In 2004, Colby Nolan was awarded an MBA degree by Trinity Southern University. This caused quite a stir when he received this degree, not just because he had claimed to have only taken courses at a community college and had listed his only job experience as babysitter and fast food worker yet was still awarded the title, but mainly because Colby Nolan is a cat. A deputy attorney general looking into fraud degree programs had used his cat’s I.D. while investigating several “degree mills” for fraud. Why should a state official care if a cat can get an M.B.A.? Well officials know if degrees can be obtained by no merit or study, it causes all such degrees to lose their value and degrades all the legitimate work done to receive it. The title has no power anymore. It is similar to what people have done to the forgiveness of God. Rather than see it for the great gift for us and sacrifice of God, many use it as a license to sin. That attitude of willful sinning devalues the sacrifice of sin. As a fake degree is an attack on the very nature of the education system, so this attitude of “forced” forgiveness is one on the nature of God. As we read in Hebrews 10:29, “How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”
In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
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