Friday with Fred: August 2025

August 29, 2025

The Slippery Slope of a Society

If you are a conservative, it means you seek to conserve. For the Christian, that means you seek to conserve Biblical truth. One of the courses I teach at the seminary is Ethics. I never run out of issues to teach about. One of the most perennial of topics is Suicide: self-inflicted or physician-assisted, both are regularly in the news. How do we conserve Biblical truth in a culture that is committed to personal autonomy?

I have had both personal experience and professional interest in this topic. This is not an academic exercise for me.

The cultural reasoning for the request of the day goes like this:

I have a Terminal disease.
My disease is Incurable.
My disease or situation is Unbearable.
I will determine my “Final Exit.” I demand “death with dignity!”

I sympathize with those who find themselves or family members in difficult conditions and impossible situations.

I understand the wisdom of Helmut Thielicke:

“Do we not have to accept the fact that under the shadow of forgiveness, different decisions are possible and different loyalties and liberties may exist?”

Nevertheless, we must find wisdom first in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God, (2 Tim 2:16) for at the end of the day, all ethical issues are really theological issues. And to make those kinds of decisions, we must find and conserve the wisdom of the Lord. (Ps 119:10-12)

Serving Him with you

Until He comes for us.

Fred

August 22, 2025

There are no old people in Heaven

-Steve Lyon-

Neurologists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, otolaryngologists, general practitioners, and don’t forget the dentist and the endodontist, a.k.a. root canal man; what do they all have in common? They are rich. What does it mean when you need to see all of them in one year? You are old, you are in trouble, and you are falling apart.

I know - “Don’t let the old man in” --- but he keeps knocking so loud at my door.

Let’s get beyond the physical and move to the theological. The Apostle Paul is truthful and forthright when he tells us; “This outer body is wearing out and wasting away” (2 Corinthians 4:16a). This is part of the consequences of the fall of Adam, which manifests itself in each of us in that the day is coming when we will face physical death.

However, Paul also reminds us that that is not the end of the story. There is coming a day, either before death at the rapture or after death in resurrection (I Thessalonians 4), when we will be raised immortal, imperishable, and you will discover a brand new you, a glorified you in a resurrected glorified body (I Corinthians 15:42). There is a big change coming as Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52:

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

Because of Jesus and His substitutionary atonement for sin (Romans 3:21-25) the sting of death has been nullified along with its eternal impact. And although the consequences of sin still have an impact on our lives, it is limited, local, and temporal. We wait for that which is eternal when death is swallowed up in victory. (I Corinthians 15:53-54)

There is a new world coming. So, until then, each of us is given 2 dates and one dash. Live the days between the dash with purpose. Count the days and make the days count.

Serving Him with you

Until He comes for us.

Fred

August 15, 2025

A prophet’s task is to reveal the fault lines hidden beneath the comfortable surface of the worlds we invent for ourselves

- Kathleen Norris

I have been called a prophet many times over 50 years in the ministry. In part because of personality and in part because of my convictions.

It seems that not everyone appreciates prophets, both ancient and modern. Nevertheless, we must realize that today we may need to become involved in “faithful disobedience to the culture as we engage in the obedience of faith to Christ.”

Many of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world have already experienced this reality. You may be thinking of the difficulty in Iran, China, or North Korea. But consider that in the United Kingdom, in October 2024, a man was arrested for praying silently near an abortion clinic. Sounds like the “thought police” in the novel by George Orwell entitled “1984” are alive and well.

Today, in America, being Jewish carries a death sentence through a death wish from many educated “Millennials,”“Generation Y” students, and "baby boomer" professors.

It might not be too outside the box to see one day that public worship through church services or concerts (which are often the same thing) is considered a dangerous health hazard to society and carries considerable consequences. Remember, Stalin locked up many political dissidents in the Gulags and mental asylums for their religious beliefs, as well as Chairman Mao in China’s Cultural Revolution. The utopian urge for self-deification has always been dangerous for Christians.

Perhaps we are coming closer to the day when Christians need to be clear about what we are willing to live for and convinced about what we are willing to die for.

Serving Him with you

Until He comes for us.

Fred

August 8, 2025

The Sense Of The Ending

This is a hard and harsh reality for many of us, but it is true. Of course, the end is only the beginning for the Christian, for the end of the temporal life here is the beginning of our transcendent eternal life there! And, I am convinced that our life here will not end one hour earlier than the Lord has planned.

Nevertheless, until then, we need to make our dreams bigger than our memories. It is hard to dream again unless you have an eternal perspective, which goes from the subatomic to the intergalactic, but that is what we should desire as Christians.

We are still under the orders of the King to participate in the great commission and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20).

Paul’s perspective is:

And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ. Colossians 1:28

And in Ephesians 5:16 he reminds us that we are to redeem the time because the days are evil.

I have always believed it is imperative to demand the time to think and develop the habit of thought. I have spent some creative thought over the past 4 weeks to map out and gear up for the next season of my life and its investment for Jesus. I am not trying to be presumptuous, but I do seek to pray it up, plan it out, and be prepared to live for my Lord until the upward call.

Carpe diem!

Always.

Serving Him with you

Until He comes for us.

Fred

August 1, 2025

The Abnormal Is Not The Normal Just Because It’s Prevalent

Change comes so imperceptibly that we are insensitive to its influence. Our moral compass can become disoriented, and we become misdirected so that we are not even aware of it.

The Bible is the inspired word of God given to man to help us become reoriented to reality. It is what God has given to His people to help reframe ourselves in a lopsided world. We live in a world that delights in calling bad good and good bad...and that is not a good thing, it is a bad thing.

The Prophet Isaiah lived in such a time and warned his ancient people, Israel, and the modern church today:

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;

Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;

Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 5:20a-b

Theo Hobson explains how a moral revolution comes about.

" Something that was nearly universally condemned is now nearly universally celebrated. That which was celebrated is condemned. Those who refuse to celebrate are condemned."

I think most of us can see how this formula has taken over much of our culture and society. The results have been devastating. I think we used to call this “the frog in the kettle.”

"Ribbit"……….

Serving Him with you

Until He comes for us.

Fred