Shade Tree Wisdom 5/28/11

The season of graduations is upon us, and we are offered on TV snatches of speeches delivered to graduates. These usually have a heavy emphasis on YOU, do this expect that, or some other bromide.

Then the graduates are given the news that the job market is not really in their favor today, so they might have to look some time, or it might be wise to go on to graduate study.

Then we read that a committee had asked a Pastor who was scheduled to offer the prayer at a memorial service at a National Cemetery to give them a copy beforehand so they could edit it to make it “more general”. A judge shot that request down this time, citing freedom of speech.

Then, sadly, we read of accidents after graduation parties resulting in tragic deaths.

And we wonder why there can be such a mess in what we regard as a serene and quiet atmosphere.

A good place to look for answers for it all is the Bible. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesian Church, speaks of mankind as being “Dead in trespasses and sins”. And explains that statement.

This letter, as all the letters, is teaching and application. What God did, and what it means for the Christian life. And St. Paul makes it very clear that it is all God’s doing. Man is just the recipient. God does the work through the Holy Ghost. Ephesians l, 4-7. He has done what in His kindness He planned to do. Before He made the world, He who loved us appointed us to be made His sons by Jesus Christ. In Him He choose us to be holy and blameless before Him. In order to praise the glory of the love He gave us in His dear Son, who bought us with His blood to forgive our sins and set us free.

Without that, we were “dead”, “in time past you walked according to the course of the world”. What a statement, and what does it mean “The World?” In the Bible it means an outlook apart from God. It does not mean the physical world, but a mentality, an outlook, apart from God. God is shut out. Life is planned without God. That is the world. The world, as Paul says, that is ruled by “The prince of this world”.

And once that becomes clear, it explains people’s behavior, for it is not controlled by the Holy Spirit, but by the flesh. Romans chapter 12 calls on Christians to “be ye transformed”.

The Letter gives us this, “You has he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins”. You are led by the Holy Spirit, you think differently, your outlook on life changes, you become more and more “like Him” who died and rose again to give you life. And that makes all the difference.

Thank God for His care and love for us.

GPD 5/28/11