Friday, June 30, 2017

Don’t Forget Your Calling

Our American schools are failing badly.  Even those with advanced college degrees find it hard to find employment, because as numerous employers have stated, graduates lack even the most basic skills needed for employment.  Many cannot read or write intelligibly or lack even basic math and arithmetic skills.  Most have only a superficial understanding of basic scientific principles, hardly any have basic critical thinking skills, and many have little or no sense of personal responsibility.  While many complain about immigrants taking away the jobs, many employers have found that those immigrants usually make more satisfactory employees because they have the necessary skills to do the job even though they have far less education.

In an effort to correct the problems, federal and state governments, and numerous educational organizations have developed various programs, including the No Child Left Behind program, Common Core, standardized testing programs and annual teacher and school evaluations.    Schools regularly switch curriculums, in an effort to find a more satisfactory program, and introduce special reading, math or special education programs to help those who are behind catch up.  Kids begin preschool at younger ages and more have college degrees than at any time in history, yet things continue to get worse.  Why?

Over the last few years, our society has changed dramatically, from a society where most people had strong connections to farms and agriculture to a society where a majority live in towns and cities and make their living in other occupations.  We can travel around the world in a matter of hours, and can see what is happening anywhere in the world thanks to satellite communications.  We can talk to people thousands of miles away on cellphones and can make purchases or do research in libraries around the world from our homes thanks to the internet.  Doctors do brain surgery, and open heart surgery on a regular basis, and we are able to locate and extract oil from far below the earth’s surface.  Political systems, moral codes and fashions have all changed.

As a result, our society has largely forgotten the old scientific laws principles in their rush to keep up with the new technologies, fashions and standards.  So called scientific writers state that we have overcome the law of gravity for example, and their statement is accepted without question.  While it is true that we can send a spaceship to other planets, it is because we have a better understanding of the laws of science and can use the principles of gravity in conjunction with other laws to make it happen, not because we have overcome the law of gravity.  Al Gore could predict, incorrectly as it turned out, that the glaciers would all be melted by 2020, because people forgot that as the sea warmed, evaporation would increase,, and increased evaporation would result in cooling the water, and ultimately the atmosphere.  Periods of global warming have been followed by periods of cooling throughout the earth’s existence, as geological and archaeological evidence proves.  Unfortunately people fall for such false claims because they have not learned the basic principles of science. 

Similarly, because we have ignored the basic principles of genetics, we are told that homosexuality is a genetic trait and cannot be helped, and that a transgender man can be a woman even though they are genetically male.  A major newssource recently reported that a man is pregnant.   Checking out the story, it was discovered that in fact, a woman who claims she is a man was having a baby.  Her claims did not change the fact that she is a woman, whether she believes them or not.   The changes in our world are superficial, and have not affected the underlying scientific principles. 

Unfortunately, many in the church have adopted the world’s attitude, and assume the old rules no longer apply.  We need to remember what God said in Malachi 3:5-6.  “And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”  If God changed, he would have destroyed al  mankind for their sin, but because he loves us he does not. 

God has not and will not change.  His plans and principles are the same as they were when the world was created.  In Matthew 5:18, Jesus said, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”  Because Jesus Christ does not change we need to make sure we do not follow different teachings according to Hebrews 13:8-9.  “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines…”

We need to recognize the job we have been given, of telling the world about God’s unchangeable plan, as Paul describes in Ephesians 3:8-11.  “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”


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