I never knew this about Adolf Hitler . . .

He was lazy.

Contrary to the carefully-crafted, hardworking-Fuhrer public-relations image put forth by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler was a lazy bum.  An article called "Even Less to Admire" states the following:

"In the years leading up to war, he would go off on holiday for six months at a time, leaving no one in charge of Germany.  An interview with Herbert Dohring, his former bodyguard, revealed that Hitler frequently overslept, refused to write down his policies, and rarely issued written orders.  He refused to look at state documents and hated making decisions.  The result was "total chaos."  As far as Hitler was concerned, problems sorted themselves out."

Laziness is a character trait that is opposed to everything that is good and right in this world.  Even in Solomon's time, he observed the vices that came with laziness.  Several proverbs bear this out:

"How long will you lie there, you sluggard?  When will you get up from your sleep?  (6:9)

"I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins." (24:29-30)

"As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed."  (26:14)

Laziness has no place in the life of a Christian.  Laziness shows a lack of character that is deeper than simply oversleeping or refusing to work.  Laziness is the result of an abdication of the tasks that God has placed us here on this earth to accomplish.

Laziness also has a "cousin Eddie" that comes along with it:  excuse-making.  Laziness and excuse-making have no place in the life of a believer.  God is very concerned with our character, and the presence of these two evils twins in our lives are indicators that something is seriously wrong.

Contrasting Adolf Hitler and his laziness, I now give you the story of one of God's greatest servants, and a personal hero of mine, John Wesley:

"John Wesley averaged three sermons a day for fifty-four years.  In his work of evangelism he traveled by horseback or by carriage more than 200,000 miles.  His published works include a four-volume commentary on the whole Bible, a four-volume work on church history, six books on church music, and seven volumes of sermons.  He also edited a set of fifty books known as The Christian Library.  He was greatly devoted to pastoral work, taking on himself the care of all the Methodist churches, never rising later than 4 a.m. and seldom concluding his labors before 10 p.m." -Our Daily Bread

Of all the vices in our lives, laziness and excuse-making need to be near the top of things we have to eliminate from our lives NOW.  God is not honored by our half-hearted efforts at life; He is not honored by laziness at work, in marriage, in our Christian lives, or in anything else.  On the contrary, God's name is downplayed and minimized when those people that call Him Lord and Savior are known as lazy excuse-makers, allowing the non-Christians around them to work harder and accomplish more than they themselves do.  

Driving this laziness in our country is the growing entitlement mentality that is invading our culture and destroying our way of life.  People are becoming more and more dependent on others, allowing others to do the work for them, expecting the good life and benefits as if it were owed to them.  It used to be shameful in this country to make a lifestyle out of receiving charity and handouts.  People would rather die than take a handout- it was insulting to their dignity and to their pride.  Now, this does not apply to hardworking people that have come on hard times.  I have known many hardworking people that for a short season in life need assistance.  I am not talking about them.  I am talking about the growing number of people who are not only perfectly content living off of others, but are now practically demanding it from others.

It is to God's glory for His people to be hardworking, responsibility-accepting people.  We trash the name of God when we are entitled, lazy excuse-makers.  Let's rid ourselves of this way of thinking and commit ourselves to accomplishing what God wants us to accomplish here on this earth.

Dying for Christ is easy . . .

I have often wondered what would happen if someone put a gun to my head and asked me if I was a believer in Christ, knowing that if I answered, "Yes" he would pull the trigger and my life would be over.

Never having been in that situation, I really don't know what I would do.  I would most likely say, "Yes,"- not because I'm particularly brave or because I have a death wish.  I would say "Yes" because I think it would be the easier of the two options.

I truly think dying for Christ is easier than living for Christ.

To die for Christ in that situation would be a very quick thing.  You say "Yes" and you're dead.  End of story.  However, to LIVE for Christ takes a lifetime.  It takes daily surrender, daily spiritual discipline, daily study, daily battle with Satan, daily battle with discouragement, persecution, temptation, and falling away.

I'm probably more scared of going broke financially than I am of dying.  I think that doing what Jesus said in Luke 14:26-33, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. . . .
In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples," is harder than dying.  

Jesus is saying that the bare minimum requirement of being His disciple is to give up everything you have.  I think I'd rather die.  Seriously.  I truly think that I would rather take a bullet for Christ than give up everything I have.

See, if I were to take a bullet for Christ, my funeral would be grand.  I would be honored as a martyr- people would stand in line at the funeral to tell about what a soldier for Christ I was, how brave I was, how amazing my witness for Christ was.  I would go down in history as a hero.

However, if I were (as an American Christian) to sell everything I have, including my home, and give to the poor as Jesus instructed in Mark 10, I would be regarded as odd.  Strange.  "Extreme."  

I would have to suffer the daily privations that would go along with having nothing.  I would have to depend on God for daily food.  I would take no vacations, have no retirement, no luxuries.  I wouldn't know who won American Idol.  I wouldn't be able to take pictures of my kids and post them on Facebook.  I would have to endure and persevere and press on day after day, month after month, year after year.

That, I believe, is more difficult than dying for Christ.  And yet, most of us WON'T die for Christ.  Most of us will never have that opportunity.  So, we are stuck with the hard, impossible task of daily living for Christ.

But someone says, "Dave, you really aren't giving up anything that matters.  You gain the sweet fellowship with Jesus, the daily encouragement of the Holy Spirit, and you will see the amazing blessings in living the life of faith you just described."

I agree.  In living for Christ, we really don't give up anything that matters.  None of the things that I just named matter in the context of eternity.  Plus, there are blessings in living for Christ- fellowship, worship, family, watching the Spirit move through you to make an eternal difference in peoples' lives, etc.

I think this is why the apostle Paul said, "I am torn- I long to depart and be with Christ, which is much better, but it is necessary that I remain here for you."  

Given a choice between dying for Christ (in an instant) and living for Him over the course of a lifetime, which one would you choose?  Which one do you think is easier?

Changing no one but myself

One of the realizations as you get older is that you truly don't have a lot of influence.  Oh sure, you can help guide some people, but we truly are powerless to change anyone.

Except ourselves.

Let's face it- I can't make anyone more responsible, more loving, more forgiving, more respectful, or more joyful.  I can't make anyone less sinful, less bitter, less spiteful, or less despicable.  I can't make people do anything they don't want to do.

I can, however, make MYSELF more responsible, more loving, more forgiving, more respectful, and more joyful.  I can make myself less sinful, less bitter, less spiteful, and less despicable.

The only person I have control over is me.  Therefore, that's where all my energy needs to go.

I am the only one who will determine the depth of my relationship with God.  I alone control how much time I spend in Scripture, how much of my life I surrender to God, who and what I pray for, and how I will love people.  Instead of wondering why other people don't do things like I think they should, or fretting over someone else's lifestyle or decisions, I think I will divert my energy into changing only one person.

Myself.

Along with the realization that we can change no one except ourselves comes the realization that many times we don't allow God to be God.  Don't the Scriptures tell us that it is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict and challenge people to change?  Why, then, do we as Christians feel the need to play the role of the Holy Spirit?

It is true that the Bible tells us to speak truth.  That much is certain.  We are not supposed to pass over sin or evil without so much as a peep.  That being said, however, instead of trying to change other people, how about we pray and ask the Holy Spirit to change other people?  I'll let you in on a secret- the Holy Spirit does a MUCH better job of changing people than we do.  After all, He's God.

I think we as Christians would do a better service to this world, to our churches, to our families, and to ourselves if we simply attempt to change no one but ourselves.  I wonder what would happen if instead of trying to CHANGE people, we simply LOVED people and let the Holy Spirit do the changing.  Maybe we should divert the time and energy we have spent trying to change people into time and energy spent in prayer. 

It takes great faith in God to put this into practice.  After all, what if the Holy Spirit doesn't follow through?  What if He doesn't change the person? 

If the Holy Spirit can't change the person, you certainly can't either.

Simply love the people.  That is within your power, and it is within your responsibility.  Maybe the person who needs to change is YOU.  There is nothing stopping you from loving.  Nothing, that is, except yourself. 

Let God be God.  Change no one but yourself.  Love everyone including yourself. 

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  The second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.  This sums up the Law and the Prophets."  -Mark 12:28

Why Benghazi doesn't matter and what that says about America

I've heard that there was a terrorist attack on our embassy in Libya about 7 months ago and four Americans were killed.  I've heard testimony that our military could have gone in and protected them, but they were ordered to stand down.  Then I heard that the current administration blamed the terrorist attack on a childish, poorly-directed youtube video making fun of Muslims.

Now there is all kinds of testimony going on showing how unbelievably screwed-up the whole situation is, probably leading to the White House and State Department itself.

And it doesn't matter one bit.  There will be no fallout politically for Obama or Clinton or anyone else in government, because America has changed.

Time warp back to 1974.  The news media reports that President Richard Nixon lied to the American people about his involvement in the Watergate break-in.  The American people hear the story and say, "Our president lied to us.  We don't want someone who lies to us leading this country."  Nixon resigns before he is impeached.

Fast-forward to 2013.  Some of the news media reports the Benghazi catastrophe.  The American people hear the story, but they don't say, "Our President lied to us."

One-half of the American people hear the story and say, "Well, that's just the Republicans politicizing the event.  They are just haters."  The other half, who hated Obama in the first place, say, "This just proves why this guy needs to get out of the White House."

We don't want truth anymore.

It doesn't matter if President Obama is completely at fault and is responsible for the deaths of the ambassador and the Navy SEALS.  If Fox News reports it, even if it's true, it is written off by Obama supporters as "hatin' on the President."

And before you think that this is all on the left side of the aisle, the folks on the right are just as bad.  When Bush implemented the Patriot Act and liberals screamed about government intrusion, Bush supporters blew them off.  When Bush established the unconstitutional Department of Homeland Security (something that has conservatives VERY concerned right now), folks on the right had no problem.  Now that Obama has simply continued Bush's policies, Obama gets the flak from the right and support on the left.

What this means is that it truly doesn't matter what happens in America anymore.  No one cares about truth.  They only care about their side.  And that is a dangerous place to be as a country.

This is why conservatives that are saying, "Stick a fork in this president- he's done" over the Benghazi incident are sorely mistaken.  I predict there will be no fallout whatsoever, because the folks that liked Obama before Benghazi will still like him, and the folks that couldn't stand Obama before Benghazi will still hate the guy.  Because we are a nation that doesn't care about truth or facts, our leaders will continue to do whatever they want and get away with it.

We will continue to hear stories like the butcher (also known as Kermit Gosnell) in the abortion clinics, and the pro-abortion people will argue racism or bury the story, while the pro-life people will holler and scream.  In the end, nothing will be done about it nationally.  There is no rationality, no objectivity, no sense of collective right and wrong left in this nation anymore.  We have completely thrown out any criteria for judging right and wrong, and so all we are left with is "how we feel" about an issue.

So what if the President lied to us?  We've thrown out the criteria that lying is bad!  So, because we don't collectively believe that lying is something a President shouldn't do, we give him a pass.  So what if an abortion doctor snipped the necks of live babies?  We've thrown out the criteria and killing babies is bad.  So, because we don't collectively believe that killing live babies is wrong, we explain away his behavior.

This is a sad statement about America.  It shows how far we have drifted as a nation.  We are a nation without a foundation, without moorings, without objectivity.  We are a nation that refuses to define good and evil.  We are a nation that would be unrecognizable by our founding fathers.  We are a nation that does not care about truth; we have replaced truth with subjective "feelings" that guide us irrationally and erratically.

Unless America wakes up and begins to care about truth again, we will not survive. 

We hear so much about parenting, but what about kids?

I've written a lot about parenting- well, that stands to reason, because I'm a parent.  We tend to blog and write and focus on things that are important to us.  There is an awful lot in the blogosphere about parenting.  However, in order to be a parent, you have to have children. 

There is a lot written about being a good parent- is there much about being a good son or daughter?

Not much.

It is interesting, however, that the first seven chapters of Proverbs are instructions from a father to his son.  They all start with the words, "My son . . . . " The very first proverb of Solomon in chapter 10 is about children, "A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son brings grief to his mother."  The Bible has a great deal to say about not only being a good parent, but also being a good son or daughter.

Why is this important?  Why can't we as a society just focus on good parenting?  Isn't that enough?

Nope. 

Someone once said, "Before you can be a good leader, you have to be a good follower."  Before you can be the CEO, you have to be the hourly employee.  You won't be any good whatsoever as the CEO if you don't do the daily mundane non-glorious jobs of the low man on the totem pole.

The same is true with parenting.  If you have no submission to parental authority in your past, you will be a terrible parent.  If you are one who bristles at anyone telling you what to do (as a child), you will be hell on earth to any kids you will have.  If you never learn to respect your parents, or any other authority figure in your life, you will be a scourge to your kids and all others who come into contract with you.  You have to learn how to follow before you can lead.

It is very important that we learn how to be good sons and daughters.

Now, this is a touchy subject, because not all parents are perfect.  Some parents are even any good at all.  Parents make mistakes, and it is very difficult to respect a parent that is not respectable.  It is difficult to be a good son or daughter to parents that are irrational, violent, abusive, manipulative, distant, inconsistent, or neglectful.  Those situations are unique and I am not discussing them here.

But what does it mean to be a good son or daughter?

If you read the book of Proverbs, it tells you in detail the answer to that question.  The first thing that good sons and daughters do is they bring joy to the parents (Proverbs 10:1).  Now, all parents have times when their children drive them nuts.  I did that to my parents and my kids do that to me.  What this proverb talks about is over the long haul, not isolated incidents.  A good son or daughter makes parenting a joy, not a burden.  So, ask yourself- does my relationship with my parent(s) bring them joy or sorrow?  Do my actions towards them turn their hearts towards me or against me?  Am I a stench in their nostrils or am I sweet perfume? 

The second thing that Proverbs tells us is that a good son or daughter works hard (Proverbs 10:5).  A lazy son or daughter is a disgrace to parents.  It puts terrible burdens of undone housework and chores on them.  It also almost guarantees conflict when the child refuses to grow up and get a job to support himself or herself.  Nothing pains a parent more than seeing his child do less than his best.  So ask yourself, "Am I am person with a good work ethic?  Am I constantly being reminded of what to do?  Do I purposefully procrastinate and lay around when there is work to be done?  A hardworking son or daughter is a blessing to the parents.  It is pure joy to parents to see their children self-motivated and industrious, because that means they have lots of character.

The third thing Proverbs tells us is that a good son or daughter responds well to discipline and correction (Proverbs 13:1).  A child, or adult child, that will not respond to discipline or correction is a thorn in the flesh to any parent.  They are rebellious and defiant without any submission to authority, and people like this never get anywhere in this world.  It pains parents to see their children go off on wrong paths and never respond to any kind of correction.  However, good sons and daughters make mistakes, get their rear ends whooped for it, and learn from it.  They respect the fact that their parents are the authority, they realize the mistake, and they don't make it again.  Parents understand that children make mistakes and are blessed when they see their children learning from them.  A child who takes correction and discipline well will be a blessing to all people.  We can't say the same about the opposite.

The fourth thing Proverbs tells us is that good sons and daughters have a great vision for life (Proverbs 23:17-18).  They don't envy "sinners"- they have no desire to follow the wrong crowd.  Instead, they have a vision for who they want to be and where they want to go, and this is a blessing to parents.  Instead of letting the bad characters around them determine their lives, they determine their lives for themselves.  They see a vision and go after it, committing themselves wholeheartedly for it.  Proverbs says, "There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off" when that vision is followed.

The fifth thing that Proverbs tells us is that good sons and daughters choose their friends wisely (Proverbs 23:19-20).  We used to have a saying in youth ministry, "Parents, show us your kid's friends, and we'll show you your kid."  In other words, who the kid hangs out with is who the kid is.  Plain and simple.  A good son or daughter realizes that his or her friends will determine the path in life.  It is a blessing to parents to see their children choosing their friends wisely.  It is a thorn in the flesh for children to choose the wrong kinds of friends.  Parents are very concerned about who has influence over their children, and it is a joy for the parents to be able to trust their child's friends.

Now, I am a parent, but I am also a son.  I will never stop being a son, and therefore, I will never stop needing to be a good son to my parents.  My father is 67 years old, and he is STILL a son to his mother (his father passed away in 1996).  You never stop being a son or a daughter, and therefore this is not just a blog for teenagers and children.  Many times, adult children have failed their parents, just as parents have failed their adult children.  It is paramount to realize that the onus is not 100% on the parents.  God did not set it up that way.  Children have the responsibility as well. 

Are you a good son or daughter?