Voice of the Introverts

How Can I Fear

by Ron Hamilton

When shadows fall and the night covers all 

There are things that my eyes cannot see.

I never fear, for the Savior is near.

My LORD abides with me!

I do not know whose side you are on in this war, but it looks like the battle is heating up. I hope and pray that you are on the side of right.

4“Take heed that no man deceive you.”

5“For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”

We want everyone to be like us. Everyone. Apparently no exceptions. Everyone wants everyone to be alike, to think the same way, to believe the same beliefs. At least, that’s what it seems to be in today’s society. If you believe different that the social norm, then you are an outcast, deemed a fool.

Does that title sound harsh? Good. If you believe the idiocy traveling around today to change all pronouns to gender non-specific you need to be thumped in the head by my great uncle’s big thumbnail! Mind you, this drivel is being propitiated by so-called Christians. What does God say about this?

You have to admit, that as a society, we do not respect fathers the way we used to. Let’s look at the past by way of the media in the past 60 years. Take, for example, the sitcom “Leave It To Beaver” from the late 1950s, early 1960s. Ward Cleaver was taken seriously by his children. They respected his opinion and even asked his advice once in a while. Fast forward to any show on the Disney Channel. Dad is a joke. Kids make fun of him constantly.  He is a doofus klutzy moron that cannot do anything right. Don’t look at me, you let your kids watch this as harmless entertainment. Think about it – it is not really harmless, is it? Disney, and other kids’ entertainment venues are telling your kids what to think and how to think it. I could go on with so many more subjects that these conglomerates are filling your kids’ minds with, but for now, let’s just stick to the subject of Dads.

I watched a video called, “All Dads are Heroes,” and in the video there were a bunch of dads doing lifesaving things for their kids. I was thinking, “wow, these guys are amazing”. Then I looked at the comments, and it saddened me. Some of the comments were positive, but most were bashing dads and men in general. Even the positive comments were saying that they wouldn’t call these dads heroes, but just some great dads. 

It seems some folk have the impression that they can continually ignore God and they will continue to be ok. That when all is said and done, God is a God of love and so we will all wind up in a “better” place. That, friends, is not the complete truth. God is a God of love, but there is more to the story than that.

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings:”

Philippians 2:14

I know I find myself complaining about a lot of things. More often than not I am complaining without even realizing that I am complaining! Did you know that in the Old Testament, God put more people to death for complaining than any other sin in the Old Testament! We are constantly complaining. The weather is too cold, it is too hot. We are too short, or too tall, too many freckles, our nose is too big, our feet are too small. My food is not just right, send it back to the cook. You are not treating me properly, I demand to speak to the manager. Lucy Van Pelt said it this way, “All I want is my fair share. All I want is what is coming to me!”

Have you noticed, as a Christian, that you can talk about God all you want, but if you try to talk about Jesus people start getting uncomfortable? That is because people can make a god out of anything and when you are talking about God they are picturing their little gods in their minds and everything is all rosy and utopian, we are all joining hands, we are the world type nonsense. But if you bring up Jesus that is putting Christianity on that very narrow path that Christ talked about and then we might have to live by Christ’s methods and actually live a life that honors the Father – at that point we can no longer live the way we really would like to and it brings us down man, it brings us down!

In my house we often talk about our will.  We have even personified our will, and we just call him Will.  We discuss how often our flesh wants us to do things that we shouldn’t, but that Will can help us do the things we don’t want to do.  We either have a weak will or a strong will.  A child with a weak will has not been trained to rise above and do what should be done.  He tends to do what he wants instead of doing what he knows he should.  In our society we often confuse strong will for weak will.  A child who throws a fit and wants everything his way is often called the strong willed child.  This is not a true way of describing that behavior.  A child who can rise to the challenge of denying self, and can instead of pacifying his fleshly lusts, can turn from his desires to do what is right is a strong willed child.  We as parents should cultivate the will of the child by teaching them to do the things they know they ought to do on a daily basis.