Articles by Marty Kessler
“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse”- John Stuart Mill, British philosopher. Mill’s words tell us that there are some things worth war. Ironically enough, it is actually love in the minds of right-thinking people, compelling them to fight. Do you love your freed...
Jesus told a parable about a widow who incessantly went to a judge for legal protection against an enemy. The judge refused at first, but eventually helped the poor woman just because she wouldn’t quit coming (Luke’s gospel, 18:1-8). Jesus finished the parable with the question, “… when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Faith trusts the reality of what is not yet seen. Lookin...
Jesus said: “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.” He knew what he was talking about, having created the whole process of conception, gestation & birth (see John, 1:1-3; 14), no other man could ever have understood and appreciated...
What will it be? Corona Virus? Heart attack? Brain aneurysm? Stroke? Blood clot? Cancer? Car wreck? Hepatitis C? Lyme Disease? Swine Flu? Bird Flu? Asian Flu? E-coli? Mrsa? Sars Virus? Legionnaires’ Disease? Asbestos poisoning? Lead poisoning? Mercury poisoning? DDT poisoning? Food poisoning? Old age? Dirt on the Clintons? Mad Cow (more than one way for that to happen in rural Oklahoma)? As an ast...
This poem, attributed to John Clifford, has long served as an encouraging word to me. I hope you find it does the same for you. Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door, and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime; Then looking in, I saw upon the floor, old hammers, worn with beating years of time “How many anvils have you had,” said I, “To wear and batter all these hammers so?” “Just one,” sa...
Worldly folks doing worldly stuff, is expected. But when those who name Jesus as their Lord begin listening to the world instead of him, they trouble the church. One trend I will briefly address here, is male leadership in the kingdom. Anyone with the eyes to see it will note that a lion’s share of kingdom work is done by our ladies. God has made sure that their influence and works were recorded i...
For God so loved the world”, is a line Jesus himself spoke and preambles the statement that because of that love God offered his only son to give us eternal life (John’s gospel 3:16). Jesus also said with that, “… whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea...
Consider some of the influences that impact the formative years of your life and how little (?) control you have in each of them: · Your parents (the good, the bad, the ugly) · Your DNA (looks, athleticism, health, height, weight, sex, skin color) · Your siblings (birth order, brothers or sisters, difference in age or lack thereof) · Your extended family (grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins, in-...
Solomon said we are all crazy. “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead. For whoever is joined with the living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.” Ecclesiastes 9:3-4 He was talki...
Everyone has a standard by which they gauge right and wrong. Their standard may be as simple as their own opinion, or it could be popular opinion, their parents or some named ideology, but everyone has a standard. When someone tells you not to “impose your religion” on them, they are judging by their standard that it is wrong for you to try to influence their thinking with your own. Imagine, howev...
It is finally 2020. Yes, you made it to the new year! But not everyone made it. We lost a bunch in 2019 (just like every year). Peter Mayhew, the man who brought Chewbacca to life in the Star Wars movies, is gone. Chewie “lives on”, and Peter would be the man to thank for introducing us to him, but thank him we cannot. Eddie Money may have had “Two Tickets to Paradise”, but his life touched down i...
Light is the first thing Genesis records God speaking into existence (Genesis 1:3). He did not need the light, but we do, even to imagine all the rest of his creative acts. Later, he would create what were referred to as “lights” in the heavens; the “greater light” to rule the day, the “lesser light” for the night (1:14-19), and we still need these lights. God’s greatest and most needed light, how...
Jesus was conceived within Mary by God’s Holy Spirit (Matthew’s gospel 1:18).With his last words from the cross, Jesus yielded his own spirit back to God (Luke’s gospel 23:46) Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5) but also the Passover lamb whose sacrifice reconciled both Jews & Gentiles to God (1st Corinthians 5:7 & Ephesians 2:11-18) At Jesus’ birth, a heavenly host said, “Pea...
This is what the Magi told King Herod when they came to Jerusalem looking for Jesus. The star that led them to Jerusalem, would later lead them to Bethlehem. These men had seen Jesus’ star and somehow knew that it was His, and that it signified His arrival as the King of the Jews. Centuries before, an unlikely prophet uttered the following: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A st...
Behavior is influenced by companions. Do you choose friends based on what you want to see in your behavior? If I want to succeed in life, I must choose friends who also value success; but I ‘d better know what I consider to be success. Paul told the church at Corinth that evil companions corrupt good morals (1st Corinthians 15:33). In this case, evil companions had influenced some members of the c...
Do you ever find yourself wanting to ask God for something but believe that it is too small or insignificant to “bother” him about? I know I do. But I’ve been a dad long enough to know how pleased I am when one of my children asks for my input about anything in their lives; even when they think they need to apologize about its seeming insignificance. Our sun is approximately 864,938 miles in diame...
It is believed that most of the ideas behind the night we now call “Halloween” originated with the Celtic religion of Druidism which flourished for around 300-350 years between the second centuries BC and AD. For the Druids, this night meant that the “lighter” part of the year was coming to an end and the “darker” part was beginning. They further believed that on this night the veil between the li...
The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’”, Genesis 3:4-5 The above reveals for us the most profound struggle of our own existence; which is our desire to govern ourselves as though we are our own god. Intellectually, it makes no sense. We know that we did not cre...
Sunday, November 24 2019, has been designated by the shepherds here at Choctaw as “Every Member Present Sunday”. That’s what’s up ahead! On a given Lord’s day, folks will be absent from our assembly for any number of reasons. Kids get sick, work schedules interfere, vacations come along, and well, you know. It is difficult to get everyone together at the same time; but how neat would it be if we d...
My thanks to the Competitive Enterprise Institute for a compilation of news articles predicting dooms of various types. Below are some of the foreboding conclusions reached by scientists in the recent past that were noted in their piece. 17 November 1967 – The Salt Lake Tribune published an article by George Getze, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, with the headline, “Dire Famine Forecast by ‘75...