It seems lately that I just never get to leave this darn computer! But, if the good Lord tells me to put it on paper, who am I to say no. So here I am again. Now the subject that we are about to talk about is one that has been burning at me for sometime. It’s wide spread, and is expanding daily. While the root cause seems to be the integration of the secular world and the Godly world, there is more to it than meets the eye. It is the diluting of God’s authority, Power, Wisdom, and Grace, that is the most frightening By-Product of this situation, and that is the real concern of this paper.

The world try's very hard to fool us into believing that many of its ways go hand in hand with Christianity. We are told that the integration of these secular ideas, and theories are needed to deal with the complex lives we lead. They also tell us it is for our own good, that no Godly law is being broken. Words are changed, twisted, and manipulated to disguise what is really happening. 1 John 4:1 “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” We as Christians need to be very careful of this. Many Ideas, Morals, Concepts, and Philosophies of the secular world are being sugar coated to taste great, and to be made easy to swallow. We can become easily confused by these tactics, and lose sight of what is of God, and what is of the world.

You see it in all areas of our lives. In school, at work, and in the home, we are being fooled into the thinking of the world. Let’s look at the home for a moment. The powers that be say we need to strengthen the family. That we need to take care of our children's needs in the home, and not try to pawn off the responsibility on our schools. It sounds great, but on the other hand this same power is taking the authority to discipline away from the parents. It is now politically correct, and thrust on our children to report their parents to the state if they feel they are being abused. Again this sounds great, but now we have a generation of parents that fear disciplining their children will lead to their arrest. Children now threaten their parents with, “If you touch me, I,m calling the cops.”, and I speak of this from personal experience. The point here is, what seemed, and was pushed as a great idea, turns out to be just more foolishness of the world. 1 Corinthians 3:19 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” The big problem with this great idea is it doesn’t follow Gods princibles in how we are to rear our children. The scriptures state;

Proverbs 13:24 “He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.”

Colossians 3:21 “Fathers, provoke not your children [to anger], lest they be discouraged.”

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

Proverbs 20:20 “Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness”.

Proverbs 1:8 “My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother”

Exodus 20:12 “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”

The scriptures show us balance, discipline without provocation, with the parent being the one in control, and the one who is to be respected. Now if the powers that be had thought this matter out in a Godly manner, they may have come up with a program that would shine light on the real problem. It may have realized that the parents of these children might be in need of education on how they should be teaching, and dealing with their children. They might have implemented a program that supported what the scriptures have told us to do, and has worked for thousands of years. But that would mean they would have to admit that they are not the “Higher Power”. Ephesians 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].” Yes, they would have to give in to the fact that they don’t know anything new, they don’t have any magic answers, and that at best, the most they can do for our well being, is to help guide us to the one who does have the “Magic Answers”, GOD!!!

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying all Gods ways are easy, or quick. In fact most of them are harder than the ways of the world. Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait [is] the gate, and narrow [is] the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." The key is they work! They are proven to be true. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.“ They are also the one thing you can depend on. These theories don’t change at the whim of man. Psalms 111:7-8, "The works of his hands [are] verity and judgment; all his commandments [are] sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, [and are] done in truth and uprightness."

How about how we handle unruly children in our schools. You know the ones that are full of energy, full of youth, think back, go on I know it was a long, long time ago, but you can remember what it was like. Trying to sit still in class, thinking about what you where going to do after school with your friends, just day dreaming. It was kid stuff back then, the teacher would grab you by the ear as she went by to wake you out of your day dream, or whack you with a ruler for not sitting still, or worse.... you got the dreaded trip to the principles office. And when you got home your parents reinforced the discipline that was applied at school. Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I don’t, and any God fearing man doesn't believe in child abuse, or any other kind of abuse, but we are not talking about abuse. We are talking about a spanking when needed, a curfew, some time in your room alone with no TV, or a teacher reinforcing the moral values your parents were showing you at home. Godly discipline just like we used to have it applied to us.

Today it’s all different. Today we have psychologists that tell us our children are “Hyperactive” or that they have “Attention Deficit Disorder”. The kid stuff seems to have become “Mental Illness”. Why? Well in order to take the pressure off the school system and the teachers for not being able to handle the situation, they agree with the Pop - Psychology of today. So our once unruly child is now happily off in the corner of his mind, quietly sitting out their school days in a “Ritalin Haze”.

Psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in his address to the Childhood International Education Seminar said this: "Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with certain allegiances to our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, toward his parents, TOWARD A BELIEF IN A SUPERNATURAL BEING, and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It's up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well - by creating the international child of the future."

To be fair, I must say we are all to blame for this problem. If we were all doing what we should be doing, and standing up for what is right and Godly, the problem would have never gotten this bad. But every time we turn our back on our problems, we allow the world to chip away at Gods authority in our lives. While doing this we glorify the men that take over the areas were God should be guiding us. In doing so our belief in what God is able, and capable of doing is diminished.

In our adult life we also seem to have lost the belief that Gods word, and ways are suffice in all areas of our life. Luke 4:4 “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Psychiatrists and psychologists have now taken over where God once had placed Pastors, and other men of God. They are telling us that to deal with these complex phobias of the mind, you must put your life into the hands of these so-called professionals. (Please remember that only a few short years ago these men were considered quacks.) But they have it all figured out, their new therories we are told are far superior to that of Gods. I just don’t understand why these theories change every time we turn around. I mean you have Freud who said he had it all figured out and that his theory was correct, then along came Jung, and it seems he was more correct than Freud. Since then there has been a whole bunch of “More Correct” theories, from a whole bunch of people. Who’s telling the truth! What one is correct! There are over 500 outlooks on this subject of the mind, or soul, or spirit, or whatever they call it now. Most of them from ungodly men who seek their own glory. 2 John 1:7 “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” All making themselves more complex and confusing than the other, never allowing us to quite grasp what they are really talking about. Isaiah 29:15 “Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?”

This new profession of healers as they call themselves, have fooled many to non-belief. They create illnesses that once were sins. Drunkenness which is a sin, becomes an illness when we change the wording to alcoholism. So now the self control that Christ Jesus gives us is not enough, now we need treatment. The problem that arises here, is that most treatment from these professionals doesn't have a very good track record. It seems that support groups like AA, NA, and the like, that are run by lay people do just as well if not better. It also seems that the spiritual basis these groups were founded on, hold more authority and truth than “The Pros”. But somehow they seem to hide behind the wall of complexity that they have built around their profession. We also see fancy and confusing names being thrown around quite often today. Take the ones that are placed on depression, like polar, and bipolar. Confusing and complicated, when we know deep down inside it’s just a lack of “Joy” in our lives that has us feeling down. A void in our life, a searching for some meaning to why we are here. But again we lose a little more belief in what God can do. So with our decrease in belief of what the authority of God is, we have an increase in the authority of our new priests of psychoanalysis. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” They fool us so well that we walk around thinking we have done the right thing, while all the time we have jumped the track. They've thrown us off our walk with God by convincing us to believe that the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of man could be greater than that of God. 1 Corinthians 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Let’s move on now to an area that strikes right to the marrow of us all. Our possessions! You heard me right I said your possessions. All those things that the advertising agents, of the great manufacturing Gods have told us we must have. Cars, boats, motorcycles, fancy houses, jewelry, hundred dollar perfume, pick up trucks with leather seats, sport utility vehicles not sation wagons, pet rocks, Elvis underwear, glow in the dark sneakers, and last but not least the thighmaster.

You know all the things you were sure you couldn't live without, until you got them. Now you dream of how you could get rid of them. Like the motorhome that you've used once in the three years you've owned it. Remember the one you write the $688.58 check for every month. The one you have at the storage facility on the other side of town, that costs you another $49.50 a month because your homeowners association won’t let you keep it at your house. You know the one you have to wash all by yourself every couple of months, and that’s probably going to cost you $400.00 to $500.00 to get serviced the next time you actually get to use it!!! Hey! Don’t blame God, he’s tried to tell us all the while to rent. 1 John 2:16-17, "For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." The world it seems, is always trying to fool us into thinking it has something of value for us.

They even tell us what we should be eating. Like fried parts of chicken that we used to feed to the cat, and cat food is now made of stuff we used to eat. Furthermore since they have us all addicted to the fast food chains, the price of this slop, today equals or surpasses that of a good old, sit down, full menu, hometown diner. We know the foods from these chains are not good for us, we know they are overpriced, yet we keep on patronizing them. It gives us immediate pleasure, so we follow along like sheep. But when we fall for these worldly entrapments, we always wind up following the wrong shepherd.

Wants turned into needs. Man telling man, about what he has made that will fill the void in your life. Instant happiness in a can. Buy, buy, buy, and all your troubles will melt away. They promise the world, and in that lies the problem, because the only thing they can give you, are the treasures of this world. Matthew 6:19-21, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.“ Even though the word of God tells us to place our belief and faith in the direct opposite of what the world tells us, we waver before God. The world once again has cut into the authority of the scriptures to guide us in our life. The world has created such a burning desire for the things of the world, that what Jesus told us needed to be done to receive eternal life, we find impossible. Matthew 19:21 ”Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.“

If you are a believer, if you have been reborn to Christ Jesus, you need to remember it was not by your power, or by the power of any man that you were saved. Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” We received our second chance because of his mercy, and through his spirit. How then are we to say that the power and the spirit that was able to save our souls, when everyone one else had given up on us, is now not able to cure us of these lesser evils. Galatians 3:3 “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” Has the world become so wise in such a short time? Or, Have we become even more foolish than before we were saved? Why do we listen to them, and let them pull us into their way of thinking when we have been told it is not our place. Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Wealth, Greed, and Power!!! They all go together, and they are all more ways that Gods authority is reduced. The great American dream is to become wealthy. With it comes power, and of course greed is what keeps the whole cycle going. We are taught in this world, that if we are rich we will be happy. The sad truth of it though, is the only thing you can be sure you will be if you are rich, is rich. 1 Timothy 6:8-10, "And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and [into] many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."

Let’s look at the facts. If wealth translated to happiness, what happened to Jim Belushi, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, Kelsey Grammer, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Sonny Liston, Michael Jackson, Gary Busey, Howard Hughs, and all the other wealthy people that have turned to drugs, suicide, or other behavior unrelated to happiness. When people that have been trained to believe that money will bring happiness become rich, and find out it does not bring the happiness that was promised, hope for fulfillment in life can be easily lost. The hope of the riches of the world blind us to the real hope we should have. This is why Jesus new there was not much chance for the rich. Matthew 19:24 “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Only by turning away from the greed of the world will we see Gods grace in our lives. 1 Corinthians 10:24 “Let no man seek his own, but every man another's [wealth].” By giving of ourselves and not looking for what we will get in return, we receive all those things the world promised us, plus much more. Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” God tells us very plainly why we need not place such a high priority on wealth. 1 Timothy 6:7 “For we brought nothing into [this] world, [and it is] certain we can carry nothing out.”

We worry about tomorrow, and next year, and the year after. Not so much that we will be alive, or healthy, but that we will have enough money and comforts. Why? Because man tells us we need to think about tomorrow. That if we don’t we will be left out in the cold. So we hoard our money for our retirement. We do without today so we can live a good life tomorrow. We again follow a manmade theory of the world, and forget what the word of God says. Matthew 6:34 “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.” The brevity of our lives, and the plan God has for us means nothing. We hear what we want to hear from the world so we listen, but still, God does what God does. Proverbs 27:1 “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” God tells us everything in all truth, and even then, who do we listen to, MAN!

This is what the provider of all things great and small says about what, and who we are to believe. Matthew 6:30-31, "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, [shall he] not much more [clothe] you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" How many of us are living this way? Do any of us have real belief in what is told to us through his word. Can any of us believe totally in the word, and ways of God. Can any of us turn our backs on the temptation to listen to, and to integrate the worlds garbage into the word of God. Can we show the humility of one that knows, and acknowledges who is in control. Ecclesiastes 5:2 “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”

How much of Gods authority is left in your life. Has the world got you playing tug-a-war with your belief. Have you become a “Non-Believing Believer” without even knowing it? Don’t feel alone, nothings new. 1 Kings 18:21 “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD [be] God, follow him: but if Baal, [then] follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” Jesus new of the problems of the world, and how it would try endlessly to gain authority, and power over his flock. He warned us over and over, and for good reason. There is no middle of the road in this issue, Jesus told us very clearly that we must make a decision one way or the other. Matthew 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

In all of the confusion of this fast paced, cold hearted world, remember what Solomon the wisest man to ever live said long ago. It was true thousands of years past, and it will be true forever. Proverbs 21:30 “[There is] no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.”

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