12 FOUNDATION STONES—CLASS 12A WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS? GOING GOD'S WAY, PART 1.3 ----------------------------------------------- Section 6: To Serve or Be Served ----------------------------------------------- Leadership takes many forms: The employer, teacher, foreman, politician and parent are some examples of leaders in society today. A quick look at God's guidelines for leadership shows that humility is high on His list: * The godly leader serves Luke 22:24–27—Now there was also a dispute among them [Jesus' disciples], as to which of them should be considered the greatest. (25) And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.' (26) But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. (27) For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves." Matthew 23:11–12—But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. (12) And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Only in the folly of this world do men fight each other for fickle fame and fortune. Only in the transient world do men struggle for power, position, riches, and glory—only to find that it doesn't satisfy! Take for example Alexander the Great, who, having conquered all the known world, died drunken and weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer! Or Napoleon, who made all Europe to tremble at his feet, but died in exile, begging to have his boots pulled on, that he might die like a soldier! Or Caesar, whose friends stabbed him in the back at the pinnacle of fame! They all were weighed in the balances and found wanting. In contrast, a godly leader will desire to serve those he leads. He will not try to be proudly self-sufficient but will humbly accept their counsel and assistance. The story of Nebuchadnezzar: "Those who walk in pride He is able to put down." See Daniel chapter 4. Small in our own sight Have you ever thought of it, that only the smaller birds sing? You never heard a musical note from the eagle in all your life, nor from the turkey, nor from the ostrich. But you have heard from the canary, the wren, and the lark. The sweetest music comes from those who are small in their own estimation and before the Lord. Big heads A proud man asked a farmer: "Why don't you hold up your head in the world? I bow my head before neither God nor man!" Answered the wise farmer: "Do you see that field of grain? Only the heads of grain which are empty stand upright. The well-filled ones bow their heads!" God creates out of nothing. Therefore, until a man is nothing, God can make nothing out of him (Martin Luther). ----------------------------------------------- * Points to consider Consider the differences in Jesus' example of leadership compared with many world leaders today. Consider how these principles might apply on a more everyday level such as in the workplace, in the schoolroom, in the home. ----------------------------------------------- Section 7: The Wisdom from Above ----------------------------------------------- * The right wisdom The wisdom that is "from above" brings good results, including peace. James 3:17—But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. James 3:13—Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. That which is portrayed as "wisdom" but results in violence, war and confusion is the "world's wisdom" that God describes as foolishness. 1 Corinthians 3:19–20—For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness"; (20) and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." * "Foolishness to God" Turning to foolishness can be a result of rejecting the Lord. Jeremiah 8:9—The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord; so what wisdom do they have? Psalm 14:1—The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. * In time we will see clearly what was God's wisdom and what was not! Ecclesiastes 12:10–14—The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. (11) The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. (12) And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. (13) Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all. (14) For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil The folly of science without wisdom We have too many men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom, and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The World has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience.—Gen. Omar Bradley (1893–1981) > Some kind of wisdom! (Humor) One day, a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, chemical engineer, and computer engineer were driving down the street in the same car when it broke down. The mechanical engineer said, "I think a rod broke." The chemical engineer said, "The way it sputtered at the end, I think it's not getting enough gas." The electrical engineer said, "I think there was a spark and something's wrong with the electrical system." All three turned to the computer engineer and said, "What do you think?" The computer engineer said, "I think we should all get out and then get back in." (Computer users often turn off and re-start their computer to try to overcome a problem.) > New technologies imperil humanity By John Markoff, NY Times News Service; Reuters (1999) The co-founder of one of Silicon Valley's top technology companies believes scientific advances may be ushering humanity into a nightmare world where super—smart machines force mankind into extinction. In a heartfelt appeal published in the April 1999 issue of Wired magazine, Sun Microsystems, Inc., chief scientist Bill Joy urges technologists to reconsider the ethics of the drive toward constant scientific innovation. "We are being propelled into this new century with no plan, no control, no brakes," Joy writes. "The last chance to assert control—the fail-safe point—is rapidly approaching." Joy's fears focus on three areas of technology undergoing incredibly rapid change. The first, robotics, involves the development of "thinking" computers that within three short decades could be as much as a million times more powerful than those now available. Joy sees this as setting the groundwork for a "robot species" of intelligent robots that create evolved copies of themselves. Another computer scientist, Vernor Vinge, says machine intelligence will awaken sometime between 2005 and 2030, a date he calls "the singularity." Dr. Vinge argues that this evolutionary watershed might accelerate progress well beyond human control. The second, genetics, deals with scientific breakthroughs in manipulating the very structure of biological life. While Joy says this has led to benefits such as pest-resistant crops, it also has set the stage for new, man-made plagues that could literally wipe out the natural world. The third, nanotechnology, involves the creation of objects on an atom-by-atom basis, which before long could be harnessed to create smart machines that are microscopically small. Or it might be possible to create tough omnivorous bacteria that could out-compete real bacteria. Spread by the wind, like blowing pollen, they could be designed to replicate swiftly and reduce life on earth to dust in a matter of days, according to Eric Drexler, one of the nation's principal advocates for nanotechnology. All three of these technologies share one characteristic absent in earlier dangerous human inventions such as the atomic bomb. They could replicate themselves, creating a cascade effect that could sweep through the physical world in much the same way a virus spreads through the computer world. "It is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil," Joy writes. "An evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to nation states on to surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals." > Charles warns scientists of disaster John Vidal and James Meek, The Guardian, 1999 (England) Prince Charles's simmering anger with the direction of some modern science will blow into a philosophical storm as he argues that the only way to avoid environmental catastrophe is for humankind to rediscover an urgent "sense of the sacred." In a lecture to be broadcast on Radio 4, he will confront scientific materialism, politicians, and business leaders to argue that it is because of humanity's "inability or refusal to accept the existence of a guiding hand that nature has come to be regarded as a system that can be engineered for our own convenience and in which anything that happens can be fixed by technology and human ingenuity." He will add: "We need to rediscover a reverence for the natural world, … to become more aware of the relationship between God, man, and creation." He asks: "If literally nothing is held sacred anymore, what is there to prevent us treating our entire world as some ‘great laboratory of life' with potentially disastrous long-term consequences?" ----------------------------------------------- * In contrast: God's wonderful wisdom created the world! Can you explain the watermelon seed? "I am not so much of a farmer as some people claim," said Hon. W.J. Bryan in his lecture on "The Price of Peace," "but I have observed the watermelon seed. It has the power of drawing from the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight, and when you can tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors an outside surface beyond the imitation of art, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within again a red heart, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of drawing through itself 200,000 times its weight—when you can explain to me the mystery of a watermelon, you can ask me to explain the mystery of God." > Nobel laureates testify of their faith Surveys show that about 40 percent of scientists believe in God. Amongst the top scientists who have won the Nobel Prize, we find these opinions: German physicist Max Born, who pioneered quantum mechanics, said, "Those who say that the study of science makes a man an atheist, must be rather silly people." American physicist Arno Penzias shared the 1978 Nobel Prize for discovering microwaves in space—patterns that physicists have interpreted as showing that the universe was created from nothing. Penzias said, "If I had no other data than the early chapters of Genesis, some of the Psalms and other passages of Scripture, I would have arrived at essentially the same picture of the origin of the universe, as is indicated by the scientific data." German-British researcher Ernst Boris Chain was awarded a Nobel Prize in medicine for his work with penicillin. Chain says, "The principle of [divine] purpose … stares the biologist in the face wherever he looks ... The probability for such an event as the origin of DNA molecules to have occurred by sheer chance is just too small to be seriously considered …" American physicist Arthur Compton discovered what we call the Compton Effect, relating to X-rays. He said, "For me, faith begins with the realization that a supreme intelligence brought the universe into being and created man. It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for an orderly, intelligent universe testifies to the greatest statement ever uttered: ‘In the beginning, God…'" William D. Phillips won the 1997 Nobel Prize in chemistry for using lasers to produce temperatures only a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Phillips once quipped that so many of his colleagues were Christians he couldn't walk across his church's fellowship hall without "tripping over a dozen physicists." Among Nobel laureates, there are a number who recognize the hand of God in the universe. In studying God's handiwork—His creation, which testifies of Him every day—these men and women have come to the conclusion that there must be a Creator. > > The amazing Earth If Earth were as small as the moon, the power of gravity would be too weak to retain sufficient atmosphere for man's needs; but if it were as large as Jupiter, Saturn, or Uranus, extreme gravitation would make human movement almost impossible. If we were as near to the sun as Venus, the heat would be unbearable; if we were as far away as Mars, we would experience snow and ice every night even in the warmest regions. If the oceans were half their present dimensions, we would receive only one-fourth the rainfall we do now. If they were one-eighth larger, our annual precipitation would increase fourfold, and this earth would become a vast, uninhabitable swamp! Water solidifies at 32 degrees above zero. It would be disastrous if the oceans were subject to that law, however, for then the amount of thawing in the polar regions would not balance out, and ice would accumulate throughout the centuries! To prevent such a catastrophe, the Lord put salt in the sea to alter its freezing point! (Psalm 104:24). ----------------------------------------------- * Points to consider Disillusioned by the uses men made of science, Albert Einstein said not long before his death that if he could live again, he would choose to be a plumber rather than a physicist! Which aspects of technology do you consider having benefited mankind? Which aspects do you think have hindered more than they have helped? Technological advances and scientific discoveries can be used for good or for evil. Sometimes it is not the discovery itself that can be judged as good or not, but the use that has been made of it. Can you think of examples of something that has been used both for good and bad? ----------------------------------------------- Ending note ----------------------------------------------- > Evaluation We've looked briefly at a variety of subjects. You can see that God's ways of looking at things around us are often different from the viewpoints held by much of society. If we are prayerful and consider the guidelines given in the Word, we can learn to discern between that which pleases God and is therefore good for us, and that which isn't. How do you apply this principle in your life? Take a little time over the coming week to pray about and evaluate some area of your life—perhaps what you do for recreation, what music you listen to, what budget you have for clothing, and so on. On the basis of what you've seen in His Word, how do you measure up? Is there anything you need to change? ----------------------------------------------- (end)