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A CREED FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM.
Two bible stories illustrate that regardless of your positions in society.however powerful you are, you still have to answer to God for your actions.
In Exodus Chapter 20 we have the 10 commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai, the two bible stories I want to highlight include the breaking of 5 of them.
‘You shall not Murder’,
‘You shall not commit adultery’,
‘You shall not steal’,
‘You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour’,
‘You shall not covet’
Considering the specific commandments were broken by kings it reminds
us of the words of Lord Acton,
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!”
In 1 Kings Chapter 21 we have the story of Naboth’s vineyard.
King Ahab’s palace is next door to the vineyard and he offers to buy the vineyard from Naboth,Naboth refuses so the king is both depressed and angry.
Jezebel the king’s wife hatches a plan to get rid of Naboth and sends letters forged with the king’s signature proclaiming a day of fasting, calling the people together and giving Naboth the place of honour
She organises a couple of scoundrels to publicly accuse him of cursing God and the king, resulting in his being taken outside the city and stoned to death.
As soon as this was confirmed Jezebel told her husband, “Naboth is dead, now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell you.”
At once King Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.
God was very annoyed and instructed Elijah to confront Ahab at the vineyard.
Elijah predicts the death of both the king and Jezebel.
Ahab repents and God spares him this immediate disaster but promises that disaster will strike the family during his son’s lifetime.
Similarly in 2 Samuel chapter 11 King David causes mayhem when walking on the palace roof he spots Bathsheba,Uriah the Hittite’s wife, taking a bath.
Finding her so beautiful he ordered her to be brought to him and they had sexual intercourse, after which she returned home.
Shortly after she sends a message to David telling him that she’s pregnant and over a period of time David organises that Uriah is stationed at the front line of the forces where in fierce fighting he is killed.
After the period of mourning David sent for Bathsheba and they were married and she bore him a son.
Once again God was not amused Nathan was sent to David and spoke to him about the parable of the rich man slaughtering the poor man’s one and only lamb to feed one of his visitors.
Immediately David repented but the new son that Bathsheba had bore became very ill and died. He did subsequently have another son who was called Solomon.
Both stories are indicative of actions by subsequent rulers and states over the last 3000 years.
I believe competition mixed with greed and mindless ambition has contributed to the majority of the worlds problems.
Equally a lack of acknowledgement and gratitude for our creator has stoked fires that have decimated nations.
Even today every generation of children have had drilled into them competition.
That competitive obsession when mixed with power, lust and greed is at the centre of humanities ills.
Couple that with a lack of gratitude shown to God and the current demise of religion and is it any wonder we have a soul-less society.
The multiplicity of religious faiths just in our country alone is unbelievable.
It’s not surprising that the earnest seeker looking for God is left confused and somewhat shell shocked.
I believe that we need one church with one message instead of hundreds who bicker and argue between themselves all believing they have the one true path to God.
Nothing seems to have changed since Christ’s brief few years on Earth 2000 years ago.
Almost weekly new churches spring up usually started by a charismatic leader whose message inspires people hungry for a belief.
Many of these groups fulfil a need in the void, a world hungry for an answer to who they are, why they are here and more importantly where they are ultimately going.
We all have a need to belong, but the temporal world is sadly soul and spirit less.
Whilst I don’t have many answers I believe to change our world we need to change our mindset.
Paramount is the need to change from COMPETITIVE to CREATIVE.
There is no scarcity in our world, there is abundance for everyone, there is no need for this obsession with competition, God wants us all to have what we deserve
If we adopt a creative frame of mind and think about and apply creativity to everything we do in our lives then humanity would be so much happier and content.
Competition produces conflict.
Society is obsessed with winning, beating other people, that’s why there are continual conflicts and wars.
And it all starts with a major flaw in education, which if not unchecked grows into something ugly and negative.
The other major component is Gratitude, Gratitude to God for what he has given us.
We need to develop a personal relationship with God acting creatively to change and improve our world.
Initially our relationships and our families, to teach our children to be creative, compassionate and show gratitude.
In our work to be creative and to give one hundred percent in the jobs we do, regardless of how mundane we find them.
This attitude of creativity and gratitude needs to be encouraged with our politicians, our heads of companies and our world leaders.
We are talking here of a seismic scale change in human thinking.
Following the same old rules and regulation will I believe produce the same old results.
Thousands of people will continue to be killed in hundreds of wars and mankind will lurch to oblivion.
Throughout the centuries whole civilisations have grown up and then disappeared because of competition and greed, and total disregard of gratitude shown to a creator.
Greece, Myan, Rome, maybe Atlantis, they all developed but eventually fell because of a totally reactive mindset.
That mindset is endemic in today’s world.
Revelation talks about the end of the world so maybe we can do nothing to change the ultimate course of the world.
But we can change our world, however small the contribution will be.
1. Develop a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ his son,
in conjunction with the Holy Spirit.
2. Change from a competitive to a creative mindset.
3.Develop an attitude of gratitude coupled with humility.
As Mao Tse Tung suggested a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one small step,
Just maybe----
John Laing
July 2010
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TOUCHE’
One Sunday morning an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin.
Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt and boots that were very worn and ragged.
In his hand he carried a worn out old hat and an equally well read Bible.
The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city.
It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen.
The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and jewelry.
As the cowboy took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all appalled by his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.
As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor: "Before you come back here again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship in church."
The old cowboy assured the preacher he would.
The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat.
Once again he was completely shunned and ignored.
The preacher approached the cowboy and said, "I thought I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church."
"I did," replied the old cowboy.
"If you spoke to God, what did he tell you the proper attire should be for worshiping here?" asked the preacher.
"Well, sir, God told me that He didn't have a clue what I should wear. He said He'd never been in this church."
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"God's gift to you
is more talent and ability