Exposed Values

Don't Spare Me

Don’t spare me failure
If it is what is best for me.
Don’t spare me sickness
If it will make me call on Thee.
Don’t spare me loneliness
For I remember Gethsemane.
Don’t spare me anything that you endured for me.

Don’t spare me heartache
You bore a broken heart for me.
Don’t spare me suffering
For I recall your agony
Don’t spare me anything that you endured for me
But give me strength to follow Thee.

--Hymn,

Author Unknown

I was in Bergen, Norway, up the coast on the North Sea. In this great sheep country, shepherds were demonstrating the “closeness” of sheep to the shepherd. In this context, they would bring their sheep into town, put them altogether in a large corral. It was truly amazing to watch a shepherd, staff in hand, walking to the opening of a corral and call his sheep. His sheep heard his voice and they came running. The other sheep heard this and paid no attention, and so it was with all the shepherds. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27)

My grandmother had a very large chicken yard, part of the large chicken house, her nursery (small apartment type units in which she put a hen with her brood after hatching and taking off the nest) the individual hens with their broods, usually about 12, (a setting of eggs) would be in the chicken yards, the mother hen scratching-showing her brood how to search for delicacies in the ground but these small chicks, brain about the size of a pinhead, could identify their mother hen's cluck. The loveliest and most formidable truism of God's creation, the identity of the young for the mother, the love of a mother for her young. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Philippians 4:8) If only Christianity were easy.

Very few individuals go through this complicated life “SPARED” of all sorrow. For many, it comes early, others late.

Very few escape the challenges of living.

Recently I had a visit from the superintendent of a historic NC children's home. Orphanages were a part of Christian discipleship, long before nursing homes. The early church saw the need to provide for orphaned children. My parents-ancestors, supporters of this Baptist orphanage. I have known many reared in an orphanage... always, without fail, they were a living testimony to the care received there. Like all of us with losses (sight, hearing, crippled, etc.) they were well aware of what they had lost. All, well aware of what they had gained in such a facility. Values of a home type-existence. One friend, told me about working on the children's home farm, another about milking cows. All knew routine, sharing, chores. I understand that with federal dollars, just as federal dollars have corrupted everything else, certainly education, federal dollars have placed orphan children in foster care where, debatable, foster care has become a financial “boom” for caregivers. So, only those children who are hard to place are now in orphanage facilities. I feel this is a challenge for both the home and the child. My concern, that whether an institution or private home, certain values are not forgotten... so important to instill values early in life.

Early in life, learn the values of responsibility, the discipline of self-control, routine, chores, patience.

In this world of “Must have it right now,” the importance of waiting as well as working... learning to “save” for things, knowing how to separate needs from wants, a value system.

Learn to accept disappointment, the great lie, that God does not want us happy, prospering.

Read all the literature in the world, all history-philosophy-science, you will not find another book like the Bible, and God can help you understand it. The problem, it takes work, and most people are lazy. God did not put precious gems on the surface of the earth. You find precious gemstones, gold, deep, you must dig, sort, sift. People who say they do not believe in God, the Bible, have not spent 20 hours in the hard work involved approving or disproving anything. Beyond comprehension, knowing that their eternal life is involved.

This writer has traveled the world, religion of every type on display. I have gone to priests, devotees of the strange religions in their strange temples, asking for help to show me their way of attaining “whatever they have to offer.” They are incapable of explaining anything, just going through the motions of rituals-habits. The priest is perfectly willing to give me a tradition... anointing my forehead. Muhammad placed everything in the Koran simply because of a vision, and the Muslim becomes a full disciple simply because of one man's vision. Take the spiritual-supernatural out of Christianity and you have nothing left. God communicates with His elect-chosen.

60 years ago, university medical school professor, Dr. W.C. George said to me, “the time will come that babies and old people, because of their expense, will become victims of society's advancement-greed.” Most healthcare dollars are spent on those over 85 years of age, the fastest growing segment of the population. In the Netherlands, already, roaming death squads, put the elderly-infirmed to death-euthanasia. Many do not want to die. The idea is advancing that babies can be killed, any logical reason, even months after birth. The 21^st century value system has been exposed.