Thursday, March 12, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Judgment is Coming
Amo 1:13 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
Amo 1:14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:
Amo 1:15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the LORD.
The President we as a nation have elected is doing exactly as he promised. Within a few weeks of taking office, he lifted restrictions on funding abortion overseas. This Monday, he will reverse restrictions on stem cell research, where babies are made (FYI, that includes in vitro and in vivo), then killed, for the prospect of maybe someday using this research to find a way to prolong another persons life a few more years (many bio-scientists are also becoming more and more skeptical of this, in favor of non-embryonic stem cells). Kill the next generation to preserve this one just a few years? That's a surefire way to extinguish our race even sooner...although I think God may wipe us out before then. I have intentionally avoided being "political" in my blog, but this is not politics, this is religion. And don't think for a second we have a "secular" government. Obama is religious to his core. He worships Molech and Baal more intently than the vast majority of "Christians" worship God.
We in America use Hitler as the poster child of evil. Let me tell you Hitler was nothing in the grand scheme of things. We teamed with Stalin to bring down Hitler, and Stalin was worse than him! Add in Mao Tse Tong, and all of these men combined slaughtered somewhere between 30 and 60 million (Hitler being the least) deaths in three countries over a combined 50 years. That works out to at most 1.2 million a year. We kill somewhere between 1.4-1.6 million a year just in America!
And it is going to increase. Our new president is disgusting. He laughs at the blood pouring through our streets and rivers, and we laugh with him. Our inner cities, which is where most of these slaughterings take place, worship at the altar of his priesthood, where he vows to continue offering up our children to his idols, as well as using our tax dollars to help other nations do the same.
I do not claim to be any sort of prophet, and I am not going to claim that our current economic collapse is only a sign of things to come. I don't know. But this I do know: Our High Priest and righteous Judge vowed to utterly destroy the children of Ammon and drive out their rulers, will He not do the same to us?
God help us.
Amo 1:14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind:
Amo 1:15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together, saith the LORD.
The President we as a nation have elected is doing exactly as he promised. Within a few weeks of taking office, he lifted restrictions on funding abortion overseas. This Monday, he will reverse restrictions on stem cell research, where babies are made (FYI, that includes in vitro and in vivo), then killed, for the prospect of maybe someday using this research to find a way to prolong another persons life a few more years (many bio-scientists are also becoming more and more skeptical of this, in favor of non-embryonic stem cells). Kill the next generation to preserve this one just a few years? That's a surefire way to extinguish our race even sooner...although I think God may wipe us out before then. I have intentionally avoided being "political" in my blog, but this is not politics, this is religion. And don't think for a second we have a "secular" government. Obama is religious to his core. He worships Molech and Baal more intently than the vast majority of "Christians" worship God.
We in America use Hitler as the poster child of evil. Let me tell you Hitler was nothing in the grand scheme of things. We teamed with Stalin to bring down Hitler, and Stalin was worse than him! Add in Mao Tse Tong, and all of these men combined slaughtered somewhere between 30 and 60 million (Hitler being the least) deaths in three countries over a combined 50 years. That works out to at most 1.2 million a year. We kill somewhere between 1.4-1.6 million a year just in America!
And it is going to increase. Our new president is disgusting. He laughs at the blood pouring through our streets and rivers, and we laugh with him. Our inner cities, which is where most of these slaughterings take place, worship at the altar of his priesthood, where he vows to continue offering up our children to his idols, as well as using our tax dollars to help other nations do the same.
I do not claim to be any sort of prophet, and I am not going to claim that our current economic collapse is only a sign of things to come. I don't know. But this I do know: Our High Priest and righteous Judge vowed to utterly destroy the children of Ammon and drive out their rulers, will He not do the same to us?
God help us.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Viviendo en Mexico
So I have moved on to the next phase of my life...my last optometry rotation...in Silao, Guanajuato, Mexico. I still have very limited internet access, just like the previous 6 months, so this might be my only post for a while again. I am living with a Christian family here, and they take wonderful care of me. They feed me, house me, do my laundry. They speak next to no English (entirely non-conversational), and I speak very limited Spanish, so it's very trying. But the idea was for me to get much better at Spanish, so hopefully that works out well. I have seven weeks left. God has been humbling me greatly with this family's generosity and reliance upon God. I have come to recognize how faithless I am in everyday life. Which has led to God doing great things in increasing my faith! I praise Him for that, and trust that He will continue to do great things in me. It's as if I can hear Him say to me,
"I have brought you out of the land of Egypt, will I not also provide (...) and care for you now?"
"I have brought you out of the land of Egypt, will I not also provide (...) and care for you now?"
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sad...
Once again, I have left a bunch of people I dearly love. At least I'm only 4 1/2 hrs. away from B-town...so hopefully I can make some weekend trips. In the meantime, I'll be looking at a lot of eyeballs owned by the brave men who have risked their lives for our freedom. I want to take one more opportunity to mention Paul Washer's sermon "10 Indictments" given at the recent Revival Conference in Atlanta, GA. It is a must for all Christians in this country. See my last post for its link. Also check out this short video of Washer talking about persecution in America.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
A Renewing of My Mind
(I composed this a few months ago and haven't updated my blog due to limited internet access...fyi I have been in back in B-town for 2 1/2 months now and am already getting ready to head off again, this time to Huntington, WV)
In the past few weeks I have been embarking on a journey to rework my understanding of life in Christ and reinterpret my life experiences in light of scripture, which by necessity includes the proper use of Bible words. In one sense I have been on this journey for years, but recently it has been a very conscious, heart and mind-wrenching experience. I suppose it started with me surrounding myself with people (Grace Community Church) who seem to have a prominent concern with whether or not I'm a Calvinist, and then wondering how in the world a church full of Presbyterians and Baptists (and a "third wheel" of a pastor with a Vineyard background) could even remain standing, let alone how I found myself in such a thing (I am of course referring to Church of the Good Shepherd).
On one hand, it has been very exhausting not only to have these conversations, but also sit under sermons where at least half of the time was focused specifically on aspects of Reformed doctrine (which for the past month has been the case). To be honest, I have avoided having the "I'm not Reformed" conversation, because the prospect alone wears me out right now. So why do I keep going back? Well, I know they love Christ, they love the souls under their care, and they handle God's word seriously, even if we reach different conclusions about some doctrines. For the same reason, I will never attend another church in Bloomington other than CGS. They truly love one another and do things rightly. I will always be with people like this, as opposed to finding a church where I "agree" with their "doctrine" but is absolutely dead.
The good thing about all this frustration is that it has caused me to reconsider my understanding and use of words and biblical terminology. In my studying, I came across a discussion mainly between two brothers over at sermonindex.net regarding the distinction between Baptism in the Holy Spirit and fillings with the Holy Spirit. Ron Bailey, both in this discussion and in his teaching series "Having begun in the Spirit" makes mention that Bible words don't have definitions, but histories, and we must track these histories to understand the words. God was very specific in His choosing of words, and used two very detailed languages (unlike English) to express what He wanted to convey to us.
The Bible has very few true synonyms. At its simplest, in any language, if two words meant the exact same thing, there wouldn't be two words for the thing. Even if two words essentially mean the same thing, they often have quite different etymologies, so they bring different emphasis. Add to this that this is God's word, so we must pay close attention to how He uses words. Some may call me a little too pedantic, but in this day of evangelical muck-soup, maybe a little pedantry is what we need.
In college, while involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, I was taught, as literally millions have been since the late 1950s, that one gets "saved" simply by praying a magical prayer. 4 simple laws to agree to, then after a 10 second regurgitation of a written prayer...WHAM! congratulations! Now you can be assured that you are going to heaven! No more worries! While this whole "method" (as well as most of the teaching contained in the little booklet) is completely baseless and unscriptural, I think a lot of the problem is our concept and use of the word "saved." It's so shallow. The Bible use of this word is not to describe a one time event in the life of an individual whereby beforehand he was not saved (which is sloppily equated to "not in heaven") and now he is (which is sloppily equated to "in heaven"). Rather, a person goes through many "salvations", is continuing to progress in salvation, and will eventually have a salvation not yet seen. Salvation is a very broad term with many applications (may I direct you to Paris Reidhead's sermon So Great Salvation for some great insights regarding this concept) leading to one Great Application. Salvation is so much more glorious than the concept most of us have been taught. It encompasses things like conviction, repentance, justification, regeneration, sanctification, glorification...which are all very distinct workings of God in the life of the Christian resulting in conformation to the image of His Son.
In the past few weeks I have been embarking on a journey to rework my understanding of life in Christ and reinterpret my life experiences in light of scripture, which by necessity includes the proper use of Bible words. In one sense I have been on this journey for years, but recently it has been a very conscious, heart and mind-wrenching experience. I suppose it started with me surrounding myself with people (Grace Community Church) who seem to have a prominent concern with whether or not I'm a Calvinist, and then wondering how in the world a church full of Presbyterians and Baptists (and a "third wheel" of a pastor with a Vineyard background) could even remain standing, let alone how I found myself in such a thing (I am of course referring to Church of the Good Shepherd).
On one hand, it has been very exhausting not only to have these conversations, but also sit under sermons where at least half of the time was focused specifically on aspects of Reformed doctrine (which for the past month has been the case). To be honest, I have avoided having the "I'm not Reformed" conversation, because the prospect alone wears me out right now. So why do I keep going back? Well, I know they love Christ, they love the souls under their care, and they handle God's word seriously, even if we reach different conclusions about some doctrines. For the same reason, I will never attend another church in Bloomington other than CGS. They truly love one another and do things rightly. I will always be with people like this, as opposed to finding a church where I "agree" with their "doctrine" but is absolutely dead.
The good thing about all this frustration is that it has caused me to reconsider my understanding and use of words and biblical terminology. In my studying, I came across a discussion mainly between two brothers over at sermonindex.net regarding the distinction between Baptism in the Holy Spirit and fillings with the Holy Spirit. Ron Bailey, both in this discussion and in his teaching series "Having begun in the Spirit" makes mention that Bible words don't have definitions, but histories, and we must track these histories to understand the words. God was very specific in His choosing of words, and used two very detailed languages (unlike English) to express what He wanted to convey to us.
The Bible has very few true synonyms. At its simplest, in any language, if two words meant the exact same thing, there wouldn't be two words for the thing. Even if two words essentially mean the same thing, they often have quite different etymologies, so they bring different emphasis. Add to this that this is God's word, so we must pay close attention to how He uses words. Some may call me a little too pedantic, but in this day of evangelical muck-soup, maybe a little pedantry is what we need.
In college, while involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, I was taught, as literally millions have been since the late 1950s, that one gets "saved" simply by praying a magical prayer. 4 simple laws to agree to, then after a 10 second regurgitation of a written prayer...WHAM! congratulations! Now you can be assured that you are going to heaven! No more worries! While this whole "method" (as well as most of the teaching contained in the little booklet) is completely baseless and unscriptural, I think a lot of the problem is our concept and use of the word "saved." It's so shallow. The Bible use of this word is not to describe a one time event in the life of an individual whereby beforehand he was not saved (which is sloppily equated to "not in heaven") and now he is (which is sloppily equated to "in heaven"). Rather, a person goes through many "salvations", is continuing to progress in salvation, and will eventually have a salvation not yet seen. Salvation is a very broad term with many applications (may I direct you to Paris Reidhead's sermon So Great Salvation for some great insights regarding this concept) leading to one Great Application. Salvation is so much more glorious than the concept most of us have been taught. It encompasses things like conviction, repentance, justification, regeneration, sanctification, glorification...which are all very distinct workings of God in the life of the Christian resulting in conformation to the image of His Son.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
A Calvinism I Can Chew on, and Find Tasty (part 1)
Last night at Bible study, Brother Tim Conway (pastor at GCC) was discussing the need to overcome sin, and how the warnings of scripture often go right over the heads of most Reformed folks because of the doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints. He suggested that Jesus wasn't just being hyperbolic in Matthew 5:29. If we don't take sin as seriously as Jesus talks about and mortify the deeds of the flesh, we are in danger of hell. Tim obviously believes that if you are "elect" you have no choice but to overcome; but he acknowledged that the emphasis of scripture is on us thinking that the possibility exists that the Saint might not overcome and enter heaven if we are not violent about it. He recalled a pastor friend of his, whenever asked by a young believer if it was possible to lose salvation, even though his theology would say "of course not," he would instead say with gusto, "You can if you DO."
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