator. Such a crisis needs to be met with wisdom, not fear and panic.

Not long ago the people of America watched on their television screens or heard from other sources of another shooting that happened in Colorado. The cases were similar, and the results in both were tragic. However, this is not a time for Americans to cry out against the weapons used, but against the depravity displayed. Take away the guns, and men will kill with their fists. In both of these cases men who refused to believe on the Son, placed themselves in the stead of God, to decide who may live and who may die. The sin that lurked in the heart of these men is within all of us, and only the Providence of God stays it from pouring out. Rather than acting as if we are above such things, we should thank God it was not us that did the deed. We should repent of the sins in our own lives, for all are equally horrible in the eyes of God.

And now I may say that, that after all of this, that today, the first school day after the tragedy, thousands of parents got up this morning, gave their children breakfast, and sent them on the little yellow school bus once again, to be indoctrinated in the ways of Charles Darwin, a way that, if taken logically to its full conclusions, (although many would say otherwise, and few would countenance such behavior), provoke such things as these shootings, with the strong dominating the weak, and fighting to survive in "Survival of the Fittest."

In the 1960s, a show ran on television called "The Twilight Zone," about all sorts of odd things. One of the episodes run was called "The Shelter." In it, a perfectly presented social life is carried on until there is threat of a hydrogen bomb, there is only one shelter, and only room for one family. These social perfectionists and rich party goers begin to fight like animals for the the bomb shelter. That is the end of all of mankind without the redeeming power of the gospel. Only borrowed Christian principles and social pressures keep back these impulses, the natural state of man in his lost condition is a thing horrible and dreadful. Man, in his natural condition, will kill his own family for food. These shootings have reminded us how far we can fall, even as it is a tragedy, it pales compared to the amount of murders perpetrated by white collared "civilized" doctors in abortion clinics every day. When one man was asked what he though of Western Civilization, he said it would be a good idea.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Youth

Lam 3:27-28 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.


When a man crosses the mountains he naturally would like to get across as fast as he can. However, if he carries weights he will profit more by the experience by becoming stronger. If he shuns the weights he will have an easier time of it, but will not have the strength and endurance he may have gained when he reaches the other side of the pass.

In youth young men want to do what they wish. They want to climb this range of mountains without weights, to go fast up the hill, to feel the wind in their faces and the experience of standing free on top of a summit. And yet those that bear no weights will not gain what they could have, what they must have when they reach the other side of the range of youth and into the fields of life. If they have been unrestrained, have run free, if they have built no character or ignored all yokes of ethics and morals, they will find themselves much to weak to work in the plains, and to do what they were created to do.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Always Ready

1Pe 3:1 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
The conversation went something like this "Why do you believe God exists?"
Christian for over a decade: "I have no clue."
No, it is not uncommon, I have met pastors who thought that to believe the Scriptures, we had to give up logic. I have met many young men who were confused and shaken in their faith by such simple questions as "why do you trust a God you cannot see with your soul" or "how do you know the Bible is better than any other religious book on earth?"
If I am an atheist, and I know why I do not believe in God, and ask a Christian why he does, if he says he does not know, than why should I convert, so I can be relegated to the mindless faith I think Christianity is?
I once talked to a college student who was not sure if he believed in God, he told me that he had asked many Christians how a God could have no beginning and no end, and had never received any answer.
I have traveled a great deal, and will proclaim that to find a Christian  who knows what they believe and why they believe it, and can converse on it in a coherent, sound, logical and Biblical fashion, is a rarity.
I am not saying that we ought know every fact and every argument, that is an impossibility, but to know the Scriptures, which are profitable for reproof, (II Tim 3:16-17), to know logic, not in the fashion of Plato, but in the fashion of Christ.
The atheist may not be persuaded, he probably will not be, for the naturual man recieveth not the things of God, for to him they are foolishness. However, the Holy Spirit may draw him, and the person's mind may be changed about Chrisianity because of your answers.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Stop Waiting for the Clock

1Ti 4:1 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
I have met many young men who, because of their youth, think they are too young to do anything great, or, in some cases, too young to do anything at all. However, I do not need to tell you how many young men all throughout history have done great things. I could mention the boy Joash who became king, or the young boy who became caption of a ship at age twelve, on which the prisoners mutinied, and the boy had to put them down, or we could speak of King David, who killed Saul in his teenage years. But that is not what I want to speak about, because you probably know those stories, what I wish to remind you is that being young does not give you a licence to goof off, to be a jester, or to waste your life with comic books and movies, rather "be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

I am not saying that if you are not an ambassador to to Russia at age fourteen that you are not mature, but I am saying to stop saying "I am too young." The seeds planted in youth will grow into trees in adulthood. If you waste time now, or if you sit around waiting for an event, you will do so, perhaps forever.

Benjamin Franklin said "Lost time can never be found again." Instead of waiting for your age to increase, seek to make your character and maturity do so. Stop waiting for the clock, start seeking to build yourself into a man.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Washington Irving's Christmas Essay

Please forgive how long it has been since I last posted, I have been rather busy. However, I would recommend a Christmas Essay recently sent to me by a friend, by Washington Irving, a very good true story of a Christmas Mr. Irving spent in England.

The First Thanksgiving

In 1969 three men left planet Earth and two of them became the first to ever walk on the Moon. However, even that trip, although longer than that which the Puritans took, was not as difficult. They had heat and sanitation, were not overcrowded, a complete mission written out, had constant contact with experts, and the best equipment of the time. The pilgrims were crammed into a small ship, endured horrible below deck conditions, fought disease,  and no plans other than to survive as best they might. When they got there, they would have to build houses from nothing, grow crops from nothing, build a nation from nothing, and oh yes, they were surrounded by hostile Indians.

In the early sixteen hundreds the tyrant King James I was persecuting the Christians of England who refused to bow to his rule in the church. The Separatists fled this persecution to Holland, where they lived for some time before they realized that their children were being corrupted by the culture and were becoming lax in the beliefs of their parents, throwing of the reins of Separatist theology. The men had then to make a choice, go to the New World, and brave death in a thousand forums, or watch their children walk away from the faith. They decided to take a trip more difficult then the Moon landings rather than watch their children fall.

The story of the first thanksgiving is a story of friendship between such Indians as Squanto and the Pilgrims, as well as the story of endurance, but is is much more than that, it is the story of men who were not going to see their children go the way of all the world, and were willing to go three thousand miles across treacherous oceans and brave death by a thousand means to stop it. God, in His Providence, allowed the Pilgrims not only to survive storms, starvation and disease, but also hostile Indians, wild animals and famine so that His purpose and mission could be fulfilled.

"Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation." William Bradford

The light they kindles still shines on in millions of descendants, the document they wrote, the mayflower compact, was to become, in a manner of speaking, the framework of ideas that would eventually lead to  what we now know as the American Constitution.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Thanksgiving

In the current generation of Americans we have most likely, the most thankless generation in all of history. We are born as little tyrants, asking everything giving nothing. The nanny state caters to us, giving us free schools, food, clothing, and more nannies for the children that we did not kill with their free preventative measures. If you do not want to work you do not have to work, and you can still eat. We have become lazy and sloppy as a society, and we longer give thanks because everything is owed to us.

And, in the modern mindset why should we give thanks? All of life revolves around us, our needs, our wants, our demands. We never thank, we only complain when MacDonald's ruins our order or when our TV signal is down or our Smart Phone is having problems loading its applications.

One of the main reasons for this unthankfulness is the humanistic idea that we are god, and no matter how hard even the best of Christians try, they cannot escape all vestiges of this mentality, not only because we live in a culture permeated with it, but also because the ideas behind it spring from our own depraved hearts.
(Romans 1:21) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
The chapter goes onto say what happens to these people in that God turn them over to vile affections. Here however, we see it beginning with, in part, unthankfulness. A young man or woman who is unthankful of either the sacrifices that their parents and forefathers have made for them, the place where God has put them, or the purpose God has given them, will, in all probability, cast these things aside, run from the will of God, and become like those in Romans one, who turned the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped the creature more than the creator.

Col_3:15  And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
 

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Reformation

The effects of many men’s lives upon the river of life are that of a pebble, the ripples from which appear for a little time and are then forgotten. But let your effect on that same river for the glory of Christ be that of a dam, which will change its entire course.

The Paradox Of Our Age

 

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense;

more knowledge but less judgment;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines but less healthiness.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbour.

We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,

But have less real communication;

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall men but short characters;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the window

But nothing in the room.

-author unknown-

Cultural Manifestations

"Cultural manifestations are not salvation." Doug Phillips.

I have been asked to expound on the above quote that I posted in an earlier post on my website.

In the earlier days of America there were such things as the blue code laws, which made it against the law to do business on Sunday. In English parishes there were laws making people to go to church or to be faithful to their wife. These law are, for the most part, good laws, but they are not salvation. In Victorian England it was fashionable to have pieces of Egyptian pottery about, but that did not make the English Egyptian, so, in Pagan America it is fashionable to have pieces of Christianity lying about, but that does not make us Christian.

Praying for your food at the beginning of Thanksgiving dinner, going to church on Christmas, and not watching the worst films that come out of the socialist agenda of Hollywood does not make one a Christian. It makes one a classical American with hot dogs, baseball games and cowboys.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

The Great Commission

About two thousand years ago, just before our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, he gave us a Great Commission.

“Mat 28:19-20 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Nowhere in this passage does Christ tell us to “go and get every creature on this earth saved” because we cannot. No man can save another man, nor can any man save himself. There are some that go about and attempt to “get others saved” but this is not possible. When Christ wishes a man to come to himself he will give them an effectual calling (I Thess 2:13).

The Great Commission is to give the gospel of Christ to all people. The gospel of Christ encompasses “all things whatsoever he commanded us.” This includes government, and reforming the nation we are in. This includes changing the philosophy of the family. This embodies bringing the redeeming power of the sufficiency of Scriptures to all people in every aspect of their lives. The Scripture is sufficient for everything, and this is what we must teach, that it must be the Scriptures that is the thing which we look to for our ultimate truth.

Thus, if we are to fulfill this we must, now only preach from our pulpits the redeeming power of Christ, but also live it out in our lives, until the knowledge of God covers the land as the waters cover the earth.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

The following is Kipling's greatest poem, he got a lot of things wrong in his imperfect life, but when he wrote this, what I have been told was his last poem, he got everything right.

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
Rudyard Kipling

All of the world is divided into three parts

Some day I would like to write a book, and this book would begin with the words "all of the world is divided into three parts."
If we begin at the top of the realm of reality we will see that the Godhead is divided into Father, Son, Holy Spirit. If we come to the universe that these Three created, we will find that there is a continuum of time, space and matter, if we enter the universe itself we will come to earth to see that one of the most basic of all molecules, water, is two parts hydrogen one part oxygen, three parts. The human body is in three parts, legs, trunk, head. The legs are in three parts, calf, lower leg, foot. The foot is in three parts, the body, and the two parts of the toes. The fingers are in three parts, divided by the knuckles. The fish are, most commonly, composed of head, body, and tail.
The tree has its three parts, as does the flower, the foliage, the trunk, the roots.
And then there is society. Society is composed of three parts. Church, family, state. The church is composed of the elders, the deacons, and the people. The family is composed of the father, the mother, the children. The state is composed of the executive, the legislative, the judicial. These three are not to spill into each other's domains.
All of these three are equal. If one of these three fail as an institution they will drag the other two down. If the family fails to raise up Godly children in the fear and admonition of the Lord as they are commanded to do in Scripture then the Church will have no one to carry out its work in future generations and the government will be ruled over by tyrants created by failed homes without proper guidance or Biblical Patriarchy.
If the church fails, and either usurps the authority of the family over the children by fractionalizing the household or if it takes on disciplinary responsibilities it was not meant to hold, it will tear down the family. If it attempts to, as a corporate body move into the state's jurisdiction of wielding the sword, the nation will fall apart from within.
If the state overreaches its own bounds, and either takes the rod from the family or the keys from the church, it too will cause the social order that God created to fall to pieces.
In America, in 2012, the three part social order that God has designed has fallen into disarray, like an army, defeated by an enemy, and running for all it is worth. The church has abdicated its responsibilities over the keys, and has, on the whole, stopped disciplining its unruly members, taken on roles of discipleship it was not meant to have, and forgotten its God given orders to take care of widows and orphans.
The family has thrown their burdens on the state, and many fathers have become infidels  because they have not taken care of their own. (I Timothy 5:8) Many of the disciplines that are essential to a vibrant family have been left behind, and fathers and mothers rely on the state to watch their children, while they themselves reverse gender roles and get almost everything else confused as well.
The state has made use of the disaster and rushed in with a thousand programs, taking authority they were not meant to have, stealing things they were not meant to own, and taking care of those they were not meant to take care of. The abdicating fathers then complain that there spheres are being violated. Not the authority, that may be taken, no, it is the pocket book they are concerned about.
The church does not want anything to with caring for those it is supposed to care for, but of course, it would like to put up a manger scene in the park at Christmas time, and they will start crying if Uncle Sam does not let them.
The state argues over which type of program to have, not if they should have programs.
However, in all of this there is no Biblical precedent of change, nowhere does the father stand and say "Never again will I abdicate my responsibility to govern my family." The pastors do not stand to decry the loss of Biblical law in the workings of the state, rather they sit at the stand and sue to put a picture of three men with crowns kneeling before a baby with a halo around its head.
We will not save this nation by putting the ten commandments on the halls of the schools, but rather by stamping them in the hearts of the people.
This nation will not be saved by elections, nor by rhetoric, nor will it be saved by being "good people" it will only be saved by bringing the Scriptures to preeminence in all three of the social spheres. We must be willing to face the problems we have caused, to understand what it will entail if we are to fix it, to accept the blame for our sins, and then to set to work rebuilding a culture that is buckling before the wave of humanism like the dikes before Sandy.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Loving Words to a young man

The following is a quote from the White Unto Harvest Conference, however, as it is taken from notes hastily scribbeled down with a dull pencil it will not be word perfect.
Paul Washer:
"A young man called me once and said 'brother Paul, I want to give my life away to hte people of Peru.' And I asked him 'how is your prayer life?' and he said 'that is not one of my strong points, but I really want to give my life away to the people of Peru.' And I asked him 'how is your scripture reading?' and he replied 'again, that is not one of my strong points, but I really just want to give my life away to the people of Peru.' And I said 'young man, there is no one in Peru that needs your life.' Either we want someone that can open their mouth and tell us about God, or who can open their mouth and tell God about us."

The White Unto Harvest Conference

For the last several days I have been enjoying the NCFIC conference, hosted by Scott Brown, on the Great Commission. A wonderful panel of speakers in state of the art facilities, along with a great deal of fellowship and talking among Christian brethren. For the next several days my posts will be on this conference. Allow me to begin with a quote by Paul Washer.
"The hope for the world is not homeschooling, is is Jesus Christ."

Loyalty

We are not Democrats first or Republicans first, we are Christians first.

Will someone please stand up for life?

Among the unalienable rights is life. Given by God, life is sacred, and only He has the right to tell us when to end it. The killing of innocent persons is never, under any circumstances, just or proper, unless it arises out of accident. Abortion is rarely by accident.
If it is murder of a person under some circumstances, it is also murder under other forms of conception. Since the conception of Planned Parenthood, America has marched ever forward toward the loss of one of its greatest rights, that of life.
Politicians, statesmen who are duly elected to govern their country, are to defend the rights of their citizens, they are to defend justice, and they are to defend life. If a man running for an elected office, and he does not protect the sanctity of life, he is not Biblicly qualified to be elected to that office, no matter what his other qualifications.
Life should be sacred, it should be protected, America is sadly in need of men who are willing to stand and defend it.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

The Devil's Web

"Oh what a tangeled web we weave, when first we practice to decieve."
Sir Walter Scott.

Trading Virtues

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin.

Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey

 

The London Times, December 19, 1912, ran this advertisement.

“Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”

 

How many men in the modern era would sign up for such a trip? Over a thousand did in 1912.
The advertisement was not an understatement. Sir Earnest Shackleton took a small team of men with the hope of reaching the South Pole and crossing the land mass completely, the pole having already been reached by another explorer. Their ship's name, the one with which they would be sailing through cold ocean waters, past ice flows and endure freezing storms on, was fitting, they named it Endurance, after the family motto "By Endurance we conquer."
The "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition" set sail at last, in two ships, each manned by twenty eight men, on September 27, 1914.
World war I had already begun.
On December 5 they left the last major, inhabited island and set out for Vashel Bay. Once in the Weddel Sea, the ice began to thicken, until they had to use the Endurance as a ram to cut through the ice simply to make headway. The ice continued to slow them down, until in the end, on January 19, 1915, the ship Endurance was trapped on all sides by ice. By February 24, Shackleton realized that there was no hope of getting the ship free before the spring sun came and melted the ice. They would have to wait for the long winter to end before continuing on with their expedition. With good cheer they set up a winter camp on the ice next to their trapped ship, and began to race the sled dogs and go hunting.
And then the ship began to grown. "What the ice takes, the ice keeps." There was no hope for the Endurance, she was going to sink. Soon, water began pouring in as the ice drifted together from both sides, crushing the ship in between the flows. The ship was abandoned. "She's going down!" and so she did.
And there they were, less than thirty men, a few dogs, three row boats and one knight, sitting in the harshest climate in the world, with no chance of rescue. Perhaps some of them began to wish they had not picked up the newspaper on December 19.
But Shackleton was not a fellow to let the ice melt under his feet, no longer worried about their first objective, he now had only one thought in mind, bringing everyone back alive.
After attempting to march across the rough ice, they built Patience Camp, hoping that they would drift to Paulet Island, where stores were known to be cached. The flows broke and they had to take to the boats, after five days they arrived at Elephant Island. Shackleton gave his mittens to a crew member.
However, this island was out of the way of ships, and there was still no hope of rescue. Shackleton would have to go and find it.
It would be a trip of 800 miles in an open boat, across freezing waters with sick men. But that was the important thing, they were men. If they missed the small island they were aiming for with guesswork (dead reckoning) navigation, they would be lost at sea.
Through God's Providence they made it to the island they were aiming for, but on the wrong side of thirty miles of uncharted mountains and without a rudder to go around the island. The mountains would have to be crossed. Well, of course no one else in history had ever been able to cross them, but then, none of those people had ever been named Sir Earnest Shackleton.
They made it, with fifty feet of rope, little sleep, freezing cold, weakness, exhaustion, near death, they made it, and Shackleton stood at the top of the last hill, overlooking the settlement. They were in such a state that the first people that saw them, some children, ran for their lives.
After more than one try Shackleton was able rescue his men he had left on Elephant Island, after they had been there four and a half months. When he did, he stood on the boat, watching the men come out of their shelter, and said "They are all there."
Not one of the expedition members died. And now I ask you, are you willing to face for  cause of Christ what they faced for the cause of science?
“Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”
There are adventures still to be had, battles still to be won, who will answer the call of Christ? Not for their own glory, but for His.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

George Wahsington on Foreign Affairs

'Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent Alliances, with any portion of the foreign world.

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

A Poem by Robert Burns

Written in the crude Scottish style, this is a poem of patriotism that burned so strongly in the breasts of the Scots, such as Robert and Bruce.

Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victorie!
Now's the day, and now's the hour:
See the front o' battle lour,
See approach proud Edward's power---
Chains and slaverie!

Wha will be a traitor knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a slave?---
Let him turn, and flee!
Wha for Scotland's King and Law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Freeman stand, or Freeman fa',
Let him follow me!

By Oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains,
We will drain your dearest veins,
But they shall be free!
Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!---
Let us do, or die!

Robert Burns

A choice

Sometimes we have to decide what is more important, our pride, or our relationships.

Burning Ships

In 1519 Hernando Cortes took five hundred Spaniards, thirteen horses, a few cannons from the island of Cuba to mainland Mexico, the empire of the Aztecs.
The Aztecs were bloody men. Under the spell of the blood-thirsty priests, they would kill, according to one, during the dedication of their temples, eighty thousand people in four days. The emperor would, every night at dinner, pick up a stone knife, take a man, tear out his heart and go on with his meal. Such was this dark empire.
And so five hundred men were here, in the midst of an empire of bloodthirsty, screaming, howling savages. Spears, arrows, poison, it was a death trap.
"On November 8, 1519, they were peacefully received by the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II. Moctezuma deliberately let Cortes enter the heart of the Aztec Empire, hoping to get to know their weaknesses better and to crush them later. He gave lavish gifts in gold to the Spaniards which enticed them to plunder vast amounts of gold. In his letters to Charles V, Cortes claimed to have learned at this point that he was considered by the Aztecs to be either an emissary of the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl or Quetzalcoatl himself — a belief which has been contested by a few modern historians. But quickly Cortes learned that several Spaniards on the coast had been killed by Aztecs while supporting the Totonacs, and decided to take Moctezuma as a hostage in his own palace, indirectly ruling Tenochtitlan through him."
After a long, long series of battles, running fights, drowning in the lake, horses being killed, the Indians closing in. The city bathed in blood. Cortes looked up, beyond the city walls, at the top of the temples, he saw his men sacrificed. Through God's Providence, these barbarians, in the end, with all of their idols, all of their weapons, buildings, and thousands and thousands of warriors, could not defeat this handful of men.
Cortes won his empire, and his gold.
On the way to Tenochtitlan, as they were surrounded with armies of Indians closing in, danger mounting and dissension in the ranks, Cortes had to decide either to retreat to the ships or to advance. He burned his ships.
In our lives there may come times, as we seek to advance the Kingdom work of Christ, that in front of us our dangers, troubles, and difficulty. If we advance we will seemingly be cut to pieces, and yet if we fall back we will have comfort. It is then that we must burn our ships. Will you burn yours?
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Neglect

"If you do not worship God in your family, you are living in positive sin. you my be quite sure you do not care for the souls of your family. If you neglected to spread a meal for your family to eat, would it not be said that you did not care for their bodies? And if you do not lead your children and servants to the green pastures of God's Word, and seek the living water, how plain is it that you do not care for their souls. Do it regularly, morning and evening. It is more needful than your daily food-more needful than your work."
-Robert Murray M'Cheyne-

Through God's Providence

In 1588, in the country of England, there was a crisis; threat of invasion.
For years the nation had walked a narrow tight rope over an abyss of war, with the raging, boiling waters of Catholicism down below. But by this year the rope had been swaying for quite some time, and then, abruptly, suddenly, and without much warning, it was cut.
And so the battle began. England was out manned, outgunned, and had fewer, smaller ships. The Spanish were the great nation, and they would almost certainly smash this little group of men, Drake and the others, these impertinent fools, who thought they could stand up against the might of the nation of Spain.
If Spain won, the catholicc church would regain control of England, and the reformation there would die like a kitten left out on a winter day.
But they were not destroyed, they did not fall apart, they did not sink to the bottom of the sea like a second Atlantis, instead they won, and became "Magna Britannia."
After s few days of battling in the channel,a running fight, a shot here, a mast carried away, perhaps a closing to board, but nothing of any great interest. The water barrels were leaking, and the Spanish needed to refurbish them. And then a storm came up, and England became Great Britain.
But it was not Britain's greatness that won this battle, it was not their courage, it was not their fortitude, or their tactics that won the battle for the English Channel.
It was God's through Providence.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

The Lesser of the two evils

In these times “that try men’s souls” we are not called upon to vote for the lesser of two evils. We are commanded in Scripture to glorify God. If in an imaginary country two men are running for office, one by the name of Adolf Hitler and the other by the name of Joseph Stalin, one will unjustly kill twenty million people, (Stalin) and the other six million people, (Hitler” and there is a tie between the two, with your vote being the deciding factor in the race, you may not Biblically cast your vote for either one. We are not called to vote for what would do us the less harm; we are called to vote for what would glorify God.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Self Reformation

Throughout history many men and women have come to the forefront offering society a relief of reform; from the men in the reign of terror during the French Revolution to Nazi Germany. The probation movement was a reform as was the woman’s rights movement. The homeschool movement began a reformation as did the hippy rebellion. Old styles of dress have been thrown violently off all throughout history and politicians have promised New Deals with which to reform their country, or to change things for the better with wars on drugs, poverty, or Iraq.

However, while some of these reformations may have been sincere, Godly and edifying, many of them were led by men that wanted to rebel against everything about them, seeing all of society as evil, but thinking that they themselves were perfect.

When a man wants to reform a country, he must first reform himself. No overweight man dare stand on a high pinnacle and shout about the sin of obesity, and so should no man with a family that he cannot govern, seek to rule a country. No governor of a state that ruled poorly would be given an empire to oversee. Many young reformers shriek and shout about how their nation must be changed to their way of thinking, thus implying that they themselves are perfect. However, if they were to look in the mirror they would find enough there that needs to be reformed to last them several decades. Before attempting to reform all else, first reform yourself.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The Way to Hell

"To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but beckoning to them with the head to show them to way to Heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to Hell."
-Archbishop Tilloston- (1630-1694)

The Death of Christianity

The pop culture is eating Christianity alive. The girls have surrendered their hoop skirts for bikinis, the boys have surrendered their swords and guns with which they used to play field sports for x-boxes and skateboards. Henty has been laid aside for The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Ballantyne's gentlemen have been replaced with Assassins Creed. The church, once a vibrant and powerful source of cultural power, has become a social club. The men have given their headship of the home to their wives, and the wives have born the double curse.
Not too many years ago a woman named Margret Sanger brought something to the world she called the birth control pill. It does two things, negates the punishments for fornication, and kept us from having children.
In modern America there is no idea of modesty on Broadway. Never do you see a magazine at Wal-Mart telling us it has 101 tips on how to be a modest woman with a meek and quite spirit, rather sexy is the look, and fun is the fashion.
The songs of the day rarely have any redeeming aspects, more often they are about rebellion against the last generation's rebellion, violence and drugs.
The popular films of today are not about how to glorify God in every aspect of life, they are more often a reflection of the ancient Roman idea of love.
The majority of the children are in Public Schools, paid for by tax payers, in which they are led through a whirlwind of sex education, evolutionary teachings, and an overall worldview that reflects the militant humanists. History has been forgotten, and math is taught as a subject devoid of any theological presuppositions.
As for politics, that realm is taught as off limits to religion, something to be kept sacred from the greedy hands of clerics and pastors, and only left to such professionals as come from special schools, in which they are indoctrinated in the mindset of atheism.
In the news broadcasts we see overly exposed news anchors telling us stories of what goes on across the world, without any mention of the staying Providence of God.
America looks as if it were in a sorry state, does it not? And where are the Christians? Sitting at the feet of the Secular Humanists, eating their meat and talking their talk, following their steps and thinking in their agenda. Mainstream Christianity has been pulled down into the whirlpool of degeneration into which Western Culture has fallen.
This has happened before. The Pilgrims left Holland because their children were losing their faith and their culture, Americans have no nation to which to flee, they are all infected with the Black Plague of Modernism. However, there is hope for the West, and the hope is the same as it was when the Pilgrims lived, and it was the same in the days of the Reformers, and it was the same in the days of the knights of the middle ages. The hope is the redeeming power of God, which calls us to come out from among them and be separate, and for the remnant to stand aside from the line that is marching so happily to the guillotine.
Western Culture is tottering on its foundation, and it will very soon fall unless there is a great change. However, the Church is not built upon the foundation of Western Civilization, it is built upon Jesus Christ, and the Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail against it.

Through His  Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Love

Love is an overused word.

There is an ideal about love that is not modern; it is really quite old, stemming all the way back to the time of the Greeks and Romans, and beyond that. The ideal is this; love is sex; hence such terms as “free love.” Even the idea of falling in love usually means falling into lust.

Throughout the modern culture of the west love is portrayed as something acted out between two people behind closed doors. However, love is not sin, because the modern idea of love is not love.

Romans 13:10 says: “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

If love is the fulfilling of the law, then the modern idea of love cannot be love when it is enacted outside of marriage as it so often is. However, love is not simply having intercourse with a human being, whatever the circumstances.

Loving something is obeying that thing. If a man commits adultery, he was loving himself, and obeying his own desires. To love God is not to feel wonderful feelings about Him, it is obeying Him. Saying God is good, saying God is great, praying to Him, tithing to Him, and talking about Him, while these may be obedience to Him, do not prove your love towards Him. To love God, you must obey God in all things, which are vastly broader than reading your Bible and tithing.

If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15

If you truly love Christ, then you will obey Him. To love you neighbor as yourself, you must obey God first, and look to Him to explain what true love is. You cannot show true love outside of obedience to Christ’s commands, and to obey Christ necessitates love. Anything done outside of Christ’s commands is sin. Thus; anything done without love is sin.

With man, true love is not possible. The dead man of the old nature cannot rise and walk, not even if he tried, which he will not. However, when Christ calls, he must rise and walk. Although never perfect, when a man is saved he will receive an ability to obey Christ, and thus to love Him, that was not formerly there while that man was dead. However, in a truly saved person it will be there, although at times imperfect, although at times monumentally so, Christ will never let His children stray without punishment from this commandment to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

If you cannot love, perhaps it is because you have never believed on Christ.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

All that lies between is training

“Boys [should be] inured from childhood to trifling risks and slight dangers of every possible description, such as tumbling into ponds and off of trees, etc., in order to strengthen their nervous system... They ought to practice leaping off heights into deep water. They ought never to hesitate to cross a stream over a narrow unsafe plank for fear of a ducking. They ought never to decline to climb up a tree, to pull fruit merely because there is a possibility of their falling off and breaking their necks. I firmly believe that boys were intended to encounter all kinds of risks, in order to prepare them to meet and grapple with risks and dangers incident to man’s career with cool, cautious self-possession...” —R. M. Ballantyne
The above quote would shock the modern man a great deal, today few would care to leap take any great risks, and if they did they would most likely do so with a thought only for the fun and adrenalin involved, rather than the training it would give them.
Eight hundred years ago, in the great stone castles of the knights of Christendom, lived young boys who were dubbed pages. There job it was to hold the horses, clean the armor, cook the food, and, in all things, serve the master. It would have been at all times difficult, especially on the field of battle with the knights, with arrows flying and fires blazing, knights charging and swords clashing; none of the glory is yours, only the trouble, and yet, besides all of the tasks that these young men did; there was training, much training. Around the fires there were tales of battles, and the reasons why they were lost, and during the day there was horse riding, fights with swords and bill, lance and shield, until one day the the time would come when the page, who had come to the knight when he was a seven year-old boy, would be knighted, and would be a man. The change never would have happened without the most rigorous training. From the page comes the knight, from the boy comes the man, all that lies between is training.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

The Lions in the Path

Proverbs 22:13 “The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.”

 Although it may be that some of the lions mentioned in Proverbs 22:13 are imaginary, many of them are real, at least in a metaphorical sense. When a man decides to plow a field, he must first overcome the lion of slothfulness, and then the lion of stones, cut hands, and hardship, until he at last reaps his fruits.

There are many lions which separate us from our goals. Among the chief of these lions are these: pride, anger, and complacency. The lions are real, and they are there. He that does not believe they exist, and walks on through that street without your sword drawn, you will be torn in pieces. If you are afraid of these lions, and stay back because of them, you will be like an adventurer cowering at the edge of the mountain pass, knowing he must go over or die, and yet being afraid to go, he stays, and he dies.

All men have lions in their paths, large lions, strong lions, lions that, if not defeated, will devour them. They cannot all be fought the same way, but they must all be fought with the same weapons.

In John Bunyan's classics work Pilgrim's Progress, his hero, Christian, is making his way down the narrow path when he sees two lions in the path, he is frightened, until the warder shouts to him that the lions are chained and are placed there to test faith. Although not all lions are imaginative, Christ, the king of kings can overcome the king of the beasts.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The Death of William Wallace

William Wallace was, perhaps, one of the greatest men to ever live. In the early thirteen hundreds, against all odds, he fought the mighty country of England, who sought to overtake and conquer his native homeland of Scotland. Through Divine Providence, he several times soundly defeated the English at such battles as Stirling Bridge and Brigger. Without the aid of the nobles of his country, many of whom were fighting for the English, without the aid of vast amounts of money, he took on the flower of English knighthood and fought them again and again, and defeated them, despite the fact that his wife was killed, his friends deserted him, and he was betrayed and left to die on the battlefield of Fallkirk.

Out of patience, he went to France to seek aid, when he returned, he found his few remaining friends had deserted him, leaving the Scottish people to groan under the yoke of oppression to seek their own interests.

At last, after years of fighting, Wallace was betrayed by a friend, and dragged to London to be executed. In the words of one historian:

“He was loaded with irons and taken at once to London…Wallace spent a long cold night chained in a cart, there being no room for him inside. (of Carlisle Castle) The wheels of justice, so called, moved with lightning speed in disposing of the Scottish patriot. The day after he arrived in London, August 22, he was taken to the great hall of Westminster. A scaffold had been erected at one end and he was placed there, wearing a laurel wreath, a form of mockery typical of the period. Charges were made against him of being a traitor to the king (he had sworn allegiance only to the King of Scotland and so could not be a traitor to Edward), of sedition, homicides, depredations, fires, and felonies.

As he had been declared an outlaw, he was not allowed to make any answer in his own defense…The fate of William Wallace had already been determined and the trial was no more than a formality. He was found guilty by five judges, who sat on the case and was condemned to die by the now familiar method, he was to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

The sentence was carried out without so much as an hour’s delay. Wallace was taken from Westminster to the tower and then through the streets crowded with avid watchers to Smithfield, being dragged the whole distance on a hurdle at the heels of the horses. The gallows at Smithfield had been raised high so that multitude assembled could see the body turn on the hempen rope. He was cut down before dead and was mutilated in the manner prescribed by law. His head was struck from his lifeless trunk and was hoist on a spear above London bridge.

Edward was one of the very few men in London who did not see Wallace die.

The body was cut into quarters and distributed for display in Stirling, Perth, Newcastle, and Berwick.

It is said by one historian that as Wallace was about to be pulled up on the rope for the last time, he was asked if he had anything to say, to which he replied by shouting at the top of his voice “Freedom!” And then the rope was pulled taught.

May God grant us the courage to do the same for Christ’s cause.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Willingly Ignorant

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
-Winston Churchil-

A Proper View of Language

Language is an old art.

From the time Adam stood in the Garden of Eden six thousand years ago and said "Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" man has spoken. From dramatic, such as Shakespeare's "For God's sake let us sit on the ground and tell sad stories of the deaths of kings" to illiterate men who can barely say the word "cool."

Language is the currency with which we trade at the exchanging table of ideas.

Occasionally throughout history nations have been conquered by other nations, and it is not uncommon for the conquering nation to force the vanquished to use its language, why would this be? Because language is powerful, and social planers know it.

In modern America, good language is a lost art. Rather than saying "how art thou?" it is more common to say "what’s up?" Such phrases as "hey man" "neato" "ya know" and others that are equally illustrative of the speakers ignorance have come to be common currency at the trading table of ideas. Not only does this sound highly uneducated, but it also is irreverent to God to be loose and careless with our language. When speaking before a king one would never say “when man, you know like, I was like going to tell you, if you know what I’m saying that your arch enemy, you know like King William, well man, he like you know is like coming dude to like take you out.” And yet we speak before the Almighty King every moment, let us not show earthly sovereigns more respect than the One who created us.

Anyone who has read the writings of the founding fathers knows that to read their writings, unless you have a vocabulary that is astounding for the man of the modern era, you will need a dictionary to simply read a love letter.

However, the ultimate goal of language is not to astound people is our social circles, move audiences, of write plays that will be remembered long after we are dead. The ultimate purpose of language is to glorify God

I Corinthians 10:31 says: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

It is not acceptable to be slovenly or lazy in our speech. As we are to do all things decently and in order, we are to speak decently and in order. (Such things as single negatives, proper verb usage, as well as the use of only contractions that truly exist, not spur of the moment ones, would perhaps be in order here.)

As we attempt to reform all of life for the glory of Christ, we must also reform this area of language, which has been to long neglected. So long in fact that Christians have adopted the vocabulary of the heathen.

He who defines the words wins the argument, and not only are our words changing so are the meaning of our words. There was a time when the word cool meant not hot and gay meant happy.

If the Chinese were conquered by the country of India, and were kept in subjection for one thousand years, and at the end of that time a leader rose who wanted to bring back the national identity of China, he would begin by bringing back their flag, their religion, and their language. Christianity has lost much ground the heathenism, we must bring back our true religion, not its forms. We must bring back our true standard, the Scriptures. And we must bring back our language.

We are not seeking to speak as if we were all King James I, we are attempting to speak like Christians. We are not trying to be imitators of Shakespeare, we are striving to be children of the King.

Language is a dying art, but it is not yet dead. Christians who self-consciously attempt to speak in such a way as to glorify God in a grammatically correct form, with proper use of words and phrases that evince respect for God and their elders may be laughed at if they do not adopt the modern language, yet the modern language is not God honoring, and honor is what we are to show to God is it not?

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

An Italian Freedom Fighter

Garibaldi was an Italian freedom fighter. In his first attempt at breaking the chains of his countrymen he utterly defeated the French forces near Rome and captured five-hundred prisoners. However another of the generals let all of the prisoners go in exchange for one priest, and ordered Garibaldi not to attack the French, and to let negotiations carry on. Breaking his truce the French general told them he would attack on the 4^th, he attacked on the 3^rd. Garibaldi and his men were forced to flee. Almost to a man his men were all either captured or killed. Fleeing with twelve followers and his wife in a boat they made their way down the river. His wife died and his followers were shot on the river bank. Garibaldi himself escaped capture, but he was forced to leave the body of his wife behind.

He went to America to live.

Eleven years later he returned to Italy, and with one thousand men, very little ammunition, and barely the support of his own government, invaded the Kingdom of the two Sicilies. When they marched into the country they were attacking, they were outnumbered by their opponents army 128 to 1. However, I will let the general speak.

“I do not promise you ease, I do not promise you comfort, I promise you hardship, weariness, suffering, but I promise you victory.”

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew .C Abbott

The Democrats have Removed God

Tuesday, 6 September, A.D 2,012, The Democratic Party made known to the world that they had removed the word "God" from their platform. This should come as no surprise to Christians, before, if the Democrats had had the word God, a word would be all it was, as God's law has, in recent years at least, not been followed.
Even if the language was not always atheistic, having a fornicator speak, espousing high-handed thievery and communistic and Nazi principals show more readily than words what the Democrats truly believe.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Friendship

Metal is to be tested by fire, porcelain is to be protected from it. A man sharpens the countenance of his friend, as sword sharpens sword; trials build strong friendships. If your friendship is porcelain, beautiful to look out, yet useless in the battle for Christ's kingdom, than expose it to the fire of the gospel, if it breaks, it was never worth having.

Through his Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

They are not God

The conspiracy theorists have a theory for why everything that ever happened has happened. From the Spanish Armada in 1588 to the Terrorist Attacks 0f 9/11, they can tell you about an elite group that had interests, made plans, and did…everything that has ever happened. They will tell you that the French Revolution was run by a few dozen men who took a perfectly good, happy populace, with a kind king, made fake mobs go into the cities, kill everyone, and pretended as if the populace was a part of it all, the people only wanted their benevolent king back. Another conspiracy theory will tell you Adolf Hitler was set up by the Catholic Church.

In America, these fright freaks will explain to you how the Civil War was set up by a few people over in Brittan. You will be told the Catholics set up the Russian Revolution. You can read how Columbus was a fraud, and Washington a fake.

History is the story of the Providence of God written out so that finite man can worship their creator all the more. The Hand of the Omnipotent and ever loving king of kings overlooks every aspect of every facet of every creature, every effect, every cause, of every other object. God is sovereign, not man. Therefore we are to fear God, not man. Man is a weak and decrepit thing by the side of the God that created him.

These conspiracy men, (whoever they may be), are nothing but men. We are not to fear them as if they were the deciders of the outcome of our lives, they are not. While it may be that at certain times there have been conspiracies to bring down kingdoms and lift up rulers, this is not whom we are supposed to fear.

Of all of the “great conspiracies” real or imaginary, there is one that stands forth from this desert like a tower, or a sinkhole. Over six thousand years ago a woman stood by a tree, and a serpent began to unveil the greatest conspiracy of all time when he said “yeah hath God said” and this call would be the war cry of his soldiers down through the ages. This is the great conspiracy, Lucifer’s dream to be as God, and man’s dream to be God.

This is a true conspiracy, of one fallen angel to call many other angels as well as men to be the useful idiots of a scheme, the fuel for a machine. His declaration of war is told of in Isaiah 14: 13-14.

“For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

Yet those who follow this wild plan, this path to ruin and destruction, have failed to read the ensuing verse; verse number 15.

“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

This is the world’s greatest conspiracy, the most catastrophic, and consequential, the most horrific, the one that all men most seek to follow, becoming God. Yet even though this is the great conspiracy, even though this is the master plan from which all other sinful conspiracies and all dread-fear of these schemes of men come from, we are not to fear it.

Matthew 10:28 says “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Yes, even the king of darkness is not to be feared by a true child of God, thus, if we do not fear him, why should we fear the Masons? (Or anyone else?)

2Ti 1:7  “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. “

And yet we are to fear God, it is the only fear which a Christian should be controlled by, the only power that should rule a Christian’s life. Thus, let us let it control us, and while men’s plans may be allowed to rise or fall by God’s sovereignty, yet we know they can never touch a truly saved soul, and being saved is our only hope.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Black Holes of Knowledge

Beyond the event horizon in outer space strange things are said to exist. Born out of massive explosions of large amounts of energy, these powerfully attractive “Black Holes” are theorized to be so strong that even light cannot escape. They gain and gain, yet never use. They become fat with energy and matter, yet never use it for any purpose.

It is not uncommon to meet incredibly intelligent young men who have amassed gigantic stores of resources, knowledge and intelligence, and yet do nothing with it. These are Black Holes of Knowledge. They capture knowledge by tons, and use it by ounces.

This may spring from several reasons, firstly it may be that the information they have is utterly useless. Such as how to play a video game, or sing the latest hip-hop hit song. But also there is a great amount of useful knowledge being soaked up and not used. These young men may know all one-hundred and ten of Washington’s rules of order, yet they do not wash their hands before eating. They mat know intellectually they should be respectful, yet they never put that knowledge to use by acting on it.

 

2Timothy 3:1  "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

 

God does not call us to be Black Holes of Knowledge, collecting information to either advance ourselves and our interests or to make ourselves look great in the eyes of men. We are to use whatever knowledge we acquire, not to make ourselves intellectually fat and good looking, but to glorify God. If what you are learning can never and will never be put to use in any way to advance to kingdom of God, perhaps you ought not to be learning it.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

With Meekness and Fear

1Pe_3:15  But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

From the old Greek Plato to Henry Clay, from the forum of Rome to the halls of the British Parliament, the musical tones of ‘great orators’ resound throughout history in their arguments to persuade men, to move armies, and to change the course of all time. There have been great speakers, such as Socrates and Paul, and there have been those that were not so great, such as George Bush Sr.

When a Christian speaks, he is not to do it with any self-confidence; rather he is to do it with complete confidence in his Creator. Many speakers are extremely proud in their knowledge, such as Richard Dawkins, yet this is not the calling nor the command of a Christian to be proud, nor is it to speak primarily to win the argument, rather, a Christian is to speak in meekness and fear. In closing:

2Ti 2:14  “Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.”

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott