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“Preaching to the Choir”

6 min readMay 29, 2025

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May 29, 2025

We tend to associate with others who are much like ourselves. In High School we traveled in “cliques.” Right? When we seek a place to live, don’t we look for a neighborhood with a community conducive to our lifestyle? When I was college age, I rented a 3rd floor studio apartment in a college district with some “hippie-like” overtones. I think that it is safe to say that our social lives reflect our convivial comfort zones. When we are boaters we join the Power Squadron or similar clubs. Veterans have the VFW. I remember my Mom had her Bridge Club. Guys may have their poker nights.

You get the idea.

Our conversations, then, are most usually friendly and agreeable.

However, there are the problems with politics and religion. In fact, there is an informal rule — often ignored — not to talk about either one at Thanksgiving Dinners or other family affairs.

There is another fact of life, “You can choose your Friends, but you cannot choose your Family.”

Here is something else which is plain as the nose on our face: there always arise disagreements. Still, that is no reason to permanently part company — neither with family or friends, or in politics and religion.

This song comes to mind: The Beatles — We Can Work It Out

Unfortunately, working our differences out has become a lost art. It doesn’t matter which type of basket of goods, we seem to gain great satisfaction by ripping the basket away, dumping out the contents in the mud, and trampling them under our feet.

Now, turning to the basket of goods that I am most familiar with, Jesus warned, At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold… — Matthew 24:10–12, New International Translation (NIV).

If you haven’t noticed this calamity destroying Society and Civilization, our Living Environment, and our Sanity, you really need to open your windows wide and poke your head out.

Ignoring the Flood barreling down Main Street or the Tsunami racing toward your personal Island won’t stop it from overwhelming us.

“Ignorance is bliss” is not an adage supposed to encourage people to ignore Reality.

So, why don’t we all just stop it?

Ever hear this one?

“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.” It is used as a metaphor, warning that when in an untenable position, it is best to stop making the situation worse.” — en.wikipedia.org/wiki .

When I was younger, I was stuck in a seemingly inescapable nightmare which is called The Blame Game. It is everybody’s go-to position for both offense and defensive strategies. It started in the Garden of Eden. (see the Biblical account in Genesis 3.)

It’s like one of those movies in which the characters fall into a dark trap and cannot find a way out.

However, the good news was that I finally realized that I had no one and nothing else to blame for my personal condition or the darkness of the world we all live in. All my problems were consequences of my own choosing.

As for the world, there is really no way I could overcome its awfulness. Its demise is inevitable. What we attempt can have success — don’t get me wrong. However, those victories over the evil can be only tiny improvements in the entire scope of things…

I’m not saying we shouldn’t try. In fact, for our own peace of mind, we desperately need to try to be better persons and make our world a better place, holding out a helping hand. We should never fall into conforming to the world succumbing to its evil and then turn around to blame it…

That is the predominant part and continuing malignancy of the Original Sin discussed in the Bible and why people cannot get it together or as in the Beatles’ song “work it out.”

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” — John 16:33, NIV.

When I turned to God for help, realizing my desperate situation, He was there to rescue me.

I continued to turn and He led me to Jesus and obtaining forgiveness, inner cleansing, and a new path forward for life and living.

Oh, I continued in my same entrenched pattern of mistakes until, continuing to turn as I learned where my errors lay, reading the Bible and following the advice contained within its pages, my life continued to improve…

I just want others to know, including whoever is reading this essay, the way that works and that very same way which works universally and consistently across all Humankind.

For those who choose to turn to follow God’s way and asks Jesus to change themselves, there is this fundamental rule:

Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out. — 1 Corinthians 10:13, Good News Translation (GNT).

Remember, just like I wrote above, Jesus also said this to encourage those of us who are struggling with all the nastiness of this life:

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” — John 16:33, NIV.

And for all our faults and in our personal responsibility for contributing to all the nastiness, All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. — John 6:37, NIV.

That is exactly what happened in my life. As I said, I first called on God to get me out of the hole I had got myself in. He did, and then, He passed me over to Jesus, who never has and never will reject me.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile — the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” — Romans 10:9–13, NIV.

Would I lie to you all?

My life is an open book, if you have any questions…

How Marvelous (LIVE) | Austin Stone Worship

Oh yeah… and by the by, you can blame me, or the behavior of others for not choosing to call on God and Jesus or accepting the truths in the Bible. but if you get tired of playing The Blame Game, I’ve told you what you can do…

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D L Henderson
D L Henderson

Written by D L Henderson

Born 1950; HS 1968; Born again 1972; Cornell ILR; Steward, Local President/Business Agent; Husband, father, grandfather; winner/loser/everything in between

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