Practice What You Preach!

Years ago I mentioned in a sermon that young people should never take up smoking. I hadn’t planned to say much about it, but we had several smokers in the audience, and when I urged the youth not to take up tobacco one ofthe smokers said a loud “Amen.” I got bold and repeated my point and asked if I could hear some more “Amens.” I pressed the point asking, “Can’t I hear some more ‘Amens’?” That got most of the ones who smoked to say “Amen.” Then I hit the pulpit and demanded, “Why don’t you practice what you preach?”

(David Pharr, Christian Messenger, February 2009, p. 6)

Statesmen Versus Superstars

Henry Kissinger wrote in his memoir “Years of Renewal”: “The great statesmen of the past saw themselves as heroes who took on the burden of their societies’ painful journey from the familiar to the as yet unknown. The modern politician is less interested in being a hero than a superstar. Heroes walk alone; stars derive their status from approbation. Heroes are defined by inner values; stars by consensus. When a candidate’s views are forged in focus groups and ratified by television anchorpersons, insecurity and superficiality become congenital.”

A superstar, not a statesman, today leads our country. That may win short-term applause from foreign audiences, but do little for what should be the chief foreign policy preoccupation of any U.S. president: advancing America’s long-term interests.

Karl Rove – Wall Street Journal / http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124044156269345357.html

Legislating Morality

How often have you heard the assertion that politics and religion do not mix? Or ‘you can’t legislate morality’? These kinds of statements are repeated so often that many people take them as gospel…The very nature of legislation involves value judgments. Some things are deemed right and legal; other things are wrong and illegal. That is morality. I believe the question is not if morality can be legislated. The question is whose morality will be legislated? (pp. 14-15)

—-How Would Jesus Vote? D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe

An Excellent Article

Worldly and

Inconsistent

Living

A story is told of a denominational preacher who justified being unable to answer a scriptural point by saying, “You people are better at arguing the Bible, but we are better at living it.” Regardless of the bias in his claim, it does remind us that sound doctrine needs to be accompanied with sound conduct.

-David R. Pharr

The above quote is a favorite from the linked article entitled “Worldly and Inconsistent Living” by David R. Pharr of Rock Hill, South Carolina.