I heard Cindy McCain came out in favor of homosexual marriage. She doesn't want to promote hate. Then should we legalize child molestation, murder, theft, and date rape so we are careful not to promote hatred toward the perpetrators? I sort of expect there to be a movement that says we cannot have cancer surgery becuase tumors have feelings and what extreme hatred is being expressed to them when we cut them out and throw them away. Absurd? A few years ago it was absurd to think that someone would try to promote the rights of men to have sex with boys, but now when the idea is brought up we have to think about it!!
If I can be blunt let me say this. Homosexuality is unnatural. It doesn't benefit society. It doesn't propagate the human race. It is not marriage because the consummating act of marriage is when the appropriate parts of men and women join together as they are designed to do.
As for the hate issue. We should hate child molestation. We should hate murder. We should hate date rape, adultery, back-biting and fits of anger. And we should hate homosexuality. I know homosexuals, adulterers, back-biters and people who have raging anger and I do not want any of them to enter eternal damnation. If I love them I will plead with, pray for and share with them that their behavior is the broad road that leads to destruction. I am not perfected in that love at this point, but am currently asking for the heart of my Heavenly Father toward all of these.
Romans 12:9 tells us to let love be without hypocrisy. The love spoken of here is that agape love that is defined in I Corinthians 13. Romans goes on to say that in order not to have hypocritical agape love we must "Abhor" what is evil. Abhor is a deep hatred. We must abhor what is evil if our love is not to be hypocritical. And we must cling to what is good. It seems like in general we do not hate evil and because of that we are not holding fast, clinging to what is good and the good is slipping out of sight.
There seems to be a continual movement to redefine Christianity so it is culturally relevant. Listening to some of the preachers from my youth (i.e. Leoanrd Ravenhill and others), I heard the statement made the world is not looking for a new definition of Christianity, but a new demonstration of Christianity. We need to find God's expression of laying down our lives for those that disagree with us while maintaining a hatred for evil activities.
Just like it would be absurd to coddle a cancer and assure it we will do no harm to it because it has its rights, while it continues to grow and bring destruction. It is also wrong and unloving to let someone think their unrighteous behavior is equally acceptable with all other behavior before a Holy God and equally beneficial to society.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Will another firestorm of controversy ensue?
I did hear the comments by Pat Robertson. They are entitled something like Pat calls the death of 500,000 people a blessing in disguise. That is a misleading title. He said that out of the destruction of this already horrible infrastructure perhaps the rebuilding process will be a blessing in disguise. The timing might have been insensitive to the families of those who lost their lives, but that was not what he was addressing in his statement.
SOOOO...... this morning I am listening to a few minutes of FOX News and hear Geraldo Rivera saying that we should use this crisis to take over this horrible government in Haiti so that some long term good may come out of this situation. He quoted Rahm Emmanuel about not wasting a crisis. This is my summary in my words, but he alluded to the possibility that something good may come out of this crisis if we can change the inept and corrupt government that has failed the people of that country for 200 years.
Almost sounds like he is saying this tragedy could be a blessing in disguise. I wonder if there will be a white house statement about his insensitivity or a public mainline media blitz regarding his stupidity. He had pretty much all the elements of Pat Robertson's statement, even the observable travesty of this horrible government for the last 200 years. A curse perhaps? Let's not go that far!! That's not very PC!! However there are some Biblical parallels. It took about 200 years and a consistent series of bad kings for Assyria to capture Israel after Jeroboam's waywardness from God.
A couple of you commented that you had read an article by Albert Mohler called Does God Hate Haiti? It's a good article we need to reach out to help those in need during this tragedy. God wants to save Haitians. There are a couple of adjustments at least in my thinking to his article. He says we cannot know the correlation between events on the earth and God's judgments. I agree we commonly jump to presumptuous conclusions. However, God told people in the Bible the reason for certain calamities and I believe the same God is alive today. He has already told us the reason for certain worldwide calamities in the Book of Revelation. He told me one word once for the people in Mt. Carmel. epicenter. About 6 weeks after I spoke that to a Church in Mt. Carmel the epicenter of our biggest earthquake in this area for years, rumbled about 7 miles from that church. So, I believe if He can communicate a little info like that to someone like me He can still reveal purposes for disasters and in fact will do that more and more in the near future.
I remember when Bob Jones said that a revival would start when the Mississippi river flowed backwards. Then in the midst of the 1990's when the major floods hit the midwest the Mississippi did flow backwards because of the volume of water joining it from the Missouri river. Not long after that a boy from St. Louis went to Toronto and something began that continues to this day. A move out of which hundreds of churches have been planted and multitudes of miracles have been recorded.
Mohler also posed the question, that if these disasters are judgments why wasn't there an earthquake in Nazi Germany, or why did Katrina destroy more churches than casinos, etc.? Germany suffered a major consequence in that their nation was devastated and actually divided in two, but let's look at the Bible. In II Samuel 24 David numbers Israel without the appropriate sacrifices. A judgment comes that kills 70,000 innocent men. Was it the judgment of God? The Bible says it was. So 70,000 died because of a bad governmental decision. That's one reason to pray for those in authority!
Mohler quotes John 3:16 to verify that God loves Haitians, and thus somewhat implying that this was not likely a judgment on Haiti. When does John 3:16 stop being true? Because the Bible foretells of a time when God will send calamities on the earth that kill billions. Does that mean that God no longer loved the world enough to give His Son? I am not certain about why things happen in various places, but I do believe that if Haiti would have made a covenant with God 200 years ago to follow in His ways that things would have been better in that nation and they would have had a better infrastructure to cope with disasters that do come their way.
It would be important in these days not to figure out what God can and can't do according to our definitions of love, mercy, etc. The cause of all judgment on this earth ultimately goes back to sin. The fact that we have to die goes back to the corruption of the law of sin that dwells in our members, so that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So we must be changed through passing through the door of death or passing through the great change at the last trump. Sin has its effects and to us that can look pretty arbitrary.
Anyway, keep your eyes open to see if Geraldo gets battered for implying that something good might come from this tragedy. Let's pray that it does.
Pray and fast for revival now!!!
SOOOO...... this morning I am listening to a few minutes of FOX News and hear Geraldo Rivera saying that we should use this crisis to take over this horrible government in Haiti so that some long term good may come out of this situation. He quoted Rahm Emmanuel about not wasting a crisis. This is my summary in my words, but he alluded to the possibility that something good may come out of this crisis if we can change the inept and corrupt government that has failed the people of that country for 200 years.
Almost sounds like he is saying this tragedy could be a blessing in disguise. I wonder if there will be a white house statement about his insensitivity or a public mainline media blitz regarding his stupidity. He had pretty much all the elements of Pat Robertson's statement, even the observable travesty of this horrible government for the last 200 years. A curse perhaps? Let's not go that far!! That's not very PC!! However there are some Biblical parallels. It took about 200 years and a consistent series of bad kings for Assyria to capture Israel after Jeroboam's waywardness from God.
A couple of you commented that you had read an article by Albert Mohler called Does God Hate Haiti? It's a good article we need to reach out to help those in need during this tragedy. God wants to save Haitians. There are a couple of adjustments at least in my thinking to his article. He says we cannot know the correlation between events on the earth and God's judgments. I agree we commonly jump to presumptuous conclusions. However, God told people in the Bible the reason for certain calamities and I believe the same God is alive today. He has already told us the reason for certain worldwide calamities in the Book of Revelation. He told me one word once for the people in Mt. Carmel. epicenter. About 6 weeks after I spoke that to a Church in Mt. Carmel the epicenter of our biggest earthquake in this area for years, rumbled about 7 miles from that church. So, I believe if He can communicate a little info like that to someone like me He can still reveal purposes for disasters and in fact will do that more and more in the near future.
I remember when Bob Jones said that a revival would start when the Mississippi river flowed backwards. Then in the midst of the 1990's when the major floods hit the midwest the Mississippi did flow backwards because of the volume of water joining it from the Missouri river. Not long after that a boy from St. Louis went to Toronto and something began that continues to this day. A move out of which hundreds of churches have been planted and multitudes of miracles have been recorded.
Mohler also posed the question, that if these disasters are judgments why wasn't there an earthquake in Nazi Germany, or why did Katrina destroy more churches than casinos, etc.? Germany suffered a major consequence in that their nation was devastated and actually divided in two, but let's look at the Bible. In II Samuel 24 David numbers Israel without the appropriate sacrifices. A judgment comes that kills 70,000 innocent men. Was it the judgment of God? The Bible says it was. So 70,000 died because of a bad governmental decision. That's one reason to pray for those in authority!
Mohler quotes John 3:16 to verify that God loves Haitians, and thus somewhat implying that this was not likely a judgment on Haiti. When does John 3:16 stop being true? Because the Bible foretells of a time when God will send calamities on the earth that kill billions. Does that mean that God no longer loved the world enough to give His Son? I am not certain about why things happen in various places, but I do believe that if Haiti would have made a covenant with God 200 years ago to follow in His ways that things would have been better in that nation and they would have had a better infrastructure to cope with disasters that do come their way.
It would be important in these days not to figure out what God can and can't do according to our definitions of love, mercy, etc. The cause of all judgment on this earth ultimately goes back to sin. The fact that we have to die goes back to the corruption of the law of sin that dwells in our members, so that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So we must be changed through passing through the door of death or passing through the great change at the last trump. Sin has its effects and to us that can look pretty arbitrary.
Anyway, keep your eyes open to see if Geraldo gets battered for implying that something good might come from this tragedy. Let's pray that it does.
Pray and fast for revival now!!!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Pat Robertson's comments
I hear a lot of flap about Pat Robertson commenting on Haiti's historical pact that they made with Satan in 1791. I believe this has been reported by more than just Pat over the years. According to a statement from CBN Pat did not say that the quake was God's wrath on Haiti, but Christian and non-Christian alike seem to have jumped on the bandwagon of ridicule. I have not even heard the statements he made so I am not qualified to comment on them, but I have read the Bible and observed history.
Do all the Christians so quickly calling Pat names and ridiculing him believe there is no connection between the 1791 pact and the state of that nation. Is there no connection to India's Hinduism and its abject poverty? Let me answer that, yes there is. The fact that they believe in reincarnation and will not stop rats from eating their grain helps keep them in poverty. That rat could be grandma, so you dare not shoo grandma away from your food.
Is there no connection between the covenants with God and the success of our nation? Or, the rejection of God since 1962 and our moral decline or increased "trouble"?
There were "natural disasters" in the Bible. The ground opened up and swallowed folks. An earthquake loosened the chains from Paul and Silas. Locust plagues hit Israel after prophetic warnings. All natural disasters, that the Bible interprets as God's intervention in some way. I don't know how to interpret natural disasters, but has the God of the Bible retired or is the Bible misguided interpretation of historical events?
My understanding is Pat did not say this was the judgment of God, but wouldn't a pact with Satan leave you less protected by God if He honors your covenant. What government leaders decide can have serious impact on the consequences to the people of that nation.
Jeremiah 29:7 says, "And seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare." If our city is blessed we partake of that, and if we have leaders who forsake God, unfortunately the inhabitants of that land do suffer some of those consequences.
There are not a lot of instances in the scripture where events even in nature are seen as "natural" disasters. As I heard recently, the problem is not global warming that will affect the things that come upon us, it is sin. Not a popular conclusion. And one that even Christians are not quick to embrace. I guess the hailstorm in Revelation, the plagues in Egypt, the earthquakes in the days of Moses and Paul just conveniently fell into the everyday lives of Biblical characters in such a way that they could easily be manipulated into a good narrative that made it look like God was intervening in history. I say that sarcastically to say this. It just could be that the continued devastation in Haiti may have a direct correlation to the covenants they have made in the past. I believe Pat's organization has quickly begun to raise aid for Haiti and help in the rescue mission. I know it looks corny in these days to believe that there are spiritual implications to weather patterns and other natural disasters, but unfortunately for one who believes the Bible there is a lot of the Bible message that implies just such a thing. I'm honestly disappointed in some believers who so quickly have jumped on the bashing bandwagon. I'm guessing there are some, like me, who didn't actually even hear what Pat said.
PRAY FOR AWAKENING!
Do all the Christians so quickly calling Pat names and ridiculing him believe there is no connection between the 1791 pact and the state of that nation. Is there no connection to India's Hinduism and its abject poverty? Let me answer that, yes there is. The fact that they believe in reincarnation and will not stop rats from eating their grain helps keep them in poverty. That rat could be grandma, so you dare not shoo grandma away from your food.
Is there no connection between the covenants with God and the success of our nation? Or, the rejection of God since 1962 and our moral decline or increased "trouble"?
There were "natural disasters" in the Bible. The ground opened up and swallowed folks. An earthquake loosened the chains from Paul and Silas. Locust plagues hit Israel after prophetic warnings. All natural disasters, that the Bible interprets as God's intervention in some way. I don't know how to interpret natural disasters, but has the God of the Bible retired or is the Bible misguided interpretation of historical events?
My understanding is Pat did not say this was the judgment of God, but wouldn't a pact with Satan leave you less protected by God if He honors your covenant. What government leaders decide can have serious impact on the consequences to the people of that nation.
Jeremiah 29:7 says, "And seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare." If our city is blessed we partake of that, and if we have leaders who forsake God, unfortunately the inhabitants of that land do suffer some of those consequences.
There are not a lot of instances in the scripture where events even in nature are seen as "natural" disasters. As I heard recently, the problem is not global warming that will affect the things that come upon us, it is sin. Not a popular conclusion. And one that even Christians are not quick to embrace. I guess the hailstorm in Revelation, the plagues in Egypt, the earthquakes in the days of Moses and Paul just conveniently fell into the everyday lives of Biblical characters in such a way that they could easily be manipulated into a good narrative that made it look like God was intervening in history. I say that sarcastically to say this. It just could be that the continued devastation in Haiti may have a direct correlation to the covenants they have made in the past. I believe Pat's organization has quickly begun to raise aid for Haiti and help in the rescue mission. I know it looks corny in these days to believe that there are spiritual implications to weather patterns and other natural disasters, but unfortunately for one who believes the Bible there is a lot of the Bible message that implies just such a thing. I'm honestly disappointed in some believers who so quickly have jumped on the bashing bandwagon. I'm guessing there are some, like me, who didn't actually even hear what Pat said.
PRAY FOR AWAKENING!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Choose You This Day
I returned from our trip to Kenya to find a letter from a local man that I had been in touch with who was generally antagonistic toward God and those that tried to serve Him. I had given him a copy of the booklet I wrote about Harrison Oulo and his remarkable testimony. This man had read the booklet and returned it with comments like I had submitted it to him as my English paper for the semester. He was a retired English teacher. He had nothing to say about the content only that I had deceived people into thinking this was a first person narrative when in fact it was a third person narrative. I don't believe there is any legitimate cover-up involved. I wrote it biographically. There, it is in print. No deception intended.
My hope was that this friend would read the article and consider the possibility that Jesus is truly the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. From all appearance, it didn't happen.
Admittedly, one of his heroes was the 19th century agnostic, Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll has roots in Saline County. We have a historical plaque about him in the middle of downtown Raleigh, IL. He once had an law office, with his brother, in the Saline Co. courthouse which was located in Raleigh at that time. Ingersoll was known as an eloquent speaker, but drew the ire of preachers in his time. The founder of the city of Zion, IL, where I grew up, spoke at least 2 sermons directly addressing the message Ingersoll was promoting in that day. Dowie, who founded Zion had nothing good to say about Ingersoll. It is reported around here that Billy Sunday once said that Ingersoll would change his belief that there is no hell within 10 minutes of his arrival there.
My friend, who derided and ridiculed me publicly, chose very specifically to reject the possibility of knowing God through a relationship with Jesus. It is a terrifying thought to picture him in Hell without hope and consciously regretting the decisions he made just a couple weeks ago that now will be with him for eternity. I was not the only one that recetly addressed him regarding his need for Jesus. He was calculated in his rejection, but God through several people was calling to him. When I found the letter he sent me while I was in Kenya, I read it and had determined that it was futile to respond any longer. Just after coming to that conclusion in my mind I received a phone call informing me of his death.
If God was calling him, I know he is calling others. Be sensitive in these days to respond to the voice of the Spirit as He directs our steps to those needing a Savior. Some will respond and that choice is the biggest thing that will ever happen in their lives. Use these days and the power of the Holy Spirit in you to be a witness. I don't want Hell for anyone. Even for those that ridicule and degrade us. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
My hope was that this friend would read the article and consider the possibility that Jesus is truly the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. From all appearance, it didn't happen.
Admittedly, one of his heroes was the 19th century agnostic, Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll has roots in Saline County. We have a historical plaque about him in the middle of downtown Raleigh, IL. He once had an law office, with his brother, in the Saline Co. courthouse which was located in Raleigh at that time. Ingersoll was known as an eloquent speaker, but drew the ire of preachers in his time. The founder of the city of Zion, IL, where I grew up, spoke at least 2 sermons directly addressing the message Ingersoll was promoting in that day. Dowie, who founded Zion had nothing good to say about Ingersoll. It is reported around here that Billy Sunday once said that Ingersoll would change his belief that there is no hell within 10 minutes of his arrival there.
My friend, who derided and ridiculed me publicly, chose very specifically to reject the possibility of knowing God through a relationship with Jesus. It is a terrifying thought to picture him in Hell without hope and consciously regretting the decisions he made just a couple weeks ago that now will be with him for eternity. I was not the only one that recetly addressed him regarding his need for Jesus. He was calculated in his rejection, but God through several people was calling to him. When I found the letter he sent me while I was in Kenya, I read it and had determined that it was futile to respond any longer. Just after coming to that conclusion in my mind I received a phone call informing me of his death.
If God was calling him, I know he is calling others. Be sensitive in these days to respond to the voice of the Spirit as He directs our steps to those needing a Savior. Some will respond and that choice is the biggest thing that will ever happen in their lives. Use these days and the power of the Holy Spirit in you to be a witness. I don't want Hell for anyone. Even for those that ridicule and degrade us. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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