A MILLION $ FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!

William Andrew Dillard

Parson to Person

A MILLION $ FOR YOUR THOUGHTS!
Wow! Inflation is worse than figured! Not long ago it was a penny for your thoughts! So how could thoughts be worth a million dollars? First, thoughts have to be forwarded into action, so, think with me and I will show you how it can happen.
I have asked several groups of people if they knew the exacted price from those who run over a chicken in Germany. None knew. The guilty party not only pays for the chicken, but also for all the eggs it may have laid over its lifetime. That is considered the value of the chicken. This principle applies across the board of life.
When anyone places a dollar in the offering plates at church, he not only gives up the dollar, but also the interest it would have earned over his lifetime. That is the value of a dollar.
So suppose one tithes his income, or more, for a lifetime. Also consider that each dollar given might have earned an average of six percent annually over his years. If those tithes are $50, $100, $200 per week, and that was begun in early to midlife, just do the math. It becomes astronomical. Now consider that Jesus said that whatever one gives up (houses, lands, etc.) he will receive a hundredfold, Matt 19:29. Now multiply your astronomical number by 100. The world has never offered such an investment return, and material things even as fine as His, are the very least of the Lord’s offerings.
Two things must combine here: first, one’s heart, then his treasure. Jesus taught us that where one’s treasure is, there will his heart be also, Luke 12:34. Some complain that they cannot afford to give such amounts. That indicates a heart problem. Everyone must remember that the gold and silver; the cattle of a thousand hills; yes, the earth itself, and all therein; the money, too, belongs to the Lord, Psm. 50:10, 24:1, Hag. 2:8, I Cor. 10:26. He who demanded the tithe under the Mosaic Law provides opportunity for us all under grace to exceed that in church support, benevolence, mission work, and reaching out to others in need. Such are opportunities rather than obligations, and the cheerful giver who seizes upon them is indeed wise. He is accumulating great treasure in heaven which is both secure and eternal. Put into proper action a million dollars may be a pittance for your thoughts!

HOW MANY HUSBANDS/WIVES???

William Andrew Dillard

 Parson to Person

HOW MANY HUSBANDS/WIVES???
An experience common to modern man is that of occasional wondering just who it is that is staring back at him in the mirror. One preacher said that each time he wants to look into the mirror; some old man beats him there. Once while visiting an old friend in the hospital whom I had not seen in many years, he said, “I know I look different, and some things have changed, but I am still the guy you knew years ago.” Such is the often amazement of the aging process. In response to a question to one man by his wife: “will you love me when I am old and gray,” came the reply, “certainly; I have already loved you through six other colors!” On a more serious note, medical science tells us that with the exception of brain cells, every cell in the human body dies and is replaced every seven years, and it is the oxidation of cells creating imperfect replacements that accounts for the aging process. Hummm, every seven years! No wonder then that my wife has had eight husbands, and I have enjoyed eight wives! But alas, when brain cells die, they are not replaced. Could that mean there is a lot of short-circuiting going on between the ears? We are indeed a changing people in a changing world.
But, hold on, and rejoice! Our Creator/Savior is the same yesterday, today, and forever! So unchangeable also are His promises! The universal laws of sin and death are also unchangeable in the world of men. As the operation of those laws cause the human body to spiral downward into the clutches of death, so do they cause the very planet and all therein to spiral downward. It is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the most provable law of science. But something else is potentially going on. Potentially, that is, to those who may not know the Lord personally in the free pardon of sin, but reality in those who do. In Holy Writ it is so stated: “. . .but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” 2 Cor. 4:16. This is shouting ground! This is the ultimate defiance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics! It is the essence of everlasting life in the here and now that shall continue to be enjoyed in eternity.
It is a blessing to enjoy the multiple spouses all in one person that the aging process produces, but it is an exponentially greater blessing to know the eternal presence of spiritual life in Christ, and the exciting, invigorating hope it produces.

WHERE TO START

William Andrew Dillard

Parson to Person
Sometimes the question is asked, “Where should I start reading in the Bible?” Well, for the initial reader, I really would not recommend the genealogy chapters, although they are important. There are better places to “wade in” to the Word. For instance, if one likes suspense, adventure, romance, and a general all around thriller, there could be no better than Genesis.
However if one wants to be spellbound by the enormous faithfulness of God to His faithful people, the first few chapters of Daniel fills the bill. If one wants poetry and praise, look into the Psalms. For those enamored with knowledge, understanding and wisdom, Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are the books to read.
The great blessings of faithfulness, and curse of infidelity are impressive in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. War in conquest and defeat are the offerings of Joshua, Judges, and the books of Samuel. The Chronicles and Kings yield up much history of the ruling dynasties of Israel and of Judah, while the prophets’ books lay bare their burdens of condemnation of sin, and of hope in the end.
The gospels relate much of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the Old Covenant and the foundation of the New Covenant underscoring the terrible, but altogether loving sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son for all who would trust in Him.
Acts speaks of the empowerment of the Lord’s church and its initial mission efforts into all the world. The apostolic epistles are filled with doctrines that are to govern the Lord’s people throughout this age, and Revelation reveals the final victorious Christ Jesus together with events leading up to His displayed supremacy, and the final abode of His people in a new creation of which New Jerusalem is the focal point. Incidentally, since understanding Revelation depends on a good understanding of all the rest of the Bible, I usually do not recommend it for the initial reader, but I never dissuade anyone from reading it as much as they like.
So, Perhaps I have helped some along the way to choose an introduction to the eternal Word. It is prayed that all men might come to realize that mastery of the Bible as much as possible is the most important thing they will ever do. The “where to start” question is a thrill. It means someone is going to be exposed to life altering Holy Writ to their benefit and to the glory of God. Have you read any of the Word lately?

THE SUPREME CHARACTERISTIC

 

Author: William Andrew Dillard

 

Parson to Person

In the comics, Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck’s uncle, was extremely wealthy. He had a swimming pool filled with money into which he would gleefully dive and throw bills and coins into the air. Certainly, this is the antithesis of the spiritual world, but there is a comparison. Think with me about it.

From the essential, initial acquisition of the new birth, there flows a virtually endless bounty of spiritual blessings and acquisitions for the child of God. The Bible is simply chocked full of them, and they are all so good. They are good because they come from the Father of lights with whom there is no shadow of turning, and Who is the giver of every perfect gift. James 1:17

Identifying and amplifying on a list of these many things would take books of articles longer than this one. Yet, of all the things God has for His people to enjoy, the greatest is love. Love is extoled above charismatic gifts in the great love chapter of the Bible, I Corinthians 13.

Love is the core of Christianity: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 Thus, love is the foundational platform of the very possibility of our existence. But there is more!

When compared to other, great abiding characteristics, it is learned that faith is destined to end. It will give way to sight. Moreover, hope is also destined for extinction. It will give way to reality. But love is destined to never end. Why? Because, God is love! I John 4:8 Therefore, to love with a high and holy love as only God’s people among men can do, is to know and to share the very characteristic of God Himself. That love is life at its best, the evidence of God living and working in and through us.

Uncle Scrooge can have his pool of money. It is a fleeting, perishing part of a sinful world, but he who has true love enjoys a bit of heaven on earth, and is destined to know it in its fullest, uninterrupted form in eternity. I am ecstatic about being a Bible-believing Christian, enjoying the supreme characteristic!

 

THE LIMITED AND THE LIMITLESS

AUTHOR – William Andrew Dillard

Parson to Person
There is a conceptual wall separating the mortal and the immortal. Man is finite. God is infinite. The finite simply does not comprehend to any appreciable degree the infinite. In simple terms, God put it simply this way: “As the heavens are high above the earth, so are my ways to your ways and my thoughts to your thoughts, saith the Lord.” Isa. 55. It then behooves us who are finite to accept in full the presentation of God and his work to man as recorded in Holy Writ while avoiding the temptation to sit in His chair to postulate what he knows, and by which principles He is bound.
Still, it is an apparent, favorite pastime of bible students to build tenets of faith on what they insist God does or does not know based on their finite reasoning of spiritual principles. Perhaps revisiting the book of Job would be helpful. He longed for a meeting with the Creator until he got one. There he found himself as helpless and mentally and spiritually inept as a toddler would be to run a factory.
A particular case in point is the Eden scenario. It goes something like this: God knew man would sin before He created the planet; therefore, Adam and Eve had no choice but to do what God foreknew they would do. That is fatalism, unfounded, and contrary to the whole presentation of the Bible. If such nonsense were true, God would not have given Adam and Eve the bone fide offer of eternal life in the fruit of a tree. Such would be simple mind games.
Alas! Adam and Eve did plunge themselves and their posterity into a world of sin and death by casting down that perfect order in Eden, but, Thank God, the Lord Jesus, the Christ stood as a Lamb slain from the casting down of that order. The entire interlude of sin in the world of men provides the opportunity to overcome it through the triumphant cross-work of the God-man: Jesus, and to see that perfect order restored in ages to come. Meanwhile sin is shown to have no intrinsic value by which it may claim right to continued existence other than in the hell reserved for its founder and practitioners who have rejected the grace of God. One may claim he does not understand all of this. Then welcome to the club. It is not to be understood, rather it is to be believed without reservation. By His own revelation to us, the “limited” may know and live the faith of the “Limitless.” This is only possible in Christ Jesus. This then is the emphasis of the resurrection; the meaning of Easter; the continuous first day of the week celebration of His churches through the age. Know Him then, and follow Him at all costs. The limited are on their way to becoming as the Limitless, and what a day that will be!