What Phil was referring to

Sharing to what scripture says about sin

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

       On Wednesday, December 18, GQ Magazine broke a story in which Phil Robertson, the star and head of the A&E reality television series “Duck Dynasty” was asked by a reporter as to what his views of the homosexual lifestyle was in regards to his devout Christian beliefs. 

Robertson said, “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there — bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman   and those men.” 

What Robertson was meaning in his comment was that homosexuality is the gateway lifestyle to the deviant, a lot like the gateway drug that marijuana was to a crack, meth, heroin or cocain addict. None of which is behavior that God calls us to. 

He sent His Son, Jesus to die for our sins, yes. But that doesn’t give us a license to sin because Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law, but that through Him it might be fulfilled. I am covered by the blood of Jesus, which was the covenant of the New Testament. However, even Romans 1 talks about the homosexual lifestyle and what costs come with it. Verse 28 says, “Who knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only to those that do it, but those that have pleasure in them that do them.” -Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired  words, not mine.

The self-centered assumption that a Christian shouldn’t have a problem with the LGBT community  forcing their views on the rest of us and then expect us to refer to their lifestyle as normal, is a dangerous thought process to invoke in today’s society, especially when Congress and the Senate are trying to legislate such ideology. 

Sharing what God says in His word about our flippant attitude toward any sin (not just homosexuality) is what God called us to do. How else will a lost, dying, hell-bound person hear the word, unless God sends a preacher (Which Phil is) to tell them. 

Here is my theory about what happened. GQ called A&E to set up an appointment for an interview with Phil Robertson. A&E talked the reporter to ask Phil about his Christian beliefs on sin and homosexuality. If you recall, (if you heard about this happening in the news), A&E talked to the Robertsons and said that they were getting a lot of complaints from viewers about the Robertsons praying and involving God in their episodes. 

A&E asked if the Robertsons would stop putting that content on their show. Phil, the spokesman for the family, said that if they couldn’t involve prayer or God in the show, that there would be no show. A&E re-signed them for another season because due to the astronomical ratings that Duck Dynasty affords A&E, it would have been bad for business to not re-sign them. 

The GQ reporter asked Robertson the line of questioning regarding his Christian beliefs toward homosexuality. Robertson, being the outspoken Christian that he is, who believes in the First Amendment rights to free speech that the LGBT community also enjoys, answered that line of questioning, not based on hate, but with what lines up with the word of God.

GQ ran and tattled to GLAAD, GLAAD went viral with their outbursts that Robertson spouted hate speech toward the LGBT Community (which he did not). Therefore, to save face with an organization and a community that A&E champions the cause of, A&E suspended Robertson indefinitely. 

This whole situation was a conspiracy, in my opinion, to take the head of the Robertson family off of the show about the duck call company, Duck Commander, that Robertson started in his garage.

Now this is just my speculative opinion, but if you read John 8, it almost 100 percent mirrors the story of the prostitute that was brought before Jesus by the Sanhedrin to test Jesus. In this analogy, A&E and GQ represent the Sanhedrin. GLAAD  represent the other man that the Sanhedrin did NOT bring before Jesus. Phil Robertson loosely represents the prostitute (in A&E’s and GQ’s failed attempt for self righteousness). and we, the Christian community, standing up for Robertson, represent Jesus, who used scripture to rebuke the Sanhedrin. The LGBT community represent the Jews that had amassed around the prostitute, ready to throw stones. 

Now, in this analogy, let me explain that I don’t believe that Robertson was caught in any sin. That is the difference between him and the prostitute. He was baited, in my opinion, by the GQ reporter and A&E, to answer the line of questioning, because they knew that he would answer it in a way that would arouse and incite rage from the crowd, ready to stone him. 

The prostitute in John 8 was baited by the other man in the equation that nothing happens to, into sinning. That happened so that the Sanhedrin would have a chance to test Jesus in yet another failed attempt to prove that Jesus was a false profit. 

In the passage, Jesus ignored the crowd’s chant for her stoning. He bent down and scribbled in the sand. Many theologians speculate as to what he was scribbling. I have heard one theory that He was writing a law from Leviticus that says if a person baits another person into sinning, then they are just as guilty as the one they baited. That might be possible, but I won’t be so arrogant as to say that was definitely what he was writing. Let’s not give way to semantics. 

But let me say this with great humility and reserve; I pray that the LGBT community, GLAAD, A&E and GQ one day soon are introduced to my God before it is too late for them. My other prayer is that when they have had the truth revealed to them through this, they realize that surrendering to Him does not bind them to a life of ducking and dodging rules. It offers them freedom, with chains broken and no longer a slave to the master they have served in this situation. That slave is the very sin that Phil Robertson was referring to in his comment. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.

The Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign

Where the concept originated that has brought relief to Americans for 120 years

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

The Salvation Army is looking for volunteers this holiday season to serve as bell ringers for its annual fund-raiser, as patrons at busy department stores and grocery stores participate in the organization’s most needy time of the year. 

The annual fund-raiser starts in November on Black Friday, and ends December 24 (Christmas Eve). 

Volunteers from church groups, youth groups, athletes, cheerleaders, Sunday school classes, businesses and individuals volunteer all over America to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. 

The bell ringers have been a steady mainstay at retail stores and shopping malls in America for over 100 years. The tradition began in 1891 when Captain Joseph McFee, a sailor from Liverpool, England, wanted to feed the poor at Christmas time. 

He recalled seeing a red kettle on the docks, called “Simpson’s Pot,” when he was a young sailor. People would toss coins into the kettle to raise money to feed the poor. He set a red kettle out  at the Oakland Ferry Landing in San Francisco with a sign that read, “Keep the pot boiling.”

McFee was able to raise the money needed to feed the poor that Christmas. News of the successful fund-raiser spread so far that in 1897, enough money was raised to feed 150,000 people for Christmas. In 1901 he raised enough to hold a sit down dinner at New York City’s Madison Square Garden for Christmas. 

Today, money collected in the red Salvation Army kettles is used to help the needy, the sick, the aged and other less fortunate, especially during the holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Every dollar raised is donated to community charities in the towns in which the money is collected. Money is given to help food banks, low-budget community clinics, assistance with utilities or housing. Every dollar donated counts. 

     This year, I have seen people singing at the red kettle, dancing, playing a trumpet, all the way to cheer leading to attract patrons to donate loose change to a few dollars as they pass the volunteers. 

I have volunteered twice this year at the Walmart in my community. They desperately need people to step up and donate their time, their smile and their Christmas cheer to continue the effort that Captain Joseph McFee began over 120 years ago. There is still time to volunteer by going to the Salvation Army's website at http://www.salvationarmy-usa.org/usn/volunteer.

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.

Who do ‘THEY’ think they are

A thought provoking point-of-view to self thought

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

They said in the 50s that smoking wouldn’t kill you.  They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. They say a person needs just three things in life to be happy; someone to love, something to do and something to hope for.

Just who are ‘they’ and who made them the experts on everything? There is a ever-present force in the world that wants to control and drive the destiny of mankind. Some call them the illuminati. Some call them field specific experts, usually reputable scientists. Some call that driving force ‘the powers that be’. Either way you look at it, ‘they’ want the mass populating to just accept what they tell you and go on like there is no alternative out there, to their say in things. 

The Bible says Romans 1 that from the beginning of mankind, God made His existence known and manifest inside of man, so they are without excuse when they stand before Him in judgement. People may ask, “Well what about the indigenous tribes in the deepest jungles of Africa who have never heard of God?” 

  Who are we to make that assessment? The scriptures in Romans 1 are very clear that God is no respecter of person. All were created with the basic common knowledge that there is a creator. It’s when we try to rationalize and use logic, or apply what theories we have been taught in school by so called “educators”, that we  limit God to what is physically possible. God moves and works in the supernatural, and has no boundaries of physical or absolutely scientific. 

It is sometimes hard to wrap our minds around things that we can’t see, touch or hear. It isn’t always completely our fault either. It’s easy for the influence of others to overtake our thought process and cloud our judgement, because they make it sound so logical and believable. 

They have just used mind control to inhabit their beliefs into another person’s life. However, God sent His Holy Ghost on the earth to break through the confusion  often times created by man to bring truth to expose a lie. The only problem we create for ourselves in this process is again, we limit our understanding to what is physical.
God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts aren’t our thoughts. His word is truth set afire in a dark, evil world, which will break through the confusion and bring about clarity when we open our hearts to what the spirit has to reveal to us. It is then that clarity of His will for our lives is seen through the truth, which was already created in us to begin with. 

So the next time someone shadows the truth with what the experts claim, think about it for yourself. If it doesn’t line up with God’s word, reject it, for the opinions of the so called “experts” is yet another tool the enemy uses to deceive us from seeking the truth within the word of God. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative 

Grieving the Holy Spirit

When your child doesn’t come to you for help

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

     

     My dad used to jokingly tell me, if you are ever out and about and you get arrested, don’t come crying to me. He was joking of course... I hope. Then there were times that he would tell me when I legitimately needed him, but didn’t turn to him, “Why didn’t you come to me when the problem started?” 

Often times we’re guilty of doing the same thing to God by not going to Him in prayer when we find ourselves in a jam. In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul specifically instructs us not to grieve the Holy Ghost  by not making Him our first point of contact in a crisis situation.

God desires to be there to help us when the going gets tough. That’s what any father’s desire is for his children. God put our dads in a leadership role as head of and responsibility barer of the family. Traditionally, it is the man who proposes marriage to the woman he has chosen. By doing so, the father is taking on the responsibility role as the person accountable for everything in his family. 

When a family is torn apart by divorce, the father is usually the one to be separated from his family. Even in most cases of adultery where the father was not the guilty party, he is still the one that leaves the rest of the family, leaving the children to cope with life without a father. 

It is still possible to see the pieces of the family put back together again, if God is allowed into the situation to bring about healing of the marital and parental relationship.

In instances where he was the one guilty of the affair, thinking that healing is impossible is the first step in quenching the Holy Ghost from bringing about true change, repentance, and resolving the issue at hand to fit back the pieces of the broken model that God instituted and ordained. 

In the instance of a child doing poorly on a test, and not coming to his or her parent to ask for help in something that they don’t understand, the child can also grieve the Holy Ghost. Not allowing the person that God trusted to be the parent and help out in times of confusion or misunderstanding, is a huge step on the way to a division in trust, respect and hope of the parent/child relationship growing to one that pleases God. 

No one has ever been completely perfect in their lives. Even the professionals with years of training and God-given talent make errors in performance, judgement and morality. It is not a shameful thing to go to the Father when one needs help with an issue they are facing. 

Our friends fail us. Our family fails us. Even the churches we go to don’t always have all the answers and resolution to problems we face. God is a prayer away. Show me a person who is good at bringing others down around them due to their problems, and I will show you a person with no prayer life and no faith in God. If they would only turn to Him and trust His way in all of life’s circumstances, they will not only see a miracle come to them, but the people  around them won’t have to ask if they go to church. They will see the goodness of God in that person through the life they live.

A man was buying a soda one day at a supermarket. He paid with a $20 bill. He saw the clerk inspect the bill to make sure it wasn’t fake. She performed all of the tests that she was trained to do. Before she put the bill in the drawer, she took a tissue and rubbed the dollar bill with it. Inspecting the tissue, she put it in the drawer and gave the man his change and receipt. 

The man was perplexed. He said, “Ma’am, I know you have all the inspection tests that you have to run on the dollar bill, but I didn’t understand the reason for the tissue test.”

The clerk said, “Well sir, I was checking to see if the print of the dollar bill smeared on the tissue Yours did, so that was how I knew it was real. The real thing rubs off.”

If we allow God to help us in time of need, and if we maintain a healthy prayer life, and we stay fed in God’s word and line our lives up with His word, God’s goodness in us will rub off onto others around us. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey  - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.

God has a standard

Yet we blame him for the decisions we make

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

      For years now, I’ve heard people criticizing God for what people in His church do. Just because someone says that they are doing something in Jesus’ name, doesn’t mean that He honors what they do. One quote you will read on my blogs time and time again, is that if someone’s actions, words, and beliefs that they promote don’t line up with the word of God, then His blessings will allude them, and He certainly isn’t to blame for their ignorance.

        I read a news story today of yet another teacher who had been involved in an inappropriate relationship with one of his students. This man was also a youth leader at his church in Wiley, Texas. I read comment after comment of people who blame God, or even the idea of God. They were condemning of the man as well. 

As wide spread as this type of atrocity is these days, and as rampant as the sinful nature is, one would be arrogant to believe or proclaim that it would never happen to them. First of all, no one knows if the girl in this situation was making it up to cause trouble. That’s not always the case. In fact, nine times out of ten, I would venture to say that the adult was most likely guilty. But we don’t know because we weren’t there. 

It’s one thing to post a comment on a news story that one reads on the Internet. They are hidden. No one knows who they are and never will. It’s another to be a parent of the victim in this type of case, or the spouse or family member of the alleged offender and have to live with what they did and still be a family member or spouse after the smoke cleared and the punishment was handed down from the judge. 

When we make comments that push the blame on God, asking, “Why  would God allow that to happen,” or,  “Where was God in this matter?”, we are definitely barking up the wrong tree. God was right i the midst taking names and placing the proper judgement on the guilty. I will say in this case, that if the teacher was guilty, he was found out. If the girl is making it up, as one commenter suggested, then the truth will come out and it’s best to leave the judging and condemning to the only perfect one there is, who is qualified to judge them. 

To say that in my flesh, I don’t agree with the severity of some of the comments, would be a lie. In my flesh, I wish true punishment for the guilty. But in my spirit, I am reminded to pray for everyone involved. Alas, sometimes, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, as Paul wrote in his Epistle. 

The bottom line is this; we can never be sure that we are above doing things of this nature. Paul wrote in Romans 3:10-12, 10 “There is none righteous, no, not one. 11 There is non that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (God seeks us). 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; (Again, Paul repeats), there is non that doeth good, no not one.” 

We in and of ourselves can do no good thing, because the flesh is weak. But through Christ Jesus, who conquered the flesh, sin, death, hell and the grave, we are found innocent in His righteousness if we are standing in His holiness on the day of judgement. For the sins of the world, we can not blame God, because mean listened to his flesh and chose to do evil, even after God warned us that we would surely die. 

That was not the way God intended it to be. Sinful nature of man chooses evil, even when God has given us a way out of temptation. 

That still small voice that Christians hear when met with temptation that says, “Hey, you know God isn’t going to like that, and you will be robbing yourself of His blessings if you go through with it,” that’s the Holy Spirit trying to give you an out from temptation to follow through with sin. If we go through with it anyway, we can’t blame the devil, he get’s too much credit for what we do anyway. We certainly can’t blame God, because as I’ve written before, God is not the author of confusion. 

Listen to that still small voice and choose to do what’s right. Don’t condemn another man for doing what any of us are capable of doing as well. Pray. Listen to the Holy Ghost. He will direct your paths. 

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.

Who am I, and what's behind the name

An up close look at the publisher

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

          A man once said of himself, "To know me is to love me." I won't be so arrogant as to say that about myself. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and I have mine as well. I grew up on the tri-district line of Cy-Fair ISD, HISD, and Spring Branch ISD in Houston. As fate would have it, I lived in the house on Limestone Street that was the dividing line of all three districts. My house was in the Cy-Fair District. But I didn't start off by going to Bane Elementary as I was supposed to. Thank God my mother was made privy to the correct information, or my life would have turned out quite different; not necessarily worse, just different.
          I started Kindergarten at 4 years old at Benbrook Elementary. I was only there for two weeks when a mistake in logistics was made known to my mother. First of all, I was too young by only 13 days to begin school. Secondly, we didn't live in Houston School District. So, for a couple of years, my dad picked at me and called me a Kindergarten drop out. I thought for the longest that it was my fault because of my dad's non-stop teasing about it. My mother assured me that she was the one mistaken, but I was four and took my dad's teasing to heart about it.
          The next year, 1976, I began elementary at the right age and at the right school. I went to Bane Elementary for Kindergarten. My brother was a prodigy in those days, and went to a private Christian school that our church, Central Baptist owned, in the Spring Branch area. After Kindergarten, I joined my brother at Central Christian Academy. I was smart, but still average. I was picked on a lot on my block because of how small I was. I only weighed about 50 pounds until my second or third grade year.
          The one thing I loved was spelling tests. I loved getting home and having my mother drill me in spelling words. I would spell them all about ten times or so, then my mother would give me the definitions for all my spelling words and I would give her the word and spell it. I read over 260 books that first year in Mrs. Huffman's class. We had a bookworm program that I won a third place ribbon for. When it was time for the first grade spelling bee, I was ready. I went through all the words in the book that Mrs. Huffman had for us to spell. She had to start coming up with more words when we spelled through all the book.
          It was down to myself and a girl named Becky. We went back and forth. Soon, it was a contest, with all the boys rooting for me and all the girls rooting for Becky. After too long, Mrs. Huffman got all the teachers from second grade to sixth grade to come out to the area that we were having the spelling bee. They all gave words for us to spell. 45 minutes into the one-on-one tussle back and forth, Mrs. Huffman declared a tie. Becky and I both won co-first place trophies.
          I stayed at Central Christian Academy until the third grade. I developed a condition that affected my kidneys and spent three weeks in the hospital before the doctors could figure out what was wrong. I had a blocked ureter due to a narrow tube coming from my left kidney. They had to operate on me to unblock it. My mother was incensed because our pastor never came to see me in the hospital. He sent his deacons in his place.
          My mother called a pastor from Langwood Baptist Church in our neighborhood and he came to see me. She took us out of Central Christian Academy and sent me back to Bane Elementary in the fourth grade, and my brother to Dean Junior High in the seventh grade. I hated public schools except for the fact that there were more organized activities to get involved with like band, choir and drama. I wasn't very athletically inclined, and I had a nervous mother, so sports were out of the question, much to my dismay.
          I had a pretty good time at Bane with my grades and with making friends. Junior High was a much different beast. When I got to Dean Junior High, I pretty much expected to get beat up almost every day. It only happened physically about two or three times, and usually it was unprovoked by myself. I was treated like utter, complete garbage by a lot of people though, so I think getting beat up for no reason would have probably been better. Seven years I put up with getting kicked around verbally at school, at home by my brother, and even some of the guys at church targeted me because I wasn't athletic. They played basketball. I stunk at basketball back then and still do today.
          So there I was, stuck in a society that would rather spit in my face than give me a hand once in a while. I would show them though. I got really heavy into my acting and singing, as well as my percussive talents. I didn't do very well at my other classes, but I excelled in my elective classes. I still play the drums at church every chance that I get, I still act, (Seven films, 14 stage plays, 4 commercials, 1 music video and I currently play "The Blue Beacon" - Anti-Bullying Superhero on Keys Media TVs "Keys For Kiddos.") I sing when I'm not writing, working and when I'm not asleep. I love doing karaoke.
          In 1989, I enlisted in the delayed entry program of the United States Army. I graduated in June of 1990 and was dying to leave home and serve my country, or just be away from the life that I had long since grown to hate. I left for Basic Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma on August 1, 1990. You guessed it! Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Guess where I was headed in January of 1991? YUP! Saudi Arabia; Riyadh to be exact. I did good there. Our unit only lost one soldier, Specialist Emanuel Sapien, to a land mine.
          I was engaged to a girl back home that still had a year of high school left. After the war, I came home and spent most of my time with her. She seemed distant, but still loving. I went back to my unit in Germany that was deactivating and coming back state-side. In November of 1991, I came home on pass from my new unit in Oklahoma, and she broke up with me. I was crushed and devastated beyond belief. I turned to alcohol when I got back to Oklahoma. It had a huge affect on me and my First Sergeant saw it. When I got out of the Army, I went and got help from God and the Church.
          I am proud to say that I no longer have a problem with alcohol, because on July 13, 1992 I found a friend in Jesus. I had been in church my whole life, but I lacked the relationship with God that I needed to make my life complete. I had gotten into ice skating and playing hockey. One day, on my way to the ice rink for a drop-in game, I was on the bus and a homeless man got on in Downtown. He smelled bad, he had severely dirty clothes and long, shaggy hair. As he sat down, there were young people laughing at him and holding their noses. I was getting impatient with them to say the least.
          The bus was approaching the Salvation Army shelter and the man pulled the cord to signal for his stop. He got off, but tripped and hit the ground. The whole bus, minus myself, busted out laughing. I got off as well, because I had taken all of them I was going to. I offered him some money for some food. He turned it down and said that he had enough money to stay at the Salvation Army shelter. He told me that instead, he had something to offer me.
     He asked me if I was a child of the living God. I told him, "Sure, I go to Langwood Baptist Church. I sing in the choir there, I was the chairman of the events committee and I was a youth sponsor." "I, I, I, I."
          He stopped me and said that wasn't what he was talking about. He asked me, "Have you come to the point in your life where you realized that your sin offended God?"
          No one had ever asked me that before. I guess I had never thought about that. Needless to say, I missed my hockey game, because that homeless man, Don White, showed me in his Bible how God wanted people to desire to live in His will, not some flibberdy-gibbet wanna-be that played Christian on Sunday and then lived like the devil from Monday t Saturday. He wanted a person who was real with himself and everyone he faced.
          That started my ministry. I had already appeared in a music video, a film and two commercials. I stayed the course with my acting career until my two year modeling contract ended and I learned how to land my own gigs without the use of an agent. There was no sense in paying someone when I could do their job and perform as well. So I appeared in church plays, a couple of more films and one more commercial...then, I got married and put it on hold.
          I married a friend from the church I used to go to that owned the private school I went to. We lived in Katy, Texas and had two children. That marriage lasted all of about 10 1/2 years before we just grew apart. It ended in August of 2007 when I left just for what I felt was the right thing to do. (Keeping things private on that matter.)
     While spending the next four years on my own, I performed in about four or five more plays, was cast in three films that I actually got speaking parts in, and then came Facebook. I went to a church that was just down the street from where WWE's The Undertaker went to school at. I had a friend on Facebook that was a mutual friend of his. I sent him a friend request and he accepted it. One day, I saw a picture on his wall that I thought was interesting. I posted a comment on it about my Christian views of marriage. Later that afternoon, I got a private message from a girl on his friend's list named Lisa. She simply said, "Hello there."
          I saw that she was a friend of his. I asked her how she knew him. She worked as a security guard in Dallas at the Sportatorium where World Class Championship Wrestling was held in the 1980s and 90s. She knew the Von Erich's, Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez, and a lot of the famous wrestlers back then. That was how she met Mark (The Undertaker). We talked for a few weeks and I got restless one weekend and traveled by bus to Rhome, Texas up in Wise County, to meet her. We met for a few more weekends, and I felt it was right, so, I asked her to marry me. When you know, you know.
          On September 9, 2011, two months after I was divorced from my first wife, Lisa and I were married. (My first wife and I stayed separated for four years before she filed for divorce). I took Lisa back to Houston with me and we got married at the Civil Courthouse in Downtown in Judge Michael Engelhardt's courtroom. We stayed in Houston for exactly one year to the week of my moving Lisa to Houston. We decided to move to Rhome where she was from after her sister was arrested for criminal trespassing for crossing a railroad track in a field across the street from her home, instead of crossing at the intersection.
          Lisa and I moved to Rhome and immediately, I fought with City Hall and the Railroad company that owns the railroad she crossed, to have no trespassing signs installed where she crossed at. Most people don't even know that it is a crime to do so. I only found out a few years ago on a safety test when I was working for ExxonMobil. (I was laid off from ExxonMobil just 2 1/2 months after Lisa and I got married. Really good timing on that one. I was there 9 1/2 years).
          Six months later, after moving to Rhome, we found a place in Boyd; also in Wise County. I received a job working for Bridwell Publishing Company that publishes the Bridgeport Index and Chico Texan newspapers. Writing is a love of mine. I have written three feature length screenplays, one short screenplay, one pilot episode for a Christian Television Series idea, countless songs and poems, so naturally this was a job I would excel at. Not! I'm not from here, I don't know anyone here except the people that I go to church with and my wife's family, we are limited to such a small reporting area, the publisher doesn't compensate for fuel, doesn't give raises, doesn't pay sick pay or vacation time. WHAT WAS I THINKING??? I know, I'll go into business for myself writing a Christian Conservative Magazine.
          The Wise Conservative is named that because I have strong Christian Conservative views and because I live in Wise County. I didn't want to call it The Wise County Conservative, because there is already a newspaper in the county that has Wise County in its name. I didn't want people to get me confused, and I certainly didn't want them associating me with that particular publication, because they are the Bridgeport Index's main competitors. So, where it is a play on words, no it's not suggesting anything about my wisdom in comparison to anyone elses because I am still wrapped up in this fleshly body and am far from perfect.
          But, I believe that God has given me a message to share with as many people as I can with this blog. This blog is only experimental. I want to learn what I need to about this process before I invest a lot of money in an online magazine publication, because I want it to be successful; not for my sake, but for the sake of the Glory of God.

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.
         

Turn around and run

God's escape route from sin

by R. Douglass Mahaffey

 
        Every day we are faced with opportunity to choose to either cross the line, or turn around and run toward God’s sheltering arm. Sadly, in America only 45 percent of all marriages are successful in lasting until “death do we part.” The courts have made it easy for couples to get divorced and try for a do-over with someone new. 

I, for one, was in such a marriage for over 10 years. It had the making of a story-book romance at first. I was 25, she was 27. Both of us thought we were “of age” to marry. That term “of age” is relative in the sanctity of marriage. Unfortunately, there are children caught in the middle that learned first hand how reconciliation shouldn’t go. 

Just when two people who think that they are in love, believe they have all the answers, here comes the main stream media changing all the questions. Things can get way out of hand when a contributing partner to the marriage hears on television often enough that there is someone out there who will be much better than the person they’re with. They say it doesn’t hurt to weigh all your options as far as your romantic happiness goes.

After all, people break promises all the time, it’s no big deal these days. Those same people see nothing wrong with terminating an unwanted pregnancy either. After all, it’s only a fetus until it’s actually born, right? Not so, according to the Bible. Jesus told his disciples and the Jews that terrible things will happen to anyone who so much as harms one hair of the littlest of the children. Those so called “Fetuses” count in that too. As soon as the cell splits and turns into what scientists call a zygote, life is born. 

But that’s another topic for another article. This one is about the sanctity of marriage and the vows exchanged between a man and a woman who are supposed to love one another. I recently saw a post on Facebook that I shared. It said that cheating didn’t have to involve kissing, flirting, sharing or having sexual relations with someone. As soon as you start deleting messages that you don’t want your spouse or partner to see, you’re already there. 

The Bible says that it is better to never vow, than to vow and not pay. That means that once you make a promise to another person to forsake all others and keep themselves solely unto their spouse, you owe that person, as well as God a debt to keep every word of that promise. Once you decide to go sneaking under other fences to find out how green the grass is, there is no way back without causing hurt. 

God says that there is a way out of temptation. Turn the computer off if you get a mysterious message or friend request from someone you don’t know, or haven’t seen in a long time. Tell your partner, or spouse about the near encounter. Be honest and forthcoming from the get-go and you won’t have to back track with lies later. 

If you get a text from a co-worker or friend of the opposite sex, delete them, but show your significant other the message first, to let them know that it was unwelcome, and was not responded to. Then the two of you together confront the person sending the texts. 

If you have snuck, you will cause hurt. But, there is forgiveness where God is in the midst. There can be rebuilding of bridges and there can be full restoration. It doesn’t have to end in pain. It can end in victory, as long as both parties of the incident realize that neither are perfect and can fall into temptation just as easily as anyone else, because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. 

Turn to God in your times of temptation. Open His Word and read it. Ask Him to guide your path as you guard your heart and turn the other way and run!

R. Douglass Mahaffey - Founder and Publisher of The Wise Conservative.