Shocking Name Calling

Thomas Edison was a pioneer in electricity with his perfection of the light bulb but by 1887, his company that was attempting to light cites everywhere was struggling. The problem was in how the electricity was delivered. The truth was his direct current (DC) was not near as cost-effective as his bitter rival George Westinghouse’s alternate current (AC). Edison felt his current was the safer choice even if it wasn’t as cheap.

So when the state of New York came calling with a desire to buy up a generator, you might be shocked when Edison recommended his rival’s technology. He even recommended the new use be called “Westinhoused”

Why?

Because the new use was to kill. The generator was for the first electric chair. Edison believed that DC current was dangerous and what better what to show that to the world than having it kill a man.

Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

1^st Peter 4:15-16

The world does the same thing to the name Christian. They try to associate it with adjectives like racist, ignorant, judgmental, hypocritical, and pompous. The worse thing we can do is to make it seem that those words fit.

If we call ourselves Christian we must uphold that name in all we do. The world will attempt to skew our effort in the worst possible ways. We can’t stop that from happing. But we can make their words untrue, by living in the best possible way.

Comments

Until Midnight

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 ...

The Mighty Gulf

It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding. To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two. Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God? In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission. It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...

Ecclesiastes 12:10

Search This Blog