Most humans kept their principles in a hazy background while they continued to follow the whims of impulse.”
               –Charles A. Seltzer  (West!)

    “Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.”
               –Matthew 5:37 (NLT)
—————————-
Around a half century ago, I was able to visit the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.  Our family was taking a vacation and we stopped to see the auditorium.  No, we did not see the Grand Ole Opry, but we were able to walk inside.  Of course, that old auditorium has been razed.
    I came across an interesting story this last week in some reading and I thought today would be a good day to relate the story.  Normally, I do not take a whole Echo from someone else, but today I’m going to borrow from J. Stephen Lang’s “The Christian History Devotional.”  It is sort of like, “the rest of the story.”

         “The Ryman Auditorium, also known as the Grand Ole Opry House, exists because Thomas Ryman, a Nashville riverboat captain and saloon owner, went out one night in 1885 intending to heckle evangelist Sam Jones.  Instead, Ryman because a convert, and he built the Union Gospel Tabernacle for Jones to preach in when he was in town.  The building, famed for its superb acoustics, was renamed Ryman Auditorium after Ryman’s death in 1904.   
          What about Sam Jones?  He was one of the star evangelists of the late 1800s, a time when there was no shortage of them.  Born Samuel Porter Jones in Alabama in 1847, he was from a family with several Methodist preachers, but Sam became a lawyer, drank heavily, and lost his practice but reformed and converted when his dying father asked him to stop drinking.  True to his family heritage, he became a Methodist preacher and was so good at it that he became a traveling evangelist.
         Jones was active at the same time as the great evangelist D.L. Moody, and some called Jones the ‘Moody of the South,’ but in fact Jones preached all over the country.  His style was simple and direct, laced with wry humor.  His familiar call to convert was ‘quit your meanness.’  He told friends that one of the greatest compliments he was ever paid was hearing a child tell his father that he understood everything Preacher Jones said.
         Jones never actually prepared a sermon.  He showed up to preach at the appointed time and place, always with a treasury of Bible verses in his head and would preach ‘off the cuff.’  Apparently this practice worked very well for him.
         Jones died on October 15, 1906, returning from preaching a revival in Oklahoma.  So great was his fame that his body lay in state in the Georgia capitol where thirty thousand people paid their respects.”

    A drunken reprobate went out to mock and scorn one of God’s men.  The Holy Spirit grabbed him and he built the “Tabernacle” that became Ryman Auditorium.  He ended the story with a little prayer that we should take heed of:  “Lord, make our witness to the world simple and direct to glorify you not ourselves.  Amen.”
    Too many preachers today will not take a bold stand, but seek to promote peace, harmony, and compromise.  There needs to be boldness in the pulpit, especially in the day in which we live.  There need to me more “Sam Jones” in the country that heed the admonition of the Apostle Paul.

         “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”
                   –1 Corinthians 2:4

Life could be hard to figure.”
              –Elmer Kelton  (Other Men’s Horses)

    “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
              –Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV)
———————-
Life may be troublesome, but the answer always lies in the Word of God, and trusting in the Lord.  Even in times of uncertainty we can trust Him.  There is an agenda in the world that is antichrist.  This is nothing new, but it is becoming clearer and clearer as the Lord readies Himself to return.

              “Nothing short of a great Civil War of Values rages today throught North America.  Two sides with vastly different and incompatible worldviews are locked in a bitter conflict that permeates every level of society.”
                        –James Dobson

Make no doubt about it, the words of Dr. Dobson are even more true today than when he made the statement more than a decade ago.  The chasm in views is becoming wider; this is clear to see as elections are upon us.
    Remember when Israel cried for a king?  God granted their wish.  God will grant the people the kind of government they desire.  Then the people will either thrive or survive within that government.  There is currently a flow to change our culture.  The culture of this great nation was based upon God’s Word and principles.  It is moving toward a socialistic culture that has proven through history to be doomed to failure.  Culture is now becoming based on:  feelings, pragmatism rather than principles.
    What will America be like for your children and your grandchildren?  Christians, therefore, cannot give in to the pressures of the radical left that seek to destroy the basic foundation of America.  C.S. Lewis stated, “[Christians] are tempted to make unnecessary concessions to those outside the faith…  We must show our Christian colours, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ.  We cannot remain silent and concede everything away.”
    Look around you.  There is evidence of this “civil war” taking place constantly.  Today, and through the next few days ponder the following Scriptures:

              “Be careful that nobody spoils your faith through intellectualism or high-sounding nonsense.  Such stuff is at best founded on men’s ideas of the nature of the world and disregards Christ!”
                        –Colossians 2:8 (Phillips)

              “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
                        –Proverbs 23:7

My God is all around me, in the sunshine, in the air, in the humming bees and whispering leaves and murmuring water.  I feel him everywhere, and in me, too!”
              –Zane Grey  (Wanderer of the Wasteland)

    “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.  Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.”
              –Psalm 19:1-2  (NLT)
———————
Don’t be overwhelmed, neither Zane Grey nor I have gone New Age.  I would say in regard to the quotation that God is not in everything, but that He is the Creator of all.  However, He can be seen in His creation, and He certainly does fill the hearts of believers.  He is near and in us, yet He hovers over His entire creation.

              “Lord of all being, throned afar,
               Thy glory flames from sun and star;
               Center and soul of every sphere,
               Yet to each loving heart how near!”
                      –Oliver Wendell Holmes

We don’t have to fret that our God doesn’t hear us, or that He is afar off.  He is the One who gives us each day, and in that day prepares our way.  In the darkness of night we do not have to fear for He is with us there as well.  No matter where we are, what time of day it is, or what season we may find ourselves, God is there.

              “Sun of our life, Thy quickening ray
               Sheds on our path the glow of day;
               Star of our hope, Thy softened light
               Cheers the long watches of the night.

               Our midnight is Thy smile withdrawn;
               Our noontide is Thy gracious dawn;
               Our rainbow arch Thy mercy’s sign;
               All, save the clouds of sin, are Thine!”

This hymn, written on the eve of those dark days of the Civil War on issues that were tearing our nation apart.  In the midst of the coming darkness, this hymn, by Holmes points to the love and the ever-presence of our heavenly Father.  We are nothing in ourselves, but He brings His light into our lives.

               “Lord of all life, below, above,
                Who light is truth, whose warmth is love,
                Before Thy ever-blazing throne
                We ask no luster of our own.”

In the last two stanzas there is the term, “truth”.  People were confused about the truth regarding the future of the nation.  They were not confused, however, about the truth of who God was.  He is a consuming fire, a “holy light,” a “heavenly flame.”  He is to be worshiped “with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28-29, HCSB)

               “Grant us Thy turth to make us free,
                And kindling hearts that burn for Thee;
                Till all Thy living altars claim
                One holy light, one heavenly flame.”

It is His truth that sets us free.  Jesus declared, that He was the “truth…”  I wonder if this hymn had any influence on the words written just a few years later by Julia Ward Howe, when she wrote, “His truth is marching on”?