Primarily (Some changes to allow for the passage of time…) from my monthly article, ‘View-From-the-Point’ in the June 2003 issue of the monthly newsletter I used to do for a small church up near Jacksonville, IL. I have used parts or included all of this in various other writings/sermons over the years, but This is its original form!

      “’Nake comin’, Dad.” I wasn’t quite asleep, yet, but was headed there. “What?” I asked. “’Nake comin’, Dad! ‘Nake comin’!”

      My three-year-old son and I were spending the weekend with my mother and her husband at the trailer they owned and kept at a campground in Missouri. He and I were just settling in for the night when he sat upright and pointed down the covers, “’Nake comin’!” I rolled over to look and saw an inchworm making its way towards the pillows. Trying very hard not to laugh, I reassured him that it was only an inch-worm and nothing to worry about, then scooped it up and threw it outside. Thus reassured, we both settled in and went to sleep.

      Though very intelligent for his age (after all, I AM his father!), Ted’s vocabulary at three years of age just did not have enough words in it, yet, to fully describe what he was seeing. The word he did know that most closely described it was ‘snake’! He had seen them at the zoo and read about them in some of his books, and he knew that some snakes were dangerous… hence his insistence on getting my attention focused on what was steadily approaching up the sheet.

      Fast-forward a few years. I once had an opportunity to address a group of junior high students and their teacher as I explained the mechanics and theory behind the giant wooden turntable that drives the carding mill in the village at New Salem State Park. And as they all walked away I could tell from their comments that they had understood what I had been telling them, and were amazed at how everything had been put together to work with ‘Ox Power’. However, I couldn’t help but think that some, if not most, of them were still wondering why they hadn’t just installed an electric motor! They understood the nuts-and-bolts of the machinery, but were unable to deal with the concept of there ever having been a time when something like that was not only necessary, but would have been considered high-technology.

      Unfortunately, much of that same way of thinking has permeated the way youth (and many adults!) perceive religion and moral values. Through the magic of modern technological advances, ‘miracles’ occur around us everyday! Imagine the pioneer of nine decades ago walking into a modern home and seeing a television picture… a doctor transported from a Civil War surgery into one of today’s medical marvels… or a ‘mule skinner’ suddenly seeing a 747 overhead! These things which we take so much for granted would surely seem to be miracles to our forefathers. Yet, to us they are just part of our everyday life, with more ‘miracles’ being invented everyday. Is it any wonder, then, that many of OUR generation, let alone our youth, have a problem dealing with the miracles and ‘stories’ that we read about in the Bible as being anything too special?

      Note these statistics…

      Who cheats on tests?

            74% of Christian Youth

            76% of Non-Christian Youth

      Who lies to their parents?

            93% of Christian Youth

            93% of Non-Christian Youth

      Who physically hit someone when angered?

            63% of Christian Youth

            67% of Non-Christian Youth

(Source: The Ethics of American Youth Survey)

      The point is, there is little or no difference between our kids who are called Christian and non-believers! And that is because we have failed in passing on to them the full context and meaning of the Good News of Jesus Christ… and that is at least partly because that for all intents and purposes, many of us have failed, ourselves, to grasp the full import of Christ’s message.

      For the most part, many in the Church today, including our youth, have not been taught any of the ‘heavy’ ideas and ideals of religion… they have learned what I have termed ‘religion-lite’! Yet, since the only word in most vocabularies that came close to describing it was ‘religion’, that’s what most assumed they were learning. But the numbers in the survey above tell a different story!

      When I went on my ‘Walk to Emmaus’, many years ago, one speaker told us that, “When the church loses the word ‘SIN’ from its vocabulary, it loses the very language of salvation!” You see, Sin and Order are directly related. Our God is a God of Order! So, in its simplest terms, sin is merely a case of getting things out of the order that God intended for them to be, and a person must truly study and learn His word to be aware of what that order is. Without that awareness, right and wrong both become ‘gray’, not the ‘black and white’ that they should be.

We must all search out the truth… the order, if you will… of God’s plan and return to the basic principles and concepts that Jesus strove so hard to make known to us. Because, without a knowledge of and belief in the basics any lessons learned will be false, or worse, only partly true!

And there is no such thing as a Partial Christian. That would kinda’ be like being partly pregnant!