Another Reason for Homeschool or Christian School

Same-Sex Marriage Propaganda and Law Enforcement

The Children of Caesar

Looking Back - Revival vs. Reformation

"I dream of a new reformation - a reformation that is not simply a renewal of life but a new vision of life: a vision that yields new forms and structures in society and culture. As long as Christians restrict their Christianity to a religion, a faith that is compartmentalized and isolated from life, they can have revival but never, ever reformation. We need to hear and do the Word of God in all of our lives."

~ R.C. Sproul

Biblical Balance not Present in Pagan Cultures

As Christians we should be well balanced on the strait and narrow path. We shouldn't be falling off the cliff on one side of the road or the cliff on the other side. Within God's Law and sovereignty we do not have to make a choice between asceticism or indulgence. We do not have to choose between extreme poverty or filthy riches. We do not have to choose between celibacy or orgy. These are all false dichotomies. We do not acknowledge a radical antithesis or contradiction between all things physical and all things spiritual. Jesus, in His incarnation and resurrection demonstrated that you can be both physical and spiritual. Within God's covenant we can glorify God and enjoy Him forever. We have been gracefully placed in the radical middle. It is the tendency of fallen man who has rejected the Creator to either worship creation or despise creation.

I was listening to a message today given by Steve Wilkins on the history of Rome where he wisely said this:

• Pagan cultures are cultures of extremes. As the implications of unbelief work themselves out in a culture the culture looses balance. The biblical balance that is characteristic of Christian cultures is not present in pagan cultures… They either renounce the world and forsake it totally or they embrace it without reservation. They despise riches or they worship them. They are cruelly barbaric or wickedly tolerant. They think nothing is humorous or they think everything is funny. They insist upon strict conformity or they scream in outrage that their individuality is hindered. They are stubbornly atheistic or incurably superstitious… The more consistent a culture becomes with unbelief the more extremes become characteristic. This is so because unbelieving cultures reject the eternal, sovereign God who is working His unchanging purposes in the earth. That distinctly Christian doctrine gives a stability that cannot be present in any unbelieving culture. That doctrine keeps us from panicking as much as it keeps us from sloth… Without stability of a sovereign God there is no stability at all.

Follow you heart?

Disney leads the way in our culture, ever since each one of us was a child, in telling us that all we need to do is “follow our heart.” What they don’t tell us is that our heart will lie and swindle and deceive us. Jer 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things”

The world says trust your heart

• The Bible says don’t be deceived by your heart
• Prov 28:26 – “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But whoever walks wisely will be delivered.”

The world says follow your heart

• The Bible says to keep or guard your heart
• Prov 4:23 – “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

The world says listen to your heart

• The Bible says to direct your heart
• Prov 23:9 – “Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.”

Our culture is a slave to their own emotions and feelings. Our feelings are a blessing from God but we are not supposed to be led by them. We are told to guard and direct our heart not be led by it.

Too Pious to Party

In a dark world full of lost souls, starving children and unreached tribes should Christians feel guilty for celebrating and rejoicing? When the world is weeping should Christians be laughing? When the world is mourning should Christians be dancing? When the world is famished should Christians be feasting? Does physical happiness refute personal holiness? Does partying contradict piety? Many Christians are confused by these questions. They tend to feel guilty and ashamed when they compare what they have to what the lost do not. When they look out at the world and see pain, persecution and poverty they feel ashamed of their own health, liberty and wealth. What is a Christian to do?

This paragraph will most certainly end with the word "but..." Christians should have a heart for the lost. We should, like Jesus, look out on the crowds with eyes of compassion. We are to mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep. Jesus said when we give the hungry food and drink and when we welcome the stranger and clothe the naked and when we visit the sick and those in prison we do or don't do all those things to Him (Mt 25). God's Law tells us this: "For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’" (Duet. 15:11) We should always be proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world. If we love Jesus we will feed His sheep. But...

There has always been lost souls in the world. There has always been poverty and suffering. God is sovereignly at work in history restoring what was lost at the fall. The kingdom of God is advancing and Christ will reign till all enemies are under His feet. Until it is all restored and Christ returns we will and always have had the lost, the dying, the sick, the poor and the persecuted in the world. In spite of the reality of sin in the world God wanted His people to celebrate. We don't have to, out of guilt or pity, wait till all is restored before we laugh and dance. There will always be plenty of reasons to mourn but there is also plenty of reasons to celebrate.

God's people Israel, in the Old Testament, were surrounded by pagan cultures. There was poverty, idolatry and suffering in those cultures. In that context look at what God commanded them to do: "...then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household." (Duet 14:25-27) Douglas Jones and Douglas Wilson, in their book "Angels in the Architecture" sarcastically commented on this verse: "Such unthriftiness. Such waste. Such gluttony. Such winebibbing. Such is a command of our holy God."

They also wrote this:

• Celebration is worshiping God with our bodies, with the material creation He has set up around us. Celebrating – whether in feasts, ceremonies, holidays, formal worship, or lovemaking –are all part of obeying God’s command to “love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength” (Duet 6:5; Mk 12:30) We are to show our love for God not just with one portion of our being (the spiritual aspect); we are to love God with our whole body, heart and strength and legs and lips.
• Complaint is the flag of ingratitude, and it waives above the center of unbelieving hearts –“when they knew God, the glorified him not as God, neither were thankful” (Rom 1:21). Yet by grace, God’s redemption in creation ought to keep us in a perpetual state of thanks which bursts out in celebration at every opportunity. Again, we are celebrating God’s dominion...

There is indeed, in time and history, "a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance" (Ecc. 3:4) "The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up." (1 Sam 2:7) Let us celebrate the Lord. We must resist the gnostic tendency to separate the physical things into the category of evil and the spiritual things into the category of good. We serve a God who clothed Himself with human flesh and after He died His body was resurrected. “Asceticism” is the doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing rigorous self-denial and extreme abstinence. The apostle Paul made it clear that asceticism was not the answer: "These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Col 2:23)

Victorious kingdom living includes celebratory kingdom feasting and dancing. It is sin that causes us to forget our blessings and fail to celebrate them: "Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you" (Duet. 28: 47-48). We Christians sometimes have such a hard time gratefully honoring God's blessings in celebration. Yes, we should not forget about the lost but we should also not forget to celebrate the fact that we've been found! Have we become too pious to party? "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor 10:31)

The helpless and the harvest

Matthew 9:35-38

• "And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Watch this video in light of the above passage:

Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi

Lex orandi, lex credendi. The way we worship shapes the way we think.

As goes the church so goes the community. Theology collapses before the society crashes. What happens in the worship happens in the world. Belief effects behavior. Compromise in orthodoxy (correct teaching) always precedes compromise in orthopraxy (correct practice). Your professions produce your politics. First the church and then the city. First you lose your doctrine and then you lose your dominion. The further we move from truth the further we move into tyranny. Remove the creeds and ruin the culture.

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.

Immigration By The Numbers

Looking Back - A. W. Pink

"Not only has the Divine Law been repudiated, but the Divine character has been grossly misrepresented. The attributes of God have been perverted by a one-sided presentation thereof. The justice, the holiness, and the wrath of God have been pushed into the background, and a God that loves everybody thrust into the foreground. In consequence, the masses of church-goers no longer fear God. For the past fifty years the vast majority of pulpits have maintained a guilty silence on Eternal Punishment so that few now have any dread of the wrath to come. This logically follows from the former, for no one needs to stand in any terror of One who loves him. The repercussions have been unmistakable, drastic, and tragic. Sickly sentimentality regulated the pulpit until it dominated the pew, and this evil leaven has so spread that it now permeates the whole nation."

~ A. W. Pink

Looking Back - David F. Wells

"Our generation is rapidly growing deaf to the summons of the external God. He has been so internalized, so tamed by the needs of religious commerce, so submerged beneath the traffic of modern psychological need that he has almost completely disappeared. All too often, he now leans weakly upon the church, a passive bystander, a co-conspirator in the effort to dismantle two thousand years of Christian thought about God and what he has declared himself to be. That is to say, God has become weightless. The church continues its business of satisfying the needs of the self--needs defined by the individual--and God, who is himself viewed and marketed as a product, becomes powerless to change the definition of that need or to prescribe the means by which it might be satisfied. When the consumer is sovereign, the product (in this case God himself) must be subservient."

~ David Wells, God in the Wasteland

Ron Paul Progress

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)."

God make us ANGRY!

Happiness and anger are God-given emotions that must be God-ordered and God-ordained. Anger is not something that Christians should be ashamed of. In fact, many believers today would probably be surprised to find out that we are commanded, in Scripture, to be angry. The apostle Paul says, “Be angry and do not sin…” (Eph 4:26) Right before Paul tells us to be angry he is talking about those who are “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!” (Eph 4:18-20) We need to be angry at sin when we see it but we shouldn’t sin in our anger.

There is so much corruption and sensuality in our culture that has been entertaining us Christians for so many years. There are scenes in movies that we, as Christian parents have seen, that would horrify us if our children were watching them. There are things I have seen on the silver screen, as entertainment, that I would be disgusted if my children had seen them. Rousas J. Rushdoony says “What disgusts God should disgust us.” Why would I be angry if my kids have watched something that I was entertained by? Where was my anger when I was laughing at something that should have made me furious? The response of parents should not be apathy but anger. We can’t cower under the fear of being labeled as hypocrites. Its one thing to stumble but it’s far worse to cause our little ones to stumble. Jesus said “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” (Mark 9:42)

The problem with America is that Christians are too nice. Christians have been so afraid of anger. Anger is a great and godly emotion as long as you do not sin. It is not a sin to be angry; it is a sin to sin out of anger. As a parent it’s always amazing to me how the same thoughts that would anger me coming from my kid’s mind would be ignored coming from my own. Words that easily slip out of my mouth with impunity are met with wrath if caught through the teeth of one of my kids. Am I saying that my kids should get a free pass? Not at all! I just need to be impartial with my judgment. I shouldn’t stop being angry; I should just be angry more consistently. What we need is an anger that moves us to solutions not to sin.

How do we laugh at the things that crushed our Saviour? How are we entertained by the things that caused our Lord to suffer? How can we joke about the things that nailed God’s Son to the cross? Why are we amused by the things that caused Jesus to be accursed? There are so many things in our culture that should anger us and move us to faithful Kingdom service. We need to be angry at sin and sin not. The very things that have been attractive to us are the things that are trying to steal, kill and destroy our children. There is a battle for the hearts and minds of our kids. The enemy in the battle has been masquerading around as our friend for years. We need the kind of anger the Psalmist had when he said “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.” (Psalms 139:21-22)

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

Standing in the Gap - Men Wanted!

Here are some distressing and disturbing statistics taken from Mark Driscoll message a while back.

"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one." (Ezekiel 22:30)

• There are 11-13 million MORE women Christians in the US than men

Women are:

• 100% more likely than men to be involved in DISCIPLESHIP
• 56% more likely than men to be involved in CHURCH LEADERSHIP
• 54% more likely than men to be involved in SMALL GROUPS
• 39% more likely than men to HAVE A NORMAL DEVOTIONAL/QUIET TIME
• 33% more likely than men to VOLUNTEER AT CHURCH
• 29% more likely than men to READ THEIR BIBLES
• 29% more likely than men to ATTEND CHURCH
• 29% more likely than men to SHARE THEIR FAITH
• 29% more likely than men to GIVE FINANCIALLY TO A CHURCH

The Anti-Narnia Narnia Knockoff

Christian's are enraged and atheists are enthused. "The Golden Compass" hits the silver screens December 7th. It is a fantasy film starring Nicole Kidman that is based on the first book in the fantasy trilogy entitled "His Dark Materials" by atheist Philip Pullman. Pullman, an "evangelistic" agnostic who belongs to secular humanist societies, has written his trilogy motivated by his hatred for C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia books.

The Golden Compass begins with a 12-year-old girl named Lyra [not Lucy] hiding in a wardrobe which unexpectedly transfers her into a universe-altering adventure. Hmmm... why does that sound familiar? There is also talking animals and witches (but the witches are on the so-called good side this time). In spite of the fact that imitation is the highest form of flattery, Pullman said, "I hate the Narnia books, and I hate them with a deep and bitter passion". Pullman has said explicitly, "My books are about killing God."

I told my kids that there is a new movie coming out that looks a lot like the Chronicles of Narnia. Then I showed them the trailer to the movie. After I got them all excited to see this new really cool movie I read to them all the stuff exposing the anti-Christ animosity behind the film that, a few seconds ago, looked so enticing to them. They went from anticipation to anger (at the movie) very quickly. My point was for them to see that the world makes poison look delicious. The serpent in the garden was the very first advertiser (come on you want this, you need this, you like this).

One more point I think I should make... Many Christians are going to be all up in arms about this movie and blowing the trumpet of boycott. The only problem I have with this is that 99 percent of the movies that come out of Holyweird are produced by the same type of atheists with the same type of motives. I would rather have movies like this that are openly atheistic because at least the antithesis is clear. I love reminders like this that remind us that we are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our young people. Praise God for these precious clear glimpses of the enemy.

Here's the trailer (I'm positive that J.R.R. Tolkien wouldn't like this story being tied to his like they do in this trailer):

The Roots of the Emergent Church and "Relevance"