The Bible Says

We Make Important Decisions Every Day
by Charlie Grier
 

Those shoes you are wearing are the result of a previous decision. This is true of everything we eat, or wear, and of everything we do or say. Sometimes, if we would give a little more thought to the things we do and say, we would be a bit happier and might even have more friends.

We older people are concerned about the moral and spiritual values of our present-day world. Most people live by different standards than those that prevailed in the early 1900's. Things began to change about the time of the First World War. A popular song, written about the time my brother returned from France, expresses quite well the moral and spiritual change that was starting to shape up in the minds of that generation:

"Ruben, Ruben, I've been thinking,"
said his wifey dear,
"Now that all is peaceful and calm,
the boys will soon be back on the farm!"
Ruben, Ruben started thinking,
slowly rubbed his chin,
He pulled his chair up close to mother's,
and he answered with a grin:
"How you going to keep 'em, down on the farm?
after they've seen Pariee!
"How you going to keep 'em away from Broadway --
"Gadding around! Seeing the town!
"How you going to keep 'em away from harm?
that's the mystery!
"They'll never want to see a rake or plow!
They'll never want to milk the old red cow!"
"How you going to keep 'em down on the farm?
After they've seen Pariee?!"

Following The War, New Living Standards Were Set.

People in general were not quite so religious now. The TEN COMMANDMENTS and THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT no longer shaped their lives. Those who still believed the Bible and practiced the Golden Rule were considered "old fashioned."

In 1918 when those young men marched into France either as Enlisted Men or in answer to the First Draft, most of them left loving wives and sweethearts behind them. Now they forgot those Sacred Vows and decided to live for today's pleasures!

Sadder still! Some of their wives and sweethearts adopted the same plan! Women demanded and achieved equal rights with men. They can now work like men, dress like men, smoke like men, drink like men, and swear like men! The word "Lady" no longer means what it did when women wore elegant floor-length dresses, modest hats and lovely vails.

"Mother Shipton," a student of Bible Prophecy, saw the change coming and included the following lines in her famous prophecy of the end times; written some 500 years before they actually took place:

MOTHER SHIPTON'S POEM

Written in England in about 1572

"And now a word in uncouth regime
Of what shall be in future time.
For in those wondering, far-off days
The women shall adopt a craze,
To dress like men and trousers wear
And cut off all their locks of hair.
They'll ride astride with brazen brow,
Like witches do on broomsticks now!
In nineteen hundred twenty-six
Build houses light of straw and sticks



+

This poem was in my hand in 1926, and the insulation board predicted here for that date, got my attention. My brother-in-law lived in my home and worked in a big Paper Mill at the time. He would bring home different samples of several kinds of building material that was being tested. Some of these products were made of sawdust, some shavings, or other combinations --- more than 500 years after that prophecy was written!

+

We Pride Ourselves In Making Wise Decisions!

Sad to say none of us have a perfect record! What we think is good is not GOOD for us! And what we think is positive can be,

Positively Negative

We drank for joy
---and become miserable.
We drank for sociability
---and become argumentative.
We drank for sophistication
---and became obnoxious.
We drank for friendship
---and made enemies.
We drank for sleep
---and awakened exhausted.
We drank for strength
---and felt weak.
We drank to feel exhilaration
---and ended up depressed.
We drank to get calmed down
---and ended up with the shakes.
We drank for confidence
---and became afraid.
We drank to make conversation flow more easily
---and the words came out slurred and incoherent.
We drank to diminish our problems
---and saw them multiply.
We drank to cope with life
---and invited death.

-- The Bible Friend, Volume 95, No.8, October 1998 p.1

More Decisions Are Required Today Than Ever Before!

Will I get Married as the Bible teaches, or merely "shack-up" and raise a family out of wedlock?

Each time I reach for a Cigarette I do it with the full understanding that "smoking is a slow form of suicide, and that little package of poison is shortening my life-span and hastening my death. "I" must make the DECISION!

Each time I reach for something questionable I make a wrong decision. Likewise, each time I fail do something good that, too, is a wrong decision!

Joshua Made A Lasting Decision

"And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day, whom you will serve . . . But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15 NKJB).