Receive that...
I don't receive that...
Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013
Pastor Terry Dashner
I recently had a "father and son" conversation with a young man
who was not my son, but he was certainly young enough to be my
son. And as typical in a father and son conversation, I--the
older man--gave the younger man some fatherly advice. Although I
offered him some reasonable and trustworthy advice--tested and
proven through time--he rejected the counsel. He retorted, "I
don't receive that."
It hit me later that this young man's reaction is not atypical
for a generation without virtues. This young man believes that
he can deny truth or objective facts by innocently stating, "I
don't receive that."
Peter Kreeft underscores this observation about today's youth
when he writes, "Proverbs are the summaries of accumulated
practical wisdom of the past, the experience of our ancestors.
They are moral truths, half-truths sometimes, but truths. They
describe real virtues. But we no longer believe in real values.
Therefore we do not believe in proverbs. We believe instead in
discussion, in moral ping-pong, in 'values clarification'.
"Values clarification is essentially the following.
'Facilitators' (no longer teachers, for there is no longer
anything true to teach) encourage students to state and clarify
their own personal values by asking questions. This sounds like
Socrates so far, but wait.
"These questions are never about the roots or grounds of values,
about principles. Instead, they are about feelings and
reasonings, calculations."
G. K. Chesterton once said, "An open mind is like an open mouth:
useful only to close down on something solid." Believe me the
older I get, the more I need something solid to close down on. I
went through my younger years with an open mind, but relative
truth could not satisfy my soul. I needed absolutes. And the
older I get, the less apologetic I am for adhering to absolute
standards.
For me, the "Thou shalt not(s)..." are not restrictive rules of
behavior but liberating truths for living. I like being told up
front the consequences to my actions. That way I can make an
educated choice to either "do it" or refrain from "doing it." I
learned a long time ago that denying truth did not change the
truth. Truth is and remains truth whether or not I retort, "I
don't receive that."
Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon. That's
the absolute truth!
Pastor T