76 Sermon Illustrations on Values

The three brothers quickly gathered in their small town's empty fire station to compare notes on the photographs they had happened across on the Internet.

In horror, the three agreed that the older man in the dust mask, dark glasses and golf shirt in the surveillance photos of a string of bank robberies across downstate Illinois looked an awful lot like their father, William A. Ginglen, a former marine, once president of the local junior chamber of commerce, a member of both the Moose and Elks lodges, even an auxiliary town police officer.

In case there was any lingering hope of doubt, the gun perched on the bank counter in one picture was a nickel-plated .45, a cherished gift one of the brothers, Garrett Ginglen, had presented to his dad a few years back; another image revealed the waiting getaway car: the Ginglen family's black Mercury Cougar.

So, the three brothers walked out of the fire station, feeling as though “the whole world was spinning,” and did the only thing they felt they could. They turned in their own father, who will be sentenced on Thursday to what is nearly certain to amount to a life sentence in prison for the 64-year-old.

“There was never a question among us about what to do,” said Garrett Ginglen, 41, who said he had nonetheless vomited into a waste paper basket when he first glimpsed the surveillance photos.

“In a way, he's responsible for his own capture,” said Clay Ginglen, 36, another of the brothers. “He actually raised us to do exactly what we did.”

Growing up in Lewistown, 200 miles southwest of Chicago, the three boys - Garrett, Clay and Jared - looked up to their father the way many in the town of 2,500 people did, two of the brothers recalled in telephone interviews this week.

For years, William Ginglen was known as a respected neighbor, his lawyer, Ron Hamm, said, working as an industrial engineer and supervisor at companies like International Harvester, attending the Illinois Street Christian Church since age 5, and serving on a neighboring community's volunteer fire department, its village board, and as chairman of Lewistown's zoning board of appeals.

His moral compass was uncomplicated, his sons said: “What's right's right and what's wrong's wrong.” He told them once that if they ever messed up, they had better hope the law got there before he did. “I wanted to be just like him,” Garrett Ginglen said.

But in recent years, William Ginglen, by then a husband of more than four decades and a grandfather, fell on hard times. He changed jobs and struggled to find steady work that suited his background. He said he had gotten a job collecting receipts for video poker along a route around downstate Illinois. Money seemed tight at home, but his sons said they noticed few other signs of turmoil.

At about the same time, in late 2003 and 2004, local sheriffs began reporting a puzzling rash of bank robberies in some unlikely places - relatively safe little Illinois towns like DeLand, Tallula, Versailles and Kenney.

The nearly unprecedented wave set off worry among the region's small banks. They created new rules and installed new security systems, but the crimes continued. Then on July 12, 2004, the robber hit his seventh spot - the Bank of Kenney - for a second time, said Sheriff Roger Massey of DeWitt County, and new camera equipment netted clear images of the robber.

Sheriff Massey, whose office had no crime-fighting Web site at the time, rushed to get an Internet site built just for the new bank robber images. A few days after the pictures were posted, Sheriff Massey said, the Ginglen brothers - a music teacher, a police officer and a company's project manager on safety issues - happened upon the images.

After the brothers' meeting at the Lewistown firehouse (where two of them are volunteers), they went to their father's house to confront him. He was not home, but they saw the very clothes the bank robber had worn in the pictures, they said, and called the authorities immediately.

Also found in the house were the elder Mr. Ginglen's lengthy, meticulously kept writings. Sheriff Massey described the works, typed into a computer, as a diary of Mr. Ginglen's day-by-day descent into adultery with a girlfriend who lived in Champaign, into drug use and drug parties, into gruesome financial strain and, ultimately, into bank robbery.

“It turned out that he was leading a secret life, a double life,” Sheriff Massey said. “The bizarre part was that he wrote it all down. He was the most documented person I've ever seen. If he spent $5.98 on lunch, he wrote it down. And every time he bought cocaine or had sex, he documented it all.”

Mr. Ginglen, who was arrested on Aug 20, 2004, the day after his sons called the authorities, has since pleaded guilty to armed robbery and firearms charges, accused of netting more than $50,000. Efforts to reach him by telephone in the Christian County Jail failed this week, but he faces at least 32 years in prison when he is sentenced on Thursday in Springfield.

“I can only say that this is conduct that is something that one would never expect based on his character and history and background,” Mr. Hamm, his lawyer, said. Mr. Hamm said he intends to appeal the case based on questions about the government's use of evidence, including the writings, which Mr. Ginglen earlier told The Chicago Tribune were merely a “fictionalized” outline for a book he was working on.

Gina Burton, who works in Mr. Hamm's office, said Mr. Ginglen was still working on a book from jail. He has sent her pages of handwritten notes to type up on her computer, she said. The latest chapter, she said, was called, “Turning Your Father In.”

For now, relations between the father and his sons remain chilly. “I wouldn't say he's angry with his sons,” Mr. Hamm said. “He raised them to be law abiding.”

Garrett Ginglen said he has not spoken to his father since he was arrested. “The thing is, we turned him in for robbing banks,” he said, “but then we saw his journal. I'm really mad for what he did to my mother.”

“I really miss the guy that was my dad,” he went on. “I'm not sure about this bank robber guy.”

Clay Ginglen, meanwhile, has spoken to his father on the telephone four or five times. The quick talks have touched on grandchildren and work, he said, nothing more. He is busy on Thursday, he said, and will not attend his father's sentencing.

Rarely does the tug between doing the right thing and sparing a loved one carry such weighty consequences, but Clay Ginglen said he and his brothers have reluctantly agreed to speak publicly about what they did in case anyone else faces such an ugly choice.

“We don't regret this at all,” he said. “We would do the same thing again.”

*

The United States calls itself one nation under God, but Americans don’t all have the same image of the Almighty in mind.

A new survey of religion in the USA finds four very different images of God - from a wrathful deity thundering at sinful humanity to a distant power uninvolved in mankind’s affairs.

Forget denominational brands or doctrines or even once-salient terms like “Religious Right.” Even the oft-used “Evangelical” appears to be losing ground.

Believers just don’t see themselves the way the media and politicians - or even their pastors - do, according to the national survey of 1,721 Americans, by far the most comprehensive national religion survey to date.

Written and analyzed by sociologists from Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, in Waco, Texas, and conducted by Gallup, the survey asked 77 questions with nearly 400 answer choices that burrowed deeply into beliefs, practices and religious ties and turned up some surprising findings:

• Though 91.8% say they believe in God, a higher power or a cosmic force, they had four distinct views of God’s personality and engagement in human affairs. These Four Gods - dubbed by researchers Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical or Distant - tell more about people’s social, moral and political views and personal piety than the familiar categories of Protestant/Catholic/Jew or even red state/blue state.

For example: 45.6% of all Americans say the federal government “should advocate Christian values,” but 74.5% of believers in an authoritarian God do.

Sociologist Paul Froese says the survey finds the stereotype that conservatives are religious and liberals are secular is “simply not true. Political liberals and conservative are both religious. They just have different religious views.”

• About one in nine (10.8%) respondents have no religious ties at all; previous national surveys found 14%. The Baylor survey, unlike others, asked people to write in the names and addresses of where they worship, and many who said “none” or “don’t know” when asked about their religious identity named a church they occasionally attend.

• The paranormal - beliefs outside conventional organized religion - is immensely popular. Most people said they believe in prophetic dreams; four in 10 say there were once “ancient advanced civilizations” such as Atlantis.

• “Evangelical” may be losing favor as a way Americans describe themselves. About one in three Americans say they belong to denominations that theologians consider evangelical, but only 14% of all respondents in the survey say this is one way they would describe themselves. Only 2.2% called it the single best term. Top choices overall: “Bible-believing” (20.5%) or “born-again” (18.6%).

“Any politician who really wants to connect with Christians should be looking at those terms, not vague abstractions like evangelical.... They need to tap into labels that have salience,” Baylor sociologist Kevin Dougherty says.

• Most Americans think their nearest and dearest are going to heaven. The pearly gates open widest for family (75.3% say they’ll get in) and personal friends (69.3%). The survey did not ask whether people expect to go to heaven themselves.

• Religion-themed movies and books have a vast reach: 44.3% of those polled saw Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ. More than one in 10 of all surveyed say they spent $50 or more in the past month on items such as religious books, music and jewelry.

A closer look at what people read finds that 28.5% of Americans say they’ve read The Da Vinci Code. Baylor also found 19%, including 25% of all U.S. women, have read the Rev. Rick Warren’s Christian handbook The Purpose-Driven Life, and 19% overall have read at least one of the novels in the Left Behind apocalyptic fiction series.

These are part of the first wave of results from the random survey of Americans who completed and mailed in a 16-page questionnaire. Conducted in the fall of 2005, the survey is a statistically representative sampling of the USA by age, gender and race.

The Baylor team will spend two years digging through the findings and releasing reports on subtopics such as civic involvement and volunteerism, then repeat the core questions in fall 2007 to track trends. The research is funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, calls the analysis “intriguing. Baylor was able to ask many more probing questions than the usual surveys.”

Others agree.

The Four Gods breakdown is helpful “if you are trying to understand religion’s impact on society by how people see themselves from the inside, not by observations from outsiders,” says John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

GOD’S ‘PERSONALITY’

Baylor researchers determined the Four Gods breakdown by analyzing questions about God’s personality and engagement.

The survey asked respondents to agree or disagree with any of 10 descriptions of their “personal understanding of what God is like,” including phrases such as “angered by my sins” or “removed from worldly affairs.” They could check off 16 adjectives they believe describe God, including words such as “absolute,” “wrathful,” “forgiving,” “friendly” or “distant.”

When USA TODAY asked people similar questions, it found views as varied as those of self-described fundamentalist Brian Snider of Madison, Alabama, and Marilyn McGuire, who says she sees God in every sunrise and sunset, flower and kitten at her home on Orcas Island near Seattle.

Snider, 46, says God is “involved in the affairs of men at all times and he does judge us. ... We still believe he is angry at sin.”

McGuire, in her late 60s and once an active Episcopalian, now rejects all dogma. “I have my own system of what I think is true and sacred. I try to keep myself peaceful and keep myself in a loving state.”

The four visions of God outlined in the Baylor research aren’t mutually exclusive. And they don’t include 5.2% of Americans who say they are atheists. (Although 91.8% said they believe in God, some didn’t answer or weren’t sure.)

Still, says Baylor’s Christopher Bader, “you learn more about people’s moral and political behavior if you know their image of God than almost any other measure. It turns out to be more powerful a predictor of social and political views than the usual markers of church attendance or belief in the Bible.”

Though 12.2% overall say abortion is wrong in all circumstances, the number nearly doubles to 23.4% for those who see an authoritarian God and slides to 1.5% for followers of a distant God.

THE FOUR CATEGORIES

Highlights of Baylor’s analysis:

• The AUTHORITARIAN GOD (31.4% of Americans overall, 43.3% in the South) is angry at humanity’s sins and engaged in every creature’s life and world affairs. He is ready to throw the thunderbolt of judgment down on “the unfaithful or ungodly,” Bader says.

Those who envision God this way “are religiously and politically conservative people, more often black Protestants and white evangelicals,” Bader says.

“(They) want an active, Christian-values-based government with federal funding for faith-based social services and prayer in the schools.”

They’re also the most inclined to say God favors the USA in world affairs (32.1% vs. 18.6% overall).

• The BENEVOLENT GOD (23% overall, 28.7% in the Midwest) still sets absolute standards for mankind in the Bible. More than half (54.8%) want the government to advocate Christian values.

But this group, which draws more from mainline Protestants, Catholics and Jews, sees primarily a forgiving God, more like the father who embraces his repentant prodigal son in the Bible, Froese says.

They’re inclined (68.1%) to say caring for the sick and needy ranks highest on the list of what it means to be a good person.

This is the group in which the Rev. Jeremy Johnston, executive pastor and communications director for his father’s 5,000-member Southern Baptist congregation in Overland Park, Kansas, places himself.

“God is in control of everything. He’s grieved by the sin of the world, by any created person who doesn’t follow him. But I see (a) God ... who loves us, who sees us for who we really are. We serve a God of the second, third, fourth and fifth chance,” Johnston says.

• The CRITICAL GOD (16% overall, 21.3% in the East) has his judgmental eye on the world, but he’s not going to intervene, either to punish or to comfort.

“This group is more paradoxical,” Bader says. “They have very traditional beliefs, picturing God as the classic bearded old man on high. Yet they’re less inclined to go to church or affiliate seriously with religious groups. They are less inclined to see God as active in the world. Their politics are definitely not liberal, but they’re not quite conservative, either.”

Those who picture a critical God are significantly less likely to draw absolute moral lines on hot-button issues such as abortion, gay marriage or embryonic stem cell research.

For example, 57% overall say gay marriage is always wrong compared with 80.6% for those who see an authoritarian God, and 65.8% for those who see God as benevolent. For those who believe in a critical God, it was 54.7%.

• The DISTANT GOD (24.4% overall, 30.3% in the West) is “no bearded old man in the sky raining down his opinions on us,” Bader says. Followers of this God see a cosmic force that launched the world, then left it spinning on its own.

This has strongest appeal for Catholics, mainline Protestants and Jews. It’s also strong among “moral relativists,” those least likely to say any moral choice is always wrong, and among those who don’t attend church, Bader says.

Only 3.8% of this group say embryonic stem cell research is always wrong, compared with 38.5% of those who see an authoritarian God, 22.7% for those who see God as benevolent and 13.2% who see God as critical but disengaged.

‘GOD IS THE UNIVERSE’

“I still believe in God,” says Joanne Meehl, 56, of Barre, Massachusetts, who wrote a book in the mid-’90s called RECOVERING CATHOLICS. “But to me God is the universe, not as small as a ‘He’ or a ‘She’ but bigger than all of that.” Humanity is on its own, she says. “People who do wrong are punished in this world, not in the next. This world is it.”

Some might question whether a survey by Baptist-affiliated Baylor has a conservative Protestant tilt. For example, there’s no mention of communion or saints - central to Catholic believers. Also, questions often used “church,” with no mention of synagogues or mosques. But Baylor researchers say their testing finds people view the word as generic for “house of worship.”

“This work was done by well-respected sociologists of religion,” Green says. “Baylor is becoming a leading evangelical university in the same way Notre Dame is a leading Catholic university, by doing first-rate objective social science.”

Rodney Stark, former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and part of the Baylor team, says: “We wanted to break from the past 30 years of narrow questions. “‘Do you believe in God?’ Everyone says yes.

“If you ask ‘Are you a Protestant, Catholic or Jew?’ people don’t even know what denomination they are today or what the label means.”

The Gallup Organization contacted 3,702 potential respondents on behalf of Baylor University in fall 2005 and asked them to complete a 16-page booklet on The Values and Beliefs of the American Public - A National Study. The English-only survey included 77 questions with more than 350 possible answers. More than 46% of the surveys (1,721) were completed and returned. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

________

Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10, NIV).

Can you believe it? Sunday is Super Bowl Football Sunday in the U.S.A., and they claim it will be televised to 186 countries in 18 languages!

Don’t get me wrong … I especially loved football when I was a kid at school. Rugby, that is!!!! Played it for my grade school and was on the Brisbane (Australia) schoolboy’s team. I had to quit as a teenager because I came in the “economy size” … figured I’d better find a safer way to prove my masculinity!!!

On Sunday millions of people around the world are going to stayed glued to their TV set watching a bunch of hefty men throw a leather ball filled with air, catch it and run — and belt the stuffing out of each other while they’re at it — and get paid unbelievable mega-bucks (dollars) for doing it! (Actually, I don’t know why they call American Football, football, because they mostly throw it … and kick it once in a while to get an extra point or two! Actually, Rugby is pretty much the same! Why don’t we call these games “throw-and-catchball”? Guess that wouldn’t sound too masculine!!!! In Australia they call it “footy”! Imagine that!

Furthermore, major sports events are not only a health hazard for the players, but also for viewers. In this week’s issue of the British Medical Journal is a report that showed on the day in June of 1996 when the Dutch team was knocked out of the European football championship, there was a 50% increase in heart attacks of men — not women! They said it was probably caused not only by the great emotional stress of screaming and hollering when your team is either winning or losing, but at the same time consuming too much alcohol and fatty foods!

Actually I do find that Super Bowl Parties with friends can be lots of fun indeed, but what blows my mind is the things we value most in today’s society. Sports for many has become almost a religion!

As Chuck Colson stated, “Every once in a while, events line up in a way that allows us to see things as they really are. [Another] example was the deaths of princess Diana and Mother Teresa within a week of each other. The juxtaposition of the hype and hysteria over the jet-setter, Diana, and the muted response to the death of Mother Teresa gave us a glimpse into how shallow and empty our culture truly is.”*

I’m not against sports — except about some of the pay scales — which, again, just shows where today’s values are (at least in the West)! Pity school teachers and those who are serving people and our society aren’t given more recognition and appreciation. I, for one, greatly appreciate them and I’m sure that most Daily Encounter readers do too.

However … having said all this, for those serving the Lord, our values are not here on earth but in heaven … where God keeps the books and gives rewards — that are eternal! We won’t be judged for our sins because Christ accepted that judgment for us on the cross … but we will be rewarded according to our faithfulness in loving and serving God.

That’s the really good news! If only we could reach as many people with the gospel as will be reached with football this Sunday alone!

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, it is so easy for some of us, including me, to get caught up in the values of this world. Help me to always remember that this life is temporal and to live with eternal values in mind. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

I want to share a couple of articles I recently came across that, I believe, speak to the core of what ails America today but is too little discussed. The first was in Newsweek under the ironic headline “We’re No. 11!” The piece, by Michael Hirsh, went on to say: “Has the United States lost its oomph as a superpower? Even President Obama isn’t immune from the gloom. ‘Americans won’t settle for No. 2!’ Obama shouted at one political rally in early August. How about No. 11? That’s where the U.S.A. ranks in Newsweek’s list of the 100 best countries in the world, not even in the top 10.”

The second piece, which could have been called “Why We’re No. 11,” was by the Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson. Why, he asked, have we spent so much money on school reform in America and have so little to show for it in terms of scalable solutions that produce better student test scores? Maybe, he answered, it is not just because of bad teachers, weak principals or selfish unions.

“The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation,” wrote Samuelson. “Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren’t motivated, even capable teachers may fail. Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a ‘good’ college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school ‘reform’ is that if students aren’t motivated, it’s mainly the fault of schools and teachers.” Wrong, he said. “Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don’t like school, don’t work hard and don’t do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited ‘student apathy.’ “

There is a lot to Samuelson’s point — and it is a microcosm of a larger problem we have not faced honestly as we have dug out of this recession: We had a values breakdown — a national epidemic of get-rich-quickism and something-for-nothingism. Wall Street may have been dealing the dope, but our lawmakers encouraged it. And far too many of us were happy to buy the dot-com and subprime crack for quick prosperity highs.

Ask yourself: What made our Greatest Generation great? First, the problems they faced were huge, merciless and inescapable: the Depression, Nazism and Soviet Communism. Second, the Greatest Generation’s leaders were never afraid to ask Americans to sacrifice. Third, that generation was ready to sacrifice, and pull together, for the good of the country. And fourth, because they were ready to do hard things, they earned global leadership the only way you can, by saying: “Follow me.”

Contrast that with the Baby Boomer Generation. Our big problems are unfolding incrementally — the decline in U.S. education, competitiveness and infrastructure, as well as oil addiction and climate change. Our generation’s leaders never dare utter the word “sacrifice.” All solutions must be painless. Which drug would you like? A stimulus from Democrats or a tax cut from Republicans? A national energy policy? Too hard. For a decade we sent our best minds not to make computer chips in Silicon Valley but to make poker chips on Wall Street, while telling ourselves we could have the American dream — a home — without saving and investing, for nothing down and nothing to pay for two years. Our leadership message to the world (except for our brave soldiers): “After you.”

So much of today’s debate between the two parties, notes David Rothkopf, a Carnegie Endowment visiting scholar, “is about assigning blame rather than assuming responsibility. It’s a contest to see who can give away more at precisely the time they should be asking more of the American people.”

Rothkopf and I agreed that we would get excited about U.S. politics when our national debate is between Democrats and Republicans who start by acknowledging that we can’t cut deficits without both tax increases and spending cuts — and then debate which ones and when — who acknowledge that we can’t compete unless we demand more of our students — and then debate longer school days versus school years — who acknowledge that bad parents who don’t read to their kids and do indulge them with video games are as responsible for poor test scores as bad teachers — and debate what to do about that.

Who will tell the people? China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies. They are catching us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations.

In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11!

==============

Breakpoint commentary by Charles Colson, September 22, 2010

"Restoring Ethics: No More Number 11"

In the New York Times, respected columnist Thomas Friedman writes about Newsweek’s ranking of the world’s best countries. Finland came out on top. And, no doubt to the surprise of many Americans, the U.S. came in at number 11! Not even in the top 10.

Friedman points to a Washington Post column by Robert Samuelson, who examines one playing field on which Americans are losing: education. We’ve spent huge amounts of money on schools. But what have we got to show for it? Lousy test scores. But, Samuelson writes, maybe the cause is not bad teachers, weak principals or selfish unions. Maybe the real cause of school failure is: “Shrunken student motivation.” After all, he notes, students are the ones who have to do the work, and “if they’re not motivated, even capable teachers may fail.”

The cause of the apathy? It’s what Friedman calls a “values breakdown.” Think back to the “Greatest Generation.” What made them great? First, Friedman says, the problems they faced “were huge, merciless and inescapable: the Depression, Nazism, and Soviet Communism.” Second, the leaders of that day “were not afraid to ask Americans to sacrifice.” Third, the Greatest Generation was willing to sacrifice and “pull together, for the good of the country.” They became global leaders because they were willing to do hard things.

By contrast, leaders of the Boomer generation would never dream of asking us to sacrifice, Friedman writes; solutions to any problem must be painless. We want homes without having to spend years saving up for them; we’d rather assign blame for our problems than assume responsibility.

Meanwhile, he concludes, countries like China and India are catching up — not only because they enjoy free markets, education, and technology, but also because these Hindus and Confucianists, Friedman notes, have grabbed onto something we’ve left behind, the Protestant work ethic: “a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations.” Now this is not a Christian moralist speaking, this is an esteemed secular Jewish columnist.

This is why I have said over and over again our economic collapse in 2008 was the result of moral and ethical failures, much more than the economy. And don’t let anybody tell you we can’t change the world. Just last week, I told about the Republican leadership wanting to publish its election agenda without even mentioning the sanctity of life and traditional marriage. They wanted to focus purely on economic issues. But as Friedman’s article points out, we can’t separate morality, ethics, and economics! And many of you responded, jamming the leadership’s email servers. And, now it looks like the Republicans in tomorrow’s release will indeed include these critical moral issues.

With God, all things are possible. Even changing our apathetic, “we’re number 11!” culture.

________

Copyright (c) 2010 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Read: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts. — Matthew 15:19

Bible In One Year: Proverbs 10-12; 2 Corinthians 4

Some things just don’t seem to fit in our modern 21st century. A tribe of headhunters is one of them.

Yet there is one such group of people whose story is worth telling. A tribe living high in the Philippine mountains, a 3-day’s walk from the nearest city, has only within the past 10 years given up their tradition of displaying heads of captured enemies.

The leader of this tribe, a man who got that position because of his head-hunting success, was instrumental in the change. It came about because two women risked everything to travel to the village to live among the people and tell them about Jesus’ love. In 1999, 5 years after the women first visited the village, at least 50 people, including the chief, had trusted Christ to save them. As a result, the people’s lives were transformed, and they gave up their killing ways.

Headhunting may seem primitive, but its source is no different from the most modern sin. The “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun” — Eccl 2:11

Solomon was an amazing man. As a young leader, he renounced gold and power in favor of wisdom when God offered him a choice. He chose wisdom so he could lead his nation in right paths. He thus became the wisest man ever to live. In the process, he was granted both wealth and power. And what did he do with it? Read the book of Ecclesiastes and you will certainly have your eyes opened! He squandered it all in search of pleasure. He had more wives than any man could enjoy. He topped that with concubines to serve his every wish. He amassed great wealth and spent it upon himself. He built beautiful cities as monuments to himself. He spread his influence around the known world — to draw attention to himself. All of this and more did he do — to please himself.

Near the end of his life, he penned the words to this revealing book. Multiple times he repeats some variation of today’s verse. “All was vanity.” There was no profit in it. It served no lasting purpose. After all. Where are all of Solomon’s buildings? In ruins. And his military accomplishments? In dust. His great wealth? Gone with the wind. Even the majestic Temple he built as a dwelling place for God was destroyed, smashed to bits, plundered, and hauled away by Israel’s enemies. In the end, Solomon realizes that all earthly things are “vanity”. The only thing that lasts is what a person does for God. Serve God. Live for Him. Spend all the energy you have in His service and you will be building up great treasures — not on earth, but in Heaven where it really counts!

Yet God in Christ can make a change —

Through faith in Him we are made new. — Fitzhugh

Our heart is like a crooked fence — all the paint in the world won't straighten it out.

• Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person we will know how to be grateful for that gift.

° Don’t go for looks; they deceive.

° Don’t go for wealth; even that fades away.

° Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile

to make a dark day seem bright.

° Find the one that makes your heart smile.

• When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don’t see the one which has been opened for us.

• The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.

• It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

• May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to bring you joy.

• Always put yourself in another’s shoes.

• If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.

• The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

• The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past, you can’t get well in life until you let go of past failures and heartaches.

• When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.

• Live your life so that when you die, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

• Be blessed and comfort someone else with these words.

Evangelicals have a view of the family that is 19th century middle-class in its values. We value it more than church. However, the Bible places the church (and Kingdom) higher. Many passages almost put down the family to show how important the Kingdom is. Kingdom-centered families can make an impact in society (concerning divorce, sexuality, etc.).

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

It’s all too easy for children to find their identity wrapped up in external values like performance and appearance. Why? Largely because those are the values their parents and teachers glorify and reinforce. Children are applauded if they’re cute, if they say funny things, or if they hit home runs. Thanks to the adults in their lives, it doesn’t take long for children to internalize and begin to live by three pervasive principles.

1 If I am physically attractive and others admire me, I will be special.

2 If I perform well and accomplish great things, I will be accepted.

3 If I obtain social status and others recognize me, I will be significant.

But what about the child who isn’t very cute or entertaining? What about the child who never wins a starring rule in the school play or strikes out most of the time? Tragically, children like these are often compared, rejected, or ignored by the adults in their lives. They begin to question their identity and doubt their worth. Satan takes advantage of the false values our society promotes.

Children may struggle with identity and self-acceptance because their parents struggle with the same issues. Children who grow up with false principles for identity and acceptance don’t automatically grow out of them when they reach adulthood. As adults they continue to base their identity on these external guidelines and tend to perpetuate them in their children. If you are going to help your child realize his identity and acceptance in Christ, you must lead the way by doing so in your own life.

Lord, give me wisdom to teach my children and grandchildren what it means to be a child of God and to be in Christ. Forgive me for the times I have promoted false values before them.

[Holwick - the following is a self-help expert's advice on values to instill in your children.]

Working with adults (as well as children and teens) for the past 12 years, I have noticed that there are just a few primary struggles that most adults face. I also see how better training as a child and teen could have given them the skills and attitudes that would have prevented the problems that they now face.

The primary areas adults struggle with are:

1. Money, primarily debt

2. Lack of discipline, or the inability to do what they want to be,

be it weight, money, work, etc.

3. Relationships

As I see it, much of the way we live our lives is groomed as we grow up. And while we can certainly change, it is harder to do the older we get. This can cut both ways: If we are taught correctly, we have a high chance of succeeding as adults and if we are taught poorly, there is a high chance that we will continue those poor habits into adulthood and face many difficulties.

The good news? We can put our kids on the fast track to success by diligently applying some basic success skills. To get you started, I've brainstormed some ways you can head off your children's problems years before they face them. Here we go!

To have successful relationships:

SHOW THEM UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. No matter what, we are to welcome and love our children. This does not mean that we won't get mad at them from time to time or that we won't discipline them when they cross the line. It means that we will always accept them and treat them with the respect they deserve as human beings, no matter what they have done. It means we do not hold grudges against them. We can disagree or even verbally tangle, but then we bury the hatchet and accept one another.

TEACH THEM MANNERS. There are acceptable ways of behaving. Unfortunately, many people today do not know them! Teach your children how to behave so that others are treated well and do not have to put up with our misbehavior. Why? Because they won't put up with it anyway. Many people will simply write you off and never tell you why.

HELP THEM LEARN TO FORGIVE. Most of the relationship problems I work with boil down to this: The people simply will not forgive one another and continue to hold past wrongs against the other person. Here is the fact, and you have to teach this to your kids: People will wrong you. It is what we do with that and how we react that will determine the health of the relationship in the future.

HELP THEM TO BE ABLE TO FOCUS ON AND SERVE OTHERS. Many parents make their kid feel like they are the center of the universe. One problem with this: They aren't! The world doesn't revolve around your kids and they can't get their way all of the time. What happens later on in life when little Johnny (who was the center of the universe growing up) marries little Suzie (the center of another universe growing up)? You got it, problems! Now they have to share a universe! Instead we should teach our children to help others. We should teach them to consider other people's interests as more important than our own.

To have successful finances:

MAKE THEM EARN MONEY. Sure you can give your kids money - we do. But we should also teach them to earn money. We should give them opportunity to earn money. I don't think a kid should get an allowance for doing chores. Chores are the responsibility of being part of the family. But you can give them extra jobs so they can understand fully the hard work they put in and appreciate the value of the money they receive. This will cause them to handle it better.

HAVE THEM GIVE MONEY AWAY. Greed works its wonders on some of the nicest people. That is what I have found. And the best way to break greed is to give money away. Our children give away 10% of every dollar they get. This builds generosity into their hearts. We have been doing it so long that it is just a part of them. How can you be greedy about something you are giving away? And when you give it away you can see the good that it does to the people and organizations you help. (One side story: When my son was younger and got one dollar a week in allowance he would give a dime away. He suggested it would be a good thing if he started getting two dollars - because then he would be able to give two dimes away. I don't know if he was being generous or shrewd!)

TEACH THEM ABOUT INVESTING. Yesterday I sat in the car explaining the law of supply and demand with my ten-year-old. Now he knows what something is "worth." Now he knows why Beanie Babies are so expensive, but a very efficient way of separating poor investors from their money. My kids hear about the old guns and butter theory. (Guns represent items that appreciate and butter represents the things that melt away. Invest in appreciating assets and you can have all the butter you want later on. Invest in butter and you won't ever have the guns.) These are basic principles that will allow your kids to be financially secure and not strapped later on. They will be the lender and not the borrower.

TEACH THEM TO DELAY SELF-GRATIFICATION. I touched on this in the last point. If we teach our kids to delay gratification, they can put themselves into a financial position wherein they can actually afford the item they want rather than put themselves into debt or a precarious position to get it. Besides, half the time when they wait, they don't want it in three weeks!

TEACH THEM TO NEVER HAVE ANY DEBT! No debt. Never. Period. Nada. Never, ever, ever. Pay cash or wait. Okay, did I get that through? Now let me be a little more temperate. Debt has created more problems I have dealt with than just about any other issue. Marriage problems, emotional problems, work problems, spiritual problems, and physical problems. We should engrain it into our kid's heads that the only acceptable debt is a home mortgage and they should be conservative with that and even pay cash if they can! I hear you, "But I can't get the car I want!" Too bad! See the guns and butter theory above! Your kids will visit your grave every week with flowers after you are gone if you love them and teach them to avoid debt.

To help them be successful in discipline:

HAVE THEM DO CERTAIN TASKS/CHORES ON A REGULARLY SCHEDULED BASIS. Discipline is, well, a discipline. Teach your kids to make their beds every morning. Or do wash every Monday. Or mow the lawn every Saturday morning. Building schedules builds disciplined people who do not procrastinate, who are methodical and who are diligent. These are the people who succeed.

LET THEM EXPERIENCE DISCIPLINE AND CONSEQUENCES. Consequences are the greatest teachers! Many people who I see fail are people who have never suffered consequences. I know a gentleman who couldn't hold a job. His employers were going to fire him. He was always late and couldn't be relied upon - even by his friends. You never knew if he was telling the truth. One day I was talking to him and he said that he had never been punished or disciplined! The light went on! I finally understood. You know the old saying, "Spare the rod and spoil the child?" I say, spare the rod and you'll raise a criminal! You may not want to let little Johnny experience the pain of consequences, but his boss will let him feel it 20 years from now! Prepare him for success now by making him realize that if he doesn't do what is right, he will spend a lot of time in his room or he will miss out on special things. He will grow up to be the most relied upon person in his office and he'll be the boss one day.

DON'T PROTECT THEM FROM LOSING. I coached little league football one year. It just so happens we were the youngest team in the league and we were terrible. One game we were getting beat 55-0 with about five minutes to play, and I was getting screamed at by an irate parent. I turned to them and said, "You know. I learned some of my best lessons in 55-0 losses. I took a few of them in my athletic career, and I handed a few out too!" Sometimes we win in life, sometimes we lose. We need to learn what it feels like to lose and then get right back out there. It will prepare your kids much better to lose until they win legitimately than to win all the time. I remember one basketball game when I was on my way to about thirty points and a parent from the other team was screaming about it. My brother, who is 13 years older than me, told the guy to sit down because I had earned all those points because of how many basketball thrashings I had taken at his hands through the years. Losing made me better!

TEACH THEM TO EAT RIGHT AND EXERCISE. Many people struggle with their weight and it is usually because we learned bad habits as kids. We weren't that overweight when we were younger, but as our metabolism slows it catches up with us. Teach your kids basic nutritional information. Teach them how candy bars plus milk shakes plus no exercise equals trouble! When we go to the health club, our kids can swim and play all they want in the pool - as soon as they finish their laps!

TEACH THEM TO MAKE TOUGH DECISIONS AND LEARN TO SAY "NO." The most powerful word in the world! We should teach our children to understand what is the most important - their priorities - and say "no" to everything else. So many people get themselves into trouble and overextended because they do not have the discipline to say "no." The reality is that you will act on an agenda - either yours or someone else's. Saying "no" enables you to stay on track. Teach them to make tough decisions because it is what is right or because it will be better in the long run, rather than on how it will make them feel.

ENCOURAGE THEM TO RISK FAILURE AND TRY NEW THINGS. I have met so many people who were always taught to play it safe. And guess what? They are playing it safe, leading, as the quote says, "Lives of quiet desperation." Teach your kids to try new things and give them the opportunity to do so. Help them see the bigger picture when they fail, like what they can learn from the situation so they can win the next time. It is the people who risk failure and try new things who change the world and lead the lives they want to!

PITCH THE TV. Okay, my soapbox: Get rid of the television. If you have to have the one-eyed monster in the house, just get a monitor so you can watch videos from time to time. I haven't had a TV for 12 years - and I LOVE IT! My kids are healthy, sociable, well-adjusted, smart kids. They have creative imaginations because they have to picture everything themselves rather than rely on someone else's interpretation. They read many grade levels above where they are. They have time to do all sorts of things that they want to because they have an extra 20 hours a week (1040 hours a year) that other kids their age don't! Someday I am going to write a book on benefits and reasons to get rid of the TV because the fact is you will be much better off without it than you are with it! And so will your kids!

___________________________

Chris Widener is a popular speaker and writer; chris@madeforsuccess.com

*

All people live by values. And values change in societies. In America today, a cultural war rages over opposing values.

In this collision, does one truth or one set of truths and values exist by which we can live? The Bible says quite clearly, "YES!"

2 Peter 1:12-21 outlines the method by which we live by the truths outlined in Scripture. By establishing in our hearts the presence of an absolute, reliable and relevant truth as displayed in Scripture, we will experience guidance for direction in life.

But let's talk first about today's culture and environment. I want to do so by way of illustration. A few years ago a cartoon appeared in USA Today that captures society's belief about truth. The cartoon had a picture of a young George Washington holding a hatchet in one hand, kneeling next to a felled cherry tree. In the cartoon he is looking up at his father and saying, "Dad, my teacher says I cannot tell a lie, I cannot tell the truth, and I cannot tell the difference."

The cartoon is humorous in one sense, but in another sense, quite alarming. This type philosophy invades our lives and, unfortunately for many Christians, this philosophy is exactly what we are accepting in this present generation.

How did we arrive at this place in our American culture? Well, we have embraced a new kind of "tolerance." Now, let me hasten to state: All tolerance is not bad. In fact, when we look at tolerance, it's designed historically to provide us all religious freedom and provide that we will be punished by law if we go out and hurt someone else on the basis of disagreement over belief.

But this has been taken in a way to give tolerance a completely new meaning. Some have come to believe that tolerance equals acceptance of and approval of belief systems different than your own. And that definition of tolerance equates to truth no longer being absolute but, rather, defined by the individual or community.

This is a wrong and destructive perspective. You see, tolerance has replaced truth for too many people today. But the new tolerance doesn't really play out all that well in practical life.

For example, when we look at music and musicians, we know that a conductor simply doesn't "tolerate" someone in the first violin chair playing on their own in spontaneity. Why? In an orchestra everything is set in order. One person playing to his or her own tune sets the whole orchestra in chaos. Another example of destructive tolerance is simple mechanics. Years ago my brother-in- law and I rebuilt an engine. When we bored out the piston walls, we knew that these measurements must be exact: They had to be within one-thousandth of an inch. Any more or any less meant the engine wouldn't function properly. They had to be "true to size."

In a practical way, tolerance fails both in music and mechanics because it creates chaos. In today's culture, likewise, we are called to be philosophically tolerant in morality, ethics and in our family. And again, dismissing truth and accepting this new tolerance creates individual, family and societal chaos.

If the tolerance mantra does not practically work, then what is our alternative model by which to live? Well, the Bible teaches us to live by truth.

In 2 Peter 1:12-21, the apostle Peter wrote to a group of believers who lived in a world that had many beliefs about the nature and the existence of truth. In this passage, he provided these Christians something concrete to hold to. So, he reminded them the Scriptures were absolutely reliable and relevant truth by which they could base and live their lives.

The same principle is timeless: As those Christians in that day lived their lives by the truth of Scripture, so should we who live in the melting pot of America. It's not easy and it's not the popular route.

But, to remind us of the validity of my argument, let's recite Psalm 119:105: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." For our families, for our communities and for our own hearts, let's embrace the truth of Scripture and live our lives by that truth.

*

There's a story that comes from the sinking of the Titanic. A frightened woman found her place in a lifeboat that was about to be lowered into the raging North Atlantic. She suddenly thought of something she needed, so she asked permission to return to her stateroom before they cast off. She was granted three minutes or they would leave without her.

She ran across the deck that was already slanted at a dangerous angle. She raced through the gambling room with all the money that had rolled to one side, ankle deep. She came to her stateroom and quickly pushed a side her diamond rings and expensive bracelets and necklaces as she reached to the shelf above her bed and grabbed three small oranges. She quickly found her way back to the lifeboat and got in.

Now that seems incredible because thirty minutes earlier she would not have chosen a crate of oranges over the smallest diamond. But death had boarded the Titanic. One blast of its awful breath had transformed all values. Instantaneously, priceless things had become worthless. Worthless things had become priceless. And in that moment she preferred three small oranges to a crate of diamonds.

________

Source: Illustrations, http://www.cybersaltlists.org

NOT “How did he die?”

BUT “How did he live?”

NOT “What did he gain?”

BUT “What did he give?”

NOT “What was his station?”

BUT “Had he a heart?”

And

“How did he play his God-given part?”

NOT “What was his shrine?

Nor “What was his Creed?”

BUT

“Had he befriended those really in need?”

NOT “What did the piece in the newspaper say?”

BUT “How many were sorry when he passed away?”

Was he ever ready with a word or good cheer,

To bring back a smile, to banish a tear?

These are the units to Measure the Worth

Of a Man as a Man, regardless of birth.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

It’s all too easy for children to find their identity wrapped up in external values like performance and appearance. Why? Largely because those are the values their parents and teachers glorify and reinforce. Children are applauded if they’re cute, if they say funny things, or if they hit home runs. Thanks to the adults in their lives, it doesn’t take long for children to internalize and begin to live by three pervasive principles.

1 If I am physically attractive and others admire me, I will be special.

2 If I perform well and accomplish great things, I will be accepted.

3 If I obtain social status and others recognize me, I will be significant.

But what about the child who isn’t very cute or entertaining? What about the child who never wins a starring rule in the school play or strikes out most of the time? Tragically, children like these are often compared, rejected, or ignored by the adults in their lives. They begin to question their identity and doubt their worth. Satan takes advantage of the false values our society promotes.

Children may struggle with identity and self-acceptance because their parents struggle with the same issues. Children who grow up with false principles for identity and acceptance don’t automatically grow out of them when they reach adulthood. As adults they continue to base their identity on these external guidelines and tend to perpetuate them in their children. If you are going to help your child realize his identity and acceptance in Christ, you must lead the way by doing so in your own life.

Lord, give me wisdom to teach my children and grandchildren what it means to be a child of God and to be in Christ. Forgive me for the times I have promoted false values before them.