January 15, 2008

Number 2

VIEWPOINT

Should parents be con-cerned About The Golden Compass?  The Golden Compass is Book One of a fantasy series written by English author Philip Pullman in the late 1990s.  Pullman is an unapologetic militant atheist.  In a 2001 interview with the Washington Post, Pullman said: “I’m trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief.”

The book has been made into a movie which came out in December.  Pullman’s openly anti-Christian position is just as definite in the film.  God is presented as completely unreal in The Golden Compass; the author hates the idea of God.  He uses his stories to twist and distort familiar biblical accounts of creation, fall, and redemption, making heroes of those who rebel against religion, and having one of his “good” characters even say, “The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.”  It’s sort of a Da Vinci Code theme for kids.

Parents would do well to be informed with accurate informa-tion about the movie.  At the very least, it presents us with an op-portunity to teach children to ear-nestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.  Some resources include crosswalk.com and breakpoint.org. 

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My home church in Greeneville recently carried this article.  It makes a good point:

Every time I am asked to pray, I think of the old deacon who always prayed, “Father in Heaven, prop us up on our leanin’ side.”   After hearing  him

pray that prayer many times, someone asked him why he prayed that prayer so fervently.

He answered, “Well sir, you see, it’s like this:  I got an old barn out back.  It’s been there a long time, it’s withstood a lot of weather, it’s gone through a lot of storms, and it’s stood for many years.  It’s still standing, but one day I noticed it was leaning to one side a bit.  So I went and got some pine poles and propped it up on its leaning side so it wouldn’t fall. 

Then I got to thinking ‘bout that and how much I was like that old barn.  I’ve been around a long time, I’ve withstood a lot of life’s storms, I’ve withstood a lot of bad weather in life, I’ve withstood a lot of hard times, and I’m still standing, too.  But I find myself leaning to one side from time to time, so I like to ask our Heavenly Father to prop us up on our leaning side, ‘cause I figure a lot of us get to leaning at times. 

Sometimes we get to leaning toward anger, leaning toward bitterness, leaning toward hatred, leaning toward cussing, leaning toward a lot of things that we shouldn’t so we need to pray, “Father in Heaven, prop us up on our leaning side, so we will stand straight and tall again, to glorify our Heavenly Father.” 

I look forward to seeing you Sunday with a Bible, a smile and a positive word!   RA

Always Giving Thanks

Cold and chill, bless the Lord.

Dew and rain, bless the Lord.

Frost and chill, bless the Lord.

Ice and snow, bless the Lord.

Nights and days, bless the Lord.

Light and darkness, bless the Lord.

-- Canticle of the Three Youths

I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1