Making Life Work

From Ronald L. Dart's Born to Win notes.

    Once upon a time there was a people who had returned to their homeland after a generation in exile. These people had been tasked by God with repairing the Temple and restoring worship.

    It wasn’t that God dwelt in houses made with hands. The Temple was symbolic, a center of worship, a reminder of who God is—really—and of what is really important about life. But life wasn’t working very well for them. They were in the middle of an economic failure—a position not unlike where we find ourselves today.

    They had been told by the prophets from Isaiah to Jeremiah to Ezekiel why they were going into exile before it actually happened, so they just might listen to a prophet this time. God sent...

From Ronald L. Dart's Born to Win Notes  

    In my years of education, from the first grade in 1940, until I graduated from high school in 1952, I don’t remember hearing of a single school shooting.

    I went off to the Navy for four years, and then to college for six years, and I still don’t recall hearing of a single school shooting. Now, it has become like an epidemic. Has something changed?

    Were there just as many school shootings in years gone by and we just didn’t hear about them? Did the media just treat them as isolated tragedies? Are we hearing about these shootings now because of the gun control movement?

    I do remember a group of kids taking shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm. They were all killed when...

By: Ronald L. Dart

    Do you really understand the seriousness of envy? Since it’s the Tenth Commandment, is it somehow less than the others? If you see your neighbor driving a new car and you wish you had one like it, is that what the Bible is speaking of when it talks about the destructiveness of envy? How does envy impact the world, the church, and your personal life?

    Of all the vices of man, there is one that its perpetrators never enjoy and rarely ever confess. This opinion was stated by Os Guiness in his book, Steering Through Chaos.When I read it, I wondered why, then, does anyone do this sin? But when I think about it, this sin is one that man does not exactly do.

By: Ronald L. Dart
   
    I used to think “pragmatic” was a bad word. I had heard it applied to this or that politician, which almost automatically gives it a bad name. I don’t know why it bothered me, unless it was because I believed (and I still do) that there is an ideal that we should all strive for and that we should not compromise that ideal. I thought pragmatism meant that you were somehow selling out.  But the definition is: “relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters: practical as opposed to idealistic.”

The President can promise the moon, but can barely deliver green cheese.

By: Ronald L. Dart

   For over a generation, now, schools, parents and social institutions have been fighting a battle with teen pregnancy. They have tried sex education, and that didn’t work. Pregnancies went up. They tried free condom distribution. Pregnancy went up again. They have tried secret abortions, but that only works after pregnancy. Now some are trying abstinence programs.

    But even if they could have abstinence programs in all the schools, they would only be able to affect the problem at the margins. Some kids are taking chastity vows, and even wearing chastity rings, which Jay Leno thought was really funny.

By: Ronald L. Dart

King Solomon once wrote, "Wisdom is the principle thing: therefore get wisdom: and with all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote you: she shall bring you to honor, when you do embrace her" (Proverbs 4:7, 8).

    I recently saw a bumper sticker that proclaimed, "God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me!" The person who wrote that bumper sticker may consider me an infidel, but that doesn't settle it for me. I want to know why God said it. Because only then can I even begin to claim to understand God.

By: Ronald L. Dart

The Second Key

    The best ideas are usually simple and this one is no exception. The idea was conceived long ago and is so simply stated that most of us would read right over it and never grasp its implications. It reads as follows: “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22).

    I can hear you saying, “That sounds like a good idea, but a little tough to execute. I have enough trouble making ends meet as it is without worrying about the next generation.”

By: Ronald L. Dart

    There are no women in heaven," chuckled the preacher. "How do I know this? The Lord revealed it in Revelation 8:1 when He said there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour."

    It was all very amusing, and even the ladies enjoyed a little laugh at their own expense. After all, more than one of them had "talked someone’s ear off " sometime in the past 48 hours.

    Still, there was a little hurt in the laughter of some. To them it was just one more "put-down" for women. Only this time it came from an unexpected source, their pastor, from whom they felt they had a right to expect support, not humiliation.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    The story of the Bible begins and ends with a tree. In the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life held a central place. After the expulsion of man from the garden, we don’t hear of the tree again until the last book of the Bible.¹ There, man is in a very different environment called, "The paradise of God."² Once again the Tree of Life is central. But now there is not one tree of life, but twelve. They are on both sides of the river of life and they bear twelve kinds of fruit. Moreover, the leaves of the tree are for the healing of all people.³ It is those who do God’s commandments who have a right to the Tree of Life, and the permission to enter the City of God.⁴

By: Ronald L. Dart

    He is twenty years old, but he looks more like sixteen. In blue jeans and sweater, his hair neatly cut, he looks like he should have books under his arm and be headed for class. The district attorney says he is a cold-blooded killer. It seems he held up a convenience store late one night. The clerk offered no resistance and gave him all the money in the cash register. But as he scooped up the money and stuffed it into his pockets, this “student” calmly raised his pistol and shot the clerk squarely between the eyes just to leave no witnesses. Now the district attorney wants you, the jury, to find him guilty and sentence him to death.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    Is there really an ever–burning hell where sinners are tormented with fire and brimstone throughout all eternity? Is it only for the very wicked? What about the “unsaved”? The Bible tells us there is only one name given in heaven and earth whereby we must be saved–the name of Jesus. What about all those who have never heard that name? Do they go immediately to the torments of a fiery hell at death? What about babies and little children? Surely they don’t go to hell? Churches have an astonishing variety of answers to these questions, but what does the Bible say? How can we really know the truth?

By: Ronald L. Dart

    
    It is not a frequent question, but sometimes people ask, “Why do you charge for some of your CDs?” The answer is simple enough. We charge for them so we can make them available. But before I elaborate on that, I really should address two scriptures that are sometimes advanced to suggest that one should not sell biblical materials.

By: Lenny Cacchio

    I have been a financial planner for a long time, working with affluent and high net worth people.  When I first got into the business, I was surprised to learn that "high income" does not necessarily translate into "high net worth".  One of the first clients I worked with was making more than ten times what I was making, the equivalent of over half million dollars per year in 2008 dollars.  Yet in doing his financial plan I discovered that I had more money in the bank, and not to mention less debt, than he did!

    I pondered how this could be.  Many reasons can account for a sick financial statement, but certainly one reason is inability to know the difference between needs and wants. 

    A few months ago I stood...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    The scriptures say what they say, and sometimes it’s hard to understand why.  There was a time in Egypt when a couple of Israelite women told very deliberate lies and were honored for it.   They were so honored for this that their names, Shiphrah and Puah, have been preserved for every generation since.

    Being hesitant to extol the virtues of taking liberty with the truth, I am a bit uneasy that the scriptures say what they say.  But if there were not a lesson in it for us, they wouldn’t say it that way.

    Shiphrah and Puah were midwives when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt.  In spite of their position of servitude, the Israelites were a prolific lot and began to outnumber the native Egyptians.  ...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    "The Ten Commandments don’t have any footnotes," said the pundit, the point being to take them literally if you are going to take them at all.

    I appreciate the sentiment, but I disagree with the premise.  Yes, those commandments mean what they say.  "Thou shalt not steal" is a good command to live by, but what if you and your children are starving and you have a chance to slip off with an apple from the produce the aisle.   Are you committing a crime worthy of jail?  A Biblical footnote, if you will, says, "Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry" (Proverbs 6:30).

    From this one might conclude that extenuating circumstances and the offering of grace can temper the commands...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    When God first rained manna from heaven onto the children of Israel, he told them they had to eat it all in one day.  That is a curious thing to tell someone, akin to telling them not to plan ahead, and to be honest I find it a bit troublesome.

    Everything in my training and everything in my bones tells me to take charge of my own future.  My generation and those behind us know from the simple demographics of the matter that we will not get our shot at the passel of government safety nets that graced the generations before us.  We must save and invest for our own well-being.  Eat your manna today and let tomorrow take care of itself?  I don’t think so.

I can even find scriptural support my position.

“A...

By: Lenny Cacchio

Where there is no vision, the people perish. (Proverbs 29:18 KJV)

    If I were to ask you what a good mission statement for our country would be, could you recite one?  Likely you could come up with one with a little thought, but the fact that it takes some thought is symptomatic of the problem.      At critical times in our history, leadership has provided a unified vision around which the nation could rally.  Ronald Reagan had his shining city on the hill, borrowed from John Winthrop’s City on a Hill sermon.  Lincoln had his "last best hope of mankind" message.  Roosevelt spoke of a rendezvous with destiny.  Jefferson had his inalienable rights.  Woodrow Wilson wanted to make the world safe for democracy.  Emma Lazarus...

By: Lenny Cacchio  

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, each one came from his own place--Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. For they had made an appointment together to come and mourn with him, and to comfort him. And when they raised their eyes from afar, and did not recognize him, they lifted their voices and wept; and each one tore his robe and sprinkled dust on his head toward heaven. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. (Job 2:11-13 NKJV) Job’s friends get a bum rap. Granted they were obtuse when they opened their mouths, and the epithet “Job’s Comforters”...

By: Lenny Cacchio

    I used to believe that following the Bible would lead to investment success. In spite of the fact that I failed miserably, I still believe the Bible holds the key to financial success. The problem is not the Bible, but in the particular prophetic scenario that I used to inform my investment decisions.

    I was absolutely sure that Western Europe would be the economic powerhouse of the future. The United States would degenerate into insignificance, beset with economic cirrhosis and social unrest. In line with conventional ecological theories of the day, China and India would suffer atrocious food shortages leading to mass starvation of millions. This would be caused partially by a new ice age that we would bring on ourselves...

By: Allie Dart

 

    "What is the most serious threat confronting teenagers today? It’s promiscuity and pregnancy" according to Insights, March 2, 1998. How did this happen? Our society is constantly redefining morality and overlooking the standard whereby we should base our morals.

    But should society be the standard for basing our morality? A counter- culture movement hit our nation throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Students protested what they considered to be repressive of women’s sexual pleasure, which was to be kept within the walls of heterosexual marriage. Medical contraceptives were ushered in, taking away the fear of pregnancy for the free-love movement. This movement told us that premarital sex releases people...

By: Lenny Cacchio

“The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (Proverbs 27:12 NIV) “Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.” (Ecclesiastes 11:2 NIV)

    These two admonitions have played out before us during this hurricane season. Many saw the danger and took refuge, sometimes a thousand miles away. Through the horror of the storms, countless feel-good stories have wound their way through news outlets and the internet. Stranger helping stranger. Hospitality and kindnesses. Decent people doing good things for others in need. And many people saved their lives.     “Give portions to seven, yes to eight,” the scripture says. Many...

By: Cynthia Saladin  

    Sometimes raising children seems like an uphill struggle - a constant testing of limits, rules, and authority. “I don’t want to go to bed right now.” “Why do I have to wear my hat?” “I don’t like green beans.” “I don’t want to share with Christopher.” “Why, Mommy, why?” “Please can I do it one more time? Please.” And sometimes I get very weary and worn down. Sometimes I give in to the entreaties because I’m so tired of the battle. I make a deal; I hear myself saying, “O.K., one more time, and then it’s time for bed.” Sometimes it works; sometimes it just prolongs the battle. Later, as I am thinking about the struggle, whichever of the many daily contests of wills, I start second-guessing myself. Should I have given in? Was...

By: Allie Dart

    The first thing kids need to know about the Bible is that it is relevant to them and their lives. The Bible was written “to teach his people how to live – how to act in every circumstance, for he wanted them to be understanding, just and fair in everything they did. ‘I want to make the simple-minded wise!’ he said. ‘I want to warn young men about some problems they will face. I want those already wise to become the wiser and become leaders by exploring the depths of meaning in these nuggets of truth’” (Proverbs 1:2-6 TLB). Kids need to know what the Psalmist said, “Your words are a flashlight to light the path ahead of me, and keep me from stumbling. . . (Psalm 119:105a).     Kids need to know the Bible is the most...