Echoes From the Campfire

Wantin’ takes too much time. I’d rather be working.”
–Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove)

“We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work.”
–John 9:4 (NLT)
————————-
This world, this country, is not only chaotic, but it’s crazy! Let’s see: cities are suing states, states are suing the federal government and in particular the President, people on Twitter are now suing the President, companies are being sued by almost everyone imaginable. We are in such an enlightened society that we do not know what to do. There is agitation and consternation on every hand. It makes me recall the words of Paul,

“For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.”
–Romans 1:21-22 (HCSB)

Look at that second sentence and see if that doesn’t fit our country’s situation–“their thinking became nonsense.” Why I even hear one of our elected officials, a Congresswoman said that North and South Korea need to come together. After all, they’re both Japanese. Listen, we pay those folks–crazy!
In the Book of Proverbs we read, “It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury…” (19:10) Right now this sinful world is upside down. We have elected fools to exalted positions in our government; and they gloat in it and tell us how to live. Who are the real fools?
The problem is that man wants or thinks he is autonomous. That is hardly the truth, yet he likes to think that he is master of his fate. Even Christians get caught up in this. Listen, you cannot glorify God and yourself at the same time. “It is the desire to be God rather than to worship God that creates an almost unbearable tension in the Christian.” (Stephen Brown)
Man is not God and never will be God; man is not autonomous and never will be autonomous. Therefore, the cry goes out, “There is no God.” The person who declares that goes back to what I have written earlier, “He is a fool.” And “claiming to be wise, they became fools.”
Christians bicker over personalities; they bicker over political parties when they should be in the Bible and seeing what the Bible says about the issues. Oh, and not their opinion of what the Scripture says, but what does it actually say.
———————————–
Take a gander at this little poem, especially if you’re fond of Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way.”

“Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
. . .
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charted with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.”

What malarkey! The only way this can be true is that there can be no God. If there is no God, life is meaningless and hollow. By the way, this was written by William Henley and his life ended in suicide. (Brown)
Yes, in a sense, he did it his way. You came into this world with nothing and you’ll find that when it comes the time to bid goodbye, that you’ll leave it the same way–even if you did it your way. (A good study in this is found in the Book of Ecclesiastes.)