The Cracked Acorn: Bad News

Psalm 119:133 Establish my footsteps in Your word.

Early morning breakfast people like to share their problems. I overheard one patron complain that since his property backs up to the Rappahannock River he is always having his canoe stolen. It has been nearly impossible to stop it!

I remember at a past U.S. Geological Survey lunchtime, a talk centered around one of our fellow lunchers who mentioned that when he was retired he would no longer read the newspapers,” too much bad news.” I admit that he’s mostly correct, but it sells, maybe we need to know the bad news, and then we can try to avoid it. The really bad news is that the days are gone when students were told about Honest Abe and that he walked miles through the snow to return a book or to return borrowed pennies. This was the time when it just seemed the right thing to do and also that many of our presidents were avid Bible readers and applied its good message in their lives.

A large Virginia Reston-based company is attempting to rebuild its image after a billion-dollar fraud case-the largest in corporate history. The company has hired an ethics officer complete with staff to train employees “to do the right thing.” The ethics officer admits that there’s no guarantee against unethical behavior that can go beyond the limits of the law. I keep thinking WWJD, what would Jesus do!! It is a sad day when we have to “train” adults to be fair to one another, don’t steal, don’t lie, and all the other “don’ts” that hold our society together.

A teacher of one of my long-ago summer vacation Bible schools(lasted a week) told the class that he grouped thieves and murderers together. Steal a carpenter’s tools, he and his family starve. Steal someone’s automobile, do they suffer, yes. A car is stolen in the USA every 20 seconds, add the yearly world-wide rate, and these stretch around the equator,3963 miles. What has happened? Could it be that gone are the days when the basis of a sound living (based on the Bible) was taught in the schools?

Remember there was a time when your mother sent you out to romp with your friends and said, “Now remember, play nice!”

Song: Footprints of JESUS #416
Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling, “Come follow me!” And we see where Thy footprints falling, Lead us to Thee. Footprints of Jesus, that make the pathway glow; we will follow the steps of Jesus, where’re they go.

Galatians 5: 22-24, But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; and here this is no conflict. Those who belong to Christ have nailed their natural evil desires to His cross and crucified them there.

Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Institute Address, February 27, 1860.
“Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”