Rebellion

Oh, give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above
Don't fence me in
Let me ride thru the wide-open country that I love
Don't fence me in
Cole Porter, Don't Fence Me In

These lines of a popular song in my youth probably did not start the rebellion of the hippie generation. It has always been man's nature to rebel, it started in the Garden of Eden, our first parents, not content to obey one rule in paradise. This was their only rule: not to touch one tree...the No-No tree. But, temptation in any form, even a serpent, who was probably very beautiful, is hard to resist. Oscar Wilde, the great British writer, said he could resist “anything but temptation”.

Many years ago, it seems now like another lifetime, I met one of the most colorful preachers I have ever known. An author of many books, he had come to this country from Ireland, speaking in many places. He met me at one of his speaking engagements and wanted me to examine his eyes as well as talk with me about some of my writing. It is the first time I ever heard the phrase, from the Bible, “to obey is better than sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 15:22) This remarkable man, born, educated and having lived in Ireland most of his life, started his ministry as a street preacher. He had memorized most of the Bible, because in preaching on the street, there was not enough light for reading. He asked me, since you are a committed Christian, such a Bible scholar, why did you not go into the ministry? I said, “I am not sure I obeyed, if called.” That is when he used this phrase “to obey is better than sacrifice”, and I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, he was pointing directly at my impending, complete blindness.

Natural law dictates compliance, laws, rules of conduct, can you even imagine a society, a country without laws? Every civilization, no matter how remote, has certain natural laws, even if they have never heard of Jesus Christ: laws against murder, laws against adultery, laws against the abuse of children, laws against one person stealing another person's “stuff”. God forbids adultery, and so does every decent fiber of the human body. God forbids murder, the sanctity of life from conception to the grave. Why does anyone, any political party, such as the Democrats, think they will escape God's wrath for permitting and promoting such. It is only in godless societies that old people do not receive decent care until death.

In Africa, old people are taken into the bush and left for disposal by wild animals. In the Arctic, old people are put on ice floes and put out to sea to be disposed of by wild animals. In Marxist, godless, totalitarian-controlled countries such as communist China, North Korea, eugenics and euthanasia as with Obama's death panels, old people will be disposed of quietly and quickly. This is real rebellion, rebellion as put forward by Planned Parenthood, the Hemlock Society, and other masters of rebellion.

How does a society, a school, a home live without rules, without discipline. In the home where I was reared, there were rules. My mother had rules at the table, rules about our general behavior, one of my favorite radio church services, the pastor asked children to behave in the building. Just before she died, one of my friends, Ann Evans Hendrick, who I knew when we were children, and whose father was a pastor, told me how her father took her into a Sunday school room and burned her behind up because she misbehaved during the church service. She said, “I will never forget your aunt Sara saying as I came out of the Sunday school room, 'I like to see a preacher who practices what he preaches'” She went on to live an important life, and I was with her last when I attended her father's funeral. Her father was a pastor for 75 years, a man of obedience, not rebellion.

Like my great grandfather, and other great, obedient, not-rebellious men. I give large cash awards in honor of these men each year. Appreciation, recognition for men who lived obedient lives, to rebel is easy, Satan is right there to help you out. To obey is difficult, often a real sacrifice. Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High...Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. (Psalm 107:11-17)

If liberals in government, the schools, the homes are trying to do everything possible to destroy government, schools, homes, they are certainly doing the right thing. If conservatives are doing what they can to restore government, schools, homes, they evidently are doing the wrong things. Many things are allowed, but we do them the wrong way. I believe God encourages and blesses in business, the professions, academia, but because of the influences of Madison avenue, “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches” (Mark 4:19), we are tempted to cut corners. To play the games of the world, rather than holding on to the exactness of a Holy God. Even Solomon, the world's wisest and richest man, had trouble with this. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

One of the great dilemmas of my life, I studying what the world thinks, what the specialists and experts think, reading all the “self-help” books, while trying to reconcile all these matters in obedience to an uncompromising God. God made us as we are, warts and all, perfect people have become an endangered specie. God has given us freedom of will, and the human mind thrives in freedom, there are 7,000 endangered animal species in the world today, among these, Tigers. Enterprising Europeans scientists set up cameras high in the Bhutan Himalayas (4000m high), they wanted pictures of an endangered species, the Bhutan Himalayan Tiger, they have their pictures, a remarkable achievement. So it is with the great Hubble Telescope or the great electronic microscopes. The ingenuity of man is not inhibited by his rebellion to cross new frontiers, he is just required to obey the One who put up fences in the first-place. Fences of safety, laws of nature, honesty.