Ministers Salaries

      Randy and Paula White, Benny Hinn, David and Joyce Meyer, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Bishop Eddie Long, Creflo and Taffi Dollar vs. Billy Graham.
     What a contrast! The first lineup is under investigation by Congress. The suspicion is financial mismanagement. Billy Graham, a man of integrity, lived a modest life in his mountain home with a board of directors that oversaw his finances.
     Regarding the first group, they have been dealt with in a most unusual way. It would have been appropriate for the IRS to be called on to investigate them if they were to be investigated. Such is usually done quietly and if indiscretion is found then it is made public. These persons may have done nothing wrong, but aspersion have been cast on them.
     I admire the norm for ministers. There are exceptions but most live within the lines of propriety. I respect the many who live at below the average income and never complain. I feel for those who when they retire they have little or no savings simply because their income has provided living expenses but not enough for retirement. There are many of these.
     Those who flaunt their affluence cast reflections on all who live prudently.
     There are various classifications of ministers who live lavishly. One group is simply self-indulging. A few even violate not only propriety, but the law. Even though they are very few some represent them as the norm. By no means are they.
     A second group consists of ministers who are willfully sumptuously provided for by their constituents. You might not like this and I don’t like it, but there are those members of congregations who know they will never be wealthy and they want their minister to live evidencing affluence. Why? Again, you may not like this and I don’t like it, but they want it so they can live vicariously through them. One such minister said, “I only have what my people want me to have.” He told the truth. No matter what the motive, excess always is wrong.
     I know one minister who had an international TV ministry  and a congregation of over 10,000 members. He was on salary and didn’t even know what it was. Years ago he called for a meeting with the Personnel Committee and his wife and instructed them to deal only with his wife in matters of his compensation. He asked her not to hint to him what it was. His trust in her was such he always signed the audited IRS report without looking at any figures. His reasoning, he said he wanted to do what he did for the joy of doing it and not for what he got by doing it.
     I am persuaded that is the motivation of most ministers.
     Back to Billy Graham. One of his first crusades was in Atlanta. As he was boarding a prop private plane to leave the city the treasurer of the crusade handed him a sack containing the offerings from the crusade. A photographer snapped a shot of him holding the moneybag just before the plane door closed. The press exploited the photo. He made it a point never in any way to be associated with crusade receipts. His many ministries and philanthropies have benefitted through the years.
     Long live integrity.

Time to Understand Time

The number one most successful word in sales is “new.” Products that are new attract.
Likewise, a new year excites interest. The dawning of a new year makes us conscious of time. If you love life, don’t waste time. Time is what constitutes life.
Here comes a new year offering us 8,760 new unspent hours. On average people will spend 2,000 hours working, 3,000 hours sleeping, 550 hours eating, and 1,500 hours watching TV.
A question often asked is where does all the time go. Priority Management, Inc. has the answer. In an average lifetime, the typical American will spend:
– Six months sitting at stop lights.
– Eight months opening junk
– One year looking for misplaced objects.
– Two years unsuccessfully returning phone calls.
– Five years waiting in line.
– Six years eating.
– Seven years in the bathroom.
– Twenty-one years sleeping.
Don’t rush away from the fast fading old year without pausing to reflect on it. Savor your achievements, enjoy your successes, rejoice over your wise decisions, and marvel over your blessings. Before you file these and other good memories in your memory bank, evaluate what lessons can be learned from them.
Who deserves an expression of thanks for helping you make it through the old year? Take time to thank them. Expressing thanks is beneficial to the one receiving thanks and the one giving thanks.
To what cause are you willing to commit yourself in the new year. What purpose should color your days? What spirit will you manifest? What is going to be your overall attitude toward life?
Not only can the coming days bring you a new year, but in reality, a new you! The father of modern day psychology said the greatest discovery of the 20th Century was that we can change our lives by changing our minds.
We don’t have to be held captive by old habits, stay in bondage to a pessimistic spirit, be enslaved by an unprofitable and improper overall attitude, or remain mired in failure.
The motivational speaker Charlie “Tremendous” Jones says we become the sum total of the people we meet and the books we read.
Let me suggest the reading of the one book that improves ones overall life more than any other.
The average reader can read the entire Bible in seventy hours. The Old Testament requires fifty-two hours and the New eighteen. Regardless of whether you are a person of Christian faith or of a different faith, there is much to be gained by reading the Book of Psalms, it will take about four and a half hours. Reading it will give a person an attitude adjustment.
I don’t want the new year to slip by without saying, HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Peace on Earth

“Peace on earth and good will toward men” are worthy objectives to be sought in the new year. Yet, the angels’ message is mocked by skeptics who say such a prophecy has not been fulfilled. In the last three centuries there have been more than 275 wars in Europe alone.
The classic poet Henry Wordsworth Longfellow wrestled with the proclamation.
In December 1862 Generals Robert E. Lee and Ambrose E. Burnside commanded their formidable armies at the battle of Fredricksburg on the Rappahannock River. The battle raged for several days leaving approximately 50,000 men dead or wounded. 48,000 were Union forces. The battle was so stunning it went unreported until Christmas Day. Among those listed in the paper as “seriously wounded; not expected to recover” was the son of Longfellow.
To commemorate he event the church bells in Washington rang every five seconds all day long. Wordsworth wrote in his diary, ““Merry Christmas’ say the children but that is no more for me.”
His grief was compounded by him and his wife being seriously burned. His face was so scared he could not shave thereafter and hence his beard. His wife Fanny died.
On Christmas day 1864 he wrote his timeless poem, “Christmas Bells” which was later set to music by John Baptise Calken in 1872. In a depressed state he wrote:
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
There is no peace on earth, I said;
For hate is strong;
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
It is from that perspective many interpret the angles’ message. However, Longfellow with his attitude adjusted and his spirit revived continued to write:
“Then peals the bells more loud and deep:
God is not dead; nor does He sleep!
The wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Longfellow evidently had a conversion of his thoughts by realizing what many have yet to comprehend. The angelic proclamation was not a prophecy of peace but a prescription for peace.
The one at whose birth the prescription was offered later in life assured His followers, “I guarantee all of you that in this world you will have tribulation on a regular basis.”
Then after a teaching time He said, “These things I have spoken to you that you might have peace.”
Indeed, experience has proven certain principles applied do lead to personal peace. Many Christians, as well as those who are not Christians, study these teachings and personally find they do bring peace and result in good-will.

Switzerland: A Land of Enchantment

Elevated heights lead to elevated thoughts. For the optimum upper, visit Switzerland. It is one of the few places in the world that exceeds ones anticipation of what it is like. If you have ever visited a highly anticipated place and found it a downer, Switzerland is the place to redeem those disappointments.
It is easy to visit all regions by comfortable, fast trains. For those of us unfamiliar with how to catch what train, it can be challenging. Rushing to get on a coach only to find you are on the wrong train going the wrong way gives you opportunity to see parts of the beautiful country not on your itinerary.  It is not a loss, I know. We covered the country from the German to the Italian borders by train.
A couple of places that stood out in more than one way are the Jungfrau, known as “The Top of Europe” (11,333 feet), and the Matterhorn.
The quaint village of Grindelwald is an ideal place from which to visit the Jungfrau by rack rail. The cafeteria, gift shop, and viewing rooms are also an ideal places from which to overlook the Eiger Mountain and Eismeer glacier. The myths of the Eiger North Face remain undiminished. It is a ninety minute adventure up the slopes. A change of trains at Klein Scheidegg is required. This was the setting that drew me back to this country after seven years. I wanted to go back, sit on the mountain side and listen to the cow bells. When you get on the tram at the Zurich airport there are background sounds of cow bells, a mooing cow, and a person yodeling. That is all lived out on this mountain side. Miss your connecting train and wait an hour for the next one to enjoy the views and melodious cow bells.
At the Jungfrau you are above 95% of the atmospheric pollution of the earth.
The snow and glaciers cover the mountains all year. The Ice Palace has been carved in the glacier. Long corridors and spacious rooms are made the more interesting by stunning ice sculptures.
Snow flakes that fall on the Jungfrau flow through the lower Grindelwald Glacier in the form of ice crystals for 200 to 250 years before melting and becoming part of the streams in the valleys.
This is a marvelous place to study global warming. A 10,000 year record shows a rapid change every 2,000 years from colder to warmer or warmer to colder. That is earth’s history.
From Grindelwald a three mile cable car ride to the area of First is a matchless way to see the forest and idyllic cultivated countryside up close.
A three hour rail trip from the hub city of Interlaken, itself a must visit town, near Grindelwald takes you through many tunnels, narrow valleys, and lofty passes to Zermott. It is the “WOW” route. The many enthralling views that surprise you result in frequent wows.
There are no automobiles in Zermott. It is the base from which the captivating view of the Matterhorn can be enjoyed. A rack rail trip to the summit of Gornergrat lifts you above most of the mountain peaks of the area and brings you face to face with the magnificent Matterhorn which appears to hold up the sky.
Go if you can. If you can’t, I hope this virtual trip has been interesting and uplifting.

The Bones Of Jesus

In over fifty years of ministry as a pastor I have seen too many evidences there is a spiritual world not to believe in the supernatural. In reading the most reliable documents of the era-the New Testament, I am confident they are historically accurate. I have studied form criticism, textual criticism and higher criticism and remain convinced.

Now for the fifteenth consecutive year with the approach of the Easter celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a group has unleashed an effort to discredit the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus with another sophism.
Film maker James Cameron and his team claim to have found the bodily remains of Jesus Christ.

Around the time of Jesus the bones of deceased persons were placed in stone boxes called ossuary. I have seen one in the Hebrew Museum in Jerusalem that is inscribed with the name of Caiaphas, the high priest. It was initially offered as proof Caiaphas had been converted to Christianity after the resurrection. There is one on display in Florida allegedly to have been the burial box for James the brother of Jesus. A large cache can be seen in a small building on the Mount of Olives.

Now comes another opprobrious effort to discredit Jesus on the basis of statistics in that there are boxes found along with this most recent revelation with the names of other Bible characters. These names in the period were among the most common.

Finding them together and representing them as statistical proof they contain Jesus’ bones is not statistical proof but a sadistical effort.

The curator of the Israel Museum says of the claims in finding the lost tomb of Jesus, they are more than remote. He concludes “They are closer to fancy.” The boxes were first found in 1980 and beginning with the first expert to examine the boxes, most objective authorities say there is no connection with Jesus Christ.

The tomb in suburban Jerusalem in which the ossuaries were found is known as “the Jesus tomb,” the tomb of Jesus’ family. Tombs were very expensive. Where would a simple carpenter an itinerant preacher get enough money to afford such a tomb? Had He owned a tomb, it would have been the only earthly thing He is known to have had.  Had He owned a family tomb, according to Jewish tradition, it would have been in Nazareth not Jerusalem.

Tombs had to be registered with the Jewish authorities of the day. If a personality as public and popular as Jesus had a family tomb, its registration would have been a thing of note. There was no such tomb registered.

Mary the mother of Jesus is also said to have been buried in the same tomb. From the cross Jesus gave John the responsibility of caring for his mother. Creditable records say that in caring for her he eventually buried her in Ephesus-now a part of Turkey. I have visited her tomb there as have millions of tourists.

Yet, the Discovery Channel documentary was based on statistics and a few critics who aspire to discredit Jesus.

Logic disputes their statistics.

Friends and enemies alike at the time agree on a few things. Both knew Jesus was dead when removed from the cross. The equivalent of a Roman death certificate was issued. They agreed he was buried in a certain tomb. They agreed that three days later the body was missing.

Jesus’ followers declared He had arisen from the dead. If He had not, someone stole his body.

If his enemies had stolen the body, all they had to do was present the body and discredit claims of a resurrection. They very much wanted it discredited.
Because of claims of the resurrection followers of Jesus were tortured and killed in order to get them to renounce their claims. Had they stolen the body they could have simply presented the body and spared themselves. Would they have died for a known lie?

A few days after Jesus’ death Peter preached and condemned those who were responsible for Jesus’ death. He proclaimed the resurrection and charged the people to repent. Of those present at the time of the death of Jesus 3000 repented and were baptized. They were convinced of the resurrection. They had heard and seen enough in the interval between the resurrection event and the sermon to know He arose.

After Jesus’ resurrection, He was seen by 1, 2, 5, 10, 11, and at once by 500 people over a period of forty days to be alive. He was seen indoors and outdoors, on shadowed roadways and sunny beaches. They walked with Him, talked with Him, dined with Him twice, and touched Him more than once. Those of the era believed Jesus to be both dead and later alive. It changed culture and still does.

To settle the issue, the Sanhedrin (the Supreme Court of the era) appointed a special investigator from their number. He was the apple of their intellectual eye named Paul. As a critic he examined the case more than anyone of the era intent upon disproving it. This distinguished jurist concluded “He is risen” and became a follower of Jesus Christ like the legion after him.

This scholar, Paul, was so convinced of the resurrection he endured five beatings of thirty-nine stripes each, three times he was beaten with rods, once stoned, frequently imprisoned, suffered shipwreck, endured hunger, thirst, sleeplessness, cold, nakedness and frequently endured perilous conditions (II Corinthians 12: 25-27) and steadfastly held to his belief in the resurrection based on his investigative research. Such is the proof that the chief investigator who gathered more evidence than anyone was convinced by the evidence of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

We are left to believe either his accumulative evidence along with the witnesses to the event, or persons who 2000 years later are denouncing the resurrection based on their presuppositions and presumptions.

Article Update

Mariamene is rare, and in some early Christian texts it is believed to refer to Mary Magdalene.

But having analyzed the inscription, Steven Pfann, Bible scholar at the U. Of Holy Land in Jerusalem,  published a detailed article on his university’s Web site asserting that it doesn’t read “Mariamene” at all.

The inscription, Pfann said, is made up of two names inscribed by two different hands: the first, “Mariame,” was inscribed in a formal Greek script, and later, when the bones of another woman were added to the box, another scribe using a different cursive script added the words “kai Mara,” meaning “and Mara.” Mara is a different form of the name Martha.

According to Pfann’s reading, the ossuary did not house the bones of “Mary the teacher,” but rather of two women, “Mary and Martha.”

“In view of the above, there is no longer any reason to be tempted to link this ossuary … to Mary Magdalene or any other person in biblical, non-biblical or church tradition,” Pfann wrote.

Pfann also notes ancient Semitic is difficult to read. The name is likely “Hanun,” not Jesus.

When asked if he thought there was a 5% chance these could be the bones of Jesus answered, “No, no, no, no. I deny it completely.”

Professor Amos Kloner, one of Israel’s most prominent archaeologists, the name Jesus was so popular in the period that three other ossary have been found inscribed with that name. He points out that “countless others with Mary and Joseph” have been found.

Simcha Jacobovic, who helped produce the film, has faced criticism much tougher than Pfann’s academic critique. The film has been termed “archaeo-porn,” and Jacobovici has been accused of “pimping the Bible.”