Tag Archives: God chooses humble people

POLITICAL POLICY (Maybe Philosophy). 041316

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amendmentone

“I believe in the wisdom of the Common Man and the ultimate honesty of the Free Enterprise System; tempered with brotherly love.”  Tex 110595; With respects to Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson and Jesus of Nazareth.

When I think about America, I think America was and is the first great hope of freedom in the history of mankind.  When I think that regular folks toiled under the tyranny of dictators and kings for tens of thousands of years and only just now, in the last few seconds of time (relatively speaking), have regular men and women been granted the freedom to make up their own minds about how they would live, what God they would worship, and how they’d make a living, I marvel.  Forever, before America, nobody thought the common man had enough sense to come in out of the rain, much less to govern his own life.  Well, he does.  Representative democracy works.  Moderately tempered laissez faire capitalism works.  (Yeah, I know that’s an oxymoron, but it’s right anyway.)

Before America, no small guy had a chance unless he sucked up to the big boys.  Now, if he works hard, and smart, and takes care of the ones he came with, he will do well.  And if he doesn’t like the situation, he can go down the road and start over; and still make it.  America is almost supernatural.  Don’t forget it.  Don’t badmouth what America means in human history.  It’s OK to cuss the players, but don’t cuss the system.  It works.

By the way, so you’ll know.  Economic freedom is tied to political freedom.  If the government can tell you how to spend or not spend your money, it can tell you how to vote.  Political freedom with socialism is no freedom at all.  If the government controls the economy to any substantive degree, you are NOT free.  What does this have to do with God?  He put us here, and He is going to let us stay as long as it suits Him.  We would do well to follow the admonition in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and forgive their sins, and heal their land.”

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UNDERSTATEMENT.030216

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Isaac Newton       [From a letter to my kids]

I read somewhere that if you are asked to tell something about yourself, it is always better to say as little as possible.  If there is something about you that’s worth telling, somebody else can tell it, and it will sound a whole lot better coming from them than from you.

And if you are supposed to get an award for something you’ve done, make it a point to give all the credit to someone else.  Like your husband or your wife, or momma or daddy, or your teacher or boss or mentor.  Like Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the sholders of Giants.”  It’s especially neat if you can give the credit to the little people; like people who work for you; or your kids.  If you hunt a little, you can always find the right person or people to give the credit to.  If you’ll humble yourself, the Lord’s gonna lift you up. (James 4:10)

Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln (both of them) said that when you give a speech in English, use English (Anglo-Saxon) words, like hit, or run, or eat, or bite, or talk, or feel, or love, instead of long French-Latin based words like masticate, or orate, or agitate, or literate.  The short words have more meaning, more impact, and they stay with you longer.  In this case, as with the other, less is more.

As far as I know, the art of ‘kidding’, as taught by our forbears, is mostly the art of understatement; saying something is less than it is, just for fun and just for effect.  With folks that like to talk as much as we do, it’s hard not to talk, so it really is good to use the art of understatement.  As you know, I have a hard time doing it, but as I get older, I try a little more each day.  It’s not so much thinking about every word you say as it is a feeling in your heart.  If you humble yourself, the Lord will give you the right words to say. (1 Pet 5:6)

God Chooses the Little People.011815

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I Corinthians 1:  26 For you see from your calling, brothers and sisters, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty,  .  .  are called. 27  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;  .  .  .  ”   Do you want to hear something funny?  Until the 3rd Century, that’s sometime after 200 A.D., the Church wouldn’t even let lawyers be members.  Probably because they were scared of them.  In fact until Constantine (the Great) became Emperor, and then converted to Christianity, very few of the wealthy, educated, high-born (royalty) people were members of the church.  Mostly Christianity was a ‘Way’ of the poor, the sick, the slaves, the servants, the criminals, and don’t forget the tax-collectors.  All of the hated people, the despised people, the strangers, the foreigners, the half-breeds, the prostitutes, the bastards and the lepers, even the blind, the lame, the orphans, the widows; all those who were rejected by the in-crowd.

This verse says that God has chosen those exact people to represent Him on this earth, just on purpose to let all the rich and powerful and smart and well-educated and royal people know that they weren’t such hot stuff after all.  Just to let them know that God is God, and for all their natural advantages, God is the real Source of life and power and authority over all, and that He bestows His blessings on whoever He wants to.

Does that mean He doesn’t love the rest of us?  Oh no.  He does love us just as much.  He just wants us to understand that money and stuff (possessions, education, status, etc) are not important.  What is in your heart is what is important.  Verse 31 of this same passage says, “that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”  Don’t glory in yourself, your money or your stuff.