I am the Bible.
I am God's wonderful library.
I make known to all, Him who is Truth.
To the weary pilgrim, I am a good, strong staff.
To the one who sits in black gloom, [like the Dalit or Untouchable in India, or the drug or porn addict or the victim of abuse or neglect, or the tortured Christian in Laos or China or Burma or Nepal, or the Sudanese Christian slave abducted from Darfur, or the well-off American enslaved by materialism and self-indulgment and self-centeredness and ease] I am glorious light.
To those who stoop beneath many burdens, I am sweet rest.
To him who has lost his way, I am a safe guide.
To those who have been hurt by sin, I am healing balm.
To the discouraged, I whisper a glad message of hope.
To those who are distressed by the storms of life,
I am an anchor, sure and steadfast.
To those who suffer in lonely solitude,
I am as a cool, soft hand resting on a fevered brow.
Oh, child of man, to best defend me, JUST USE ME.
The Bible is God's road map as you travel through life.--from Faith Magazine, Author Unknown
1. Christian Education
2. Prayer
3. Holy Spirit
4. Biblical Science
5. Foundational Principles
6. Witnessing and Discipleship
7. Types of Christ (OT)
8. Bible Covenants/Israel/Bible Atlas
9. Christian Hope and Character
10. The Prophetic Calling
AMERICA, AMERICA
America, America
I hold you up in prayer.
While your red, white, and blue is waving,
I stand with you in prayer.
America, America
you're weighed in the balance.
Repent and forsake evil ways,
building upon God's grace.
America, America,
God wants to change your ways.
America--Pray!
God wants revival today.
A relative just wrote us, extolling Jimmy Carter's infamous book of lies against Israel, in which and in the title itself he called Israel an "apartheid state," which is the farthest thing from the truth. She and her husband toured Israel, and saw Israel's anti-terrorist fence and photographed it, mentioning the hardship of the Palestinians on the other side, not once mentioning the fact it was built to stop suicide bombers from coming at will into Israel from Palestinian areas and blowing up women and children in crowded buses and markets of Israeli cities, restaurants, streets, even pizza places! She also did not mention that anyone legitimate can pass through the checkpoints and go to work in Israel--just the illegimate or the individuals who have bad records and pose a menace are prevented. Israel has a full right to protect itself with this fence, and any other means too--a right that Jimmy Carter denies Israel! She also did not mention that Israel has 1.3 million Arab citizens, who elect representatives to the Knesset, the Parliament of Israel. That doesn't sound at all like an apartheidist state, does it? 1.3 million Arabs, who support Israel, living within Israel and voting? That is a very sizable minority in a nation that only has 7 million people. No apartheidist or racist state would permit this much a voice to a minority. I am not even sure that America's blacks exercise that much a voice in America--and their numbers have slipped behind those of the Hispanics. Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, etc., do not permit any Jews to reside in their Moslem hell-hole societies and the last thing they would be permitted to do is vote in their jerry-rigged elections! But, dear Emmaus Walkers, this book and the Christians it is duping right here in America, even after a tour, cannot discern the truth or even the facts of what is going on in the Middle East. They wear blinders which screen out the truth and the facts. They believe the propaganda, and they see the Middle East as a victim of Israel, and Israel is the reason for all the trouble, not the true cause, which is Islam and all the dictatorial Moslem states that make up the ring of deception and hostility around Israel! Moslems are busy killing each other all the time in the name of Allah, so why should they stop, even if Israel was somehow eliminated as a nation? Of course, they would not stop. And they would be attacking us in America and Europe all the more, not having to concentrate on Israel's utter destruction and the wiping out of Israel's Jews.
Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and particularly Saudi Arabia, the head of the whole serpent of Islamic nations, are apartheidist states! That is the truth, and fact, of the Middle East and Africa. Jimmy Carter is a liar, and he is spreading his net of lies over American Christians, such as my poor relatives who think they are Christian in condemning Israel to us and their families.
I join with millions of Christians in asking you to NOT sacrifice Israel on the altar of appeasement.
The Word of God says this about Israel:
"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee."--Psalm 122:6.
"I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee."--Genesis 12:3
Mr. President, based on the above scriptures, I believe that the future of America lies in our support of Israel. I prayerfully beg you to boldly stand with the Jewish people and oppose those countries who seek to destroy the Bible Land by dividing it and bring great suffering and pain to all of God's children, Jewish, Arab and Christian alike. Division is not the answer, or it would have solved the problem long before this time, either there or anywhere else that can be named. The land in question was divided--was it not?--back in 1948 by the British authorities in Palestine, and fierce, all-out war immediately erupted, unleashed by five neighboring Arab states allied to the Arab Palestinians, which they waged against the Jews who had just declared, legitimately, an independent state of Israel in their own territory under the British and United Nations mandate. The Arabs have never changed their position since that time when they first repudiated the UN mandate dividing the land into an Arab or Arab Palestinian territory and a much smaller Jewish Palestinian territory. That same repudiation is written into the Palestinian charter and espoused by all the neighboring Arab states, as well as Iran. Clearly, division is a roadmap to war and continual aggression against Israel, to get all the land back allotted by Great Britain to the Jews under the United Nation's mandate.
We have all seen clearly, repeatedly, that religious divisions cannot be healed politically, however well-intentioned our State Department is in promoting "land for peace" and a Palestinian State along side of Israel. Whatever treaties are signed only serve as mere pretexts for gaining time and military advantage in order to launch the next all-out attacks against Israel to wipe it out of existence.
Mr. President, this is not a problem that can be solved by human means--it is God's to solve. That is the cold, stark reality that must be faced by all human government and their agencies. It is, indeed, an act of hubris to think that humanity can solve the world's ills, much less the Mideast's Arab-Jewish conflict. Human governments and agencies and the United Nations have altogether failed to "solve" the Mideast Arab's conflict with Israel in the past, and they will always fail. I am praying for wisdom for you in your office of President, and may God bless America, may God bless Israel, and may God bless the oppressed Arab people, and may God bless you.
Sincerely,
_____________________________________Signature
The very worst and dirtiest laundry of America is hung out daily before the world to gaze upon (and supposedly to draw good thoughts from!). It is like showing us cancers, tumors, and highly infectious skin diseases, day after day, in the cockeyed belief that this disgusting fare will make us healthy and well, or keep us healthy if we aren't already sick!
The Bible says not to look upon evil, entertain it, dig in it, spread it like manure, wallow in it like filthy pigs, and share it with your family, friends, and neighbors! Why? We are not only going to get dirty ourselves, but we will make our whole family and whole community and whole nation just as dirty! We will all become pigs, in other words, and contaminate our entire environment with disease and parasites and that unforgettable stench that goes with swine and pig sties!
Yet Oprah and Dr. Phil has bewitched an entire nation to watch their muck-raking shows! Upton Sinclair was motivated by his crusading ideals of reform when he wrote "The Jungle," a gripping expose of the stark horrors of the Chicago stockyards in the 19th century and the brutalizing effect they had on the tens of thousands of stockyard workers and their wives and children. The book exploded on the whole nation like a bomb, blowing the muck into everyone's faces, so that the shocked and horrified and now informed American people were outraged enough to do something about it. They got through to their legislators, and landmark bills were passed and enforced to regulate the stockyards and the meat packers, which greatly helped to clean up some of the worst offenses exposed in the book (not to mention the offal, diseased flesh and filth that had regularly been processed along with the meat, as sick and dying and diseased cattle had regularly been processed along with the healthy cattle and then canned and shipped to be sold to Americans, sickening many Americans and possibly killing thousands--all for the profit of the meat packers and their millionaire owners! Upton Sinclair was a "muck racker," but his purpose served the society, to help clean it up, and it worked--the book produced a real reform of a corrupt industry that was sickening many people and brutalizing the poorly paid, slave labor workers unnecessarily. Chicago went on to become a truly progressive city where people could live decently and well, even as working people. Read this still highly absorbing book! It is available at any library or you can order it on-line at www.Amazon.com!
"The Octopus" is another muck-raker, dealing with the railroad barons of the 19th century exploiting the farmers of the Midwest with high rates. There are others, including a biography of John D. Rockefeller and his Standard Oil of New Jersey that led to the Anti-trust laws that Teddy Roosevelt championed as president (he was a righteous muck-raker who feared nobody, including J.P. Morgan, calling the mightiest titans of finance and industry on the carpet in his office for their misdeeds!).
Julia Ward Howe's book about the inequities and injustice of slavery, the classic "Uncle Tom," is credited with single-handedly igniting the Civil War that resulted not only in the saving of the Union from splitting apart forever due to the North/South cultural/political/geographic great divide but it directly produced the emancipation of the black slaves, for after her book the blacks never again could be looked upon as less than human beings (not property, or things, in other words). Books matter a great deal, as the Bible has proven all through the centuries. Truth matters. Muck-rakers have served a superb purpose in helping America deal with injustices and wrongs--but that is not what we see happening today in the case of television's hirsute top star, Oprah, along with her bald-headed clone, Dr. Phil (does he have a last name? Perhaps, it is "Klone.").
But Oprah and Dr. Phil are not muck-rakers in this classic, social-reform sense! They are not reputable. They do their thing for sheer profit, not for any high-minded purpose! This is sheer commercialism, sheer greed at work, using more or less compliant individuals to capture a gigantic audience who become addicted to porn, violence, perversion (though homosexual perversion is promoted for the most part on these programs), abuse--filth, in a nutshell.
America's most Satan-enslaved, degenerate human beings, thanks to Oprah and her buddy Dr. Phil, are being aired daily on TV is featured as the main fare on the cultural cooking program of Oprah, with its spin-off, the Dr. Phil program, the gourmet chef of other equally toxic dishes of degeneracy, perversion, profanity (he can swear right along with the most toilet-mouthed guests of his program, and not blush all the way up his bald pate!).
Oprah Winfrey is a mega-business in herself, but in the religious sense she also operates the largest church in the world, a church based on the powers of witchcraft and her expert abilities trained to manipulate millions with her charm, wit, variety of politically correct and juicy, pornographic topics, and all the other qualities she employs as a high priestess of Satan the arch-seducer.
Oprah-cloned and emasulated Dr. Phil is no better, being her perfect male counterpart, or warlock, in witches' parlance. He employs psychological techniques and masterful logic and programming and a team of experts backstage to manipulate people "for their own good." Both programs earn in the hundreds of millions for their producers and also Oprah and Dr. Phil (Oprah devouring the lioness's share, of course, of the spoil, amounting to, according to reports, 200 million a year, of which she shells out for publicity sake a tiny, tiny fraction for high profile charities, such as a $30 million dollar orphanage in South Africa (which has been in the news lately for a sex abuse scandal,by the way!). If she gives anything else away, we are sure to hear about it coast to coast from her own lips, with video!). Despite the evangelicals who are fawning over them (such as Televangelist and Potter's House pastor, T.D. Jakes), these two vile characters are tools of the devil, pure and simple. They are seducing the soul of America (pagans as well as millions of gullible and weak Christians) to swallow devilish filth and falsehood, not to mention their New Age Religion spin on life and religion. If you want to known how to mix double martinis that can kill a mule's brain, Oprah featured a course on that too--as if we didn't already drink enough hard liquor in this country, bringing untold misery and disruption of marriages and families, not to mention the thousands of DUI-caused accidents and fatalities on the road!
Talk about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil being seductive and deadly--their two programs provide a Weyerhaeuser forest of such trees, on which millions of their dupes are srambling daily, branch to branch, to pluck the enticing, attractively packaged, and lethal fruit to eat. Oprah and Dr. Phil will come to judgment, sooner or later--as the Bible promises, for no such wickedness and deliberate spreading of iniquity will escape the judgment. Here is a sobering thing to think about in addition: People who become Oprah's fans will not see any problem whatsoever in taking the mark of the Beast, when it is offered. She is the perfect set-up for the Anti-Christ, as she will have seduced the soul of America with her witchcraft and sorcery, and then she will hand all her captive souls, who are eating abominations out of her hand, over to the Anti-Christ, whom she will welcome with open arms, no doubt, as a hip, kindred soul-mate, if she lives until his public debut and appearance on the world's stage.
"EVOLUTION'S DENIAL OF BIBLE AUTHORITY TO SPEARHEAD THE SPIRIT OF ATHEISM IN THE SEVENTIES.
On June 17, 1963, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that it would be unconstitutional for any school to authorize Bible reading and recitation of the Lord's prayer. But nothing was said against the teaching of evolution in the schools, a teaching which implies the Genesis record of creation to be a myth, while claiming that man sprang from the brute beast. This rank hoax, the religion of atheists and infidels is being taught in the schools and colleges. Parents who believe the Bible should find out if the Christian college or public school to which they send their children uses these textbooks. Such teaching can rob their children's faith in God." (page 27)
His income was listed as compared with the incomes of other major televangelists. You can find that interesting too, as I did, but it is his two Rolex watches that I find rather intriguing. Why does he need such expensive watches. one costs in the neighborhood of 23k. Imagine wearing that much money on your wrist--and you bump it against the car door or something! Do you have to carry insurance for it--costing you hundreds no doubt a year?--which would be
chicken feed to the likes of Murdoch. I never saw a Rolex in my life, until I came across this picture just yesterday--so now I know what they look like. I do hope Mr. Murdoch enjoys his Rolexes, jet, mansion, bus, luxury cars, and whatever else he has. They may be all he ever will have, as rewards. I hope not, but that is my best guess--there won't be much of anything for him in the next life, even if he is saved and
escapes hell--since he's got it all now, one way or another.Doing my own investigation on a televangelist whose fixation on money and wealth building and his continual appeals for contributions bothered me, I went to internet sources and found more than
enough information to make me wonder how Mike Murdoch can get away with his extravagant lifestyle, spending millions on his mansion, property, vehicles, jet, and
personal adornments such as Rolex watches, and still be allowed to solicit even more millions via such handy networks as TBN and DAYSTAR. How discerning are the Crouches and the Lambs anyway, when Murdoch (a latter-day Elmer Gantry) can use them and their networks reaching millions of people across the globe to garner the pension and social security check money from thousands of old widows and grandmothers and poor single moms and other such trusting souls?
Rudolph the Red- Nosed Reindeer, Santa Klaus, Snow Flakes, a Tree, and like fluff and garbage--hardly good substitutes for the real reason for Christmas being celebrated here and the world over (have you seen the new stamps--Rudolph, Snow Flakes, etc., etc., are back, good grief!). My suspicion was correct! They were turned demented/secular humanist in the U.S. Postal Department! They used to be trying to be "pancultural," to use their phrase, but now they are serving "Diversity," "Multiculturalism," "Tolerance," and other secular humanist gods. This latest stamp proves it. UGH! A THOUSAND TIMES UGH! (That is the nicest way I can put my visceral response. I bought this one stamp for an example to show you the utter folly into which the U.S. Postal Department has lately descended, but as soon as it is copied for showing here, it goes in the waste basket where it belongs:
Had a very shiny nose!
And if you ever saw it,
You would even say it glows!
All of the other reindeer,
Used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph,
Join in any reindeer games.
Then one frosty Christmas night,
Santa came to town.
"Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"
Then how the reindeer loved him,
As they shouted out with glee,
"Rudolph, the Red- Nosed Reindeer,
You'll go down in history!"
This seemingly silly tune which has been sung countless times by children at Christmastime (and even by the Lawrence Welk singers on his special Christmas pageants on TV) has a core story that speaks of Christ--if you can pick out literary themes. As I already pointed out for you, there is the comparison of Rudoph and Christ in that both were rejected by their peers and society. (2) Both were ridiculed, laughed at, and called names.
(3)Both were shut out by their society (as Jesus, from Nazareth, an uncouth, mixed Jewish and Gentile region, was shunned and denigrated by the Jews of Jerusalem--"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" was a common proverb, recited even by Nathaniel when he was called by his brother to go and see Jesus).
(4) Santa, a father figure standing for the Heavenly Father, let us say, overlooked the public's low opinion and chose Rudolph, elevating him to the highest position, just as the Father ordained Jesus, a carpenter's step-son, to become Savior and Lord over the whole world. Furthermore, there is a dark aspect, to elevation, for Rudolph was not elevated to a Cross as Christ was, but it needs be mentioned here, because without that happening, there would be no rejoicing for Christians whatsoever, for on the Cross, Jesus broke the powers of sin, Death, and the Devil enslaving us. It looked like defeat of Jesus, for he died on the Cross, but it was actually the most tremendous victory, transforming everything for us.
(5) The reindeer somehow forgot all they had done to drag Rudolph down with their persecution, shunning, ridiculing, and laughing--as they now rejoiced in Rudolph's elevation to first rank over them by Santa as head raindeer. Christians, too, could put aside their former rejection, their former state of being enemies of God and slaves to Satan, as they rejoice in the victory of Christ on the Cross! We are continually rejoicing in the Lord's victory for our sake! "Glee" should be ours, just as it was the raindeer's.
(6) The famous red nose, shining brightly, that brought him to Santa's attention and was the primary cause of Rudolph's appointment and exaltation? Red is the color of Christ's shed blood, and it shines brightly even today, two thousand years after the crucifixion of Christ. The blood of Christ still has the power to save and transform lives and also drive out the Devil and his demons from our lives.
(7)Rudolph forgave this persecutors and enemies, his fellow reindeer, forgave them everything, just as Jesus forgive us all our sins and opposition against him. And he did not hold it against us later--the slate is wiped completely clean, by the Blood of Jesus. In the same way there is no mention of any resentment or revenge or bitterness on the part of Rudolph toward his fellow reindeer. They are all happy for him, so they must have accepted his total forgiveness of them.
"What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Oh! Precious is the flow,
That makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!"
Bill O'Reilly stated on his Talk Radio program that the culture war is turning the way of Christians and conservatives and sensible people regarding the issue the ACLU has about Christmas, and their war to drive all public mention of it out of existence in America. The law does not support their cases against nativity scenes, and anything Christmas (such as store clerks wishing you "Merry Christmas") being forbidden by store management. Christmas is the only U.S. Federal holiday sanctioned at that time by law. The ACLU is losing case after case--every time they try to use the law to stop anything about Christmas, according to O'Reilly. Thank you, God! It is not the lawyers who fight in the Alliance Defense Fund, though these 1,000 strong forces fighting for our Christian heritage and Christian-based liberties in America are doing a great and courageous job against the tremendously powerful ACLU and its confederates. No, God Almighty is answering our prayers for America. If we lose Christmas in public, we will lose it in private eventually too--for the ACLU will not stop at sweeping it out of public places and schools--they are meaning to invade every home in America and secularize our homes and churches as well. It is the total eradication of Christian faith in America--that is their true agenda. They cannot co-exist with Christianity in this country. It is either fight or surrender to them unconditionally. Bill O'Reilly, the ADF, and others know this fact, and have worked tirelessly to make this fact known to the American people, who overwhelmingly have expressed their view that they favor Christmas, regardless of their religious background. Christmas is celebrated, according to surveys, by the majority in every non-Christian religion. Atheists celebrate it as well. It is just this radical legal arm of secular humanism and atheism and communism, the ACLU, that is trying its best to drive Christmas and Christianity out of American society, government, school, stores, businesses, and even our history books!
Whatever Wal-Mart used to be, it is not now--it has become a globalist monster with no morals, and it is anti-American and anti-Christian--it will do anything to appease the homosexual lobby and the secular humanist elites in order to reap a proft. it is, in a nutshell, a Beliah, a monster from hell, which is just now showing its true colors.
For that reason Global Warming caused by human carbon emissions is NOT scientific fact, OR ANYTHING BASED ON VERIFIABLE SCIENCE. Scientists, true scientists, deny the validity of Al Gore's assertions. Over 19,000 genuine scientists (not Al Gore green party clones and Hollywood celebs without any education to speak of) have signed a letter in Oregon stating this, but it is ignored by the Global Warming-supporting media, of course. Yet the whole secular humanist world along with Hollywood (and even some misinformed evangelicals!) is getting on the bandwagon of eco-crazies led by chief Global Warming guru, Al Gore. Millions will suffer terribly if they carry out their programs to reduce emissions, at the cost of the poorest of the nations and even setting our own country's economy back to that of a Third World nation's--would that help if China and India, the world's biggest and worst polluting economies continue to operate as they are without one word against them by Al Gore and his crowd? Why should America and a host of poor countries suffer for his obsession and barnstorming? America is not the problem--we are the cleanest, have the cleanest factories and businesses in the world--and India's and China's and other such developing nations, not to mention former Soviet Union countries, have the worst record of polluting industries, so why is Al Gore making us out to be the monster pollutor on the planet? It is a political agenda he is covering up with this environmental red herring. LET US PRAY THAT THIS HOAX BE EXPOSED FOR WHAT IT TRULY IS!
A generation of American youth raised on explicit sex and violent TV and violent films will love and enjoy it, and want more of the same, only more violent and bloody and full of nudity if possible. What is the value of this for English literature? The blood and guts is not the main reason for the epic--for it was written by a Christian, who was writing at the time when Britain was turning to Christ. Much pagan culture still existed, but it was defeated by the Cross of Christ, and so you see pagan culture in Beowulf, but also Christian themes shining unmistakably amidst the roaring hubbub of the heroes in the mead-halls and in their various battles. The devil is potrayed as Grendel and her mother, monsters that the hero Beowulf must overcome--just as every Christian must resist and overcome the Devil and sin in his life. There is no question in the epic (if not the film, which I have not seen) that gratuitous violence for its own sake is not celebrated (though it is depicted realistically and truthfully in the epic) but, instead, the victorious stand of the Christian hero or warrior against the forces of darkness and evil, personified by the monster she-devil, Grendel, and her equally monstrous mother. This ancient epic composed by a Christian minstrel-poet or a number of them depicts the struggle of good (the Gospel, the Cross, the truth of Christ) against the forces of evil (the Devil, the old pagan, polytheistic religion, the darkness and superstition of the German tribes. Beowulf, the epic, is magnificent, and compares to the Lord of the Rings trilogy by T.R.R. Tolkien, which had the same theme of good struggling with evil.
It is always good to go back to the original, to the source, to the written epic, and not just depend on Hollywood's remake or rewrite of the epic to tell us what it really is. Read Beowulf, if you have not yet been exposed to it, before going to the film, so you have some objectivity and appreciation for the Christian themes that are truly in the original, whatever Hollywood has made of it. Why should we be ignorant and brainwashed by Hollywood? We can inform ourselves and know the truth. The truth sets us free, and it can be entertaining too, just as Beowulf in the original is entertaining to English students reading it. I don't need Steven Spielberg's script writers and special effects crews to bring Beowulf alive in my imagination. I have my own imagination, which they can seldom exceed or surprass, so I don't need them. Everyone has an imagination, but we have to use it, not just be consumers who are fed the products of other people's imaginations and scripts. The value to using our own imaginations is that we ourselves envison the things the writer of Beowulf recorded from his own time, far in the past, for our knowledge and enjoyment and instruction and also our inspiration. We connect with that ancient minstrel in a real way when we approach his work in this way--we have no middle man in the way--we get a direct link--and this makes all the difference between being an almost brain-dead consumerist or a thinking, feeling, imagining human being who is enlarged, not shrunk, as he or she proceeds through life.
Now she's the poor, abused wife--seeking a divorce no doubt (rather than praying for a reconciliation and seeking counselling) and the sympathy and publicity of the world. I doubt the world will give her much sympathy (though she is getting some publicity from the scandal-mongers)--as they can see right through this female Elmer Gantry. It is so disgusting--that a woman could be so devoured by Satan and the world and not know it, apparently. What is the Bible for? What are godly examples for? What are churches for? What are evangelical leaders such as Billy Graham and Jack Hayford and John Hagee for? She evidently ignores all the warnings about playing with the attractive temptations of the world. She has not been steering clear of the the world's seductive powers, she has not not avoiding the known pitfalls of money and fame. Hence, she has joined the crowd of failed ministries and joined the wretched many who have fallen away from righteous living in the midst of a carnal, depraved culture. She has not heeded all the warnings that that the Bible contains, put there to keep us on the narrow path of the Cross. This has brought on her great hurt, and hurt countless people who looked up to her.
Where are her spiritual mentors and oversight, even in the black community's churches, the Church of God in Christ and others? Were they silent, when they saw her turn so fleshly and worldly back at the time of her wedding? It was so evident then that something had gone radically wrong, for her to put on such a worldly display of pomp and self-glorification and luxury. Did they think that was okay for her to act like that and spend like that to satisfy her own lusts? What kind of witness did that give the watching world about Christians in her position? What does the poor Third World think of this extravagance and the subsequent scandal? Doesn't it reflect badly on evangelical Christianity? Surely, it does! Perhaps she had turned down that way to destruction even before the signs became red flags--and so there was no stopping for her, she just continued on her mad rush and plunge into further self-indulgence, worldly extravagance, lust and folly and carnality.
And what are their "jobs?" Tearing down the moral and constitutional fabric of our nation? That is what so many are doing--and she was chief among them when she sat for years on the bench at the Supreme Court, swinging the court's decision to the Leftist agenda for America! She is the swing vote that made the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the Texas anti-sodomy law! Texas is her home state, but she hated the very idea that Texas could, as a state, take a stand against a sin the Bible condemns. Oh, no! Texas must not "legislate morality," so she voted to strike down a law the people of Texas thought right and proper and according to God's law, not man's. She obviously prefers man's law, which for her is secular humanist law--devoid of the Ten Commandments and Christian morality. This woman, who lives securely and very comfortably in a society that Christians founded and instituted, should be deported to a society that cares nothing for the Christian heritage of America, so she can get a taste of a society for herself of a society and government with views and religion opposing women's rights and privileges in America. She would be killed, ordinarily, long before she could ever rise to her high position as a supreme court judge. She wouldn't even be in the running in a Moslem society for such a position, in the first place! But here she sat, for long and man years, striking down our nation's precious moral laws and foundations, substituting the jungle of secular humanism, where every man decides what works for him, and everything is up for grabs, all based on moral relativism, Sandra Day O'Connor's guiding philosophy, evidently. She has perpetrated the greatest crimes against America, and is not called a terrorist--which she definitely is, in God's eyes. One day soon she will have to account for what she did to tear down Christian things in America, and what will be her defense? She didn't know better? Couldn't be! She knows God's law, the Ten Commandments, but rejected them for American society, whose whole law was founded on them, as with a cornerstone that holds up an arch and even entire buildings. She knew the Bible, yet she spurned it, in vote after vote on the bench, meanwhile winning the plaudits and kudoes of fellow secular humanists, moral relativists, and, generally, wicked people such as herself! Evenso, we must pray for her soul--that she admit to the truth about herself and her acts, and repent while she still has life and opportunity. The day of judgment is soon coming for her--as it is for all of us--and our nation as well!
Our churches probably will not have a clew what to do, and will continue to offer feminized services and programs on a thousand different topics (including the so-called "leadership conferences" that produce no leaders but pad the pockets of the conference speakers!)) that never will appeal to men (which is the reason most men do not attend church). I don't blame them in the least. Songs, service formats, messages, programs, even the decorations of the sanctuaries--all feminized, which men cannot relate to as men, it is so embarrasing and out of touch with what men care about. Women relate to them fine, but men cannot. So we lose the men in the churches, even as they enter manhood and adulthood. I recall "Confirmation" in the Lutheran Church. It was a class we were all required to take to learning Luther's teachings (mainly by memorization) that led up to our being recognized as full members of the church, with a testing of our knowledge of Luther's catechism before the congregation at a special meeting, during which we wore white robes, and then with the successful conclusion, we were accepted as full adult members, and there was good food and fellowship. That, dear Emmaus Walkers, was the last service these young adult members ever attended! I know, I was there to see it--and felt very, very lonely, sitting as the only young person in church my age, after all the others, boys and girls, took off for "bigger and better things."
They all split, my Confirmation Class back in the Fifties, and went lock, stock, and barrell into the fallen world to serve its gods, the very place they had just vowed before the Pastor and the congregation of saints to forsake and not to wander in, as the Prodigal Son did. We had also vowed a rebuke of the Devil, and all his works and ways--what about that vow? Well, that was forgotten too. We were full members of the church, right?--saved, in our opinion, and "once saved, always saved, right?). Our names were written on the church rolls as members--that was all that mattered, right? It didn't matter now if we attended church or not, right? How stupid and wrong we were, at that young age of twelve and thirteen! But we didn't know our folly was leading to our destruction (despite all the teaching we had got on the church and the Bible from the Pastor), and went merrily on our way, just like Cain forsaking his parents and family and going to a foreign land far off to live apart from them. We too became Cains. Generations of young people, newly confirmed as Lutheran church members, did this in the Lutheran churches--and nobody figured out a way to stop the fatal hemorrhage of the youth, who were the very future of the Lutheran church in America. The churches were just too stuck in their formality and conventional religion to know what to do. So nothing was done--millions of souls were lost--a real price was paid.
Today is no different. Churches are the very last institutions to respond to societal changes--and usually are a generation or two late before they figure out a way to combat the problems. With the returnees from the Iraq war, we will see more suicides, abuse of wives and chldren, hopelessness and misdirection, drinking, actual mental illness--the whole gamut of the post-war symdrome.
IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY, FELLOW CHRISTIANS! LET US ENLIST THESE VIBRANT FREEDOM FIGHTERS, TIRED AS THEY ARE OF FIGHTING THE FLESH, AND CHALLENGE THEM TO BEGIN FIGHTING IN THE SPIRIT AS SOLDIERS OF YESHUA. CHRIST'S SPIRITUALITY WAS NOT SO HEAVENLY MINDED THAT IT WAS NO EARTHLY GOOD, SO THE NEW CHURCH PROGRAMS MUST ENGAGE THE REALITIES ON THIS EARTH, IN THIS SOCIETY, AND ITS OVERWHELMING NEED TO SEE REAL CHRISTIANS AT WORK, WHEREVER THEY FIND THEMSELVES, ABLE TO COMMUNICATE GOD'S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS, AND ALSO LIVE IN THIS WORLD, BUT NOT BE OF THIS WORLD, AS A MORAL EXAMPLE TO THIS WICKED AND LOST GENERATION. ON THE OTHER HAND, YESHUA'S KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS EARTH, JUST AS HE TOLD PILATE--IT IS HEAVEN-BORN, A HEAVENLY REALITY TO BE BROUGHT TO EARTH AND MADE REALITY HERE! WE MUST FOLLOW THE HEAD, OUR COMMANDER YESHUA, IN ORDER TO FIGHT AND SUBDUE THE WHOLE EARTH UNDER THE BANNER OF YESHUA AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. WE DON'T FIGHT PEOPLE OR FELLOW HUMAN FLESH, WE FIGHT WITH THE DEVIL'S PRINCIPALITIES, SPIRITUAL AUTHORITIES THAT CURRENTLY RULE THIS SIN-SICK, SIN-ENSLAVED, OLD FALLEN EARTH, SO WE FIGHT IN THE SPIRIT, BUT IN REAL, PRACTICAL, EARTHLY TERMS AND PLACES AND CIRCUMSTANCES. WE ARE NOT OTHER-WORLDLY MONKS LIVING IN SAFE HAVENS FAR FROM THE WORLD, WITH PIE IN THE SKY SOMEDAY WAITING FOR THEM, BUT WE MUST TAKE THE SWORD OF THE WORD RIGHT INTO THE ENEMY'S CAMP--JUST LIKE GIDEON AND HIS THREE HUNDRED COMMANDOES OF YAHWEH ONCE DID, DEFEATING THE ARMIES OF THE MIDIANITE INVADERS WITH THE SPIRITUAL WEAPONS THE LORD COMMANDED HIM TO USE (ALSO INCLUDING REAL TORCHES, AND REAL PITCHERS, AND THEIR OWN LOUD REB-TYPE YELLS!). IT IS A TIME FOR GIDEONS WITH SOME RED BLOOD IN THEIR VEINS TO OBEY GOD, AND LEAD THE TROOPS INTO BATTLE AGAINST THE FOE! THE MIDIANITES, OR THE SECULAR HUMANISTS, HAVE INVADED AND ARE RAVAGING ALL AMERICA, SEA TO SEA, DESTROYING EVERY INSTITUTION, SCHOOL, TRADITION, AND CHRISTIAN SCENE OR INSCRIPTION IN PUBLIC, INCLUDING THE FAMILY, WITH THE CHURCHES NEXT--BUT WE CAN TURN THEM BACK, DEFEAT THEM, AND TAKE BACK OUR LAND AND NATION AND PEOPLE FOR THE LORD--IF WE TAKE THE LESSON OF GIDEON, JUST ONE IN THE BIBLE PUT THERE TO INSPIRE AND LEAD US.
These soldiers remain soldiers when they return, even with their uniforms off. They need a new challenge, but one that REAL men can fight. They can't be made into passive, feminized believers in Christ, as so many are who now attend churches--of no real use to God or man. This is a nation that needs to be won back to Christ--that is the spiritual mission they should be challenged with--nothing less!
PASTORS, BIBLE TEACHERS, CONFERENCE SPEAKERS, TELEVANGELISTS: All your wealth building, esteem building, find your perfect role in life, how to achieve the perfect sex life and mate, and how to tithe and give so you can reap material blessings--that kind of preaching is mere fluff besides the gospel of the Kingdom, how to grasp what it means, how to fight for it, where to fight for it, and with whom to fight for it. That kind of teaching is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of Yeshua--it is contrary, in that it is a diversion.
Yeshua has an army--they need to be brought in! They can do wonders, if they are. Otherwise, we will see a repeat of all the other wars-- when the men did not go into churches and become equipped to go out and win the world for Christ--but they flocked into materialism and hedonism pursuing the "Great American Dream." There is nothing wrong with Wife and Family, House with Picket Fence, Children, Grandma and Grandpa, and Sweet Potato Pie Alamode--but the nation was not saved by those nice and good and even necessary things--without a real focus for the people of America, it just got diverted into materialism and good things, missing the best thing: righteousness, the kingdom of God, being made a generation that revered and obeyed God.
We lost those post-war generations, and will we lose this one too? A people who have no vision perish. We have no vision. We must regain the vision or perish. It is that simple. Will anyone take up the banner of Yeshua, lead, and enlist these thousands and thousands of courageous young men and women who will be back here in our midst, seeking to find their way in vastly changed circumstances, without the former tight-knit, buddy-system and teamwork that made their victory in Iraq possible? Who will help make them Soldiers of Yeshua? Who?
"Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way."
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."
"You're never beaten until you admit it."
"Always do everything you ask of those you command."
"You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals."
"If a man has done his best, what else is there?"
"I don't measure a man's success by hyow high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom."
"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week."[This was rephrased by the Crystal Cathedral founder to be: "It's better to do something imperfectly now, than to do nothing perfectly."
"Take calculated risks. That is quite different frolm being rash. My personal belief is that if lyou have a 50% chance, take it!"
"People who are not themselves are nobody."
"Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable."
Jesus Christ first, and all the rest will fall into line.
He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people.
"Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."