"Center of My Life"  Watch on YouTube  This song celebrates Jesus as the source of all hope, strength, and joy. Recorded live during worship at Shadow Mountain Community Church.

Glenn, a local friend, responded to yesterday's message on stealing: I was  told one time while at a public auction there was a problem with people stealing items. The Auctioneer, whose name was Blaine Rentzel, said something  that  stuck with us which  was: "If You Steal Something, It is Never Really Yours".

Additional thoughts on today's message for the stout-hearted:

As I shared above “We encourage people to identify what they do and consider how it benefits others and makes the world a better place.” This can be done for most types of labor. We are confident that most of our readers can do so as well.

But that is certainly not the case for all types of work. In our view working for a hellishly evil enterprise like Planned Parenthood would certainly not meet these criteria. Same would go for working in a package store exclusively selling alcohol, a gambling institution, a brothel, a porn shop and so forth. Of course selling drugs on the street is still illegal in most places but that is changing as we become more “progressive”.

A bigger challenge for many is where there is a mix such as a store that sells alcohol and tobacco along with food as many grocery stores now do. For the record we both continue to hold to the increasingly unpopular notion that alcohol destroys and now in our early seventies we sure have no regrets that we have taken a position of abstinence. We have seen many, many lives destroyed or adversely affected by alcohol use. This article sure gives some interesting thoughts. “50 Reasons Why I Don’t Drink” written by a pastor and ex-alcoholic.

Another challenge is the government’s alliance with evil and forcing people, against their religious convictions, to participate in it such as the present strategy of homosexual “marriage” proponents seeking to force employees to violate their convictions such as issuing marriage licenses, florists, bakers, photographers. Wedding venues who have all faced outrageous fines, boycotts, and protests outside their business and other such shenanigans for holding to their convictions. For those involved this is outright persecution. For the rest of us it is an harbinger.

Another issue is working for or doing business with a company that supports godless causes. Their product may be morally neutral or even beneficial but they use their wealth to support organizations and foundations that are morally evil. Consider Ben and Jerry's ice cream if you follow the news.