The Church

What we have here is a failure to communicate.  That is a classic line from the movie "Cool Hand Luke" and it was the Warden's rebuke of Luke's failure to understand his authority.  This is one of the best movies that I have ever seen.  Luke continued to rebel, escaped and finally cursed God and blamed God for his predicament.  He was shot and the movie ended.  Luke's rebellious spirit led to his death.

What we have in the church is a failure to communicate.  Churches all across America do not really understand the sovereignty of God, the holiness of God, the grace of God or the forgiving power of God.  Churches, more specifically, pastors of churches are lacking clear communication between themselves and God.  The pastor, the under-shepherd, the one that works for Jesus is accountable to God and to man.  James says it very plainly that we should not all rush to be teachers because teachers incur a more severe punishment.  Too many pastors have not only rushed to be teachers, but are not even qualified to clean up the paper from the sanctuary.  I don't mean that in a condescending way, I mean it in the most serious way possible.  Men and even women have sneaked in and preyed upon hapless, non-discerning, happy-happy, joy-joy congregations and have made a mess of the church!

There is nothing new under the sun, but the instant access to information over the internet and various media outlets has made us aware of heinous crimes committed by so-called men of the cloth.  Priests raping and sodomizing young boys, Grown men tempting and abusing young women, pastors paying young men for sex, pastors abusing authority and committing adultery, pastors stealing money from the church, pastors lying from the pulpit and the list could go on forever!  The problem is there are too many glory thieves out here; Too many more concerned with performance than with salvation and spiritual growth.  There are too many that are not actually delivered from sin and there are way too many that are not walking under the blood of Jesus!     The bible tells us that there will be men that come in unawares, that take advantage of widows, that sneak in destructive heresies, that prophesy falsely, that love money and that are destined for destruction (for a more thorough treatment, see 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, 1 Peter, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 Corinthians 3,4,11,12).

When you look at the condition of our nation, the church does not look very different from what's going on outside the of the church.  Music has become more secularized, money and "growth" have replaced spiritual growth and worship of God, attitudes about God have become indifferent or even apathetic and people no longer believe that there is any good in the world.  Many leaders have shamed God openly and have also brought shame to the body of Christ!  Therefore, when someone is looking for a place to come into from the cold, they bypass the church because of the hypocrisy of the lifestyles of many church leaders.  The leader is not to be perfect but he is to be above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2).  1 Thess 5:22 says that we are to abstain from evil.  The King James says to abstain from even the appearance of evil!

Situations like the killings going on in Chicago would not happen if churches were able to mobilize and meet these young men and women where they are and minister to them.  But the church is absent and Louis Farrakhan has stepped in to proselytize and convert young men and women to Islam.  Am I saying that what Farrakhan is doing is not noble, not in the least.  Someone has to step in and stand in the gap.  But where are the churches?  The church has lost a measure of respect because too many are concerned only with preaching and degrees and not enough are concerned about souls and outreach.  The church has lost a measure of respect because too many leaders have used the cloak of grace to justify doing wrong, only to turn around and judge others for the same things!  Some churches would much rather send money overseas than feed the homeless right there in their own community.  There are many that do both and I have no beef with foreign missions, but we have a mission field right here in America that is starving and destitute of God's Word!  

I know that God is not sleeping.  I understand that some of these things have to happen because they were prophesied from long ago.  But it is very disheartening to see this happening to the church.  It makes my heart bleed when attacks from atheists and other groups that are vocal against the church have the appearance of being justified because there is truth to some of what they are saying about the church.  However, I do know that there are good men and women that are doing positive things in communities, living lives of faith, living lives of holiness and yet they get overshadowed by the misbehaving of others.

In closing, it is my sincere prayer that the people that make up the body of Christ wake up and begin to live out the eternal plan that God put in place before time began (Ephesians 3).  The church should be a place where God is glorified, not something that should cause Him to be horrified.  It should be a place where strongholds are torn down, not where people are torn down.  The church should be a reflection of God's love to the world.  It should be a reflection of God's purity and holiness to the world.  I am old enough and wise enough to know that there is no such thing as the perfect church.  Every church has issues but there are certain things that should not be named among the church or carried out by those leaders that are supposed to equip the church.  Pray with me for the leaders of God's flocks all over this nation.  Pray that the good leaders will remain humble and will glorify God by their actions.  Pray with me that the bad ones would step away and repent of their sins and stop being a stumbling block to others on the path to righteousness.  God bless you.

Last

In every trial, it is important to try to find the lesson that is being communicated to us through the trial.  Yes, trials are unpleasant but rest assured that if you are saved, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, those trials will have an outcome that builds character, strength and faith.  Romans 5 says that tribulations create perseverance, perseverance creates proven character and proven character creates hope which does not disappoint!  Every trial should be dealt with with more faith than the previous trial.

So, what am I learning through this trial that I am currently in?  I am learning to be last, and be OK with it.  My wife has been semi-incapacitated since her surgery which makes me a live-in nurse.   Initially, I had to help her with everything from brushing her teeth to using the bathroom.  As time has passed, she has become increasingly stronger but sometimes she still needs assistance with every day stuff.  The thing is, we are not the only two in the house.  We have a fairly active family and both of our children are at the point where they detest simply sitting in the house all day, they want to get out and do things.  I have really had to step my game and my patience up because, at this point, there really are no breaks for me.  It is non-stop from the time I get up until I finally get a chance to lay down.  While I have had a ton of help from my mother-in-law and we have had numerous gifts from numerous people of food, cards and the like, the brunt of the work falls to me.

If I am sitting down to eat and Danielle calls because she needs something, I have to put my fork down and go to her side.  If the kids have made a mess of the house, which they always do, I have to take care of that.  Of course, I make them clean after themselves, but they never get it the way that I like to see it so I generally still have to go behind them.  When the clothes pile up, it's my job to wash ( I left out fold because my mother-in-law usually folds, LOL) them and whatever needs to get done in the house, it's up to me to do it.  Everyone's needs have come to the forefront and I have been forced to push my own needs to the back.

I am the last one to eat, the last one to get a shower, the last one to get dressed and the last one to go to sleep.  Initially it was frustrating until I had an epiphany that this is my lesson.  Jesus said that if anyone was to be first, they must become last.  Let's be clear here, I don't make myself last to become first in a selfish way, but in a hopeful way.  Although I am last, I am OK with that.  God made me a steward over my household and if I have to go without so that they don't have to go without, so be it.  If there is one slice of bread and I have to divide it three ways so that my wife and children eat at the expense of my own hunger, so be it.  This is the lesson that I am learning and that God is using this trial to teach me: humility. 

So in reference to everything that I said earlier and all of the things that I have to do to keep the house running, I say emphatically, "SO WHAT!"  Who cares if all of the duties fall to me?  Who cares if I have to be the last one to do everything?  Who cares?  That is what God has put me in the home to do!  He didn't put me there to be a king and have everyone serving me, he put me there to serve them!  Through His grace, God has entrusted two beautiful children and a beautiful wife to me, and I am one that does not deserve the gum off of the bottom of someone's shoe!  So, there are no longer complaints or grumbling, there is now simply the utterance of a phrase to myself, "put yourself last."  This is the essence of the Christian life.  Deny yourself, put your own desires last and be rewarded by God for your humility.  Be selfless and not selfish.  Be a servant before seeking to be promoted to master. 

If you are in a difficult circumstance, I am encouraging you to LISTEN to what that situation is saying to you.  Don't look so much at the problem, look at the lesson that the problem is trying to teach.  In every issue, there is something that can be taken away from it.  There is a colloquialism that we use that gets to the point a lot easier than I do, "look for the sliver lining in the cloud."  That's worldly wisdom, but James says it better.  In James 1:2-4, the bible says that we are to count it joy when our faith is tested because our endurance is increased which eventually makes us mature and complete Christians without deficiency.  If you are last, count it all joy.  If you have had to sacrifice for someone else's good, count it all joy.  If you are running out of steam because you are the burden bearer, count it all joy.  Be last, and be ok with it.  

The Scars of Life

Looking at my wife post surgery, on her way to another surgery, is a sight to see.   Her scars are very visible and deep.  Undergoing a bilateral mastectomy four weeks ago, she is still in quite a bit of discomfort.  As she slowly got dressed to come back for another procedure prior to beginning chemotherapy next month, her scars made me think of life and how life's hammer just pounds on us every day.  I'm not saying that life is terrible, but living this life is not easy-- regardless of how you spin it.  Sickness, death, pain and suffering are very much a part of the human experience.  Many use these occurrences to blame God for everything, to justify their unbelief and to dispute his goodness.  I beg to differ!  The fact that we survive these sometimes horrific things tells me that God is good and merciful!

Some of us have scars that are visible signs of the battles that we've been in with life.  Surgeries to remove cancers, fix broken bones, replace hips and knees, repair damage caused by accidents and the like reveal some of the things that people have been through.  Some of us, however, have internal scars of abuse, pain, depression, addiction and other things that are not outwardly visible but they still exist.

Knowing that life is painful, Jesus made no bones about the fact that in this world we would have trouble (John 16:33).  But Jesus also gave us the reassurance that He has overcome the world and therefore we can be joyful and hopeful in life's most painful moments.  The apostle Paul says of his Christian ministry (2 Cor 4:8,9) and the persecution that he was facing that those that carried the gospel were hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted and cast down.  Although this was a description of his ministry, it still applies to the everyday Christian! 

Living the Christian life is not an easy road by any stretch of the imagination.  There are demonic forces (Ephesians 6:12) that attack us on every side, there are trials that come in life and there is persecution from those that live lives totally antithetical to the Christian worldview.  We are hard pressed on every side.    The pressures of the world do their best to take us out.  We too are perplexed when we do not have the answer to the sufferings that we encounter.  We too are persecuted when we name the name of Christ.  We too are cast down by the blows dealt to us by life and those that want to destroy us.  We too share in these same sufferings, albeit to different extents, every day.  We too are jars of clay, fragile but not easily broken.  We all bear the scars of life upon our bodies, inside and out.

But thanks be to God that there is a flipside to each and every one of the actions mentioned in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.  Yes we are hard pressed, BUT we are not crushed!  We might be fragile but because of the power of God, the Holy Ghost living inside of us, we are not crushed!  The pressure from the outside will never be greater that the ONE on the inside of us that is pushing back against it (1 John 4:4)!  The perplexities of life will never lead us to despair!  Although we do not know the answers, we know the ONE who has all of the answers!    Yes we are persecuted because of the way we live and what we believe, but the ONE that we live for says "lo, I will be with you, even to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:20)."  When we are cast down, physically or spiritually we are not destroyed, our clay pot is never dashed to pieces because the ONE that lives in us holds all things together by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3)!

If you read these scriptures, notice that there are two words there in each line that separate the negative action from the positive result.  Those two words are BUT and NOT!  I thank God for the BUT NOTS in life!  We bear the scars of life BUT NOT the negative results that were intended by some of them!  We have pain BUT we are NOT destroyed because of it.  The words BUT NOT are the ones that draw us closer to God and help us to understand His sovereignty, His grace, His mercy and His love!  Anyone reading this has had some BUT NOT moments and if you keep living, you will have even more BUT NOT moments.

Yes, life is hard, BUT NOT impossible.  In the words of Pam Thum, "Life is Hard BUT God is Good".  Those of us that are battle scarred know this to be a fact.  Those of us that been through tribulation and have proven character (Romans 5:3) and proven faith (1 Peter 1:7) understand that God causes all things to work together for good of those that love Him and have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  Let your scars be your testimony that God has not forsaken you but he has healed you.  Scars are generally left behind after healing has taken place.  Let your life and your works be the evidence that God is good.  God bless you.

Faux Discrimination

People really crack me up.  Especially the attention seeking, narcissists that call themselves the LGBTQ community.  I know it seems like all I write about is nowadays is the homosexual revolution but honestly, homosexuality and atheism are the two most vocal outside threats to Christianity in 2012.  As one that contends for the faith that was once handed down, I have no choice but to attack this issue head on.

In this economy, you would think that anyone who wants to open a legitimate  business in any location would be received with warmth and gratitude.  I mean, with so much focus on job creation, even 100 jobs created would be excellent for folks that live in areas that are hard hit by unemployment.  So the owner of Chick-Fil-A wants to open new restaurants in Boston and in Chicago.  However, he has met resistance in these places because of his support of TRADITIONAL marriage between a man and a woman.  He did not tell homosexuals what they could or couldn't do, he did not tell them that they are living outside of God's will by living in willful sin...he didn't say anything except that he supports marriage between a man and a woman. 

So, an alderman in Chicago, Joe Moreno, blocked Chick-Fil-A's attempt to open a location in the 1st ward.  With the rampant crime in Chicago, the exorbitant unemployment rate and other dire factors, wouldn't a business that creates jobs be something good?  I am certain that this was strictly a political move but Alderman Moreno says that he does not want a business in his ward that discriminates against any sector of the population.  Are you serious?  So, Dan Cathy says that he doesn't support gay marriage and that's tantamount to discrimination?  When will the DRAMA end!?  This is certainly an OMG moment if there ever was one.  Now, anyone that doesn't agree with gay marriage is practicing discrimination?  He didn't say that he would not hire or allow gays to eat in his restaurant, he is simply standing on his convictions, biblical convictions nonetheless.  The violence in Chicago is so bad until any jobs that would potentially put black youth to work could drop the murder rate.  I was listening to GW on the Hill yesterday and Phillip Jackson, founder of the Black Star Project (Black Star Project) indicated that the unemployment rate among black youth 18-25 years of age in Chicago is currently around 90%!

Boston's mayor has followed suit and even wrote a letter to Chick-Fil-A voicing his displeasure with Mr. Cathy's stance on gay marriage.  Boston is another area that could use an influx of jobs and Chick-Fil-A would most definitely provide much needed jobs.  Why do these politicians sell out to appease gay rights  activists?  Is there really even such a thing as gay rights?  Don't even think about equating your fight to pleasure yourself with the fight for civil rights-- that is blatant disrespect!  The only rights that truly matter are human rights-- that is what the civil rights movement did, they fought for the human rights of African Americans in this country.  They were not whining because someone wouldn't accept their lifestyle, they fought and bled because we were treated inhumanely and were not allowed the basic freedoms that belong to every American citizen.

There is no discrimination in standing on convictions formed from a biblical basis!  What Mr. Cathy did is what any Christian should do, not be conformed to the ways of this world but be transformed by the renewing of his/her mind.  Mr. Cathy gave the correct Christian response to the current cultural pressure to blend in and accept what the residents of Sodom are doing as normal and acceptable in the sight of God!  I wrote on this before and I will say it again, there is nothing normal about homosexuality (Enough is Enough).  It goes against nature.  You don't see male lions with other male lions, or female iguanas with other female iguanas etc.  It is an anomaly and it is a sin just like any other sin. 

Why is the gay community receiving so much attention and why are they so adamant about shoving their rhetoric down our collective throats?  Next, pedophiles are going to be petitioning for the right to take young boys and girls as their spouses.  Child porn advocates are going to petition for their right to take as many pictures as they want of innocent little children.  Murderers are going to push for the right to legalize murder.  Caving in to the demands of perverse individuals that are pursuing unnatural lusts will only encourage those that have similar unnatural lusts to be more vocal as well.  I refuse to cow-tow to these people.  While I love them and any other sinner with the love of Christ, some of the gripes are ridiculous and the amount of influence that they have over politicians that are supposed to serve ALL of their constituents and not a special interest group is even more ridiculous! 

I hope that Mr. Moreno has an answer for unemployed people in his district or in the case of Boston Mayor Michael Menino, his entire city of people, that would have benefited from a brand new business being there.  Construction workers that would have done the fabrication, plumbers to do the plumbing, carpenters, day laborers, brick masons, flooring experts, fountain drink vendors and of course the employees that would eventually be gainfully employed by Chick-Fil-A.  Although the gay vote may turn out and support the Alderman in Chicago and the Mayor of Boston, who's going to be there for these men when they have to face their Creator?  Will Jesus vote for them when it's time for them to stand before the Great White Throne?  I'm sorry but I cannot sell out to gain a few friends here on earth when eternity is at stake. 

It is not discrimination to stand up for what you believe in.  If your views are biblically based and theologically sound, stand up for them.  Someone might counter by saying that slavery was enforced and upheld largely because of the good ol' Christian folks used the bible to justify it.  Well, the view on slavery was not theologically sound nor was it based on a proper interpretation of the bible.  God actually forbade the mistreatment of slaves and indentured servants in Deuteronomy (23:15,16; 25:14,15) and there is also New Testament evidence for the treatment of slaves (Ephesians 6:5-9) but these scriptures were improperly treated and used to justify lording slavery over a mostly illiterate population of slaves, with no access to the bible, in colonial America.   The bible teaches us to love God above all else and to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That's about as simple as you can put it. 

I will stand up for biblical truth!  The bible says that the cultural renegades that want to ride the wave of gay pride are WRONG and Christians are not WRONG for disagreeing with them.  Let them scream and yell about this faux discrimination but in the end, we will see who is proven right.  There is a discrimination that is coming, when the wheat and chaff is separated and the sheep and goats are separated...that's true discrimination and there is no argument that any man or special interest group can make to dispute it.  You may stop Chick-Fil-A from building a restaurant but no one will stop God from rendering judgment on the unrepentant sinner.  Repent or run the risk of being discriminated against permanently!

In the Beds of Prostitutes

The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 (Luke 15: 11-32) is a well known and often preached text.  The son went to his father and took his inheritance early, only to spend it frivilously and waste it on his hedonistic exploits.  His brother revealed that he spent his money on prostitutes.  When he went broke he aligned himself with a man that obviously had no respect for him because he made this young man feed swine.  One day the young man had an epiphany that I believe was God telling him that he was wasting his time and that he needed to return home to his father's house.

In reality the parable that Jesus tells here is analogous to fallen humanity.  The father is symbolic of God, the son is symbolic of fallen humanity in desperate need of repentance and the inheritance is analogous to our life.  The human life, the inheritance from God the Father, is often wasted and lived frivolously in the beds of prostitutes, idol gods and in the hog pens of the world.  We spend our time gratifying the flesh, worshipping at the altars of materialism, hatred, deception, spiritual wickedness and the like never realizing that the only place that we are truly safe is in the Father's house.  The only place that we belong is in the Father's house.

Fortunately, some of us hear the call to repentance and do what this young man did: get up, admit our sin and return to the Father.  There is also an unfortunate side to this equation.  Some, because of their refusal to repent, stay in the hog pen or die in the bed of a prostitute!  Many are content to live spiritually destitute lives, going broke in dens of iniquity with zero return for the investment of their inheritance other than momentary pleasure.

The good news of the gospel is this: no matter how long you have laid down with prostitutes, no matter how long you have been in the slop of the hog pen, the Father is waiting for you to come home and the angels will rejoice when you answer His call!  The parable ends when the young man returns home and his father meets him and they run towards one another and greet each other with a hug and a kiss.  God feels the same way about a repentant sinner that is willing to repent and willing to answer his call to salvation!  The bible says that if we come nearer to God, he will come nearer to us.  God sent Jesus to reconcile us and to make us able to come to Him and get out of the hog pens of life.  He sent Jesus to seek and save that which was lost!  The words of Amazing grace ring true: Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.  God bless you.

The Virus of Sin

Sin is very crafty.  It is simultaneously deceitful, beguiling, seductive and destructive.  Sin is always looking to destroy us.  The bible says that the enemy, who is the author of sin, only comes to steal, kill and destroy.  Christians that understand the gravity of sin know that sin is the stumbling block that lies between man and God.  Christians that understand the destructive power of sin don't get biblical amnesia when it comes to Romans 6:23 where Paul says plainly that the wages of sin is death.

I liken sin to a virus that we are all infected with because we are all born into sin (Psalm 51:5).  While a virus cannot be cured, only the symptoms can be treated, there are vaccines for viruses that prevent viral infections.  Vaccines help the body to develop antibodies to ward off viral attacks.  There is no human cure for sin or the symptoms of sin but there is a supernatural vaccine which is found ONLY in the blood of Christ Jesus.  How is sin like a virus?  Let us look at two properties of a virus that differentiate it from other organisms.  A virus, while it does not have a brain, is very smart.  The sole objective of a virus is to survive.  In order to survive, the virus replicates itself rapidly.  This first property means that as soon as the virus finds a host, it sets about to create copies of itself to ensure its survival.  The second property of a virus is its ability to mutate.  Viruses, once they get hip to a particular treatment create copies with genetic mutations within their DNA in order to outwit medications and make them harder to treat.  This second property, the ability to mutate makes viruses very difficult to treat and necessitates the use of a different vaccine every so often.

Well, sin is the exact same way.  It behaves much like a virus.  It copies and replicates itself once a host is found.  In our case, we were born with the virus of sin in us and until we meet Christ and repent and trust Him with our lives, that sin simply replicates and increases making us sicker and sicker.  Christ's blood acts as a retroactive vaccine to heal us from the sickness of sin.  It is funny that vaccines work by giving the body a weakened form of a virus that the body identifies and then develops antibodies to defeat a  future viral attack.  Jesus did the same thing for us!  He was tempted in every way but was without sin- but he withstood the wiles of sin, defeated sin and his blood gives us the power to avoid sin, overcome sin by obedience to His word and escape the penalty of sin which is death!

The other thing about sin that is comparable to a virus is this, sin can mutate!  Once we get hip to a certain pattern of sin, sin will mutate, change what it looks like, what it smells like and then re-present itself in order to fool the believer and the unbeliever alike.  I said in the beginning of this post, sin is very crafty.  Sin tricks us into thinking that it is not sin.  David justified his dalliances with Bathsheba and did not believe he was doing anything wrong by sending her husband to be killed on the battlefield.  Only when Nathan gave him a word from the Lord did he realize what he had done!  Judas justified his stealing from the money purse with an excuse about feeding the poor when in reality, the more money that was in the purse, the more he could have access to.  He believed that lie up until the day that he hanged himself.

What we are witnessing in the church is a  mutation of sin that has re-presented itself as a lovefest otherwise known as the inclusion movement.  I recently stumbled upon an interview with the pastor of The Vision Church in Atlanta, GA.  This church is headed by a gay pastor (O.C. Allen) and his gay lover (the First Gentleman (I'm gagging as I am typing this), Rashad Burgess).  OK, this is where it gets very interesting...these two brothers see absolutely nothing wrong with them being homosexuals and leading a congregation of mixed sexual orientations- there are some straight people that attend but the majority of the church is gay, bi, trans or whatever else they like to include in their alphabet soup nomenclature.  Genesis 4:7 says, directly from God, that sin is crouching at the door with a desire to have you, but you must master it.  We must resist the desire that sin has for us!

Sin has repackaged itself and mutated into a false love and tolerance of an unnatural, ungodly and immoral  lifestyle.  Sin has disguised itself as tolerance and has these folks believing that homosexuality is no longer a part of sin's profile but God made you this way!  Sin has blinded these folks to the fact that God does not make defective people, but sin itself causes all defects, all destruction and all rebellion.  This particular church, along with other gay affirming churches, use God's love as a license for their own immorality.  It is automatically assumed that any Christian that criticizes homosexuals for their blatant and open sin is somehow unloving.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  It is more unloving to let someone persist in sin and eventually burn in hell than it is to tell them the truth with the aim of leading them towards repentance. 

Can you see how sin has mutated and disguised itself as "love" as if accepting blatant and willful disregard for God's commands makes us more loving?  If we accept this anomaly as normal, according to the logic of the ones overcome with their own lustful desires, then we are loving and kind Christians that God is pleased with.  If we tell the truth that you cannot live in sin and call yourself a believer, then we are being judgmental and hateful, according to the same group.  Let me be clear here, this is applicable to all who persist in sin and not just those homosexuals that refuse to repent.

Sin has deceived these apostate "Christians" into believing that those who accept their lifestyle and turn a blind eye to it actually "love" them!  This mutation of sin has also caused folks to reinterpret and re-exegete texts concerning homosexuality only to play word games and hit semantical backflips in order to justify what the bible roundly condemns.  That, my friends, is a mutation.  A cleverly designed ruse to fool more people into accepting what God already said was unacceptable.

Paul said it very simply and it cannot be reinforced enough, light has no fellowship with darkness.  the Body of Christ cannot and must not include any group of people that lives in willful and blatant disobedience to His Word.  Well, doesn't that include everyone, aren't we all sinners?  While we are all sinners, there are many within the body of Christ that are actually striving for holiness and purity.  There are many that are trying to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, that are not being deceived by sin to think that being a practitioner of sin glorifies God in any way.  These practitioners of sin are the ones, the "so-called" brethren (1 Cor 5:11) that Paul warns true believers not to even eat with!  The practitioners of sin are the ones that Paul says should be put out of the church.  Pay close attention here.  I am not advocating expelling folks from church, but the ones call themselves "Christians" but refuse to repent and think that it is OK should be removed- they are hindrances to those in the church that are truly trying to glorify God by allowing the flesh to be crucified.

To be deceived into thinking that the Holy Spirit is among you when you grieve Him openly by ignoring his call for conviction is foolish.  Sin has caused these folks to believe that God is glorified when an entire body of homosexuals is "worshipping" their version of the Almighty.  You might be able to conduct service, but if there is no repentance and no change occurring which comes as a result of people forming a true relationship with Jesus, the service is totally in vain.  It is just noise and clapping.  God is looking at folks that love themselves more than they love Him and wondering when that commandment got reversed.

I'm urging anyone that is stuck in such a place or in such a lifestyle to take the vaccine and not to believe what sin is presenting to you.  It is simply a mutation designed to help sin evade detection.  Don't fall for the lie.  If you are currently a part of the Vision Church or any other church that condones ANY sin, come out from them and be separate.  Sin must be dealt with openly, honestly and with love.  This post strikes a major chord with me personally because there are several people that I can think of that I need to have a heart to heart conversation with, not homosexuals, just people that I know personally that need to move away from certain things that they are doing in their lives.  Jesus loves all men, He does not have a problem with the person, but with the person's sin.  Take the vaccine and let Jesus cleanse you of all unrighteousness.  His blood was shed from before the foundations of the world so that a vaccine would be available to all that would hear his call and accept it.  God bless you and stay on the path to righteousness.

Can a Christian Lose their Salvation?

Listening to David Jeremiah this morning, I was taken aback by something that he said.  He was preaching from Hebrews 3 and when he got to verse 6 he said that he wanted his listeners to pay special attention.  Hebrews 3:6 says "but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house-- whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end."

Dr. Jeremiah indicated that this scripture has been misinterpreted by many as meaning that you can lose your salvation if you do not hold firm until the end (18:58 mark David Jeremiah 7-13-12, I would encourage you to listen to the entire sermon) .  I have never believed that anyone can lose their salvation and I know that this is a sensitive issue.  But when he was preaching and said that this doesn't mean that we have to "hold firm until the end" in order to be "saved", I was taken aback.  Judging from his past teachings, I will go on record and say that he has never taught that we should not "hold firm until the end" but based on this particular lesson, a novice or unbeliever would hear that and could interpret it as "all I have to do is make this confession and then I can go back to what I was doing before salvation interrupted me." 

This particular scripture says that we are Christ's house...the church if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.  What does this mean.  What is our confidence and what is the boast of our hope?  Our confidence is that all those that believe in Christ will be given eternal life.  Dr. Jeremiah preached that eternal life starts immediately when we accept Christ, not when we die.  I agree but it is semantical in my opinion because you can't really live eternally while in the flesh so the true meaning of eternal life is life after death- where the inner man lives forever long after the flesh has perished.  Our hope is tied to the exact same thing.  Hebrews 6:19 says that this hope (in Christ and the inheritance of eternal life) is an anchor for the soul and that it is sure and steadfast.  The steadfastness results from God's oath to fulfill the promise of his purpose and God's inability to lie- therefore we who believe are encouraged to take hold of the hope (expectation/anticipation) that is set before us!

We must hold fast to the hope that if God said it, if God promised it, God will deliver on the promise.  The ones that do not hold fast are the ones that Jesus will tell "depart from me, I never knew you."  Nine times in the book of Hebrews the writer warns the readers of "falling away" [Hebrews 2:1, 3:12, 4:11, 6:4-6, 10:26, 10:39, 12:1, 12:25, 13:9].  Here is the crux of my argument and what I believe the bible is saying to us.  Can you lose your salvation, no.  Can you walk away from your salvation, yes!  Walking away indicates a lack of faith which in turn, creates a totally separate problem because Hebrews 11:6 says "without faith it is impossible to please God."  Hebrews 6:4-6 says that those that have once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gift, have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and THEN (emphasis added) have FALLEN AWAY, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify the Son of God and put him to open shame.  This verse is very telling in that while we cannot lose our salvation, we can walk away from our faith thereby nullifying our salvation.  What this verse is saying is this, if you choose to walk away from your faith, you are crucifying Christ a second time because his initial sacrifice was not good enough for you!

This is why believers are encouraged to hold fast to the hope that Christ promised.  That hope is centered on the following: regardless of the conditions of our lives here i.e. the hardness of our struggle, the harshness of the world around us, the constant specter of death, the destruction of the moral system and the systematic desensitizing of Christians to God's holiness- we are to hold fast to this confidence that things will not be this way forever because Jesus will set everything right in His own time and when the Father calls for His return! 

Holding fast to our confidence is OUR responsibility as Christians.  Holding fast to the gospel that has been preached to us (1 Cor 15:2) is OUR responsibility.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must not slip into unbelief thereby nullifying our confession of faith.  I am not talking about doubt, I am talking about fully experiencing Christ and then walking away.  A simpler way to put it is to renounce our faith.  What repentance is there for a person that was there, close to Christ and a follower of Christ that falls away?  None.  If there is no repentance then it follows that there is also no forgiveness of sin because to this person, the one that quits on the road to eternity, Christ's sacrifice is not enough.  What he did the first time in forgiveness of sins would have to be done again simply because this person went BACK to being an unbeliever after being a believer previously.

I love Dr. Jeremiah and his teaching but I disagree that we do not have to hold fast or hold on until the end.  I am not saying that there won't be mistakes and that we will live lives of sinless perfection.  What I am saying is that if Jesus says the one that endures until the end will be saved, no man that places his hand to the plowshare and keeps looking back is fit for the kingdom of God, if any man wishes to follow me he must deny himself, pick up his own cross and follow me...if these statements came directly from Jesus, He is not talking for his health.  He expects us to be all in, not wavering and vascillating back and forth between holding fast to our confession and letting that same confession go at any given time.  Maybe it is not our salvation that we have to hold on to, but we have to hold fast to the promise of God that all that believe will be given eternal life.  We have to hold fast to this hope because without this hope, without this expectation, we will be miserable and we will not stay the course.  One piece of evidence of our salvation should be our unwavering faith in the promise of God that we will one day be rescued from all unrighteousness and all sin by living with Him for all eternity in a new heaven and a new earth!  Eternity should guide our thoughts and we should live with eternity in mind at all times.  In His letters to the seven churches of Asia in Revelation (see chapters 1-3), Jesus told each of them, in some form or fashion, to hold fast what they had which was the promise of life and life more abundantly.  

It is my prayer that on this narrow path, when you get weary, pray to God for strength.  The Holy Ghost, also known as the paraclete or helper or comforter or encourager was sent to, among other functions, to give us strength in times of weakness.  He was send to guide us into all the truth.  He was sent to pick us up when we feel like walking away.  Remember this, God's promises are on His time and not our time.  I encourage all of you to actively hold fast that which is true- Christ is coming back to take all believers to our true home, one that is eternal and not made with hands.  This alone is comfort for the Christian in spite of all of the attacks of the enemy and in spite of the fallen condition of the world.  God bless and hold on until the end.

I Pity Paul Crouch and TBN

So, I'm watching The Church Channel, owned by TBN, watching my favorite evangelist...Billy Graham.  I marvel at how Graham was able to lead so many people to Christ.  After he went off, a show that I have never heard of comes on called "Behind The Scenes" with Paul Crouch and his son.  His son spent a great deal of time building up and edifying the old guy, Crouch.  I thought it was pretty funny but I guess that's what sons do for dads.  They spent a great deal of time bragging about how many stations they are on now and about how they have grown but I didn't hear them mention God's grace in that process at all.  Crouch warned viewers against becoming a "public persona" because then folks will attack you and he reminisced about the first time a stranger came up to him and recognized him during his early days on TV/radio in the 70's.

Then Paul Crouch begins to teach out of the book of Joshua and he got to the subject of Rahab.  He began to talk about Rahab's assitance of the Israelites in their conquest of Jherico.  Rahab, of course, was a harlot or a prostitute and every time Crouch said this, his son chuckled.  He made an error in saying that Rahab was King David's grandmother (Proper interpretation of geneaologies).  That can be excused because many commentators have also made the same mistake.  It sounded fishy to me which is why I researched it.  I had never heard that and a little research showed that it was indeed not true.  Crouch was ill prepared to "teach" or "preach".  Crouch is getting up in years and he stumbled over his words and thoughts.  I am not here to make fun of his speech nor am I in any way trying to offend the senior population but it is clear that Paul Crouch's lucidity is fading in his old age.

What was funny was the connection that Crouch used to "evangelize" as his son called it.  He used Rahab as a model sinner and a model of God's forgiveness.  Since she was included in Christ's line, his reasoning was that if God could forgive a prostitute and include her in the lineage of Christ, then there is nothing that you or I could do that God wouldn't forgive.  This is absolutely true.  God is as forgiving as the day is long, but Crouch's formula was the death knell for his "sermonette" and classic TBN foolery.  He said, "God will forgive you, Jesus will forgive you...all you have to do is 'fess up and tell him you're sorry."  I want to let this marinate with you for a minute and you determine if Crouch has just planted a land mine for some unsuspecting viewer.

Crouch said that confession followed by an apology is all that is necessary for forgiveness.  That is totally not true.  Confession yes, sorrow over sin yes, but Paul Crouch left out the key action of every believer as it pretains to sin..repentance!  See, at TBN, telling God that you're sorry gets you off the hook.  There was no encouragement of repentance at all because at TBN repentance is not expected.  Many of the people responsible for the network, many of the preachers that are on the network and even Paul Crouch himself are living actively in sin.  This network loves scandal more than a hog loves slop.

Being sorry is one thing but being sorry and repenting (Greek, metanoia i.e. a change of mind towards sin) is what brings forgiveness (2 Cor 7:10).  John the Baptist preached repentance (Luke 3:3), Jesus came right behind him and preached the exact same thing...repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:14)!  Repentance is essential to have a salvific relationship with Jesus (Acts 2:38).  In Luke 14:27 Jesus says that if we are to follow Him and be his disciple we are to carry our own crosses and forsake everything else...including our old lives dedicated to sin.  That's repentance.  Turning from sin and towards God.  No, we won't be perfect overnight but our discipleship is predicated on repentance and acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior.  If He is Lord or our lives, then we no longer live actively in sin.  We may sin because of our mortality and our flesh but we do not actively pursue sin as a way of life.  That is a counterfeit witness.

Interestingly enough, Crouch also discussed hell.  He was relating a story of a visit to the Carlsbad caverns and how they went into a particular cave that was pitch black and he thought..."this is what hell may be like."  I have no doubt that hell will be dark, stinky, hot and utterly devoid of the presence of God.  Forgiveness of sin is guaranteed to all believers which in turn delivers us from the penalty of sin which is death (physical and spiritual).  If anyone follows Crouch's formula for forgiveness and does not repent of sin but simply confesses it and says "I'm sorry", that will not be enough.  Those will be the ones that Jesus says "depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you."  That is not something that I want to hear on the last day and it is something that I would not wish on my worst enemy.  Join me in prayer for Mr. Crouch that he repents of his sins and that he comes to a true knowledge of Christ.  I hope that he simply misspoke but watching Billy Graham earlier, repentance is the FIRST thing that he mentioned must happen to form a relationship with Christ.  Mr. Crouch said he began TBN around 1971 which is over 40 years ago.  Surely he has listened to Pastor Graham at some point and heard him preach repentance.  He has a degree in theology and THREE honorary doctorate degrees as well!  I pray that it was his advanced years causing him to misspeak but the track record of TBN and those associated with the network is NOT good.  Telling God that you're sorry is simply not enough...that's what I like to call a toilet bowl confession.  Repentance says to God, I am truly sorry and I am turning from the thing that is separating us!  It is hilarious to think that we can live in sin and call ourselves believers but it is less hilarious to know that the people that think that way are destined for eternal torment.  There will be no laughing in that day.

The God Particle

Physicists have to be the most stubborn and hard headed people on the planet.  They are constantly searching for the origin of the universe when it is right under their noses.  Recently, scientists in Geneva, Switzerland at the "world's biggest atom smasher" have concluded that they have gathered enough evidence to prove that the Higgs boson, which is a partilcle first proposed in the 60's, actually exists.  The article is here (God particle?).  Supposedly this particle is one that gives other subatomic particles like protons, neutrons and electrons their mass.  They are hesitant to say outright that they have discovered this particle and will only say that they have seen its footprints.

Billions of dollars have been poured into this research.  Entire countries could have eaten well with the money spent trying to find this elusive particle that some physicists and atheists are hoping disproves the existence of God.  They have even give the particle the name of God.  That is blasphemous in itself.  Jews won't even put the o in G_d and yet this particle that began as a concept in the mind of physicist Peter Higgs, a finite particle that can be created, is given the name of the infinite God that has no creator!  God says in Isaiah 43:10 that there was NO god formed before Him and after Him there will be none.  God's claim to exclusivity is His right, he did actually create everything!  We know that there will none after Him because He is eternal and has no end.

This brings me to the eternal question.  Scientists willingly admit that this is not really a "discovery" but they are close.  They admit that the universe had a beginning which they are seeking to ascribe to this particle.  However, there is a fundamental question that no one has even dared to tread on...who created the "God particle"?  Where is its origin?  Did this particle simply materialize out of nothingness?  OR, does it actually have a Creator?  Now, the physicists will scoff at this question but even the "God particle" must have come from a "pre-God particle" which had to come from a "pre-pre-God particle" which had to come from a "pre-pre-pre-God particle"!  You see, this is an endless search for the origin of the universe that will never end until these people admit that there HAD TO BE A CREATOR!  In their stubborness, they will not admit that if the God particle came out of nothing then the second law of thermodynamics has been violated.

To many, these types of discoveries push them even further into the depths of atheism.  The name of the particle says volumes about the character of these people.  They want a God that they can create.  They are smashing protons into one another and hoping that out of the collision and the energy released that they will find the source of the proton.  If they find this particle, this Higgs boson, then they can rest in their conclusion that there is no God.  Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, the late Christopher Hitchens, Ricky Gervais and other atheists will leap for joy if this particle is discovered only to find out that their joy will be short lived when they have to answer to the Great Creator, the One without Whom nothing was made, the One who upholds all things by the word of His power!  Colossians 1:16-17 says everything that these physicists are searching for.  Two verses out of thousands of verses of scripture give them the answer that they seek, yet they will disown scripture as a fairy tale.  Colossians 1:16-17 "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together(emphasis added)."  William Dembski's take on creation and how Christ was active in creation is crystal clear- John says "in the beginning was the Word (Logos) and the Word was with God and the Word was God..."  Genesis says "and the LORD spoke and said let there be light and there was light..."  So Christ, the divine Logos, the divine Word was spoken at creation by the Father thereby making him coequal-creator with the Father and the essence of all things created.  Christ is the creative power and the creative force of God.  You want your God particle, He is sitting at the right hand of the Father and He is coming back to judge the world!

Even if they do discover this particle, it will mean nothing to Christians that know the origin of all things.  It is a noble effort but at the same time such a fleeting discovery for such an exorbitant cost seems to be a lopsided victory.  A bible for $10 bucks could answer the very question that they have spent billions on.  Sure, they will write this off  as mumbo jumbo but to those of us that believe God, it is the power of God!  It is the foolishness that the world writes off as nothing of which God says, I will use this very same "foolishness" to demonstrate my power!  I will use the weak things to shame the mighty and the foolish things to shame the wise.  I don't need to understand everything all I need to know is that there is a God sitting on His throne that is sovereign over the entire universe, and IF the "God particle" exists, he's even sovereign over that.