Orrin Woodward Leadership Team

America's National Anthem - Happy July 4th

Orrin Woodward — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:03:00 -0400

Happy July 4th weekend everybody! What a great nation we are blessed to live in. I love America's National Anthem. I love this video about its creation also! Francis Scott Key penned the National Anthem during the war of 1812 against the English. On this July 4th, while eating your hot dogs, hamburgers, etc with friends, remember to thank our God for all of the brave men and women who sacrificed to give us our freedoms. This video quotes George Washington saying, "A Christian soldier will die on his feet rather than live on his knees." Amen to that! Freedom is worth sacrificing for. Enjoy the video. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Emmitt Smith - A Quest for Excellence

Orrin Woodward — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:29:00 -0400

Emmitt Smith has always been one of my favorite athletes. His body may have been smaller than most other football running backs, but his heart was much bigger. Emmitt set the goal early in his career to break the all-time rushing record. This NFL video classic captures the essence of pursuing a dream as well as any video I have ever seen! There are so many incredible points for leaders in this video that I had to post it in its entirety. I would almost say, that if this video doesn't make you cry, that you are not in touch with your dream & quest for excellence! Watch the video to see what I mean. Please add your comments and feel free to add to the list of major teaching points below. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

On your quest for excellence, you will learn to apply some of the same principles to accomplish excellence. You will also run into the some of the same challenges that Emmitt did. For example:

1. Many will minimize you and your abillity to accomplish your dream. - During the NFL draft many critics said Emmitt was too slow to play in the NFL.

2. When you succeed, many will minimize your contributions by saying anyone in your situation could do it. - Critics stated that many NFL backs could lead the NFL in rushing if the had the offensive line of the Dallas Cowboys.

3. You will learn to play hurt on the way to your dream. If you cannot play hurt, you cannot accomplish big dreams. - Emmitt separated his shoulder in a key game, but refused to go out because the season was on the line.

4. You will learn to refuse to read your own press clippings. - Emmitt never allowed his growing success to change who he was or his discipline to continue.

5. You will be blessed with great teammates to support you on your journey. - Emmitt has encouraging teammates who believed in his vision to break the record.

6. You will develop a sense of historic imagination to carry you through the daily grind. - Emmitt had studied the greatest backs and knew the magnitude of the historic quest that he was undertaking.

7. You will learn that many who start the journey with you will not finish it with you. - When Emmitt set the record, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin were both retired.

8. You will learn that excellence requires sacrifice, but it is worth the price. - Emmitt maintained a strict regimen of eating, exercising, and self-denial to accomplish excellence.

Ronald Reagan - National Association of Evangelicals

Orrin Woodward — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:04:00 -0400

Ok, I admit it. I miss Ronald Reagan. I miss his faith, courage, optimism, hope, and dreams. Leaders like Reagan filled American's with hope of what we can do together. Reagan created a common vision that surpassed party lines and made us all Americans and proud to be so! I am proud to be an American. Is our nation perfect? Absolutely not! Is there any nation that can say that it is perfect? We have imperfect people that have joined together under the American ideals of freedom, community, duties, love, faith, hope, love, and work-ethic - to name a few. Do not surrender to the prevalent pessimism in America. Ronald Reagan gave America back its hope! That is what America needs - hope for the future! We don't need government solutions, but we do need hard-working Americans to be liberated from excessive taxes, regulations, and arbitrary power. Never underestimate the power of a free people to get the job done! Here is a special Reagan address to the National Association of Evangelicals that is filled with faith and hope! God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Ten Conservative Principles by Russell Kirk

Orrin Woodward — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:31:00 -0400

I have been reading and enjoying the books of Russell Kirk. I believe that Russell Kirk takes the great thinking from the Austrian School and tempers it with Christian principles. I encourage everyone to read the Conservative Mind, Roots of American Order, and any other book from Mr. Kirk. I am a proponent of change, but change must take into account an understanding of the existing order first. G. K. Chesterton said, "Never remove a fence line until you determine why it was put there in the first place." That is common sense to me and Russell Kirk is full of common sense. Keep reading and learning as it is one of our moral and civic responsibilities. Enjoy the article from the Russell Kirk Center. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first principles of the conservative persuasion are derived from what leading conservative writers and public men have professed during the past two centuries. After some introductory remarks on this general theme, I will proceed to list ten such conservative principles.

Perhaps it would be well, most of the time, to use this word “conservative” as an adjective chiefly. For there exists no Model Conservative, and conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order.

The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.

In essence, the conservative person is simply one who finds the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night. (Yet conservatives know, with Burke, that healthy “change is the means of our preservation.”) A people’s historic continuity of experience, says the conservative, offers a guide to policy far better than the abstract designs of coffee-house philosophers. But of course there is more to the conservative persuasion than this general attitude.

It is not possible to draw up a neat catalogue of conservatives’ convictions; nevertheless, I offer you, summarily, ten general principles; it seems safe to say that most conservatives would subscribe to most of these maxims. In various editions of my book The Conservative Mind I have listed certain canons of conservative thought—the list differing somewhat from edition to edition; in my anthology The Portable Conservative Reader I offer variations upon this theme. Now I present to you a summary of conservative assumptions differing somewhat from my canons in those two books of mine. In fine, the diversity of ways in which conservative views may find expression is itself proof that conservatism is no fixed ideology. What particular principles conservatives emphasize during any given time will vary with the circumstances and necessities of that era. The following ten articles of belief reflect the emphases of conservatives in America nowadays.

First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.

This word order signifies harmony. There are two aspects or types of order: the inner order of the soul, and the outer order of the commonwealth. Twenty-five centuries ago, Plato taught this doctrine, but even the educated nowadays find it difficult to understand. The problem of order has been a principal concern of conservatives ever since conservative became a term of politics.

Our twentieth-century world has experienced the hideous consequences of the collapse of belief in a moral order. Like the atrocities and disasters of Greece in the fifth century before Christ, the ruin of great nations in our century shows us the pit into which fall societies that mistake clever self-interest, or ingenious social controls, for pleasing alternatives to an oldfangled moral order.

It has been said by liberal intellectuals that the conservative believes all social questions, at heart, to be questions of private morality. Properly understood, this statement is quite true. A society in which men and women are governed by belief in an enduring moral order, by a strong sense of right and wrong, by personal convictions about justice and honor, will be a good society—whatever political machinery it may utilize; while a society in which men and women are morally adrift, ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites, will be a bad society—no matter how many people vote and no matter how liberal its formal constitution may be.

Second, the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity. It is old custom that enables people to live together peaceably; the destroyers of custom demolish more than they know or desire. It is through convention—a word much abused in our time—that we contrive to avoid perpetual disputes about rights and duties: law at base is a body of conventions. Continuity is the means of linking generation to generation; it matters as much for society as it does for the individual; without it, life is meaningless. When successful revolutionaries have effaced old customs, derided old conventions, and broken the continuity of social institutions—why, presently they discover the necessity of establishing fresh customs, conventions, and continuity; but that process is painful and slow; and the new social order that eventually emerges may be much inferior to the old order that radicals overthrew in their zeal for the Earthly Paradise.

Conservatives are champions of custom, convention, and continuity because they prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t know. Order and justice and freedom, they believe, are the artificial products of a long social experience, the result of centuries of trial and reflection and sacrifice. Thus the body social is a kind of spiritual corporation, comparable to the church; it may even be called a community of souls. Human society is no machine, to be treated mechanically. The continuity, the life-blood, of a society must not be interrupted. Burke’s reminder of the necessity for prudent change is in the mind of the conservative. But necessary change, conservatives argue, ought to he gradual and discriminatory, never unfixing old interests at once.

Third, conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription. Conservatives sense that modern people are dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, able to see farther than their ancestors only because of the great stature of those who have preceded us in time. Therefore conservatives very often emphasize the importance of prescription—that is, of things established by immemorial usage, so that the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. There exist rights of which the chief sanction is their antiquity—including rights to property, often. Similarly, our morals are prescriptive in great part. Conservatives argue that we are unlikely, we moderns, to make any brave new discoveries in morals or politics or taste. It is perilous to weigh every passing issue on the basis of private judgment and private rationality. The individual is foolish, but the species is wise, Burke declared. In politics we do well to abide by precedent and precept and even prejudice, for the great mysterious incorporation of the human race has acquired a prescriptive wisdom far greater than any man’s petty private rationality.

Fourth, conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence. Burke agrees with Plato that in the statesman, prudence is chief among virtues. Any public measure ought to be judged by its probable long-run consequences, not merely by temporary advantage or popularity. Liberals and radicals, the conservative says, are imprudent: for they dash at their objectives without giving much heed to the risk of new abuses worse than the evils they hope to sweep away. As John Randolph of Roanoke put it, Providence moves slowly, but the devil always hurries. Human society being complex, remedies cannot be simple if they are to be efficacious. The conservative declares that he acts only after sufficient reflection, having weighed the consequences. Sudden and slashing reforms are as perilous as sudden and slashing surgery.

Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety.They feel affection for the proliferating intricacy of long-established social institutions and modes of life, as distinguished from the narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of radical systems. For the preservation of a healthy diversity in any civilization, there must survive orders and classes, differences in material condition, and many sorts of inequality. The only true forms of equality are equality at the Last Judgment and equality before a just court of law; all other attempts at levelling must lead, at best, to social stagnation. Society requires honest and able leadership; and if natural and institutional differences are destroyed, presently some tyrant or host of squalid oligarchs will create new forms of inequality.

Sixth, conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave faults, the conservatives know. Man being imperfect, no perfect social order ever can be created. Because of human restlessness, mankind would grow rebellious under any utopian domination, and would break out once more in violent discontent—or else expire of boredom. To seek for utopia is to end in disaster, the conservative says: we are not made for perfect things. All that we reasonably can expect is a tolerably ordered, just, and free society, in which some evils, maladjustments, and suffering will continue to lurk. By proper attention to prudent reform, we may preserve and improve this tolerable order. But if the old institutional and moral safeguards of a nation are neglected, then the anarchic impulse in humankind breaks loose: “the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” The ideologues who promise the perfection of man and society have converted a great part of the twentieth-century world into a terrestrial hell.

Seventh, conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked. Separate property from private possession, and Leviathan becomes master of all. Upon the foundation of private property, great civilizations are built. The more widespread is the possession of private property, the more stable and productive is a commonwealth. Economic levelling, conservatives maintain, is not economic progress. Getting and spending are not the chief aims of human existence; but a sound economic basis for the person, the family, and the commonwealth is much to be desired.

Sir Henry Maine, in his Village Communities, puts strongly the case for private property, as distinguished from communal property: “Nobody is at liberty to attack several property and to say at the same time that he values civilization. The history of the two cannot be disentangled.” For the institution of several property—that is, private property—has been a powerful instrument for teaching men and women responsibility, for providing motives to integrity, for supporting general culture, for raising mankind above the level of mere drudgery, for affording leisure to think and freedom to act. To be able to retain the fruits of one’s labor; to be able to see one’s work made permanent; to be able to bequeath one’s property to one’s posterity; to be able to rise from the natural condition of grinding poverty to the security of enduring accomplishment; to have something that is really one’s own—these are advantages difficult to deny. The conservative acknowledges that the possession of property fixes certain duties upon the possessor; he accepts those moral and legal obligations cheerfully.

Eighth, conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism. Although Americans have been attached strongly to privacy and private rights, they also have been a people conspicuous for a successful spirit of community. In a genuine community, the decisions most directly affecting the lives of citizens are made locally and voluntarily. Some of these functions are carried out by local political bodies, others by private associations: so long as they are kept local, and are marked by the general agreement of those affected, they constitute healthy community. But when these functions pass by default or usurpation to centralized authority, then community is in serious danger. Whatever is beneficent and prudent in modern democracy is made possible through cooperative volition. If, then, in the name of an abstract Democracy, the functions of community are transferred to distant political direction—why, real government by the consent of the governed gives way to a standardizing process hostile to freedom and human dignity.

For a nation is no stronger than the numerous little communities of which it is composed. A central administration, or a corps of select managers and civil servants, however well intentioned and well trained, cannot confer justice and prosperity and tranquility upon a mass of men and women deprived of their old responsibilities. That experiment has been made before; and it has been disastrous. It is the performance of our duties in community that teaches us prudence and efficiency and charity.

Ninth, the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions. Politically speaking, power is the ability to do as one likes, regardless of the wills of one’s fellows. A state in which an individual or a small group are able to dominate the wills of their fellows without check is a despotism, whether it is called monarchical or aristocratic or democratic. When every person claims to be a power unto himself, then society falls into anarchy. Anarchy never lasts long, being intolerable for everyone, and contrary to the ineluctable fact that some persons are more strong and more clever than their neighbors. To anarchy there succeeds tyranny or oligarchy, in which power is monopolized by a very few.

The conservative endeavors to so limit and balance political power that anarchy or tyranny may not arise. In every age, nevertheless, men and women are tempted to overthrow the limitations upon power, for the sake of some fancied temporary advantage. It is characteristic of the radical that he thinks of power as a force for good—so long as the power falls into his hands. In the name of liberty, the French and Russian revolutionaries abolished the old restraints upon power; but power cannot be abolished; it always finds its way into someone’s hands. That power which the revolutionaries had thought oppressive in the hands of the old regime became many times as tyrannical in the hands of the radical new masters of the state.

Knowing human nature for a mixture of good and evil, the conservative does not put his trust in mere benevolence. Constitutional restrictions, political checks and balances, adequate enforcement of the laws, the old intricate web of restraints upon will and appetite—these the conservative approves as instruments of freedom and order. A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty.

Tenth, the thinking conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society. The conservative is not opposed to social improvement, although he doubts whether there is any such force as a mystical Progress, with a Roman P, at work in the world. When a society is progressing in some respects, usually it is declining in other respects. The conservative knows that any healthy society is influenced by two forces, which Samuel Taylor Coleridge called its Permanence and its Progression. The Permanence of a society is formed by those enduring interests and convictions that gives us stability and continuity; without that Permanence, the fountains of the great deep are broken up, society slipping into anarchy. The Progression in a society is that spirit and that body of talents which urge us on to prudent reform and improvement; without that Progression, a people stagnate.

Therefore the intelligent conservative endeavors to reconcile the claims of Permanence and the claims of Progression. He thinks that the liberal and the radical, blind to the just claims of Permanence, would endanger the heritage bequeathed to us, in an endeavor to hurry us into some dubious Terrestrial Paradise. The conservative, in short, favors reasoned and temperate progress; he is opposed to the cult of Progress, whose votaries believe that everything new necessarily is superior to everything old.

Change is essential to the body social, the conservative reasons, just as it is essential to the human body. A body that has ceased to renew itself has begun to die. But if that body is to be vigorous, the change must occur in a regular manner, harmonizing with the form and nature of that body; otherwise change produces a monstrous growth, a cancer, which devours its host. The conservative takes care that nothing in a society should ever be wholly old, and that nothing should ever be wholly new. This is the means of the conservation of a nation, quite as it is the means of conservation of a living organism. Just how much change a society requires, and what sort of change, depend upon the circumstances of an age and a nation.

Such, then, are ten principles that have loomed large during the two centuries of modern conservative thought. Other principles of equal importance might have been discussed here: the conservative understanding of justice, for one, or the conservative view of education. But such subjects, time running on, I must leave to your private investigation.

The great line of demarcation in modern politics, Eric Voegelin used to point out, is not a division between liberals on one side and totalitarians on the other. No, on one side of that line are all those men and women who fancy that the temporal order is the only order, and that material needs are their only needs, and that they may do as they like with the human patrimony. On the other side of that line are all those people who recognize an enduring moral order in the universe, a constant human nature, and high duties toward the order spiritual and the order temporal.

Peter Schiff Analogies

Orrin Woodward — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:16:00 -0400

Here are some great thoughts and analogies from Peter Schiff. Mr. Schiff is a common sense thinker and a proponent of the Austrian School of Economics. I believe the Austrian School is the clearest thinking and historically accurate school of economics in the world. Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich Von Hayek were original titans in an age of Keynesian copycats. Enjoy the video and think through the analogies for yourself. Education is not an option! God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Happy Father's Day - Pastor Robert L. Dickie Sermon

Orrin Woodward — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:49:00 -0400

I had the privilege of being back in Michigan to sit under Pastor Robert Dickie's ministry this morning. There are few, if any, teaching from the Bible like Pastor Dickie. I asked for a copy of this sermon to post the letter from Cal Thomas, but after reading the entire sermon - I have decided to post the sermon in its entirety. Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there. Every father should strive to live up these ideals with their children. I am thankful that my dad taught me the importance of reading and thinking. What a great gift he gave to me! I hope this sermon blesses your life as much as it did mine. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

6/21/2009

Sunday Morning

Paul’s Instructions To Fathers

Text: Ephesians 6:1-4

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

Introduction:

Today on this Father’s Day I want us to consider the teaching of the Apostle Paul on the responsibilities of Parents and children. This is a short, clear, and helpful text that makes it as plain as day what God expects from us as we relate to each other in the context of our families. So let’s examine this passage in detail and see what we can learn from it.

1.     First, we read, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.” This means our obedience is restricted to those things that are not contrary to the law of God. If parents command their children to break the laws of God they are not obligated to obey such commands. For a significant period in a child’s life the father stands, as it were, in the place of God. For many years the father is the child’s provider and protector. How a father relates to his children is creating an image of God in his children’s minds and understanding. A father is the child’s provider. He provides:

a.   An education

b. Warning against spiritual dangers.

c.   An example.

d. Security in his love.

e.   A warm and happy home.

And a father also is his children’s protector. He protects them from:

a.   Dangerous influences.

b. The wrong kinds of friends and associates.

c.   From those predators who would harm his children with drugs, sex, prostitution, and gang life.

2.     Second, we read, “Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.” The word honor is from the Greek word timao, timaw and means to put great value upon. To honor your father is to value him as a precious gift from God. Paul tells us that this commandment is the the first commandment with promise. He goes on to share this promise with us in verse three, “That it may be will with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” This is generally true. We know that in the sovereignty of God there may be times that God overrules His general rules and principles. There have been young people who honored their parents but experienced death at an early or untimely age. All things considered though most young people who honor their parents will live a long life.

3.     Third, we read, “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The word provoke is from the Greek word parorgizo, parorgizw and means to stir up wrath, anger and resentment. The phrase, “Bring them up” suggests to gently guide them and to be an encourager to them. Fathers need to correct what is wrong but praise what is good. The word nurture is from the Greek word paideia, paideia and means instruction and discipline. The word admonition is from the Greek word nouthesia, nouqesia and means to put in mind, to train by using the Word of God. This implies that a father needs to know the Word of God.

From these verses we learn the role of a father as he relates to his children. A father has many and great responsibilities. He must not be a cruel and harsh man. Many fathers are:

1.     Cruel

2.     Harsh

3.     Neglectful

4.     Indifferent

5.     Emotionally withdrawn

When a fathers take an active role in their children’s lives they generally appreciate this and learn to respect and to honor their father’s because of this. But a cruel father will drive his children into the arms of the devil.

How do you become a good father?

·        Forty-nine percent of nonresident fathers say they never play with their children.

·        Sixty-one percent of nonresident fathers never read to their children.

·        Forty-two percent of nonresident dads confess they never talk to their children.

·        Fifty-seven percent of nonresident fathers say they never eat with their children.

·        These are some good activities to do with your children! Play, read, talk, and eat with your family.

Our Theme: What Does It Mean To Honor Your Father?

Our Outline:

I.            Honor Your Father For His Discipline And Correction

II.         Honor Your Father By Being A Wise Son Or Daughter

III.Honor Your Father When You Are Young

IV.           Honor Your Father By Loving God’s Word

I.                   Honor Your Father For His Discipline And Correction

A.        Hebrews 12:9, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”

1.  The word reverence here means respect and fear.

2.  The idea is that loving discipline will make a child respect and honor their parent.

3. Don’t complain, murmur, grumble or gripe when your father corrects you for your own good and development in life.

4.  Discipline is how we learn and grow and are prepared for the future.

5.  Young people should not be upset if their fathers correct them they should be hurt and upset if they don’t.

B.        The apostle is using an analogy to reason with his readers. If our earthly fathers disciplined us and we gave them respect for it how much more should we respect our Father in heaven when He corrects and disciplines us for our spiritual benefit?

C.        Implicit in this analogy is that the author assumes that his readers do in fact reverence their earthly fathers for the correction and discipline that they have given them.

D.        I think this should remind us that it is a universal principle to remember that most normal people are grateful and thankful when their earthly fathers correct and discipline them.

E.         What has happened to our culture when so many see discipline as something to be shunned and criticized?

II.                Honor Your Father By Being A Wise Son Or Daughter

A.   Proverbs 10:1, “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.”

B.    Proverbs 27:11, “My son be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.”

C.   Proverbs 28:7, “Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father.”

D.   What does it mean to be wise? Proverbs 9:10 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

III.             Honor Your Father When You Are Young

A.   Proverbs 6:20-23, “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”

B.    There are many special advantages of being young.

1.     Youth is usually a time of good health and strength.

2.     Youth is usually a time of high hopes and great enthusiasm.

3.     Youth is usually a time of our most vigorous labors for the Lord.

4.     Because of these things youth is also a time when we can be distracted, neglectful and forget to give special thanks and honor to our parents.

IV.           Honor Your Father By Loving God’s Word

A.   Every father would be delighted and filled with pride and joy if he knew that his children had a love for the Bible.

B.    Here are some blessings that a love for the Bible will bring children.

1.     The Bible brings children success in life! Joshua 1:8, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

2.     The Bible will help a child to prosper in all that they do in life! Psalm 1:2-3, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his f ruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

3.     The Bible will make a child wiser than his enemies! Psalm 119:97-98, “O how love I thy law! It is my mediation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for thy are ever with me.”

4.     The Bible will make a child wiser than his teachers! Psalm 119:99-100, “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.”

5.     The Bible will fill your heart with joy! Psalm 63:5-6, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.”

6.     The Bible will cause your success to be obvious to all who know you! I Timothy 4:15, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.”



Conclusion:

Let us honor our fathers this morning. Remember the word honor means to esteem highly, respect, and to place great value upon. We can do this by the ways I have suggested:

1.     Honor Your Father For His Discipline And Correction

2.     Honor Your Father By Being A Wise Son Or Daughter

3.     Honor Your Father When You Are Young

4.     Honor Your Father By Loving God’s Word

Only A Dad

Edgar Guest

Only a dad with a tired face,

Coming home from the daily race,

Bringing little of gold or fame

To show how well he has played the game;

But glad in his heart that his own rejoice

To see him come and to hear his voice.

Only a dad with a brood of four,

One of ten million men or more

Plodding along in the daily strife,

Bearing the whips and the scorns of life,

With never a whimper of pain or hate,

For the sake of those who at home await.

Only a dad, neither rich nor proud,

Merely one of the surging crowd,

Toiling, striving from day to day,

Facing whatever may come his way,

Silent whenever the harsh condemn,

And bearing it all for the love of them.

Only a dad but he gives his all,

To smooth the way for his children small,

Doing with courage stern and grim

The deeds that his father did for him.

This is the line that for him I pen:

Only a dad, but the best of men.

From the book "A Heap o' Livin'" ©1916



A Father's Day cardCal Thomas
Thursday, June 12, 2003, (retold June 21, 2009)

He's been gone 26 years this month. Funny how when I write this, I wonder if some readers might think he walked out on us, as many do. No, Dad left us the only way he would. He died in June, 1983.

I still miss sending him a Father's Day card and finding a present beyond the predictable tie he might like. Shopping for a card by an anonymous rhymer that expressed the right sentiment was always a challenge, so I wrote notes and eventually a letter telling him how much I loved him and what he meant to me. He framed it and hung it in his office.

People of a certain age think he was Lowell Thomas - the famous newscaster and Fox Movietone newsreel narrator of another era. That's because Lowell and I share the same last name and the same profession. But, no, Clinton Samuel Thomas was nothing special to the world, only to his family. And he was special to my brother, Marshall, who was born with a defect diagnosed as mental retardation. How Dad treated my brother taught me a profound lesson. He spent a lot of money on doctors and in search of the right environment for my brother after keeping him at home for years when many suggested institutionalization.

My father survived the Great Depression and World War II, and these experiences burnished his character and honor and made him realize that things are less valuable than people, family and relationships. We never lacked the essential things as I grew up and did not miss luxurious things.

I remember when he took me to buy my first suit and told me, at age 12, how I was becoming a man. I recall the baseball games and the smell of hot dogs and real grass and how good it felt doing guy stuff with him. I inherited no money but got his fishing tackle box. Priceless.

Are too many men too busy to be much more than biological fathers today? Have they convinced themselves that more hours on the job in order to buy more stuff is of greater importance than inhabiting their place in the home and their position as father in the hearts of their children?

My recent high school reunion concluded with a tour of the old building. When we arrived at the gymnasium - where I had played basketball - a classmate asked me what I remembered most about those games. I said that while I recalled a few shots that actually went in, what I remembered most was that my Dad attended every home game. I pointed to where he sat on the upper row. It is an image burned into my heart and mind. One year he promised a steak dinner to the entire team if we beat our arch-rival. We did, and he came through. On that night, my teammates seemed to love him as much as I did.

My father treated my mother with honor and respect. He never let me call an adult by his or her first name and demanded I show respect to my elders. When he let me drive shortly after my 16th birthday, he made it clear he had rules for using his car, just as there are rules of the road. When he said he wanted me back at a certain time, if I wanted to drive again, I returned at the appointed hour until I was able to buy my own car (with his help on the bank note).

Times change, but standards don't. Not a family on my boyhood street experienced divorce. Now divorce is common. Then, a battered woman was a rare occurrence. Now it is far too frequent. Boys were taught by their fathers to respect women. Most guys I knew in high school were virgins, though many lied about it. "Safe sex" meant saving it for marriage.

My favorite picture is of Dad feeding me a bottle when I was 6 weeks old. He is dressed in a suit and a large smile. His right hand holds the bottle, while his left hand is cupped around my shoulders. It is a picture of security and serenity. I wish more boys had fathers like mine. I wish even more that mine was still with me.

Find time today to thank and to honor your fathers that the Lord has graciously given you. And let this occasion be a reminder that we have a heavenly father who is by far the greatest protector and provider that we could ever have. James reminds us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17.