March 2009 #1

BAD PARENTING: A co-missionary reminded me of problem we seldom hear much about, parents who teach their children to steal. One of my “Musings” brought it to his mind which in turn reminded me of an event many years ago when I managed the Sprouse Reitz Variety Stores. I was transferred to manage the store in Camas, Washington not long after the II World War. We had a lot of junk merchandize to clear out after the war. We had a large stock of men’s sox without elastic tops. Rubber was scarce during the war. I had marked down a lot of men’s sox and placed them on an end counter. Some were marked down more than others, being of better quality. In those days we had price tags held on by wire pins. I was up in my balcony office overlooking the store when I notice a mother and her two daughters at that end counter of sox. It was obvious what they were doing, switching price tags from the lesser valued sox with those that were of greater value. The mother was having her girls help make the switch. So, I went to the register to take the place of the clerk running it and waited for them to bring the merchandise to the check out. I quickly recognized what they had done and called them on the switch and told them to leave the store and to never return. I probably should have waited until they were outside the store, stopped them and called the police but that was too much hassle at the time. It is hard to believe parents would so teach their children to steal but apparently it still goes on. Parents will stand accountable before God for so teaching their children. We teach our children by example for good or bad and if you question that just observe how early small children pick up fowl language or slang when we don’t guard our tongues. Surely you have observed that.

CHANGING TERMS: Do you remember when the term “thousands of dollars” was used as a common term? Then we thought “a million dollars” was a lot of money. That has all changed as they now talk about multiplied “billions of dollars” and “trillions of dollars.” Have you noticed the change? Sad to say, most of us can’t even begin to comprehend what these new financial terms mean. I grew up at a time when a nickel bought a double scoop ice cream cone and a quarter bought a very large hamburger, a double tall glass milkshake and left over a nickel to buy a candy bar. It is hard to imagine our government giving away billions of dollars that when it is all said and done we won’t know what it bought. Our government has lost its compass and I am afraid we will have lost the Capitalism that made us great and exchanged it for European Socialism. Hang on; we are headed down the road of weakness and despair while setting the stage for Russia and the Arabs to move against Israel and ushering in the Great Tribulation. Call me a pessimist if you like but it has to come eventually and we should be rejoicing at the nearness of the coming rapture.

RELIGIOUS TRENDS; In case you missed it in the news there is a new report out now on religion that is causing quite a bit of discussion. (1) Catholics are now the largest religious group in the United States of America; (2) Baptists make up the second largest religious group; (3) Unbelievers have increased from 8% of our population to 15%; (4) More people now prefer not to identify themselves by any particular denominational group. This should concern true Christians for we are losing the battle for souls. We are also failing to make clear doctrinal distinctions. To reject a particular denomination group also means the lack of doctrinal beliefs because the various denominations held up certain Biblical beliefs. Those distinctions or beliefs are no longer important to people. For example, Baptists had convictions relating the importance of baptism and the autonomy of the local church; Methodism held up certain biblical beliefs based on the teachings of the Wesley brothers. Various founding beliefs have now been discarded for personal likes and dislikes rather than acceptance of biblical authority. These changes are moving to conditions that will make it easier for the anti-Christ to foist his anti-biblical positions upon the world. The further the churches move away to biblical authority the more susceptible people will be to the anti-Christ’s God denying leadership. Keep looking up.

OBAMA’S HYPOCRISY: President Barack Obama made promises while running for office that are rapidly being denied. He is finding it easier to make promises while seeking office than to fulfill them while facing a Democratically controlled Congress. Earmarks were suppose to go with his promises to scrutinize bills line by line, yet he just signed an omnibus bill with some 8,000 earmarks in it. Recognizing his own failure he refused to sign the bill publicly but did so behind closed doors with only a few present for the signing. Keep watching, this will not be his last showing of hypocrisy, there is no way he can keep the long list of promises made to his followers prior to the election. I wonder how long it will take those who voted for him to recognize their mistake.