Making Life Work

From the program notes of Ronald L. Dart

    In the movie, The Ten Commandments, a voice said, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and the inhabitants thereof.” Did you know those words were inscribed on the Liberty Bell in 1753?

    When you think about it, the dominant theme of that movie was liberty—liberty for a people who had just been set free. In the same way, the central idea of what Jesus taught is liberty or freedom. That was intended from the beginning. Jesus wants us to have freedom.

    The purpose of the Law was to guarantee freedom. The whole idea was freedom for man. When at last you are given freedom, you don’t want control to rear its ugly head. The Law and freedom are no problem until man steps in and tries to control...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’ Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come, reign over us!’ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’ Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come, reign over us!’ But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?’ Finally all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come, reign over us!’ And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you are anointing me as king over you,...

By: Ronald L. Dart

Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. "For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5 NKJV)

    It must have been a hard decision for God to make. I don't mean to suggest that anything is really hard for God, but the decision had consequences that even God could not have treated lightly. The decision to put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden had consequences for all of history. By putting that tree there, God effectively created a gate out of the Garden of Eden. He gave man a choice about the kind of a world that he would live in. If Paradise became boring for man, he had an alternative.

By: Lenny Cacchio

    Since 1921 our nation has recognized November 11 as a day to honor those who have served in our nation’s armed forces.  Originally designated Armistice Day as a memorial to the end of World War I, Congress renamed it Veteran’s Day in 1954 in to recognize the service of all veterans.

    Thomas Jefferson was right to acknowledge that our rights and freedoms come from God and are a gift of God, but Marine Corps Chaplain Dennis Edward O’Brian made a salient point when he said, "It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.   It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.  It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.  It is the...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    You’ll probably recognize the title of this essay as a quotation from the Liberty Bell.  Proclaim liberty throughout the land!  That quotes part of a verse from the book of Leviticus and can be found in chapter 25. "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" is in part from verse 10 of that chapter, and it refers to the Jubilee year, which came around every 50 years.

    The Jubilee is based on the agrarian notion that wealth is in the land.  Families had inheritance in the land, but often because of poor management or bad fortune, the family would lose the land and hence its means of financial freedom.   In an agrarian society, to lose the land meant to lose your freedom, for you would...