The Wilkes Team

What did our Founding Fathers know? They understood the real answer to one of the most basic questions of any culture or society that has ever existed. The question has been greatly ignored in our culture today. It stands as the elephant in the room that no one is talking about. The answer to this basic question has determined the direction of every group of people since the beginning of time. Hitler and Stalin killed millions based on their answers to this question. Others have given their lives to help millions because of the way they answered this question. Most ignore it and let others answer it for them. The question, what makes something right or wrong? The answer to this question under girds everyone’s decision process. It makes us who we are and it determines where we are going in the near future all the way through eternity.

Ask yourself.

When I get ready to make a decision about whether something is right or wrong, what principles do I use to make that decision?

How do you decide if something is right or wrong?

If you are like 60% of the people your answer will be something like this, I decide what is right or wrong based on how I was brought up. Your foundation will be the values of your parents, teachers, and others that influenced your life. The decisions you make will reflect the standards and values of those that influenced you. While on the surface this seems satisfactory, how do you know if the people who influenced you were right or wrong?

Consider a New Guinea pygmy who was influenced by his parents and teachers to kill and eat other human beings. His guiding principles come from the way he was brought up. The results of his upbringing however seem greatly flawed by our standards. How do we decide if he is right or wrong?

We see that the way we were brought up, if used as the sole determining factor, fails as a consistent standard for what is right and wrong. There must be something else.

The next 20% answer the question with the idea that they have some innate sixth sense that guides them. They say I just have a strong sense or felling of what is right and I do it. A little consideration of this principle and we quickly see the problem. Feelings are not reliable. I sometimes feel like staying in bed instead of getting up and going to work. If I trusted in my feelings as the standard of what is right and wrong I would stay in bed and loose my job.

Feelings are not trustworthy as a consistent standard of what is right or wrong.

The last answer that I am usually given is that I determine what is right or wrong based on what the law says. The law becomes the guiding principle. While the law is important to follow, how do those making the laws decide whether a law should be a law or not? For example if I bought an island in the South Pacific, moved there with 500 others, we formed our own little country and passed a law that made murder legal, would that make murder right? No we all know murder is wrong, don’t we? Or do we? We have forgotten what makes something right or wrong.

Our Founding Fathers had not forgotten. They staked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honors on what they knew were right.

There is a right and there is a wrong. However you and I cannot be trusted to decide right and wrong based on our upbringings, our feelings or even on our laws. There must be something greater than us that establishes the standard of right or wrong. Something, that is always consistent and in control. That something greater is actually a person. His name is Jesus Christ. He is the creator of all things and therefore the only one capable of setting the absolute standard by which we, his creation, must live. Not only is He capable, He has done it. It is called the Bible, a book that He inspired and that He has preserved for us to know Him by. Many will say, without ever reading it, that they do not believe it is true.

I was one of those once until I read it. It is true, it is relative and it is absolutely imperative for you to know what it says if you truly want to have Life, Liberty and the freedom to Pursue Happiness.

Our Founding Fathers knew this and gave their lives, fortunes and sacred honor for it. It is never to late to turn back to the truth.

7 Comments » | posted in HIS-story, On the Issues

In the year 1776 a group of men made some very important decisions that drastically changed the course of History and greatly impacted your life. Because of these men, their decisions and their commitment to their cause, today we enjoy the privilege of a form of government that, although not perfect, has allowed the governed to experience a level of safety, prosperity and hope never before witnessed in History. As Americans we have been given the responsibility of choice. We can choose our leaders and therefore choose the laws and policies that govern us. Study History and you will find the idea of the governed determining how they are governed almost non existent in any culture before the United States of America.

The significance of this has not been lost on the rest of the world. Since our independence from tyranny over 200 years ago we have been studied and emulated by many countries throughout the world. They were trying to figure out what made the US work.

The decisions made by our founding fathers were so firmly rooted and grounded in a common foundation that we still benefit from them today, over 200 years later. The stability of America has been incredible even amidst difficulties such as the Civil War, the Great Depression and more recently Bush vs. Gore and 9-11. In Bush vs. Gore we saw a country sharply divided over who was to be president. Yet, as soon as the law of the land was upheld and the decision made, the majority of Americans accepted that our government had operated the way it was designed and put it behind them. They accepted the rule of the laws of our country even if they did not agree with the outcome. This amazed many in the rest of the world who may have experienced a different outcome in their countries.

Consider also that our form of government, a constitutional Republic (not a democracy) has lasted over 200 years. This is a major accomplishment. However, join this together with the continuation of the ideal that all have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we have a miracle. Yes there have been failures and mistakes yet today even amidst the problems, the ideal still stands as stated in our Declaration of Independence that all are “endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

Sadly though, the incredible magnitude of success experienced by the United States is being taken for granted by those who benefit from it the most. We Americans live our lives focused on the next paycheck, the weekend, our next promotion, the new media room and so on, that we have no clue of the incredible gift we have been given. We live in America, the land of the free. We must remember, we must not forget where we have come from, what we have been through and the dynamic future we can still have.

Forget? Unfortunately we have. We have forgotten what compelled our Founding Fathers to make the decisions they made over 200 years ago, decisions which cost them their lives, their fortunes and tested their sacred honor to the breaking point. What motivated these successful and prosperous men of the 1700’s to risk all that they had against incredible odds so that we could live free. If we understood this, America would soar again, children would feel safe, crime would disappear, terrorism would be stopped, poverty would decrease and psychologists would be looking for new careers.

Part 2 to Follow

3 Comments » | posted in HIS-story, On the Issues

A Dad’s Poem To His Sons

The world sings it’s lullabies
Of pleasure and escape
The noise seems so soothing
As it puts you fast asleep

Awake I urge you, awake!
The stakes are much too high
To let one moment of obedience
Ever pass you by

Be vigilant, be sober
The enemy is at hand
He’s trying every port and border
To infiltrate your land

The call of manhood is upon you
The childish things must go
Trust you in the Lord above
And let His glory show

So put you on your armor
The enemy’s pressing hard
Faith, righteousness, peace and truth
Must be the desire of your heart

The road, it will not be easy
Many times you will feel faint
But God will lift you up on eagle’s wings
To strengthen you in His way

For you see, the battle is the Lords
The victorys already won
The sin that caused us to be dead
Is taken away by Jesus Christ, His Son

So I urge and beseech you
Valiant son of mine
To lay aside your fears and cares
And submit to God’s design

That you may stand in that holy line
Of faithful men before you
That paid the price of sacrifice
And stemmed the evil tide

That after you have done your all
And there is nothing left of you
The Lord Himself who is faithful
Will show His promises are true

So fight the fight
Don’t quit the race your on
The prize is set before you
It is Jesus Christ, God’s Son

And when your days are over
And your body is lying cold
What memories will be left behind?
What story will be told?

The people they will stand and shout
O God be praised again
That we lived during a time
When God raised up mighty men

For God has raised you up, my son
To stand before the evil flood
By conforming and transforming you
To bear the message of His enduring love

This lost and dying world’s a mess
Their lot,…. a destiny of Hell
Unless the word of God is preached
By men who have to tell

So I praise God for the man I see
In you today my son
The hand of God is upon you
Your life of service to Him begun

Keep your heart in tune with His
By submitting to His will
His grace and mercy are complete
His ways will never fail

Then answer now God’s call, ….with yes!                       
That your joy and peace may be complete
Knowing your life is hid with Christ in Him
And there…. you will never see defeat!
Copyright 2007 The Wilkes Team

4 Comments » | posted in Family News, Tid Bits