Common Sense

Reading through Proverbs this month. There's so much in there that everyone could benefit from, even atheists. Has me thinking, what if it were repackaged with a new name, in order to get more people to pick it up? You know, something like, "Common Sense." But it occurs to me that it's no longer common to all or even a majority of Americans. It's actually tipped over into "Uncommon Sense" territory. And what a shame that is.

This all reminds me of Common Sense, Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet that turned people's opinions towards independence. Maybe it's time for another one, but tailored for spiritual independence. Hmm. (cue the sound of gears turning).

Starting this fall, our mid-week adult small group series has a "Back to the Future" feel. In order, they are:

- Person of Interest (A cold case detective looks at Jesus)
- Drive Through History: From Columbus to the Constitution (America's founding)
- Where Do We Go From Here? (A look at the last couple of years.)

I'm leading the middle one, and always knew that I wanted to do a "warm up" act of sorts each week. So it's going to be Common Sense. I will go through the 10 Commandments, showing their relevance to today, pointing out all the contemporary things going on for each one of them. Gloom and doom for sure, if we don't use the common sense/Proverbs that God has given us.

common sense...........hmm lets see......I feel like I have heard this term long ago in the past. But I haven't seen any recent examples to jog my memory of what that is.

Its hard to think that young Americans could get any dumber...yet each day I am proven wrong

History lesson - please bear with it. Got a modern copy of Common Sense yesterday. Back in 1776, half a million copies were sold during a multitude of printings. I decided to see what a first edition copy could be bought for. Cough! An auction house has one for $60,000.

Born in England, Thomas Paine had only been in America for a year and a half when he wrote his most famous work. He had impressed Benjamin Franklin back in Paris, who gave him a letter of introduction. He then joined the Continental Army, serving as a general's aide. He wrote a series of letters, called The American Crisis, which George Washington made mandatory reading. They buoyed the soldiers' spirits in that rough first year.

After the colonies gained their independence, he went back to Paris and continued to write of "revolutionary" ideals. In absentia, England convicted him of treason. At first, he supported the French Revolution, but saw its excesses and tried to reason with the Jacobins. That got him thrown into prison and condemned to the guillotine. He wrote to Washington to intervene, but was ignored. Only bad prison paperwork saved him from the blade and he was released after 10 months.

Back in the States, he lost favor over his criticism of Washington. He died in New York, largely forgotten. His bones were stolen by an admirer and taken back to England, but they're now lost.

He was pretty much a man without a country. He was also a man who chose to be without a Savior. He was a Deist, denying the divinity of Christ. What a shame.

Came across something before church this morning, which did a great job in summarizing what I'm thinking. (Especially given Thomas Paine's painful history.) Paraphrasing it...

Our country finds itself in a great battle. It needs to choose between the American Revolution and the French Revolution. In other words, do we allow God to guide our steps, or do we choose to deny God? The choice is simple, yet hard. The answer is actually very clear, given our knowledge of history. But, given the prevalent cultural winds, we know it will come at a price.

Let me close with a Thomas Paine quote. "It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error. If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

A lot of views on this thread in only 3 weeks. What is it that strikes a chord with you? Is there something in here that we should develop and run with? Come on, guys. Iron sharpens iron.

The following is not related to the Topic, but it IS related to your question.

So, in the past 5 weeks:

I had to take my wife for cataract surgery for her left eye, and followup appointments.

I had to go to the doctor, who replaced my knee, because it was stiffening up to the point that I was trying to choose whether to go to hydrocodone or alcohol for the pain.  (Eventually got a round of steroids.)

We spent a couple of days, visiting a very good friend from church, a Vietnam Veteran Airborne Ranger, who was in the hospital.  He later died, and I (completely unexpectedly) was asked to give his Eulogy.....for which I was sleepless for three nights, trying to make sure that I got it right.
 
I also had to assemble the Honor Guard, rehearse the Firing Squad, then leave the Funeral early, to be waiting as the Firing Squad Commander, when the family arrived.

I had to take my wife for cataract surgery for her right eye, and followup appointments.

My son came down from Wisconsin, deciding that he wanted to move here.  We spent a week, making appointments, shopping for houses, and helping him to make the bid and arrange for the purchase of a home in Florence, Alabama.

We drove on a 10 day trip to Rochester, Minnesota to a family reunion.  During that time, my wife tripped on a floor rug, fell into a door jamb, split her head open, and got to visit the emergency room of the world-famous Mayo Clinic, where she received 7 staples in the top of her head.

Other than that, sorry for not being more active on the Interweb.

That sounds a lot like my whole summer, in which I eventually allowed myself to indulge in a mini-Job moment. Our experiences remind me of a framed poster that my future mother-in-law had on the wall. "Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to live life."

I pray that your recent trials are healing and resolving. And if your knee continues to bother you, hey, you've now got your son there to carry you around.

Common sense/cents is so hard to come by these days that the price has gone up. That's if you can even find it. Reminds me of Abraham trying to find even 10 righteous men in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Common sense is preempted by wokeness. The article below will, or should, make you scream. One, because of the sheer stupidity of a British religious school calling out their own Scriptures as homophobic. (Because throwing God under the bus is such a smart idea.) And two, because it's coming here. Oh, wait. It already is.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/uk-school-chaplain-sues-being-fired-reported-terrorist-sermon-questioning-lgbtq-activists

Another lack of common sense...

When it comes to law enforcement, America has incredibly wide mood swings. For example, vigilantes to prison reform to Three Strikes And You're Out to a broken windows policy to an unequal justice system to Defund the Police to record gun purchases to no cash bail. What kind of message does that send, to criminals and victims alike?

"By justice, a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down." (Proverbs 29:4)

I'm reading "Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence," first published in 1848. It's amazing how many of them were pastors, or the sons and grandsons of pastors. Certainly they were all Christians. Here's a quote from Patrick Henry: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

I'm looking around to the way things are here in America today, and I'm wondering, "What if we hadn't fought for freedom back then, but only got around to it today?" Would it be the Christians who stand up, demanding their God-given rights? And what would be the response? Would the authorities be calling us Christian Nationalists? Would the authorities be tagging us as domestic terrorists? Hmm. They wouldn't do that, would they?

Been working on my Common Sense/Drive Thru History lessons and something occurred to me. Why is the Left so unwilling to view America's history from a historical perspective? Yes, slavery was abominable. But it was an ancient, world-wide institution that was in Africa and the Americas well before Europe got involved with it in the 1600's. Yes, some of our founding fathers were slave owners, and most of them, upon their deaths, freed their slaves.

In outlawing slavery, the English beat us by 29 years. And as far as I know, America was the only country to fight a civil war over it. But here we are, 160 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Left is tearing down statues and renaming military bases, trying to erase history.

Yet one political party still gets a pass for trying to keep slavery legal. The same party that kept segregation alive for over a century after the Civil War. The same party that has produced our current president who fought against desegregation efforts throughout the 70's. Why isn't this political party cancelled and shamed into non-existence? Is it because leftists and this political party are one and the same?

"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." (Ecclesiastes 10:2)

Man, has the world changed drastically in the last couple of years, or what? One study shows that, because of COVID, the average church has seen an attendance drop of 40%. That's exactly where my church finds itself. And the emigration of people out of the big cities has driven up housing prices elsewhere. That's especially true of my area. People who are paying rent today pay more than what people are paying for their new mortgages from only two years ago.

Some of us older volunteers are getting tired after decades of continual service. No sabbaticals for us. But we have had absolutely no luck finding an associate pastor to add to our staff. Young people coming out of Bible college seem to be looking for a big salary, or else they can't afford to move out of their area and go to an expensive one. Interns can't be found, either. What's a church to do?

We intend to duplicate success. About a year ago, we hired our first-ever paid worship leader. She already lived in our town, and she already had a job. She was tickled pink to be able to prep the musicians on one night, and lead us in worship on Sunday morning...for $100 a week. Imagine that. A paid worship leader with an annual salary of only $5000. Next up: a youth leader and then a children's ministry leader. We already have a couple of qualified candidates in mind.

The world has changed. Doing church is changing. We need to think out of the box and meet the challenges with Spirit-inspired ideas. It's only common sense to do so.

joecool wrote:

We intend to duplicate success. About a year ago, we hired our first-ever paid worship leader. She already lived in our town, and she already had a job. She was tickled pink to be able to prep the musicians on one night, and lead us in worship on Sunday morning...for $100 a week. Imagine that. A paid worship leader with an annual salary of only $5000. Next up: a youth leader and then a children's ministry leader. We already have a couple of qualified candidates in mind.

While we still had the mortgage on our house, and were paying interest on it, we came up with "Creative Giving" to the Church.

My wife had been a (fairly high) financial coordinator in Milwaukee County, handling a staff budget of several million dollars, annually. A couple of years after we moved here, she was offered the position of Church Secretary, working a few partial days per week, with a salary of about $95.00 per week.

We live in Mississippi, and our church is in Alabama. (Because of no reciprocity), we would have to file taxes in 2 states, and of course, add the $5,000.00 to our Federal Income Tax.

If you drive to work, you cannot deduct it from your taxes, but if you are donating for a charity, you can. It is only a 14 mile round trip, but as we went to church about 3 times per week, and that involved the Collection (I was Head-Usher, and she was the Secretary-Treasurer), we each had to be there for that.

I had about 2 days of prep for Royal Rangers per week, and she had 2 or 3 days of office work during non-service hours. We drove separate vehicles, and so this totaled 12 trips x 14 miles x about 50 weeks = 8,400 deductible miles per year. Also, we still tithed, but we deducted the $95.00 that she would have taken as salary as a portion of our giving.

After the Trump Tax Cuts and we had paid our mortgage, we no longer have the tax deduction advantage, and we just do the Tax Short-Form with no deductions. But she still donates her work to the Church, as we can afford it, and if she took the salary, it would just be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

So my point being, you can use some creative work/giving/deductions, and it is all above-board.

Eating lunch onboard ship, I once sat across from a sailor whose name caught my interest. "Are you related to...?" His answer was yes. His great-great-grandfather invented the Gatling gun. And the sailor was a modern-day Gunner's Mate.

No doubt that tens of thousands of Americans can trace their family lineage to one of the Founding Fathers. Did it affect their chosen occupation? Do they look around at what has become of America today and silently apologize for what's happened? What if your g-g-g-g-grandfather was Patrick Henry? Should it make any difference?

I think we should each take a stand in whatever area the Lord leads us to. Lord knows there are enough areas under attack by a small, yet committed and effective godless cadre.

",,,he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." (Psalm 40:2)

joecool wrote: I'm looking around to the way things are here in America today, and I'm wondering, "What if we hadn't fought for freedom back then, but only got around to it today?" Would it be the Christians who stand up, demanding their God-given rights? And what would be the response? Would the authorities be calling us Christian Nationalists?

There are different definitions of what a Christian Nationalist is, depending on the source. Of course, the left screeches that CNs are the spawn of Hitler. What the left is trying to do is tar and feather us before we get any traction in pushing back against their steamroller. I think back to the last time Christians were mightily involved in political activism, that being Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority. It lasted about a decade at most. Looking back to 1979, when it was founded, I can't think of a single victory for Christians in the 43 years since. While the Moral Majority may have gotten a lot of conservatives elected, they had no effect on the culture. We've lost every single moral issue, every single time. At best, it might have temporarily slowed the culture rot, and that rubs raw.

The article below addresses my frustrations and political impotence. I just want to mortar in the final bricks in the wall and hunker down, Benedict Option-style. But it also reminds me that though the battle is God's, I cannot withdraw as His foot soldier.

https://stream.org/each-half-of-the-country-thinks-the-other-are-unfit-parents-and-one-half-is-right/

Pastor Robert Jeffress (Baptist-TX) recently said:

" We always put our love for God above everything, even allegiance to our country. But that's not what (the left) is talking about. Listen carefully. They say that they are opposed to people who say America was founded as a Christian nation, Americans who believe not only in the spiritual heritage of our nation, but believe that we ought to use elections to help return our country to its Christian foundation. If that's Christian Nationalism, count me in. Because that's what we have to do. And what's so hypocritical about this is, the left don't mind at all imposing their values on our country through the election process."

I was a Democrat back in the early 70's. It's been overtaken by the radical left, who knowingly or ignorantly serve Satan. At the same time, I don't look at the GOP through rose-colored glasses. If born-again Christians weren't invested in the Republican party (forcing them to at least pay lip-service to us) what would it look like? A slimy, Mitt Romney/Lynn Cheney organization of money-grubbing elites who cross the aisle to their culture-clones. Are we the only thing that keeps the GOP from being absorbed into the other party?

Common sense tells us to stay focused on our Savior and King. He has the big picture and everything is coming together. The long-term plan isn't so far away from being concluded.

How many of you know the history of our country? It's not a guess to say that those on Ranger Chat are probably pretty knowledgeable. But how about your kids? Your fellow workers? Your non-Christian friends? The "selfie generation?"

Here's a scary question. What about their knowledge of church history and teachings? Common sense says that ignorance leads to poor decisions and consequences. Just look at the state of our country and the approaching cliff edge. Which of us ignores the prompting of the Holy Spirit or only opens the Bible once a week when the pastor announces his message's key verse?

That doesn't make any sense.

All the election results aren't in, but let's face it. There wasn't a common sense wave. Even after the last two years of godless governance that produced nothing but misery, there just isn't a voter's mandate to change anything. This country remains split when it comes to the kind of future we want. "Thank you, sir! May I have another?" (Veterans will understand that phrase.) Apparently, masochists are now 51% of the voters.

Abraham Lincoln warned that a country divided against itself will not stand, and we've been falling for decades. The culture is squarely in the camp and control of the left. The absence of effective push back will only embolden them to increase their efforts. Born-again, Bible-believing Christians are the only thing that stands in the way. And we will increasingly be viewed not as fellow Americans, but as targets to be destroyed.

Prayer, not politics, is our strength.

joecool wrote: Common sense tells us to stay focused on our Savior and King. He has the big picture and everything is coming together. The long-term plan isn't so far away from being concluded.

Last night, in a brief conversation about the election results, my pastor may have said it best. As I recall, it went like this: 'If there was a big red wave and the country turned around, that would have meant the Rapture was still far off, right?"

our country is lost. The people have rejected life & chosen death. (Abortion was on the ballot in Michigan)

We will be judged.

Best to be on the side of the King

ccm2361 wrote:our country is lost. The people have rejected life & chosen death. (Abortion was on the ballot in Michigan) We will be judged. Best to be on the side of the King

In my state, too. The voters turned down making it mandatory to save the life of an aborted baby who is born alive. I just don't understand it. Montana is red, through and through, but wants to let babies die. We will be judged, indeed, and appropriately so.

joecool wrote: In my state, too. The voters turned down making it mandatory to save the life of an aborted baby who is born alive. I just don't understand it. Montana is red, through and through, but wants to let babies die. We will be judged, indeed, and appropriately so.  

Something occurred to me this morning, so I did a little research. The issue of capital punishment has been bandied back and forth between left and right for decades. Apparently, 7% of lethal injections have been botched since its introduction in 1982. In addressing this specific issue, anti-death penalty advocates have loudly protested, shouting "No second chances!" They say that a convict should receive a reprieve after surviving an execution. How is this any different from a baby surviving a state-allowed death sentence? Shouldn't such a baby get a second chance?