Always for All Things

Always for All Things

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of the year. It is a holiday designed around the noble concept of gratefulness. Christians are to be thankful at all times for all things. Ephesians 5:20 says that we should give “… thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” Think about those words, “always for all things.” These words are universal in scope. In other words, there is not a single thing for which we should not be thankful nor a single time at which we should not be thankful. It is a recipe for optimism.Always Thankful

We should be thankful at all times. Have you ever had a negative thought when standing in the grocery line? Did you ever think poorly of someone else’s driving abilities? Have you ever criticized anyone unfairly or behind their backs? Thanksgiving will cure you of these thoughts. By focusing on what we are thankful for at these times, our minds don’t have time to pursue the negative. You will also find yourself more cheery and joyful and it will not be so difficult to practice Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

We should be thankful for all things. It’s not hard to be thankful for our blessings both physical and spiritual. We can be thankful for our opportunities by taking advantage of them. We can be thankful for our employment and means of living. It does not matter how little it may be since God can do big things with small blessings. We can even be thankful for our troubles and difficulties for the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” that they will yield (Hebrews 12:11). There is not a single thing for which we cannot be thankful.

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LA EXTRAORDINARIA AVE LIRA

LA EXTRAORDINARIA AVE LIRA

Nunca antes había leído acerca de un ave tan extravagante pero el mismo tiempo tan extraordinaria como lo es el ave Lira. La misma es nativa de Australia, este bello país del continente de Oceanía en donde por cierto he tenido la bendición de estar este año. Muchos animales extraordinarios no se encuentran en ninguna otra parte del mundo. De regreso a nuestra ave su nombre obedece a la forma de su plumaje en la cola, la cual extendida cobra forma de un arpa de siglos pasados. Un documental de la BBC muestra en detalle la vida de esta fascinante ave. Pero ¿Qué es tan extraordinario para que nos ocupe en esta segunda entrega? Bien, en nuestro continente americano tenemos loros los cuales pueden imitar sonidos varios y luego reproducirlos con un alto grado de precisión. Pero el ave Lira puede imitar hasta 20 sonidos diferentes de aves en el bosque, reproduciéndolos con exactitud al instante. Incluso puede imitar el sonido del flash de una cámara hasta una motosierra, sin que uno pueda realmente notar la diferencia de la original.ave lira

DESDE EL SAGRADO LIBRO

Evidentemente, no encontraremos un registro del ave lira en la Biblia. Sin embargo, algunos textos implican la obra de Dios detrás de esta maravillosa criatura. El Salmo 104:12 atribuye al Señor la existencia de las aves que cantan “entre las ramas”. Esta breve mención es significativa ya que se nota la distinción entre las aves de los cielos a las aves que “cantan entre las ramas”. El Salmista en el  Salmo 71 dice que cantará al Señor con arpa, lo cual creo, es muy romántico  de su parte en una bella expresión poética de adoración al Señor bajo el antiguo testamento. Al entrar en la corte de un rey en la antigüedad, nunca faltaba el sonido del arpa o liras para un ambiente de tranquilidad a la corte real. En el mismo contexto poético, el ave lira funciona como un arpista que usa su canto en dedicación al rey del universo. Lamentablemente, gran parte de los seres humanos desestiman con ligereza la creación que a una declara la obra perfecta del ser supremo del universo; el Dios de la Biblia.

De alguna forma, el ave lira está incluida por implicación en las declaraciones de David cuando dijo en 1 Crónicas16:23 lo siguiente: “Cantad a Jehová toda la tierra, Proclamad de día en día su salvación”. Algunos comentaristas coinciden de que esta referencia tiene que ver con toda la creación y en especial con las aves que cantan. Considero que al mencionar “people” (personas) como lo hacen algunas versiones en el inglés en el verso siguiente, perfectamente uno puede interpretar criaturas (no humanas) en el anterior. El Señor Jesús, en su excelente sermón conocido como el sermón del monte, precisa que el Padre tiene cuidado aún de las aves y que es El mismo quien las alimenta (Mt.6:26). Es aceptable que la creación alabe y exalte a su creador; esto nos incluye a nosotros apreciado lector. Me encanta poder leer las palabras del conocido ornitólogo John Stott cuando dijo: “Creo que todo el que se toma en serio el hecho de que Dios es un Dios creativo debería prestar atención a algunos aspectos creativos de lo que ha hecho y yo escojo a las aves”.

Por cierto, el profesor Mark I. Wallace tiene una posición teológica un tanto diferente e inusual para quien escribe. El alega que el Espíritu Santo en Mateo 3 tomó una paloma para encarnarse y manifestarse…literalmente. En esencia, el punto central en su contención es el siguiente: “La frase “como paloma” (hos peristea) no es solamente un símil que nos diga que el Espíritu descendió como paloma, más bien un hecho del ser físico del Espíritu que se ha convertido en paloma. En otras palabras, el Espíritu desciende y toma forma de paloma. En la gramática del predicado, el Espíritu no es como paloma, sino que es una paloma.” (Wallace awoke to the moment. Pág.142).

Considero que la argumentación del profesor en la gramática es confusa, ya que reconoce a (ho) como un símil pero luego lo desecha como tal. Por otra parte, su posición es insostenible a la luz de pasajes como Juan 1:1 y 14 donde inerrantemente la biblia declara que Dios se hizo carne, es decir tomó forma en la carne en Jesús y en nada ni nadie más nunca. Aunque este no es el espacio indicado para desarrollar toda la extensión del tema de las teofanías, un estudio de esta disciplina ayudará a esclarecer el asunto de las manifestaciones de Dios en la historia versus la persona de Dios en Jesús.

THOMAS DE AQUINO Y LA CONTINGENCIA

Aunque no apoyo en todo las ideas y argumentos presentados por Aquino, estoy convencido que el trabajo apologético que realizó en su tiempo y por encima de las circunstancias adversas es uno verdaderamente monumental. En todo lugar donde se enseñe Filosofía, Aquino es casi esencial por lo he de mencionarle pero será brevemente. El argumento de la contingencia podría no ser tan claro para algunos, sin embargo intentaré ser conciso. Los seres nacen y mueren, porque pueden o no existir, y el mundo sigue funcionando y siendo el mismo. Para Santo Tomás, contingencia se refiere a esa condición de los seres y se opone a la necesidad de los mismo. Los seres necesarios no pueden existir; la única posibilidad es que existan. De ahí su necesidad, pues son necesariamente existentes. Es imposible, en el razonamiento aristotélico, que siempre haya habido seres contingentes. Porque precisamente por su contingencia hubo un momento en el que, con toda seguridad, no existieron. Entonces, ¿cómo se pasa del no ser al ser? Si todas las cosas fueran contingentes, entonces hubo un tiempo en que no existía ninguna cosa y, por tanto, ahora tampoco existía ninguna, pues unas son causas de otras. Es decir, si todos los seres nacieran y murieran, habría habido algún tiempo en que nada existiera. Ha de haber, entonces, algún ser que siempre haya existido, cuya necesidad dependa de sí mismo y que sea causa de la necesidad de las otras cosas necesarias. A ese ser es de quien nos referimos como Dios. Algunas universidades permiten a sus estudiantes de posgrado elaborar sus tesis doctoral en las ideas de Aquino (leí dos de estas tesis en preparación para este articulo), por lo que el tema podría ser profundo y tedioso. De los 5 postulados de Aquino, este es quizás, en mi estimación personal, el más fuerte. El ave lira no existía en algún momento del tiempo lineal, pero está viva por la sencilla razón de que existía una necesidad para que la misma existiera. Un agente externo y ausente de necesidades es quien la trae a la existencia, y ese agente es Dios. Si usted alguna vez jugó “gato,”  se identificará rápidamente con lo que digo pues aquí Aquino consigue tres casillas a su favor  y le gana la partida a la teoría de la evolución.

¡DIOS EXISTE!

Una vez más, un ser tan sencillo como el ave lira comparado con los catedráticos ateos provee evidencia contundente de la evidencia a favor del Dios de la Biblia. La memoria fotográfica que poseen este animal es realmente impresionante . Si habláramos del proceso de adaptación de las especies de Darwin, ¿cuál es el propósito por la que esta ave evolucionó en su memoria fotográfica ? No existe ninguna necesidad  para la “evolución,” pues ella misma tiene su propio canto aparte y separado de la habilidad de copiar casi cualquier sonido. La evolución para esta ave es inexistente y realmente innecesaria. La preservación de esta especie australiana hasta la actualidad es indispensable en la contemplaciónón de su belleza y también para poder escribir un artículo ridiculizando a la evolución (Sarcasmo HLM).

CONCLUSIÓN

Deseo ser breve en mi conclusión, pues el tema se presta para mucho más. El Dios de la Biblia es único en sus atributos y no puedo dejar de pensar en su omnisciencia al crear ciertos animales los cuales no son tan fuertes en una cadena simbiótica o de dependencia para otras especies como lo es el salmón rojo que fue objeto de nuestro estudio en al apartado anterior. ¿Conocía Dios de ante mano que la teoría de la evolución llevaría a muchos por caminos equivocados? Estoy seguro de que Dios vio a Darwin y a los seguidores de sus ideas mucho antes de que trajera a existencia al ave lira.

El Salmo 147:5 acertadamente invita a nuestros corazones a profundizar y meditar ojalá en silencio en el cierre de este artículo cuando dice: “Grande es nuestro Señor, y muy poderoso; su entendimiento es infinito”.

REFERENCIAS

Mark I. Wallace. (2016). “When God Was A Bird: Contemplating Divine Presence Around Us”. Awake To The Moment: An Introduction To Theology. 138-144.    
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Worldview LGBTQ+ & The Trandgender Agenda

Worldview LGBTQ+ & The Trandgender Agenda

Evolution is likely NOT the most dangerous worldview your children or grandchildren are going to be taught in high school and college.

Read that again: Evolution is not the most dangerous worldview currently affecting our children.

Today, radical feminism, the LGBTQ+ agenda, and the transgender agenda pose a much more dangerous threat to their faith. These three agendas have joined hands with one goal in mind—the complete demise and condemnation of marriage and the family.

Consider the account of an elder’s daughter, “Mary” who runs off to college at eighteen. For eighteen years Mary has faithfully attended her local congregation and loved her parents. But within the first week of being on campus she is encouraged to join some gender equality clubs. (In fact, she would be shamed if she didn’t join one of them.)

In addition to the feminist clubs, as a freshman Mary is required to take a course in “Cultural Studies.” She also elects to take a “Women in History” class. Both of these freshmen level classes brazenly teach things like white male privilege and toxic masculinity, concepts that had been totally foreign to her before attending college. Within three months Mary has joined her friends and is embracing a feministic attitude.

As her worldview changes, she begins to see people like her father as part of the problem with society.

By the time Mary returns home for Christmas break she has come to fully embrace radical feminism. But she’s not ready to let them in on her new-found worldview. Her parents notice a more rebellious spirit, but they chalk it up as just part of the college experience. Mary still attends worship with them—which eases their fears. But had her parents really been observant, they would have noticed that she was distracted during most of the worship service and seemed extremely uncomfortable during the sermon.

Mary returns back to school and immediately feels more at ease. She is surrounded by people who are being taught the same worldview that she now holds. She quietly wonders how her parents could be so dumb and old-fashioned.

She sits in classes and reads quotes by feminist Andrea Dworkin: “Under patriarchy, every woman’s son is her potential betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman.” (Our Blood, 1981). She listens to professors quote Marilyn French’s book The Women’s Room: “All men are rapists, and that’s all they are. They rape us with their eyes, their laws, their codes” (1977).

Silently her blood begins to boil against all men.

Right before spring break of her freshman year in college Mary is required to write a paper. The paper must be 3-5 pages long and explain how she agrees with a quote from Andrea Dworkin’s book Letter’s from War Zone. The quote reads: “Like prostitution, marriage is an institution that is extremely oppressive and dangerous for women” (1983).

By this time everything about Mary has changed. Her view on men has changed dramatically. Her view on marriage has changed radically. Her view on being a mother and raising children has been turned upside down.

And finally, her view on God has experienced a cataclysmic shift—she no longer even believes in God. Instead, she worships feminism. She has even attended some protests and rallies. Her life now is all about expressing herself and her new found worldview.

Her parents were proudly sending their daughter off to college, believing they were giving her the best footing for a better life. They celebrated her high grades and academic achievements. They never realized they were sending her into a radical indoctrination camp.

Phyllis Schlafly noted: “The cornerstone of the political correctness that dominates campus culture is radical feminism” (2005). Mary had become just another victim of the radical crowd—a pawn to be used against Christian morals.

The next time Mary visits her parents she announces she will not be going with them to worship on Sunday. In fact, she goes on to condemn her parents for supporting a male dominating religion built on patriarchy. Her parents never saw it coming. And sadly, they are unprepared for the confrontation that has been building in Mary for months.

Before Mary closes the books on her first year of college, she has decided that maybe a relationship with a female would not be so bad. After all, women are not the problem—men are. In fact, the thought of being married for life to a man causes her to become sick.

And so, Mary—an elder’s daughter who was once a faithful Christian, abandons every moral fiber she was raised with and begins actively pursuing a homosexual lifestyle.

Many Christians might think the above scenario is ludicrous—unrealistic. And yet, different version of this story have been recounted to me by multiple sets of parents. And it doesn’t just happen with girls (although I’m hearing about more young ladies rejecting marriage, husbands, children, etc. than guys).

Ask yourself this question for a moment: How in the world could the feminist movement be joining hands with the transgender movement? After all, transgender athletes are ruining women’s sports!

The answer lies in the overall goal of both movements. As I mentioned earlier, the overall goal is the demise of marriage and the family.

I encourage parents to have some serious conversations with their older children. Elders warn your flocks. Look back at what Paul warned Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20-21, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith.”  Consider Paul’s strong rebuke in Romans 1.

There is a reason why Hitler stated: “Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.” He knew he needed the hearts and minds of the next generation in order to have world domination. Think about what the textbooks are really teaching our children today.

I fear Mary is not the only one who has fallen prey to the idle babblings. How many more of our children will we lose before we throw down the gauntlet, church?

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Contending Lawfully

Contending Lawfully

“And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully” (2 Timothy 2:5).

Human beings have probably been playing games since time began. Games are a healthy outlet for the competitive spirit when they are played fairly. For games to be played fairly, there must be an agreed upon set of rules. Without such rules, the game is not fun for either the winner or the loser, but when we follow the rules, there is something healthy to winning fairly and squarely. There is also something healthy to losing fairly and squarely. Both winning and losing teach us about ourselves.rules

The apostle Paul was no stranger to games. He knew of the Isthmian games because he wrote about them in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. He also knew of the Olympic games which were held in alternating years. Those games even included poetry competitions, another area of culture with which the apostle Paul was familiar. Whether the sport was boxing, writing poetry, or playing the lyre, there were certain rules that participants were obliged to follow if they desired to compete. Only when they followed these rules and won could they be said to have triumphed.

Contending lawfully in the games is a metaphor for contending lawfully in life by living virtuously. If we expect to be crowned with the crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8), we cannot compete in the game of life unlawfully. We must follow the standard of behavior that God has given us through His Son Jesus Christ. That is what Paul means when he says that such a crown will be given to those who have “loved his appearing.” To live otherwise is to cheat, and cheaters will not win in eternity.

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Dealing with Bad Choices

Dealing with Bad Choices

Far too many Christians carry far too much guilt about their past lives and choices they made which now impact the struggles in their daily lives. They look at the godly lives of other Christians and become discouraged almost to the point of just giving up. If this describes you now or in the past, consider the life of Lot, the nephew of Abraham.

We know little of the early life of Lot. He was the son of Haran, Abraham’s brother. The first mention of Lot is in the exodus from Ur. As they entered Canaan, Lot was with Abraham in his journey and even accompanied his uncle when he went into Egypt (Gen. 13:1).

God blessed both Abraham and Lot abundantly, and their flock and herds became so great that this forced the separation of Lot from Abraham. Abraham gave Lot the choice, and Lot saw the plains of Jordan, which the Bible describes as being “well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord” (Gen. 13:10). The selfish decision he made impacted the rest of his life. In the plains of Jordan was the city of Sodom. Lot not only moved toward that city, he moved into that city (Gen. 13:12; 14:12). One cannot but wonder how afterwards Lot may have grieved over his decision.

Stop for a moment to consider how many of us may make wrong decisions which often lead us down the wrong paths. It is the guilt of having made such wrong choices that become part of the burden of our guilt. Lot is not the only one whose decisions impact the rest of their lives.

Lot was like Abraham in that he entertained angels not even knowing they were angels. You know the story of how Lot foolishly offered his daughters to the men of Sodom—wonder if he later regretted this. The angel forced Lot and his family to leave Sodom and soon Lot lost all his possessions, his wealth, his home and his wife to the fire of God’s judgment. Then add the sinful actions of this man in his incestuous relationship with his daughters.

Before becoming too judgmental of Lot, look at how God saw him. Peter said that God “…delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)” (2 Pet. 2:7-8). We focus on his mistakes (and often we focus on ours), but God saw his righteous tormented soul.

Do not misunderstand what I am saying. Grace is ours, but we cannot continue in sin expecting grace (Rom. 6:1). Do not let your past mistakes overwhelm you. Live right, do right, die right! You will never regret it!

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