Sarah Palin, Voddie and Feminism

Sarah Palin as Vice President would, unfortunately, be an inspiration to Christian feminists everywhere. Now Christians, who would not want her preaching at the pulpit, are praying to have her over the Pentagon and Presidency. I am not for Obama but I am not arranging a party to celebrate the devaluing and mocking of the vital role of motherhood. Is this really a great role model for Christian mothers? This is a mother whose fifth child was recently born with a serious issue, Down Syndrome, and then she goes back to the job of Governor within days of the birth?

Well at least her eldest unwed daughter, now pregnant with her own daughter, can hold Sarah's baby while Sarah poses for political photo-ops with John McCain. When dad and mom both work full-time the children are going to be neglected. No one can be a mother like a mother. Will her children get the attention and mothering they need if she is Vice President of the United States of America? It says in Isaiah 3:12 "My people—infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them." This is a sign of judgment and not progression. Yea, she's pro-life but I would also like her to be pro-family - I would also like her not to sacrifice her family on the altar of her career.

Watch this clip from CNN: "Palin and the Pulpits" - Go Voddie Go! God give us more principled pastors rather than political pundits.



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Judge more that you be not judged

I know the title of this post seems to contradict what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount but give me a chance to explain. Many today are attacking the objectivity, clarity, authority and certainty of truth. The result is that two of the very few so-called virtues left today are tolerance and diversity. I believe we Christians today need to be more judgmental. We are called and commanded to discriminate and discern. We Christians need to judge more that we be not judged.

The great theologian Steve Martin joked, years ago, "Never judge a man unless you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. Then you’ll be a mile away and you’ll have his shoes." That's funny but what did Jesus mean when He said what He said in what is now one of the most popular and well-known verses by Christians and non-Christians alike? Everyone knows and often quotes this saying of Jesus: "Judge not that you be not judged." (Matthew 7:1) The phrase has been twisted to mean "You live your lifestyle and I’ll live mine but don’t judge mine and definitely don’t try to force your standards of morality on me." The phrase "Judge not" now means "I’m OK, you’re OK. Believe what you want but stay out of my way!"

Jesus said "Judge not that you be not judged" in the first verse of Mathew chapter seven. The irony is when you read the rest of the chapter. This chapter is full of warnings and admonitions by Jesus Himself to judge people. In verse 6 He says, "Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you." Jesus is telling us to discern or judge certain people as "dogs" and other people as "pigs." How can you not not give dogs what is holy if you cannot judge certain people to be dogs? How can you not throw your pearls before pigs if you cannot judge certain people to be pigs? Describing people as dogs and pigs seems pretty judgmental to me.

Than in the same chapter, in verses fifteen though seventeen, Jesus says this: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit." Here, Jesus also tells us to beware of people who are "wolves" in sheep's clothing. He also tells us to judge whether someone is a "diseased tree" or not by their fruit. Again, this is sounding quite judgmental.

So, if this chapter is full of instructions on how to "judge with right judgment" (as Jesus also commands in John 7:24) what does He mean in the famous verse one? All we have to do is read the next few verses: "For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." (Matt 7:2-5)

Jesus was simply telling us not to be hypocritical judges. He was NOT telling us that we should not judge. In fact, the reason He gives for taking the log out of your own eye is so "then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." He starts off the chapter by tellings us to remove the log first and then He goes on and on with instructions on how to judge rightly. Remove the log from your eye so you can judge between dogs and children, pigs and people, wolves and sheep, and diseased trees and fruit-bearing trees. A half-truth is a lie. Read the whole chapter. Stop misquoting Jesus and judge more that you be not judged.

T-Shirt Theology

Here is another one of those ridiculous t-shirts created by "Christians" emulating the culture. The implication here is that Jesus, or the way to Jesus, is simply EASY. What does the Bible say about this?

Compare this culturally relevant t-shirt to Scripture: "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

Yes, salvation is free but sanctification is not! Jesus is not easy. The road to life is rough and rugged and only the righteous reach it.

Ron Paul Progress

Do Christians need a Rabi to teach them?

Here's a great little tolerance rant by Mark Driscoll:

Pilgrim or Soldier?

I was reading from Gary North's book today which you can download for free here entitled Backward Christian Soldiers. He was comparing the old Hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" to another hymn "Wayfaring Stranger." Although most people know the soldier hymn better, today they are more likely to have the stranger attitude. Since most Christians, at least in America, travel in style, comfortable and happy, they seem to prefer the pilgrim paradigm more than the soldier one.

North gives the example of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Christian, in the allegory, was basically just an unemployed drifter before conversion and an unemployed traveler after. He didn't seem to have any means of support or calling. Christian kind of just plods on through life. Bunyan, who was just a tinker in real life, at least contributed to the market and culture with a valuable service. Christian, in the story, seems to be more of a vagrant. I've always like Pilgrim's Progress but I think North brings up a good point here.

The pilgrim paradigm emphasizes internal and personal struggles over sin rather than external enemies. The soldier moves from boot camp and training into the battlefield where he knows he has real enemies to fight. The pilgrim is introspective and struggling constantly within himself. He is at war with his flesh but not with his external environment. All the allegorical characters of Pilgrim's Progress were external representations of internal enemies like vanity, doubt and despair. While the pilgrim is just passing through the soldier is more about conquering and dominion (overcoming evil by doing good).

Gary North gives another example from the seventeenth-century book by William Gurnall entitled The Christian in Complete Armor. North calls this book the most "detailed pilgrim manual." The book devotes over 2000 pages to every possible personal temptation imaginable except, unfortunately, the temptations of the battlefield. Gurnall didn't want to get involved with the great theological battles of his day. He insured his income as a State-certified pastor by signing the Act of Uniformity in 1662 while 2000 puritan pastors were thrown from their pulpits or thrown into jail for refusing to sign.

As North points out: "Gurnall preferred a life of irrelevance, warring with his own internal lusts, ignoring the external civil issues of his day. However harrowing his internal battles may have been, this pilgrim made his journey through his environment in comfort and relative safety." The battlefield is not safe. People get hurt and killed. They don't get paid much and they are always at risk.

We are, in one sense, pilgrims who are here today and will be gone tomorrow. But there is also a war going on between the Kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. We do have to fight against our internal temptations and struggles but that is for the purpose of making us better soldiers. "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier." (2 Tim 2:3-4) The struggle within is not an end in itself. It only prepares us to fight the real battle within the culture.

We shouldn't be content to just be pilgrim survivors who lost the earth and made it through to heaven and took a few with us on the way. We must pray that we can be used by God as soldiers of Christ to bring God's will and way to our culture on earth as it is in heaven. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Their is work to be done here and now. Christ is reigning and giving His faithful followers dominion in the earth.

Evil, Evil, Holiness Retrieval

EVIL?

What is evil? Is there evil? Does evil exist in our postmodern world? Do we need to worry about evil? Do we need to be ready to fight against evil? Is evil a problem? Is evil an allusion? What is the real source of evil? Is evil really evil? How do we relate to evil? When is the last time you called evil evil? How should we respond to evil?

Many of us are deluded into thinking that life as a Christian is all hunky dory. Evil only happens to those who are evil, right? Should we, Christians, be concerned about evil? Is the word "evil" even relevant to those who have been saved by grace through faith? Do evil things happen to "good" people? First, we need to realize and acknowledge that God is completely sovereign. "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." (Isa 45:7) So how do we respond to evil?

Expect

“Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12). Evil should never surprise us and catch us off guard. God is going to test you. He loves you and He will cut and carve your character so as to make look more like Him. The cutting and the carving isn't fun but it is fulfilling to those who are faithful. Evil things are going to happen. Buckle up and be ready. Remember God is sovereign through it all.

Pray

Jesus taught us how to pray when He said, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" (Matthew 6:13). The problem with many of us (not evil) is that we deliver ourselves into evil and then pray to be delivered from it. You can't drive yourself into a strip club (evil) and then pray to be delivered from evil. You can't pray "lead me not into temptation" when you really want and long to to be led there.

Hate

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9). We are told to love and then to hate. If you don't hate than you don't really love. Love is not tolerance. If I love my own children then I wouldn’t tolerate those things that are destroying my children. As the Psalmist said, "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? (Ps 139) Is prayer and hatred contradictory? Of course not. When it comes to evil we are told to pray and to hate.

Expose

“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11). We have a tendency to enjoy and be entertained by evil rather than exposing it for what it is. We are children of light in a dark, evil world. We are here to expose and to shine. We are supposed to be a city on a hill. Christians who do not shine are "thrown out and trampled under people's feet" (Mt.5:13) Exposing is never popular to those who love the darkness. We should, though, be seeking after righteousness not popularity. Shine on!

Overcome

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). Don't given in or give up when evil entices or attacks. Evil is there for us to conquer. We are "more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Rom 8:37) The narrow road less traveled is difficult and sometimes lonely but it is the only path that leads to life. We must overcome by doing good "so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Mt. 5:16) Is there evil around us? Then there is work ahead of us. It's time for us to overcome, have dominion and advance His Kingdom.

John Piper wrote: "Never doubt that God is totally for you in Christ. If you trust him with your life, you are in Christ. Never doubt that all the evil that befalls you—even if it takes your life—is God’s loving, purifying, saving, fatherly discipline. It is not an expression of his punishment in wrath. That fell on Jesus Christ our substitute. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6)."

TV and your BRAIN

The Modern 23rd Psalm

The TV is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
It maketh me to lie down on the sofa.
It leadeth me away from the scriptures.
It destroyeth my soul.

It leadeth me in the paths of immorality,
For the sponsors' sake.
Yea, though I walk in the shadow of my Christian duties,
There will be no interruptions,
For the handheld TV is with me.
Its cable or wireless controls,
They comfort me.

It prepareth a commercial before me,
In the presence of my carnality.
It anointeth my head with humanism.
My coveting runneth over.

Surely laziness and ignorance shall follow me,
All the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of TV forever.

-Author Unknown

John Piper - Making A Difference

The American Dream - Don't Buy It!

Looking Back - Leonard Ravenhill

"If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified."

~ Leonard Ravenhill

Paul Washer short video

This is a clip of the "shocking" youth message that Paul Washer gave that I posted on this blog a while back. If you haven't watched it maybe this clip will inspire you to do so. He has many great messages that are really changing the way I look at Christ, the cross and Christianity.

John Piper: The State of the Pulpit in America Today

Ready or not here I preach

Paul, in a letter, told Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” (1 Tim 4:2) Many people think preaching “out of season” means preaching when you are feeling bad. They think this is an exhortation to preach when you’re feeling sick or down or tired or bad. But the next verse explains what “out of season” means. “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (1 Tim 4:3-4) The preacher should preach the Word of God to an audience who is receptive but he should also preach the same thing to an audience who isn’t. It’s the man of God’s duty to preach the Word, out of season, when nobody wants to hear it because “time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.”

The church, today, has been infected with a consumer mentality that says, “When they don’t want sound doctrine you can water down and cater your message to fit with that. When they don’t want a lot of meat and heavy sermons you can back off and preach the Word a lot less.” The rule of thumb for many preachers today is “Preach the word in season and water it down out of season.” Paul, though, says to preach the Word when they want it and preach the Word when they don’t want it. Be ready, Paul says, “in season and out of season” to preach the Word and to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” We must preach to those who do have itching ears and preach to those who don’t have itching ears.

We must also preach the Word and apply it to all areas of life and living. If you go back one chapter in First Timothy you read this, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (1 Tim 3:16-17) All of Scripture is profitable and all of Scripture is profitable to all areas of life and living. That is why the man of God must not be afraid to preach it and apply it to all situations whether people want to hear it or not. The preaching of the Word must be stable and steady (it must not fluctuate) no matter how receptive the audience is.

In the book of Acts Paul speaks to the Ephesian Elders and says this, “And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:25-27) We should, as Paul, preach the whole counsel of God. But even more convicting, in this passage, is the fact that if Paul had not preached the whole counsel of God he would have been guilty of blood. Listen to what he said again, “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” Preachers who water the message down or trim it down to little, pathetic “sermonettes for Christianettes” need to check their hands for the blood of souls. We should want people to want to hear and we should pray that they want to hear but if they do not want to hear we cannot use that as an excuse to shrink from our duty to preach the whole counsel of God.

Paul continues, in Acts 20, by saying this, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.” (Acts 20:28-31) Paul spent three years applying the Word of God and preaching it here and there and everywhere. We must also, patiently and consistently, preach the whole counsel of God in season and out of season, whether people want to hear it or not. We come up with so many excuses to NOT preach the whole counsel of God. We say things like, “we need to first build a relationship with them” or “they’re not ready for the meat” or “we need to be relevant” or “we need to build some trust first.” Paul said preach it if they want it and preach it if they don’t.

When I was little we use to play the game of hide and seek. When the person who was seeking was done counting to 30 he would say, “Ready or not here I come.” We, as Kingdom seekers, must learn to say, in season and out of season, “Ready or not here I preach.”

Trust in God and do the right.

Courage, brother! do not stumble,
Though thy path is dark as night;
There's a star to guide the humble--
Trust in God and do the right.

Let the road be long and dreary,
And its ending out of sight;
Foot it bravely--strong or weary,
Trust in God and do the right.

Perish "policy" and cunning,
Perish all that fears the light;
Whether losing, whether winning,
Trust in God and do the right.

Trust no party, trust no faction,
Trust no leaders in the fight;
But in every word and action
Trust in God and do the right.

Trust no forms of guilty passion,
Fiends can look like angels bright;
Trust no custom, school, or fashion,
Trust in God and do the right.

Some will hate thee, some will love thee,
Some will flatter, some will slight;
Turn from man, and look above thee,
Trust in God and do the right.

Simple rule and safest guiding,
Inward peace and inward light;
Star upon our path abiding,
TRUST IN GOD AND DO THE RIGHT.

by Norman Macleod, 1857

Daniel In The Kings Den Pt. 1

I want to give a short summary of the book of Daniel. The book of Daniel is extremely practical and applicable to us today Chapters 1-6 deal with Daniel the Saint - his life (practical). Chapters 7-12 deal with Daniel the Prophet - (similar to Revelation) There are so many similarities to Daniel's situation and ours in America. Daniel was part of a very small remnant in the middle of a pagan culture. From the time he was a teenager until he died around the age of 90, he served under pagan kings (he worked for the government). We always hear about "Daniel in the Lion's Den" but I want to quickly look at "Daniel in the Kings Den."

Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon in the summer of 605 BC. I want to look at 2 things: 1st – the way Babylon tactically tries to mentally enslave and pollute its captives. 2^nd, the way Daniel dealt with Babylon's tactics while remaining in Babylon.

The first thing Babylon does to seduce, corrupt and enslave God's People is attack the religion. “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god.” (Dan 1:1-2) The first thing Nebuchadnezzar did to enslave a people was to attack their religion. Maybe he knew that where “the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." (2 Cor 3:17) Where the Spirit of the Lord is NOT, there is slavery. As Horace Greeley said, "It is impossible to enslave mentally or socially a Bible reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom."

The Babylonians understood… If you can take away their temple you can take their territory… If you can take away their religion you can take their rights… If you can take away their worship you can take their wealth… If you can take away their spirit you can take their strength… If you can take away their God you can take their government… (more to come)

Tyranny and Resistance

"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." ― Samuel Adams

A New Reformation by Dr. James Montgomery Boice

"I would like to see the beginning of a new Reformation in our day, and I hope you would like to see it too and are praying for it. I hope you have become nauseated with the tawdry entertainment that passes for the true worship of God in many of our churches and, like the saints of the past, are longing for more of the deep truths of the inerrant Word of God. We certainly need a reformation.

The most serious issue facing the church today is not the inerrancy of Scripture but its sufficiency. Do we believe that God has given us what we need in this book? Or do we suppose that we have to supplement the Bible with human things? Do we need sociological techniques to do evangelism, pop psychology and pop psychiatry for Christian growth, extra-biblical signs or miracles for guidance, or political tools for achieving social progress and reform? It is possible to believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and yet to neglect it and effectually repudiate it just because we think that it is not sufficient for today’s tasks and that other things need to be brought in to accomplish what is needed. This is exactly what many evangelicals and evangelical churches are doing today."

Dr. James Montgomery Boice

Paul Washer - Shocking Youth Message

God Give Us Men

GOD, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

Josiah Gilbert Holland