NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

                                                     NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

    The Jewish New Year was observed many weeks ago, and it is not
celebrated similarly as the Christian New Year. For the Jews, it is a
time to reflect on their failures over the past year, and to try to right
their ship of life. Christians can learn from that, because we usually
celebrate (not observe) a secular holiday. Every Christian needs just
one resolution for the new year. And, it would be marvelous if each of
us could just keep that resolution. So...here's your Christian resolution.
"I will follow the teaching of my Savior as recorded in the Books of
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I will follow the two commandments
Christ gave us in Matt. 22:37-40, and I will not impose any restrictions
in other parts of scripture not given us by Christ, Himself." If you can
do this, you'll have a Spiritual Resolution and New Year.

    Here is your guideline, and if you follow Christ's instructions from
the verses above, you will not divide any people from the opportunity
to accept Christ's offer. "Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments
hang all the Law and the Prophets." Pretty simple and just. Many of 
the Christians I hear are not following the second part of Christ's
teaching, which is also a strong indication they aren't really committed
Christians. 

    If you claim you're a Christian, you must believe God created all
people. That includes Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Europeans, Arab.
and mixed races. God loves all mankind, but detests sin. Christ never
taught hate, and the closest He ever came to violence was overturning
the money tables and chasing the moneychangers out of the temple.
Christ never taught separation and even healed lepers. He did not deny
people the opportunity for salvation.

    Before you think you understand the separation happening between
Christians and people in general, consider the entire chapter 29 of
Matthew. You may have trouble correlating these verses with today's
situation. Remember, Christ is berating the leadership of the Jewish
nation. That includes the lawyers and church leaders. Verses 27 and 28
describe the characters of many American leaders. This is not to accuse
any political party, because both have their share of loud mouths with
underdeveloped brains. But there is major responsibility for many of
the seated Christian pastors and leaders. Their family values consist of
man-determined rules not mentioned by Christ. 

    This is a continuing problem, first with Israel, and later up to now,
with Christian pastors and church leaders. The pastors and spokespeople
for the Christian church go along with popular congregation desires, and
don't preach the most important issues facing Christianity. Congregations
like to promote issues that don't affect them personally, such as abortion
and homosexuality. They have to "give up" nothing to be "good", and can
adopt a self righteous attitude. This is so easy, and their resolution to
oppose these sins is a slam dunk. Their opposition does absolutely
nothing to improve their own character. They are actually judging others
in direct opposition to Matt. 7:3, "And why do you look at the speck in
your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?"

    Before you expound on particular virtues, I ask you to judge
yourself on common sins such as gossip, the most damaging of the
sins listed in the Ten Commandments. Ex. 20:`16, "Thou shalt not bear
false witness against thy neighbor." This is the one sin causing most
problems in congregations according to the pastors I have spoken
with. When you repeat a rumor, you are promoting gossip. This type
of "goody" spreads like wildfire, and once your rumor (actually a lie)
is out there, many who hear it may never find out the rumor was not
true. This is base character assassination. This was rampant in the
political campaign and is frequently utilized by the justice system
on the local, state and national level. People, especially those who
scoff at education, often eagerly accept these rumors, especially if
they are "juicy."

    Americans grow up learning that getting ahead in life is usually
tied to violating the Tenth Commandment. Ex. 20:17, "Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor nor his ox, nor his ass,
nor anything that is thy neighbor's." Probably the worst covetousness
has to do with money and power. That is the goal of practically all
politicians. People tend to covet expensive cars, expensive clothes,
expensive homes and other goodies beyond their earning level. It's
not wrong to better yourself as long as you don't do it at the expense
of others.

    Self righteousness abounds in Christianity, as people recognize
the sins of others while overlooking their own shortcomings. And,
this is where Christians are getting a giant black eye right now. Show
me a smug, self righteous church member who speaks out against
the generally mislabeled sex sins, and I'll ask him if his life is so
pure without sin to cast the first stone. John 8:7, "So when they
continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, 'He
who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."'
Of course none were without sin, just as you and I are not sinless

    All sins are of equal value. Isaiah 64:6 tells us how righteous we
are, and nothing we do can change his description. "But we are all
like an unclean thing, And all our righteousness are like filthy rags;"
That public official who tells you how great a Christian he is, should
go back to the four gospels for self determination. Does he believe
all same sex marriages are for the purpose of sex? Most aren't. Visit
hospitals or managed care homes and you'll see the need for support
and companionship. There are programs and financial help available
only to married people. 

    I do not hear pastors preaching the difference between support
or companionship marriage and sexual marriage. I don't hear pastors
explaining Christ's ugliness. WHAT? Christ ugly? The Supreme Court
conservative majority rules that a corporation is a person. That means
a corporation bears the likeness of God and Christ. Apparently these
five fake Christian justices never read or ignore the very first book of
the bible: Genesis. Verses 1:26 and 27, 'Then God said, "Let Us make
man in OUR IMAGE, according to OUR LIKENESS; let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over
the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth." So God created man in HIS 0WN IMAGE; in the IMAGE
OF GOD HE created him; male and female HE created them."'Now, go
to any of the four gospels where Christ appeared, spoke, taught and
was recognized by untold multitudes of people. This is the biblical
IMAGE OF GOD. Our five conservative Christian judges don't follow
scripture. Their ruling opened the floodgates of money for both parties
in the election. So, you Christians who accept this ruling, take down
your pictures, paintings and busts of Jesus Christ, because He isn't
the likeness of God. Do you think God will be smiling upon you as
you replace the real Christian art with corporate logos? Do you
think America will be blessed under a corporate god?

    Those "Christian" judges also set in motion a problem soon to
develop and create further separation in America. By ruling that
private businesses can deny service on a religious basis, they have
violated a main part of our Constitution separating church and state.
That isn't even the main problem. Their ruling means every other
religion can demand the same privilege. That includes Islam and
Atheists, among many others. Further, employers can manage your
personal beliefs and refuse to give you a job unless you bow to the
religion of THEIR choice. 

    One of my mentors, who spent many years pastoring several
churches, told me a major problem in the church is promotion rather
than teaching the Word. In America, bigness is the rule. I hear the
pastors of some mega churches preach, and they frequently get
scriptures wrong or they misunderstand the language. I hear the
management of some Christian radio stations skirt the laws of
advertising by giving a donor's name for a contribution. I also see
churches with lavish "extracurricular" programs to draw large
crowds and, hopefully, more members. There is always some teaching
of scripture, but it is secondary. People are much more interested in
entertainment than studying the Word.

    It seems that church people have created a dividing line among
all people, ignoring that God gives everyone a choice. Gay people
are shunned and abortion is murder, although it's okay to let the
pregnant woman die to try and save the fetus. Odd that anti-abortion
people don't want any responsibility for all the "extra" children. I'm
not for blanket approval of abortion, but it is necessary in some
instances. I also hear the selfish loudmouths wanting to deny
foreign children a safe haven in America. The real reason is because
it will cost some money. Forget all the rubbish offered as to why
we shouldn't accept them. We certainly did a Christian job displacing
those pesky native Americans. Or, have you forgotten how the
Indians provided food to the Pilgrims? At least that's the story we
tell at Thanksgiving.   

    The present day Christian leadership has adopted a policy of
divide and conquer. One state has already proposed to make that
state religion Christianity. Of course there are many restrictions
considered part of the rule of Christianity. That a state would do
that isn't new because we had a similar situation that caused the
Civil War. Our many Christian denominations in America have been
dividing believers and would-be believers since the days of the
Pilgrims. They preach brotherhood, but check out the man made
rules of the denomination. Since God created all people, and so
many are not Christians, do you think He made mistakes?

    Americans are world leaders in giving, and were largely 
responsible for maintaining peace in the world over the last
century. To be sure, we are all sinners, and none of us is qualified
to assume we are elite in finances, looks, education or anything
else. As Christ said in the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-11), heaven will
not be populated by wealthy and powerful people as we identify
them today. A Christian is a servant of God, a worker following
the Leader, Jesus Christ. A Christian has the cross to follow as
a symbol, not the dollar sign. Christ died for your salvation, and
you will take nothing with you to Heaven or Hell.

    This message contains many negatives, but they are listed in
an attempt to reach real Christians who are permitting greed and
envy to move forward. You need to identify the proper people who
are destroying the nation, and do the research on major issues that
slip silently by while you boast about your Christianity. If you follow
the spiritual resolution I listed, both you and our nation will have
an opportunity to receive all the blessings God has for His faithful
servants. Are those two Commandments Christ gave us in Matt.
22: 37-40 too much to ask in return for Christ's sacrifice? I pray
you will delve into the instructions Christ gave us instead of
listening to the outrageous propaganda coming from the pulpits
and politicians. Happy New Year!

Rev. Walbear