Posted by Gary on September 1, 2010
The evidence is becoming mountainous, the goal of the great majority of American Christians is America not the Kingdom of God. It appears that there is no boundary American Christians will not cross as long as it would seem to achieve the goal of “saving America”.
Take for instance the willingness of many American Christians to embrace Glenn Beck and his call for us to turn back to God. Apparently it does not matter what god Beck means when he speaks for no Christian that I have seen thus far has asked him what God he is talking about.
It is a marvel that Glenn Beck questions the Christianity of Barack Obama when he himself belongs to the cult of Mormonism which is not Christianity. Yet many Christian leaders talk with Glenn Beck on his program and never question his claim to be a Christian while he holds to the tenants of Mormonism.
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Posted by Gary on August 24, 2010
1 Timothy 2:11-15 “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.”
I often wonder how Christian congregations who would not support or allow a homosexual to be their pastor are willing to allow women to be their pastors. If you were to ask such folk why they would oppose a homosexual in their pulpit they would quickly respond, “Because God has forbidden homosexuality” and they have answered rightly. God has also forbidden a woman to teach or have authority over a man, why isn’t there the same concern to obey God as He speaks about the roles of men and women?
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Posted by Gary on August 20, 2010
(I cannot remember a time previously in which I have struggled to put my thoughts on an issue together as I have in writing out the following. Many Christians if not careful will misunderstand what I am saying but if read carefully and thoughtfully I trust my meaning and the truth will be seen. America is on a crash course with the justice of God. We have willingly allowed religious freedom to mean the freedom to worship gods who do not exist and no nation which has known the truth as we have and turns from it can hope to escape God’s judgment and it may well be that Islam is the tool that God is using to punish us for our idolatry)
The world both secular and Christian is abuzz concerning the construction of a Muslim mosque within two blocks of the Twin Towers which were destroyed along with 3000 American lives on September 11, 2001.
Before continuing let me say clearly and emphatically that I do not want to see a mosque built anywhere. I also do not want to see a Hindu temple, Jewish synagogue, Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall or psychic/tarot card reading center built either. None of these beliefs acknowledge Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Lord as He claims to be and practicing them will lead to the damnation of those who reject Him. The time is getting short and one must be clear about what truth is and isn’t. If you don’t like my narrowness then your problem is ultimately with Jesus my Savior who said of Himself:
John 14:6 “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”
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Posted by Gary on May 19, 2010
Genesis 1:20-28 “Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
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Posted by Gary on May 18, 2010
I read today that Ted Turner wonders if God is talking to us in light of the recent Gulf Coast oil spill:
“I’m not a real religious person, but I’m somewhat religious. And I’m just wondering if God is telling us he doesn’t want us to drill offshore,” he said. “And right before that we had that coal mine disaster in West Virginia where we lost 29 miners,” as well as repeated mining disasters – “seems like there’s one over there every week” – in China. “Maybe the Lord’s tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they can get more coal.
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Posted by Gary on May 13, 2010
What do you expect to hear when you go to church? Just below is a quote from a sermon entitled “Forgiveness” by Charles Spurgeon. You can know you are in the right church if it preaches the Bible which will always humble us first and show us the truth before it offers us hope.
Some of you may say, “You seem to think us a bad lot”—and so I do. Others exclaim, “How can you talk to us in this way? We are a honest, moral, and upright people.” If so, then I have no gospel to preach to you. You may go elsewhere if you will, for you may get moral sermons in scores of chapels if you want them; but I am come in my Master’s name to preach to sinners, and so I will not say a word to you Pharisees except this—By so much as you think yourself righteous and holy, by so much shall you be cast out of God’s presence at last. Your sentence will be eternal banishment from the presence of Him who hath said to every repenting sinner, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins.”
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Posted by Gary on May 12, 2010
One Sunday around St. Patrick’s Day I was travelling home from evening church and had Public Radio on and heard some music that immediately got my attention. Imagine a mix of Celtic, bluegrass with some jazz thrown in. The more I heard the more I like it. I eventually learned that the music is from the Alison Brown Quartet.
I like the music because it is primarily instrumental and light and I am not ashamed to say that I like hearing the banjo.
Follow this link to an ILIke player which has about 11 of the quartet’s songs in full length. I especially like:
- Under the Five Wire
- The Magnificent Seven (my favorite)
- Crazy Ivan
- Poe’s Pickin’ Party
Posted by Gary on May 10, 2010
1 Chronicles 29:11-12 “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.”
Last week I joined my daughter and her grade school class on a trip to Washington D.C. to tour the Capitol and visit the Smithsonian. As we walked about I saw what was the appearance of power everywhere. Dark suits, attaches, sunglasses back on the head, clusters of people outside of meeting rooms, names of influential people on office doors, to those whose hearts and lives are bound up in this world I am sure it is very impressive.
As I went through my day it was increasingly obvious that this is the place of action and those involved in it think themselves movers and shakers. But in truth, Washington and those in it do not know what power is nor do they possess it. Power belongs to God.
It was striking to me as I looked on the people in the suits with the briefcases that time is rolling over them like it has over every other Washington power broker in the past whose bodies are now being eaten by worms and whose souls have already gone to their place either to heaven by the mercy of the all-powerful God or to hell to receive there forever the justice of God.
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Posted by Gary on May 3, 2010
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Revelation 2:10 “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
I read today that a minister in the U.K. was arrested for saying that homosexuality is a sin. Here is an excerpt from the story and you can read the article here:
Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.
The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Wokington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God.
Police officers are alleging that he made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act.
Mr McAlpine, who was taken to the police station in the back of a marked van and locked in a cell for seven hours on April 20, said the incident was among the worst experiences of his life.
“I felt deeply shocked and humiliated that I had been arrested in my own town and treated like a common criminal in front of people I know,” he said. “My freedom was taken away on the hearsay of someone who disliked what I said, and I was charged under a law that doesn’t apply.”
Christian campaigners have expressed alarm that the Public Order Act, introduced in 1986 to tackle violent rioters and football hooligans, is being used to curb religious free speech.
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Posted by Gary on April 26, 2010
While I may have some areas of theological difference with Oswald Chambers I believe his insights into the daily living of the Christian life are inspired of God. “My Utmost for His Highest” is without doubt one of the most insightful, diagnostic devotionals ever. It is not easy reading and I don’t believe it is for everyone but say a prayer and then read and read again and you will find tremendous insights that get right down to the very root of your heart before God. Watch out, there will be some painful moments.
The reading for April 25 entitled, “Instant In Season” spoke to me and I needed to hear it. Some of us are very prone to insist on burning bushes and mountain top experiences in our life with God. God grants them at times and then we insist that we need them every day and all the time which God is not willing to do. How faithful to God are we when feelings are not welling up? I’ll let Chambers take it from here with a little underlining from me:
Be instant in season, out of season.” 2 Timothy 4:2
Many of us suffer from the morbid tendency to be instant “out of season.” The season does not refer to time, but to us – ‘Be instant in season, out of season,” whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would do nothing for ever and ever. There are unemployables in the spiritual domain, spiritually decrepit people, who refuse to do anything unless they are supernaturally inspired. The proof that we are rightly related to God is that we do our best whether we feel inspired or not.
One of the great snares of the Christian worker is to make a fetish of his rare moments. When the Spirit of God gives you a time of inspiration and insight, you say – “Now I will always be like this for God.” No, you will not, God will take care you are not. Those times are the gift of God entirely. You cannot give them to yourself when you choose. If you say you will only be at your best, you become an intolerable drag on God; you will never do anything unless God keeps you consciously inspired. If you make a god of your best moments, you will find that God will fade out of your life and never come back until you do the duty that lies nearest, and have learned not to make a fetish of your rare moments.
Posted by Gary on April 23, 2010
Each week I try to include in our church bulletin a quote regarding the Christian faith hoping that people either before service or after will take some moments to read it, you know a little mini sermon from a guest speaker. I search the web and look for things to share and today found “Praying for Your Children” by William Scribner.
I would like to share a segment with you it was a rebuke and challenge for me. If we were really convinced that our children had souls and were going to spend eternity either with God or without Him we would pray more for them.
It is so very easy to say that we believe certain things such as the fact that our children have souls but what are we doing to help see them by saved? Prayer is vital but there is much more. Do we read the Bible to them and seek to apply it to their hearts? What do we let them watch and read? What do they see in us as they watch us? Is it the faith that we tell them we believe? Now Scribner:
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Posted by Gary on February 19, 2010
Romans 9:19 “You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
When approaching the Word of God we are all immediately challenged, our fallen nature leaves us determined to think what we want to think as opposed to letting God tell us what to think. Yes, me too.
Nowhere is this more the case than in the issue of predestination. While predestination is referenced either by word specifically or in concept throughout Scripture, the defining section of God’s Word on predestination is Romans 9.
I had my first real study exposure to Romans 9 while attending Circleville Bible College a staunchly Wesleyan/Arminian college. In my class on Romans I was taught the classic Arminian interpretation of the passage which boiled down is that God chooses us because He knows that we are going to choose Him. According to Arminianism, predestination is not God’s prerogative or initiating action but a response, a reaction to our action.
This thinking I am afraid is born of our thinking. To our fallen, finite minds it could never be fair that God would predestine some people to salvation while leaving others to perish. The great emphasis in Arminianism is human will, we choose and God responds to our choice.
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Posted by Gary on February 11, 2010
Revelation 2:8-11 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: 9 ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 ‘Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11 ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.’”
It is important to note that each of the letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation ends with, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” While it is true that Jesus was writing to an actual church in Smyrna, His words are for the “churches” and the message contains truths, warnings and encouragements for His people and churches in all ages.
Tonight I read this letter and the following stood out to me:
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