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Words of wisdom from Oswald Chambers

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Nathan Griffis
on 27 February 2009
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“Rise, let us be going.” Mt. 26:46

 

In the Garden the disciples went to sleep when they should have been awake, and once they realized what they had done it produced despair.  The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair.  We say, well its all over and ruined now;  what’s the point in trying anyomore.  Whenever we realize we have not taken advantage of a magnificent opportunity, we are apt to sink into despair.  But Jesus comes lovingly and says to us, in essence, “ Sleep on now.  That opportunity is lost forever and you cant’ change that.  But get up and lets go on to the next right thing.”  In other words, let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ, and let us go on into the invincible future with Him.

 

There will be experiences like this in each of our lives.  We will have times of despair caused by real events in our lives and we will be unable to lift ourselves out of them.  If we were never depressed we would not be alive, only material things don’t suffer depression.  If human beings were not capable of depression we would have no capacity for happiness and exaltation.  If we are inspired by God, what is the next right thing?  It is to trust him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption.  Never let the sense of past failure defeat you keep you from your next right thing.

Reverend Joe Rocket

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Nathan Griffis
on 21 January 2009
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A little over a week ago “Reverend Joe Rocket” (my work nickname) had a little incident on his rocket. I guess the problem wasn’t ON the rocket but was really OFF the rocket. So far it appears that they are planning to total my bike. It is amazing how much you can spend on cosmetic repairs. Plastic Surgery isn’t cheap!

 

I am going to try to negotiate and salvage it because even though I don’t know what kind of money they are going to give me I know that I can’t buy another bike that nice. So we will see what happens in the next couple of days.

 

I have attached a couple of photos depicting why I wear a helmet and jacket because even at 30-40mph asphalt and skin tissue are not a good mix…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick Warren Interview

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Nathan Griffis
on 20 November 2008
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So outsourcing my blog continues to bring me some good stuff. Check out this interview with Rick Warren, ‘ Purpose Driven Life ‘ author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.

 

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having ‘wealth’ from the book sales.

 

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

 

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

 

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

 

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

 

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

 

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness,’ which is my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

 

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

 

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

 

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

 

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church. Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

 

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)?

 

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do. That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.

 

Cycle of Democracy (Part 5 - Final)

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Nathan Griffis
on 19 November 2008
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I am sorry for the delay but I have been having some technical difficulties. Here is the continuation of the blog written by author Orrin Woodward. So here is part 5 of 5.

 

 

 

From dependency back again to bondage.

 

Eventually in our dependence, we see our status falling in the free world as slaves can never perform the functions of free men and women.  Although the government still mouths the words of our founding fathers, the words have new meanings.  The citizens cannot put a finger on the malady, but they know something is not right.  In their desperation, they look for a messiah to save them.  Because the Churches are not sharing the message of the true messiah and the true way to liberty, the citizens look for a worldly messiah.  A perceptive leader, with words that tickle the ears promises to be the searched for messiah.  With the republican form of government torn asunder and transformed into a nascent democracy – the powerful words and promises of deliverance speak directly to the masses.  A savior is born unto the people and salvation is just around the corner. 

 

A shocking truth is learned too late that man cannot save man and only Jesus Christ can liberate the soul in bondage.  A people held in bondage to sin can never be responsible to run a free government.  The people in bondage will look to the government the way Christians look to their Savior.  Government cannot be the savior to the people and was never intended to be so when created by our Founding Families.  America’s national debt is now over $10 trillion and to service the debt on the interest is over $450 billion per year.  This makes interest on debt the 3rd biggest item on our governments budget!   We are bankrupting our children’s inheritance on the altar of self indulgence!  Ben Franklin said after the creation of our Constitution when asked what type of government was created, “A republic, if you can keep it.”   A republic was formed to keep the masses from directly running the government and voting the government into bankruptcy.  How far have we traveled from our founding principles and roots? 

 

I did not write this to scare people into inactivity, but to awaken our consciences to the choices that face us.  We do not have to complete this cycle and just as Ronald Reagan interrupted the cycle, we can too!  Will it take convictions and guts? Yes, but a Godly people that have studied the truth of our founding principles will not be swayed by the promises of an almighty government.   Examine yourself.  Where do you stand at this historic time?

 

Let me close with one of my brothers favorite authors.  The science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein called this issue “Bread and Circuses” - a reference to Roman Emperors providing food and entertainment to distract the masses.  In “To Sail beyond the Sunset” the character Lazarus Long discusses this problem:

 

“A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally has no internal feedback for self correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens…which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it…which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses’

 

“Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader–the barbarians enter Rome.”

 

Where do you think America is on the cycle and what do you think we must do to address and fix?  I will close this article with the Biblical passage from Hosea 4:6-10, which I believe captures the crossroads where America stands.  I will address proposed solutions in several future articles.  God Bless, Orrin Woodward

 

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 7 “ The more they increased, The more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame. 8 They eat up the sin of My people; They set their heart on their iniquity. 9 And it shall be: like people, like priest. So I will punish them for their ways, And reward them for their deeds. 10 For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry, but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the LORD.

 

 

 

 

Cycle of Democracy (Part 2)

Published
by
Nathan Griffis
on 12 November 2008
in 1 and Random Ramblings
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Here is the continuation of the blog written by author Orrin Woodward. So here is part 2 of 5.

From courage to liberty;

The Colonist defeat of the British Empire was not a defeat of British military forces as much as a victory over British will.  The Colonists were fighting for their deeply held principles that they were willing to give their life, wealth and sacred honor for.  The British were fighting for some extra taxation in one of their many colonies.  The American will defeated the British will because of an imbalance in the convictions involved.  With the defeat of Cornwallis and the subsequent genius of our American Constitution, liberty reigned in the United States under rule of law.

From liberty to abundance;

The abundance generated by free enterprise and limited government was one of America’s biggest blessings, but also one of our biggest challenges.  One of the few standing economies after WWII was America’s.  Our products flowed to nearly all foreign markets creating the wealthiest society in the world’s history.  It takes incredible discipline to remember where our blessings come from with abundance heaped upon further abundance.  Over time, people forget the principles that created the liberty and the fruit of that liberty.  Seeing the inequalities in the blessing of individual citizens, an envy of our fellow Americans germinates.  The fruit of this unholy thinking is a desire to take our brothers and sisters abundance and give to those less abounding.  Government would have to intervene and right this wrong according to the envious.

Come back for more tomorrow…