"Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head." (KJV)

Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, And do not be still, O God! For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head.(NKJV)

Amendment No. 1
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

I grumble and gripe a lot these days concerning how things are going. I cannot say for sure if things are so bad or if I am just getting grumpy with old age. But it appears to me that the first amendment to our constitution is perhaps the easiest one of all the amendments to understand. And has the least amount of room for misinterpretation. Yet we have such instances as is one currently being challenged in Cumberland County, North Carolina. Read this paragraph from OneNewsNow.com:

In May, attorneys for the city of Fayetteville and for Cumberland County issued memos to city and county leaders requesting that local government employees refrain from invoking the name of Jesus during prayers at official functions. Attorneys requested the ban after recent lawsuits cited a case in which the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- which has jurisdiction over North Carolina -- ruled that the invocation of Jesus at the beginning of meetings amounted to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. (OneNewsNow.com. October 17, 2007)

SO?? No individuals prayer is intended to reflect everyones views or prayers. And the constitution clearly states that there must be no law prohibiting the free exercise of anyones religion. I realize that it does not state that there shall be no activist judges who ought to be horse-whipped for making their own rules. But it should.

Christians are faced with a dilemma, and I am not speaking of those who simply classify them selves as Christian, but those who sincerely believe the Holy Scriptures and are trying desperately to live according to their instructions. I, nor any other sincere Christian that I know of, have any desire or intent whatsoever to force anyone to leave some religion and become a Christian. But we have every right to believe in the Holy Bibles teachings, including that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, with that understood, look at the responsibilities one has as a Christian. Our thanks to God must be as follows: "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;" (Ephesians 5:20)

And anything concerning our religious lives, doctrine, worship, etc must be as follows : "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." (Colossians 3:17)

So for asking a Christian to pray without referring to Jesus is absurd and is certainly an effort to prohibit the free exercise there of his religion.

Christians are also obligated to teach others of our beliefs and why we believe them. Nowhere does it say to kill those who will not listen, nor to have them put in prison. What it does say is, "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet." (Matthew 10:14) That is a symbolic means of saying, "I have discharged my duty, I've tried to inform you of God's requirements and you have rejected them so your destiny is in your own hands."

Christians are probably (and certainly should be) the most thankful of any, that man is a free moral agent and should be allowed to accept or reject any religion he chooses. But that does not relieve us of the obligation to teach biblical truths to whomever we possibly can. And it does not make bigots of us to say that those who do not believe in and obey Jesus are lost, according to the truths of the Bible. It doesn't make me happy to think that any human will be lost, and this is the reason we must try and convince others to study the Bible and obey its tenets.

A good example is simply this article. I feel compelled to write such but no one is required to read it or to heed it. One fellow I was discussing the Bible with told me that I had the right to be wrong. And that is a fact. But there is one thing that I know, our eternal destiny is far too serious to just pass off nonchalantly. Materialism is primarily believed and taught by those who do not wish to be subservient to an all powerful God and have convinced themselves that there is no such being.

And another severe problem that exists are those who profess to be Christians and will not study His word. Without meaning to be facetious in any sense, my favorite saying is, 'One cannot obey God, if they don't know what he says'. And this nation is filled with those who know absolutely nothing about the Bible. Well over 50% of those polled could not name even one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. If that large a percentage don't know even one book's name out of the 66 that are in the Bible, how on earth can they know what the content is or how to comply with it?

(This is a slighty altered version of one of Joel's articles published on Searchwarp http://searchwarp.com/swa262324.htm)

I have frequently heard of persons who had been poor or underprivileged but who had accomplished great things in their lives. They were referred to as "self made men." The truth is there are none. No one can become the kind of person God wants him to be, or even successful by worldly standards without the help of others.

We can look at almost anyone in the Bible or at our own experience and realize the truthfulness of that statement. Sometimes the others would seem insignificant, but they were a vital part of the accomplishment. In the case of Moses, who would have thought that a midwife who was a slave would play such an important role in the life of Moses and the eventual freedom of the Israelites from bondage? Who would have imagined that a little sister like Miriam could be so valuable to his life and mission.

Occasionally some woman tells me that she is a "mere woman" or "just a housewife" or some other remark to indicate that she can not be expected to do much for the Lord. I try to remind her that there are no "mere" women. All the women in Moses' life that put him in the position of being the second greatest in the Egyptian kingdom, and the leader of the Israelite nation, and a type of Christ had no idea that they were not "mere women."

There are those like the women in the lives of Moses and Timothy who stand out. Timothy's mother and grandmother had more influence on his destiny than we know. It does not matter where we look, the principle is the same. We are all what we are because of persons who had influence on us, gave us courage, hope or love. In many cases, it was by someone who thought she was a "mere woman." In every case, whether man or woman, boy or girl, we should realize that we need each other. There are no self-made persons. God made each of us in His image, and others either help us to develop and demonstrate that image, or prevent us from doing it properly. In any case, whether good or bad, others helped us to be what we are.

T. Pierce Brown
1068 Mitchell Ave.
Cookeville, TN. 38501

"We (evolutionists) have been telling our students for years not to accept any statement on its face value but to examine the evidence, and, therefore, it is rather a shock to discover that we have failed to follow our own sound advice." (John T. Bonner)

A Weasel, inactive from age and infirmities, was not able to catch mice as he once did. He therefore rolled himself in flour and lay down in a dark corner. A Mouse, supposing him to be food, leaped upon him, and was instantly caught and squeezed to death. Another perished in a similar manner, and then a third, and still others after them. A very old Mouse, who had escaped many a trap and snare, observed from a safe distance the trick of his crafty foe and said, "Ah! you that lie there, may you prosper just in the same proportion as you are what you pretend to be!"...Aesop