By
Coach Dave Daubenmire
April 28, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
Everything exists inside your head. That is a tough concept to grasp, but the reality is, everything you believe, feel, see, remember, and imagine reverberates through the mind.
“Imagine there’s no Heaven” John Lennon famously sang. “It’s easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky”
To
“imagine” means to create “images” in one’s
mind. “Word picture’s” is what a successful communicator
tries to paint. This creating an image in one’s mind is the genesis
of belief.
Somewhere, embedded deeply in the wrinkly-recesses of gray matter (now
there is a word picture for you) lays belief.
Belief is “confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof.” Much of what we believe is not true…we only think it is. Believing, alone, does not make something true. “I believe I can fly.” Better have a parachute.
Macro-evolution is a belief…a religion really (something one believes in and follows devotedly)…but believing in the “Big-Bang” does not make it so.
Nearly everything we believe is a result of some type of evidentiary stimulus. Through our natural senses, thoughts, experiences, and education we come to “believe” some things, and “not-believe” others.
Much energy is spent by folks trying to convince others that what they “believe” is not true. No matter how hard others may try, they cannot “know something” for you. It is a feeling really, knowing something, and once you know it, you own it.
As Ronald Reagan famously said regarding his political opponents “Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.”
Knowledge has a direct correlation to the amount, type, and veracity of evidence one has been presented. I thought Santa was real until I saw my Dad putting the presents under the tree. I thought abortion was fine until I saw pictures of the baby in the womb. I “believed” in God but didn’t know you could “know” Him…until I met Him.
What we “know” can be greatly altered by what we experience. It’s like this. Our brain is the greatest computer ever made. It was designed by our Creator to receive, process, and transmit information. Information is like data in a computer. Without the proper “program” it is not possible to process the data.
Have you ever had gibberish appear on your computer screen? Usually when that occurs an icon pops up directing you to a location where you can download the software specifically formulated to make sense of the indecipherable information imbedded on your screen. The application of that software makes all the difference.
That is what the Holy Spirit did for me. When the Holy Ghost took up residence inside me, my entire perspective on life was transformed. The Holy Ghost was the “software” that made sense of much of the input that my life experiences had “downloaded” on my “hard drive.”
That is why I don’t get mad at folks who attack me for what I ‘believe.” I used to be like them…think like them…until the Lord downloaded the proper software into my computer. Now I see things in a whole new light.
Enlightened, “to give intellectual or spiritual light to…I guess is the word. I’m not smarter than my un-saved friends, just more enlightened. I see things in a whole new light. Much of what I used to know I no longer do…
I watch with pity the “intellectuals” masquerading as expert talking-heads on the various “news” shows flooding America’s airwaves. They spew “head knowledge” void or “heart knowledge.” Information without understanding can be deadly.
These “experts” spew knowledge without understanding.
On May 15th our son will graduate from CASE Western Law School, one of the finest “secular” institutions in America. After three years of intense study, thousands of dollars in investment, and drinking from the fountain of this nation’s leading legal scholars I often find myself asking him a very profound question.
“When did you become so stupid?”
I remember when he was always the smartest guy in the room, with a mind like a steel trap. Three years of law school has taught him foolishness. He has been trained to question everything, to prove his genius by merely winning the argument regardless of the application of truth…to poke holes in Truth. “It all depends on what the meaning of is, is.”
He’ll be a great lawyer. I pray he will be a wise one.
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Wisdom is “the ability or result of an ability to think and act utilizing knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.”
Our nation is an emaciated stick-man suffering from a deficit of wisdom. Like a thirsty man crossing a sun-beaten dessert, wisdom is the only water that can restore sound bodily functions.
“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” -Proverbs 4:7
Knowledge without understanding is like a fire without heat. It is romantic to look at, but useless when one is shivering. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. What good is knowledge if you can’t apply it in meaningful way? What good is fire if you don’t know how to control it? It is truth that sets us free, not knowledge. Ultimately, there can be no wisdom apart from Christ.
So, what are we teaching our children?
Just this past Thursday, Holy Thursday as fate would have it, I had the opportunity to speak at a large suburban yuppie school in the Columbus, Ohio area. The purpose of my presentation was to expose to the 150 seniors in the program the idea that what makes America unique is the distinctly Christian-culture upon which this nation was built.
Christian culture, mind you. Not a Christian nation. Not a nation where every citizen was required to pledge an allegiance to Jesus, but a nation where Christian values and ethics were taught and expected to be followed by all of our citizens.
Don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t covet, don’t commit adultery…a nation built on a system of values designed to protect the rights and beliefs of all of her citizens. I presented to them a perspective which demonstrated that the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God were designed to protect and not to punish, and that the perpetuation of those values to the next generation was necessary for the liberty of all of our citizens.
“We still honor our Christian culture in America today” I explained. “No school tomorrow, Good Friday. Why would most of America close down tomorrow if Good Friday wasn’t important to our American heritage? If there was truly a separation between the church and the state why would there be no school tomorrow?”
They looked rather blankly at me. “What is Good Friday?” I asked. “Can anyone tell me why we take tomorrow off?” (I am not making this up.)
“Some religious holiday.” One athletically built young man finally volunteered.
“Yeah, but what is special about the day?” I asked. “Be honest now. How many of you really don’t know why we celebrate Good Friday?”
At least 70% of the hands slowly slipped into the air.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. -Proverbs 1:7
We are in a world of hurt in America. We teach our children WHAT to think, rather than HOW to think. We fill their skulls-full-of-mush with knowledge, but refuse to provide for them the software that enables them to properly apply it. We teach them about global warming, tolerance, homosexuality, recycling, and the virtues of multi-culturalism.
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But they don’t know what happened on Good Friday. Godless education produces fools.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. -Psalm 14:1-3
Imagine there’s no Heaven…
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Do you think like a Christian or a humanist? Did the Founders really separate Church and State? Is Judicial tyranny ruining America? Check out these great teachings by the Coach
� 2011 Dave Daubenmire - All Rights Reserved
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