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.

Let me begin close to home with Peter Lillback a member of my own denomination, the Presbyterian Church In America. Lillback has authored, “Sacred Fire” an epic work that maintains that George Washington was an evangelical Christian. My concern is not Lillback’s book it is the fact that he can talk with Glenn Beck at length about Washington’s evangelical faith and allow the impression to be given that Beck shares that same faith including its view of the person of God and the way of salvation. But nothing is said because you understand the goal is to get back to 1776 and it doesn’t matter if Glenn Beck believes that God was once a man who became God and that you and I can become gods also. The following comes from Lillback’s Providence Forum website promoting the book and Lillback’s appearance on the Glenn Beck show:

It does not matter that what Glenn Beck believes about God is false and heretical and that he is slyly giving the impression that he believes in the historic Christian faith because you see he is witty and is one of America’s leading radio and television personalities and since Christianity struggles to get a hearing we are going to hitch our star to him.

Pastor John Hagee has also visited Glenn Beck and they talked at length. While they covered many topics that pertained to America and Israel there was never any discussion of what God both men were representing and so the impression is left that it is the same God. Hagee does not call Beck out on his portrayal of himself as a Christian while in truth he denies the Christian faith you can read the transcript here. The reason of course is that what they have in common is America and what they want to see happen for our country. I was under the impression that the Christian’s chief concern was the Kingdom of Heaven and the truth of who God is and how He can be known.

Next, Dave Barton from Wallbuilders was Beck’s guest. Here is a segment from their discussion which at this point centered on George Whitefield:

BARTON: What he did was he carried a message across America that really turned people back to their spiritual roots. That was how America was founded. They had forgotten that. They were so prosperous at that point in time. They had forgotten what made them prosperous and so they were worshipping the prosperity rather than the cause of the prosperity which had been their religious faith. So, he takes them back to their faith. It was really radical at the time because he transcended all the lines, all the barriers. He did things that have never before been done. He was heartily criticized by religious leaders but he wanted people back to

GLENN: Hang on. You said heartily.

BARTON: Heartily.

GLENN: Not hardly

BARTON: No. Heartily. That’s right.

GLENN: And he was a guy who and it’s amazing when I read this, he was a guy who tried to bring everybody together

BARTON: Yeah.

GLENN: And said forget your denominations. Let’s go back to the root and he was really focused on Moses. And let’s go back to the root of where we of where we were and who we are and this land is the land of milk and honey and when he started to do, because he didn’t have a church, if you will, he didn’t I mean, he was going around and giving sermons in the open air, sometimes up to 30,000

Beck in the last paragraph here says that Whitefield said, “forget your denominations”. How subtle…No one would question that George Whitefield was a generous spirit and supported others who held to the truth of Christ but Beck would have us think that George Whitefield would support working with Mormons. What a falsehood! George Whitefield would have called Beck’s doctrine heresy.

Beck says that Whitefield “really focused on Moses…”. Moses? George Whitefield focused on Moses? George Whitefield focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, not Jesus a lesser god as Mormons would have it but Jesus, God Almighty in the flesh. Beck’s portrayal of Whitefield is false.

Beck claims that Whitefield was a guy who “tried to bring everybody together” and Barton knowing that Beck is a Mormon responds, “Yeah”. George Whitefield was trying to bring everyone to Christ, he was not trying to gather people around some undefined god in the name of religion.

But lo and behold David Barton and Glenn Beck are going to teach together. This from the end of the interview:

GLENN: America, I just wanted you to think about this. I want you to talk to your spiritual leaders, if you’re a spiritual leaders, I want you to think about it. David and I are going to start working together on a few things that, you know, maybe we can, through BECK UNIVERSITY or through the America revival or whatever, we’re going to start teaching some of these things and making this stuff available because this is the key, this is truly the key. By the way, the America Revival, where David Barton teaches the first hour of it and it is phenomenal, it’s a I think it’s a seven hour program. It’s phenomenal. We have added another city. We’re going to announce that coming up at the top of the hour. It will go on sale but it’s one of the of last stops of the America Revival. We’ll give that to you in just a second. And we’ll see you tomorrow for founders Fridays, David Barton.

At Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally he unveiled the “Black Robe Regiment”, 240 clergy members from an assortment of religions and faiths. Pastors, priests and rabbis were referenced. At the rally Beck urged people to attend their church, synagogue or mosque. It is the god of your choice, every god is equally valid. You can watch Beck talk about the regiment the night before the rally here.

Christians, what are you doing? You are so determined to see something happen with our country that you are willing to be unfaithful to God. I want to see good things happen in our country also and I can assure you it is not going to happen by embracing idolatry and committing spiritual adultery.

I know that many well intentioned Christians are telling themselves that God understands what it is we are doing. They assure themselves that we can work toward good goals without the issue of what god we are talking about coming up and presenting a problem.

I close with two things: First, the devil almost always does his most deceptive work through something good. The good we desire for our nation is the very Trojan horse through which he is springing this false claim of “turning back to God”. Second, the details about what god is being referred to will come to the fore because the living and true God will force it to. God’s greatest goal is not to see things happen in America, it is to have to have the truth about Himself and His Son made clear.

Egypt had more than one God and the plagues were God’s judgment on them. If America will not declare and stand with the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ we will find that He will also judge us.

Exodus 12:12 “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments– I am the LORD.”

Exodus 23:32-33 “You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. “They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

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?

The sad truth is that increasingly congregations that permit women to be ministers are allowing homosexuals to be ministers and I want to ask you to ponder for a moment the process that has led to all this.

The argument usually cited for the Apostolic prohibition of women in authority over men is cultural. “Paul was giving a command that was tied to the way life was in his day.” “Paul lived in a patriarchal time when women weren’t allowed to have authority over men.” “We aren’t back in the stone ages, we have become more enlightened then Paul and his time was”. These are all common statements from egalitarians to defend women in authority over men.

Isn’t it interesting that Paul tells us the reason for His God inspired prohibition and the time frame he references is not his day but the very beginning of time? Why does Paul say that women shouldn’t have authority over men? Because it was not God’s design from the very beginning. The reason women are not to have authority over men is not based in culture which may change but in God’s created order which never changes. Adam was created first and that truth cannot be changed.

Have you ever wondered why God made Adam first? Why wasn’t he made after Eve? Alright, we are all about fairness, why didn’t God make Adam and Eve at the same time? Simultaneously? (God being God could have done that couldn’t He?). Why was the woman taken from the man? All of these realities are ignored in what is called “the cultural argument” for women in places of authority over men.

This cultural argument is the very coattail that homosexuality has ridden into our churches and pulpits. The claim is that the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexuality are ancient and certainly bigoted and our culture has begun to see the light. We don’t think men lying with men and women with women is wrong. So “voila” God’s Word is not eternally true, it bends and molds to our culture.

No church can honestly defend prohibiting a homosexual from their pulpit who will allow a woman to teach men, at least not and be honest. If you are willing to accept the cultural argument for women in the ministry you must accept it for the homosexual.

God’s truth is eternally true and the movement of time and movement of people’s morals do not change what He has decreed. Increasingly churches that allow women to be in authority over men are allowing homosexuals into the ministry. Both sins are explained away and support one another through the cultural argument. May God grant those who claim the name of His Son Jesus to repent of their rebellion and return to His truth.

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.”

Now that it is clear that I don’t want to see the mosque built let’s think about what is going on under the surface of all this. What is clear is that the Muslims behind the plan to build this mosque have successfully hung us over our own barrel as Americans. How so? By using the tenant of “religious freedom” against us. “If you believe in religious freedom, you must allow us to build this temple” is their claim and we are all left stammering and stuttering.

Some time ago the tenant of religious freedom shifted from freedom to worship the One, True, Living God revealed in Jesus Christ rightly to the freedom to believe in and worship whatever God a person’s heart might imagine. If you think that Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, New Age and Scientology is what the Pilgrims had in mind when they came here seeking freedom to worship you are either ignorant or dishonest. The Pilgrim’s were not idolaters.

Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism all existed at the time our country was founded so why wasn’t there an argument about what faith would pray when sessions of Congress were held? When our founding fathers met to worship as they did were lawsuits threatened if the name of Jesus was mentioned or if an imam was not allowed the opportunity to lead in worship? The God and faith our country was founded on was clear and obvious to all.

America forsook the God who gave us existence a long time ago and has embraced idolatry by saying that religious freedom means freedom to worship false gods and now idolaters have burst through the door and are flooding the land. Because we have been willing to allow freedom of religion to excuse idolatry God has allowed idolatry to put the knife to our throats.

Islam has us over a barrel, they have argued our idolatrous freedom of religion against us and we are left without an honest argument against them. If it is freedom to worship any god than it must include freedom to worship a god who dictates that Americans must be destroyed. You cannot say it is religious freedom and then say, “But not your religion”. This is what has happened by embracing idolatry in our religious freedom. This is what idolatry gets us.

It continues to be a marvel to me that people can acknowledge the Ten Commandments and seem to ignore the very first commandment which is what? “You shall have no other gods before Me”. Is this statement from God vague? “No other gods!”. The God who spoke the Ten Commandments opposes freedom of religion as America currently holds it. God does not allow men to worship whatever God they want, He forbids it. America has permitted what God has forbidden and we are reaping the whirlwind for our ways.

What must we do? Return to the God who made heaven and earth and who gave birth to our country. This is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must acknowledge that our current position on religious freedom is permission of idolatry and ask God to forgive us for this while turning from it. We should oppose the construction of this proposed mosque not primarily because of its proximity to the Twin Towers but because Islam is a false religion calling men to faith in a false god.

I am afraid that most Christians today are more disciples of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity than they are Jesus Christ. We seem quite willing to embrace the idolatry of America’s religious freedom just so long as we can get things back to 1776 or at least 1952. Meanwhile the Apostle Paul walks through Athens and is provoked in his spirit at the many gods of the Athenians and calls them to turn from idolatry (Acts 17). This means two things for Paul: First, he is used powerfully by God and secondly, his life is in danger everyday. Paul would eventually lose his life because he would not move from his declaration that there is only one God and that this God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ.

Only God knows the future but I believe that America will not turn from its idolatry and Christians will be forced to declare their allegiance. Are we Americans first with an idolatrous freedom of religion or disciples of Christ? Those who stand with Christ will begin to pay a real price for their faith. Eventually it will be our buildings that cannot be constructed and the persecution will on.

Christians are swell as long as we are standing against Islam but if we are faithful and tell our fellow Americans that their “right to choose” is a false god, that their willingness to go to NASCAR events and watch hours of professional football on the Lord’s Day but not attend worship is idolatry, that the fact they have more adoration for Tiger Woods than they do Christ is idolatry. Can people who have read far more of Harry Potter and Twilight than they have the Bible think themselves safe in the eyes of a jealous God (Exodus 20:5)? The list of our idols only lengthens when our sexuality and possessions come under scrutiny. The truth spoken about America’s idols will ultimately cause America to fall out of any love it has for Christianity.

Here is the pill that I believe many American Christians do not want to swallow…you are soon going to have to declare your homeland and allegiance. Is it to this country in this world or is it in heaven in another world? You may not appreciate me saying these things but I am staking my very life and soul on this reality, you deny or ignore it at your spiritual peril.

We must be as the sons of Issachar who, “who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Christians must be willing to call our current definition of religious freedom what it is, idolatry and we must be willing to pay the price for doing so. Christian, what will you do?

For further reading on this matter see this post at BaylyBlog.

Hebrews 11:8-10 “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”

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.”

I will not be attending the family reunion planned for us by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. A few weeks ago I joined my daughter Thea and her class on a trip to the Capital and the Smithsonian. As we came upon the National Museum of Natural History  we were greeted with the poster on the left. Shortly after entering we came upon the large display on the right. The message of the Smithsonian rings loud and clear, we are animals, beasts are our ancestors.

Shall I take the word of fallen creatures who commit evil and are dying over the Word of the Holy, ever-living God? Beasts are not my relatives. God said something before He made me (and you) that He did not say before He made birds, dolphins and apes He said, “Let us make man in Our image”. Humans were made late on the the last day of creation, we are the height and pinnacle of God’s creation and have been given dominion over the animals and all God’s creation.

As I watched hundreds, perhaps thousand of children pour into the Smithsonian I could not help but think that the doctrine of evolution is much to blame for the reason that our children act like beasts and that the great majority of mankind take no thought of their unGodly thoughts and actions. The mantra has done its work, we believe we are animals and so excuse ourselves when we act like them. Abortion also is just the logical end of evolution, one creature that is stronger and has the ability to kill another may do so.

Reader, answer the question, do you believe that you are an animal? Hear the Word of God…you are not. You have been made in God’s image and to God you will give an account. Your story is not one of evolution but fall. We are as we are not because we are beasts but because we have turned away from God. Repent and turn to Him, He will forgive you and begin the work of making you someone new, someone like Him:

“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.

It is interesting to me how people both in the political and entertainment world have a convenient use of God. He is summoned and responds regarding the environment and health care, but why does He not seem to be speaking about other things?

It seems that God is quite willing to speak about sins against the planet but apparently has nothing to say about the areas represented in the Ten Commandments or the gospel. Why doesn’t anyone believe God speaks about the sins committed against Him?

If calamity is the indicator of God’s voice how should we view things like AIDS, syphilis and gonorrhea? What are famines and floods?

Fallen man left to himself will not hear God when He speaks anyway, not even through great disasters. Note the underlines as to why God is sending plagues on the earth, treatment of the environment is not mentioned:

Revelation 9:17-21 “And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm. The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;  21 and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.” 

Beware of any reference to God that doesn’t include His voice concerning our lives in regard to His holiness. This is nothing more than nature worship and God is being used by those who will not acknowledge that God speaks when it comes to our sexuality, our treatment of the unborn and His Son Jesus Christ.

Do you want to hear the voice of God?

Matthew 17:5 “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

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.”

The gospel is only good news to those who become convinced of the bad news that we are lost sinners who possess no righteousness of our own and are incapable of saving ourselves. Once a person understands and embraces this as the truth then the pastor can apply the medicine to the wound and hold forth the good news. Spurgeon continues:

Suppose you call on your creditor, and say to him, “I have nothing to pay with.” “Well,” says he, “I can issue a distress against you, and place you in prison and keep you there.” You still reply that you have nothing and he must do what he can.

Suppose he should then say, “I will forgive all.” You now stand amazed and say, “Can it be possible that you will forgive me that great debt of a thousand pounds?” He replies, “Yes, I will.” “But how am I to know it?” There is a bond: he takes it and crosses it all out and hands it back to you, and says, “There is a full discharge, I have blotted it all out.” So does the Lord deal with penitents. He has a book in which all your debts are written; but with the blood of Christ He crosses out the handwriting of ordinances which is there written against you. The bond is destroyed, and He will not demand payment for it again.

The devil will sometimes insinuate to the contrary, as he did to Martin Luther. “Bring me the catalogue of my sins,” said Luther; and he brought a scroll black and long. “Is that all?” said Luther. “No,” said the devil; and he brought yet another. “And now,” said the heroic saint of God, “write at the foot of the scroll: “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin.” That is a full discharge.”

Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

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

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.

How important it is for the Christian to keep his focus where it should be and to judge things by faith not by sight. Remember Christian, God holds power and He governs the affairs of men. He causes kings and nations to rise and fall:

Job 12:23 “He makes the nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges the nations then leads them away.”

Daniel 4:32   “…the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.”

I fear increasingly that Christians have become bewitched by the kingdoms and power of this world. It is enticing no doubt, just a few hours in Washington and I could see how one would think this is the way to get things done and how one might love to find himself in the middle of it all.

God’s kingdom is not going to be ushered in via Washington nor are political maneuverings and the passage of laws going to be the way that Christ prevails. Christ will prevail through His all-powerful Word, the sword of HIs mouth:

Revelation 19:15  “From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.”

Power is found in Christ’s presence in the lives of His people and His victory will come not through Congress but through His Church and His people who hold forth His truth, live His truth by grace and who will seal the testimony of their faith perhaps with imprisonment or death.

This is how it is going to come about Christians. Wake up and learn again who holds power and how it is used. Read God’s Word again and watch the lives of the Lord Jesus, the prophets and apostles, did they go to Washington to accomplish God’s will? No they didn’t so why do you?

2 Corinthians 10:3-4   “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”

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.

It would appear that increasingly believing and preaching God’s Word will incur a cost in the Western nations. Is it not a frightening thing that England and the United States the two brightest lights of the gospel of Christ in modern history have increasingly become the enemies of the truth?

Our church is currently studying the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2-3. Many of those churches were suffering persecution for their faith, this is something Christians in the U.S. have not had to face but I believe those times are coming to an end.

To each of the seven churches Jesus makes wonderful promises but only to those who overcome. It is only those who are faithful until death who will receive the crown of life. I am grateful that God forgives sinners like me and that He will forgive homosexuals, those who are willing to acknowledge that their actions are an offense to a holy God. Homosexuality is a sin, God grant us the courage to say it and to hold forth the offer of forgiveness through Christ. Let’s pray that God gives Dale faith, courage and His protection.

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.