Thinkerup

The Defining Moment in the Future of America

2012-01-05T20:50:00.003-05:00

by Henry Lamb

Jan. 1, 2012, is the first day of the last year of the first term of the most "transformative" president in the history of the United States. Before he became president, Barack Hussein Obama told America that
"…we are five days away from fundamentally transforming America."

During the first three years of his presidency, he has pushed his philosophy of governance further and further away from the philosophy of governance developed by the framers and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The defining moment in the future of the United States will come on Nov. 6, 2012, when each citizen casts – or fails to cast – a vote for the next president, and for the legislators who will guide the nation.

Before his first election, Obama promised "hope and change." We have seen whatever "hope" his supporters voted for turn into fundamental changes in the size, cost, scope and function of the national government. Never in the history of the nation has a president or Congress even considered giving the government the power to force private citizens to purchase a specified product. President Obama and his Democratic majority in both houses of Congress transformed the function of the national government.

If government is endowed with the power to force private citizens to purchase a specified health insurance product, this same power can to force private citizens to purchase a Chevrolet, solar-generated electricity, or any other product the government thinks the people should use. This fundamental transformation of the function of government abolished the possibility, and even the dream, of America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave."

On Dec. 6, 2011, President Obama traveled to Kansas to deliver a speech that fully outlines the direction and the extent of the transformation he fully intends to pursue. His masterful presentation carefully distorts the truth to deceive his audience into believing that his goal is the same as the goal declared by Teddy Roosevelt who said:

by Henry Lamb

"Our country means nothing unless it means the triumph of a real democracy … of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him."

... In a free market, competition sets prices, pushes innovation and encourages quality because people are free to purchase whatever product and service they wish from whomever they wish. If some businesses' prices are too high, their products out of date or inferior, people are free to refuse to purchase products, and a free market will force these businesses to improve – or close.

The free market is "…an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him." A free market guarantees every man an equal opportunity, not an equal outcome.

Obama told his audience: "I'm here in Kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we're greater together than we are on our own. I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules." This is not the description of a free market; the economic system President Obama describes is a "government-managed" market.

The economic system Obama envisions requires someone – the government or its administrator – to define what a "fair shot" is for everyone, to define what constitutes their "fair share" and to set the "same rules" under which everyone must play.

READ MORE...

HT: crossroad.to

Paul Washer-The Most Terrifying Truth of Scripture...

2011-11-17T00:52:00.000-05:00

Are You a Good Person?

2011-10-14T21:54:00.001-04:00

This is from Way of the Master:

The Cloward Piven Strategy in Action

2011-10-10T21:42:00.002-04:00

Is this what we are witnessing taking place in our country when we see these "Occupy Wallstreet" protests and as we sit back and watch this administration take over our freedoms? I think so. What do you think?

Street Meetings-Leonard Ravenhill

2011-09-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

It is Here.

2011-09-13T23:28:00.003-04:00

Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level.
- George H. Bush

Agenda 21 isn’t coming. It is here. Most don’t know about it. They’ve never heard of it, but it is creeping in the back door right now. So, look behind you. It may already be in your backyard.

What is Agenda 21? It is a United Nation’s program presented and approved in Rio in 1992. At that time American conservatives laughed it off. “This is too crazy,” they said. “Impossible. It will never happen. Not here!” Well, it is happening. It is happening here and it is happening now. Agenda 21 is a totalitarian comprehensive environmental program that, when fully implemented, will direct where you live, how much water you can use, and how and where you can travel.

Agenda 21 is being marketed as a worldwide effort to ensure that all human beings will have access to adequate housing, health care, water and food. Of course this will require a massive redistribution of wealth from prosperous countries to poorer countries. Predictably, capitalistic countries, like the United States, will suffer lower standards of living.

It’s noteworthy that Presidents George H. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, through Executive Orders, have signed onto Agenda 21. Hundreds more governors, mayors, and county commissioners have also signed on.

Agenda 21 and related programs will eliminate many things we hold dear. These have been declared “unsustainable” and will be abolished. Here are some of them:

1. All private property rights (property ownership)
2. All forms of irrigation, pesticides & commercial fertilizer
3. Livestock production and most meat consumption
4. Privately owned vehicles and personal travel
5. Use of fossil fuels for power generation or mechanized travel
6. Single family homes
7. Most forms of mineral extraction and timber harvesting
8. Human population must be reduced to fewer than 1 billion people

It’s not coming from Washington D.C. or state legislatures for the most part. It is seeping in through local city and county governments. Agenda 21 brings with it stealthy code words, comforting words such as “smart growth,” “social justice,” “bio-diversity,” and “sustained development.” You will hear them often. Translated these terms effectively mean total environmental dictatorship and the elevation of the pagan practice of the worship of Mother Earth. Not a joke.

179 countries, including the United States, initially signed on to the Agenda in 1992. Many more have joined since then. It is already in progress in 600 U.S. cities. You can check the list of committed countries and cities at: http://www.iclei.org/index.php?id=11454. You can also read the specific programs being implemented.

Agenda 21 is designed to control every aspect of human life on every square inch of planet earth. As a biblical worldview dims in the world man falls to the bottom of the food chain.

If Agenda 21 succeeds animals will become more important than man as will plants and trees. We can already see ample evidence of this process in motion today. Agenda 21’s real message is: “Man is the problem. Nature must be preserved and take precedence. Mother Earth must not be scratched.“

Agenda 21 is just another attempt by man to recreate heaven on earth. David Chilton, in his insightful book Paradise Restored, presents an important historical dynamic. Chilton submits that man, ever since he was expelled from Eden, has tried to get back in. Each time he tries, he creates another hell on earth. Agenda 21 will be no different.

Many socialistic, communistic, and liberal organizations and international leaders are behind Agenda 21 and its related programs. It will take dedication of time and effort on our part to truly understand all the implications of this pervasive program. The investment of time will be worth it.

I encourage you, no, beg you, to learn of this Agenda. Take the time. Think of the world your children will inherit if we don’t stop it and similar assaults on our freedoms. Do not make the mistake of writing this off as some conspiracy theory. It may or may not be a conspiracy, but it is not a theory. It’s here. Look behind you.

For more information on details concerning implementation of Agenda 21 please check out:

http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/ (Actual document-40 chapters, 294 pages)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esJY2SK_4tE (Glenn Beck)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEEgtOFFlM

http://green-agenda.com

http://vigilantcanuck.com/2010/08/22/agenda-21-reduction-of-the-worlds-population-by-80-to-90-percent/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVTGK1uYqJo

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2011/09/08/feds-accusing-nyc-suburb-segregation (Hannity-Agenda 21 in action).

HT: Patriot Update

America's Only Hope is Jesus

2011-09-11T16:54:00.000-04:00

We Remember 9-11

2011-09-10T12:36:00.004-04:00

We've got a lot of problems in this country but we also have a great many people who fear God and who appreciate what this great country has stood for since its founding. We should never forget the assault on this country's freedom which took place 10 years ago on September 11th 2001. We must not give up on defending our freedom and liberty whether the assaults come from terrorists from Islam or from those in our our country who want to see our freedoms destroyed. May we look to God for strength and pray that He revive our nation through our only hope as a people, turning to Jesus Christ as our only Savior from our sinful fallen condition. God Bless America!!

Ken Ham Discusses Why Youth are Leaving the Church

2011-08-16T23:30:00.001-04:00

This Video Should Send Shivers Up and Down Your Spine

2011-08-02T21:19:00.003-04:00

I guess I'm getting tired of being pressured to give this guy a pass. Here he blatantly claims he would like to just run things on his own without any accountability from Congress, and all this with a smile. If this does not bother you then I understand why we have this man as our president.

A True Conversion vs. A False Conversion

2011-07-30T11:52:00.001-04:00

Smart Little Girl...

2011-07-24T21:09:00.001-04:00

This is a great video. I hope it will bless you.

Where is the Holiness of the Church of God Today?

2011-07-13T23:29:00.001-04:00

"Where is the holiness of the church of God today? Ah! were she what she professed to be, she would be 'fair as the moon, clear as the sun', and then 'terrible as an army with banners'; but now she is dim as smoking flax, and rather the object of ridicule than of reverence. May not the measure of the influence of a church be estimated by its holiness? God's saints may well mourn with Jerusalem when they see spirituality and holiness at so low an ebb! Others may regard this as a matter of no consequence; but we view it as the breaking forth of a leprosy."

--Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892)

When Will This Stuff End?

2011-07-11T20:31:00.002-04:00

It's absolutely ludicrous that these Veterans are being told they cannot make reference to God. I guess "Big Brother" doesn't like competition.

REVIVAL HYMN!

2011-07-08T00:10:00.001-04:00

I like to watch this video often. I hope it encourages you too.

America! Do You Remember?

2011-07-02T23:31:00.002-04:00

DO YOU REMEMBER ...
.When riots were unthinkable.
When you left your front doors open.
When socialism was a dirty word.
When ghettos were neighborhoods.
When the flag was a sacred symbol.
When criminals actually went to jail.
When you weren't afraid to go out at night.
When taxes were only a necessary nuisance.
When a boy was a boy and dressed like one.
When the poor were too proud to take charity.
When the clergy actually talked about religion.
When clerks and repairmen actually tried to please you.
When college kids swallowed goldfish, not acid.
When songs had tune, and words made sense.
When young fellows tried to join the Army or Navy.
When people knew what the fourth of July stood for.
When you never dreamed our country could ever lose.
When a Sunday drive was a pleasant trip, not an ordeal.
When you bragged about your hometown and home state.
When everybody didn't feel entitled to a college education.
When people expected less and valued what they had more.
When politicians proclaimed their patriotism, and meant it.
When everybody knew the difference between right and wrong.
When things weren't perfect - but you never expected them to be.
When you weren't made to feel guilty for enjoying dialect comedy.
When our Government stood up for Americans, anywhere in the world.
When you knew that the law would be enforced and your safety protected.
When you considered yourself lucky to have a good job, and proud of it.
When the law meant justice, and you felt a shiver of awe at the sight of a policeman.
When you weren't embarrassed to say that this is the best country in the world.
When America was a land filled with brave, proud, confident, hardworking people!

When the Church Becomes Like the World

2011-06-02T01:06:00.001-04:00

Jolly Christianity and Sanctified Nightclubs
When the church becomes like the world

by Paul Tautges

A.W. Tozer died the year I was born but, if I had known him, I think we would have gotten along quite well. In fact, I think I would have asked him if we could do lunch once a month so I could pick his brain. Because in my opinion the main ingredient in Tozer’s underlying belief system that caused many to call this Chicago pastor, a “20th century prophet,” was his lofty view of God and the exalted worship that He, therefore, deserves. At the risk of quoting one person too much, let me give you a little taste of Tozer. [i]

The idea that this world is a playground instead of a battleground has now been accepted in practice by the vast majority of fundamentalist Christians. They might hedge around the question if they were asked bluntly to declare their positions, but their conduct gives them away. They are facing both ways, enjoying Christ and the world, gleefully telling everyone that accepting Jesus does not require them to give up their fun—Christianity is just the jolliest thing imaginable. The ‘worship’ growing out of such a view of life is as far off center as the view itself—a sort of sanctified nightclub without the champagne and the dressed-up drunks (pp. 152, 153).

I cannot accept with sympathy the idea that we go to church to soothe ourselves and calm our spirits. We do calm our spirits and there is a soothing effect in worship, but the primary object of church attendance is not to relax—it is to offer worship, which belongs to God (p. 3).

What the Church needs today is a restoration of the vision of the Most High God…The honor of God has been lost to men and the God of today’s Christianity is a weakling—a little cheap, palsy God that you can run and pal around with. He’s ‘the man upstairs.’ He’s the fellow that can help you when you’re in difficulty and not bother you too much when you’re not (p. 54).

Unlike many professing believers today, Tozer saw the cheapening of God as a serious offense and, therefore, was compelled to speak out against contemporary forms of “worship” that eroded the fear of God from the hearts of Christians. What he discerned (and warned against) was the drift of the church away from a standard of separation from worldliness in all its forms toward a pragmatic use of entertainment as an evangelistic tool or tactic to keep worldly-minded believers happy in the pews. That is why reading Tozer’s assessment of the worship trends of his day feels like you are reading a contemporary author but, then you stop and realize, “Oh yeh, this guy’s dead.”

A question that thoughtful Christians must ask is, What brought the church in Tozer’s day (and, therefore, our day) to such a pathetic state? The answer is found in the change in the church’s relationship with worldly forms of entertainment. Listen to Tozer again,

For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was—a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. For this she got herself abused roundly by the sons of this world. But of late she has become tired of the abuse and has given over the struggle. She appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make whatever use she can of his powers. So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theaters where fifth-rate ‘producers’ peddle shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it (pp. 111-112).

Read that last sentence again: “And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.” In our day, rare is the man that dares to speak out against this same invasion of carnality into the church. And I can tell you from experience that if you dare to protest the worldliness that is running rampant in evangelical churches you will quickly be labeled a “legalist,” or “divisive,” or “stuck in the traditions of the past,” or “unwilling to ride the wave of God,” ad nauseum. It is unfortunate that so many Christians today have relinquished their thinking process because their spiritual hunger and thirst may not be for righteousness, but for whatever is glitzy or trendy or whatever works. With the virtual wholesale selling out of the church to worldly entertainment disguised as worship, should we expect anything more than half-hearted, worldly “Christians”? If the evangelical church sows to the flesh should it be surprised when it reaps from the same? When Jesus returns, “will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).

Praying He will,

Pastor Paul

[i] James L. Snyder, ed., A.W. Tozer on Worship and Entertainment (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1997), pp. 152-153.

I Fought For You...

2011-05-13T19:27:00.000-04:00

The Old Cross and the New

2011-04-24T23:02:00.001-04:00

This is an excellent commentary from A.W. Tozer. It is always good to remind ourselves just what the cross represents and to never become comfortable with trying to "pretty-up" our faith so as to make it look appealing to the world.
Click HERE to read the article.

Obama Care-Live Your Carefree Lifestyle

2011-04-02T12:52:00.001-04:00

I thought this video was funny. I wanted to share it with you.

The "Hip-Heretic" is at it Again...

2011-02-26T11:52:00.003-05:00

Rob Bell again reveals his ignorance about God's character and the nature of His holiness.

Rob, if Ghandi did not surrender and submit to Christ's supremacy as the one and only true way to God (which we have no reason to believe he did), then yes, Ghandi is in hell for eternity. This is the message clearly stated in God's Word.

LOVE WINS. from Rob Bell on Vimeo.

The Danger of Altar Calls by Paul Washer

2011-02-10T21:25:00.000-05:00

Something to Be Aware Of

2010-11-20T22:37:00.000-05:00

God’s Wrath is Coming:

The Night of Weeping

2010-10-27T23:57:00.001-04:00

The Night of Weeping by Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

"I do not mean, as I have said before, that the saint is ever to be gloomy. No. Gloom and melancholy are not our portion. "The lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places." They are not the inmates of a soul that has tasted the joy of pardon and is walking in light, as a happy child with a loving father.

But true joy is a serious thing. Its fountains are deep. It is the waking up of the heart's deep springs. Mirth and levity are not joy. They are too shallow to deserve the name. Like the sun-flash on a stagnant pool, they are a mere surface gleam of light. There is nothing in them of the calm radiance illuminating the ocean depths many a fathom down, as if the waters themselves were a mass of solid sunshine, and remaining amid the heaving of the billows, unbroken and unobscured.

In coming to Him, who is the fountain of all gladness, the saint of God bids farewell to gloom. Tribulation he may have -- no, must have -- but not gloom. That has left him forever since the day he knew the Savior, and opened his ears to the joyful sound. Peace is now his heritage. ...

It is through tears that truth is best seen. When looked at through this medium, objects assume their right proportions and take their proper level. ..

Such especially is the life of the saint! He not only knows that there is an eternity, but he has seen and felt it. ... He not only knows that there is such a thing as forgiveness and eternal life, but he has found them, he has tasted them; his eyes have been opened, and he has now come into the very midst of realities. They compass him about on every side.... especially as he "looks for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing" of the Lord....

Affliction is full of warnings. It has many voices and these of the most various kinds. It speaks counsel, it speaks rebuke, it speaks affection. ...

1. Affliction says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world [referring to the world system, not the people of the world] the love of the Father is not in him." (I John 2:15).

2. Affliction says, "Take heed and beware of covetousness" (Luke 12:15). Riches cannot help, neither earthly comfort avail us in the hour of grief. They cannot dry up tears, nor reunite broken bonds. ... It is then we find that we need a "treasure in the heaven that fails not."...

3. Affliction says, "abstain from all appearance of evil" (I Thess 5:22). "Hate even the garments spotted by the flesh."... It is not merely abstain from evil, but from all appearance of evil. Suffering teaches us to shrink from sin -- even from the remotest and most indirect connection with it. It says, "Oh, do not that abominable thing which I hate!"

4 Affliction says, "Do not grumble against one another." (James 5:9). Let there be no halfhearted affection in the family of God. Let there be no envy, no jealousy, no misunderstandings among the brethren. Why should we be less than friends who are both fellow-sufferers and fellow-soldiers here? ... Yet oftentimes it needs affliction to teach us this, to remove our jealousies, and to draw us together as brethren in sympathy and love.

5. Affliction says, "Keep yourselves from idols" (I John 5:21). If there be one remaining idol, break it in pieces and spare it not. Nothing is so fruitful a cause of suffering as idolatry. Nothing so forcibly displays the vanity of our idols as suffering. ...

Church of the living God! Be warned. Please not yourself, even as Jesus pleased not Himself. Live for Him, not for yourself, for Him, not for the world. Walk worthy of your name and calling, worthy of Him who bought you as His bride, worthy of your everlasting inheritance.

OUT OF CONTROL BRATS

2010-10-14T22:19:00.004-04:00

This is a post from 2006... still relevant nonetheless:

I received a great father's day gift the day before Fathers Day. My wife and kids gave me a DVD of Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous from 1937.

I love this movie, it is one of my favorites. I intended to write a post about the many excellent examples of fatherhood in this movie but I couldn't find the time.

However, I found other illustrations in this film helpful in describing one thing in particular going on today in evangelicalism.

In the film, ten year old spoiled rotten brat Harvey Cheyne played by Freddie Bartholomew is the son of a widowed millionaire tycoon who sincerely loves his son but is unaware of his son's manipulative antics of bribery and threats in order to win favor with his peers. When things start getting out of hand with the boy, his father takes him on a luxury cruise in order to spend some time with his son and restore their relationship. While on the ship, Harvey mistakenly falls overboard. Soon thereafter Harvey gets rescued by Manuel, a humble Portuguese fisherman played by Spencer Tracy. He pulls the unconscious boy aboard his skiff and takes him on to the fishing vessel "We're Here" where he is surrounded by rugged fishermen. After Harvey awakens, he approaches the captain of the vessel, Captain Troop played by Lionel Barrymore and demands the captain promptly take him back to port. The captain is unfazed by Harvey's incessant demands and informs the boy that he will be able to return to his father when they have gathered enough fish to fill their boat. This, Harvey is told will take about three months. This is unacceptable to Harvey.

This boy comes from a world where everything he demands he gets. He is accustomed to telling adults what to do as they wait on him hand and foot. For the first time in his young life he finds himself in a position where the world does not revolve around him. This doesn't make sense to him at all. He offers them $10,000.00 if they return him immediately. The offer falls on deaf ears. The men continue to go about their regular chores while politely tolerating Harvey's annoying demands. He continues to insist the captain turn the ship around and return him to his father or he will have them all arrested for kidnapping.

As the boy refuses to relent and will not shut up, the captain of the ship mutters some words under his breath about "regretting to have to do this" as he gets up, goes over to the boy and smacks him in the head knocking him down on a big heap of fish carcasses. The boy suddenly shuts up. For the first time in his life he has just been put in his place. It's a wonderful thing to see. Finally, somebody who had the sense and the authority to stand up to this little boy who doesn't know his place among his elders and is convinced the world revolves around him, stands up to this spoiled brat, putting him in his place, and begins to bring clarity to the situation.

That scene in the movie sets the stage for what happens throughout the film. The boy learns how to work, clean, cut and bait fish along with the other fishermen. He learns to humble himself and respect others around him. He learns to take responsibility for his own actions. He learns to be unselfish. He learns what it means to be ashamed of his unethical deeds. He learns what it means to have little and appreciate life and see the many untangle blessings God provides. Manuel becomes a father to Harvey and changes his life forever.

My whole point in bringing up this movie is that I believe it is a good example of what is going on today in evangelicalism with so many of these new-upon-the-scene pastors and authors like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, and not so new Tony Campolo, to mention a few. This also resembles some youth pastors in today's churches.

What the church needs today are MEN like Captain Troop to get up and SMACK these guys on the head (so to speak) and tell them to sit down and shut up. Rob Bell and Brian McLaren come aboard the fishing vessel and start to tell the other fishermen that we must turn around and go a different direction? That's exactly what these guys are doing. They're coming onboard this ship with new charts in hand attempting to convince the crew that we need to rethink and re-imagine our present course.

I would love to see authoritative men of God stand up to these young Fletcher Christians and put them in their place, spiritually. Instead I'm afraid many evangelical leaders are listening to them and even seriously considering what they are teaching. They are giving them a platform. They're thinking..."maybe we should go back and change our agenda, maybe we should rethink or re-imagine our course. Maybe there are 'secret charts' we were not aware of or maybe our charts are outdated and today's fisherman may not feel that this is the best course to take".

O, I know that old fashioned "authority figure thing" doesn't work anymore with our current postmodern culture. Harvey's perception of an authority figure didn't work for him either until he ran into someone who actually exercised authority over him, then it worked.

Just imagine guys like Rob Bell, McLaren, and Campolo or one of today's youth pastors with his earrings and "ghetto-jargon" conversing with any of the "initials guys" (A.W. Pink, A.W. Tozer, W.P. Nicholson, J.C. Ryle, E.M Bounds, C.H. Spurgeon, R.A. Torrey, D.L. Moody etc.). I can't imagine it. I don't even think the "initial guys" would give them the time of day, AND RIGHTFULLY SO! I think they would either ignore them like captain Troop did Harvey or they would boldly "put them in their place".

This is what we need men of God to do today in the church.

The "initial guys" remind me of Captain Troop. I know that they are no longer with us, but what I would like to know is are there any men out there today who have a position of spiritual authority who will speak out boldly against authors like Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell and any other Emergent maverick with the arrogance and audacity to question the authority of the Word of God and believe it is their position to try and turn the fundamental doctrines of our faith on its head?

The same goes for any pastors of churches who may have a youth pastor introducing ideas and false doctrines flourishing in the Emergent Church circles and concepts promoted by the likes of the Campolos and McLarens, not to mention this infatuated fascination with the mystical "ancient spiritual practices" of the desert fathers and unbiblical doctrines of the apostate Roman Catholic Church.

Come on men! Stand for the truth! Contend for the faith! Quit making your idol "getting along with everybody". Where is Captain Troop? Where is Manuel the humble fisherman who takes this young boy and teaches him lessons in humility and respect?

In the end of the movie the boy becomes a respectable and appreciative person. He reconciles his relationship with his father and learns lessons of life which would not have been possible had it not been for the influence and bold leadership of real men like Manuel, Captain Troop, and his father.

They allowed Harvey to stay aboard the ship but they certainly did not let him dictate where the ship was to go and what the fishermen were to do. That was determined by the wise captain of "We're Here" and we know who our ultimate Captain is.

What Does This Verse Mean to You?...

2010-10-01T23:27:00.000-04:00

America Needs to Wake Up!

2010-09-18T22:19:00.002-04:00

This video is incredible. Take a look at what is happening at this public middle school. This is yet another indicator of just how far we continue to slide in this pathetic "politically correct" American culture of our day.

God help us. (the real God, not the false Muslim god)

In Honor of 9/11

2010-09-12T16:38:00.003-04:00

This video is in honor of those who died on September 11, 2001.

God Bless America. And may God have mercy on our country.

"Ragged Old Flag" by Johnny Cash

Chilling Video

2010-09-02T20:52:00.001-04:00

This video is a must see:

An Evil is in the Camp

2010-09-02T01:01:00.002-04:00

He Aint a Christian!

2010-08-25T23:29:00.005-04:00

"Too Severe, Too Stern for Our Modern Teachers"?

2010-08-22T00:07:00.001-04:00

"At the present day, I am afraid that nine people out of ten do not believe in the God Who is revealed to us in the Bible. I can point you to newspapers, to periodicals, and also to pulpits by the score in which there is a new god set up to be worshipped–not the God of the Old Testament; He is said to be too strict, too severe, too stern for our modern teachers.
They shudder at the very mention of the God of the Puritans. If Jonathan Edwards were to rise from the dead, they would not listen to him for a minute; they would say that they had quite a new god since his day. But, brethren, I believe in the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob; this is my God, the God Who drowned Pharoah and his host at the Red Sea and moved His people to sing, “Hallelujah!” as He did it; the God Who caused the earth to open and swallow up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and all their company.

A terrible God is the God Whom I adore–He is the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, full of mercy, compassion, and grace, tender and gentle, yet just and dreadful in His holiness and terrible out of His holy places. This is the God Whom we worship, and He Who comes to Him will take Him to be his Instructor, and so shall he learn aright all that he needs to know."

––Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

History of Islam and Jihad - Why They Must Be Stopped

2010-08-19T02:12:00.001-04:00

Paul Washer Describes a False Salvation via Joel Osteen

2010-07-19T00:03:00.001-04:00

A Redefinition of Religious Freedom?

2010-07-12T21:37:00.005-04:00

By Chuck Colson

Chuck Colson is sounding the alarm: The government—at the highest levels—may be attempting to redefine the very meaning of religious freedom. If what Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said in a recent speech reflects a new direction in government policy, it seems the aim is clear: To kick faith out of the public square, to send Christians into the closet.

Revival Hymn

2010-07-10T00:16:00.000-04:00

I like to watch this video often. I hope it encourages you too.

Happy 4th of July - God Bless America!

2010-07-02T21:24:00.004-04:00

I'm not ashamed to say I am an American. I have nothing to apologize for. I am not afraid to say I am Conservative. As a matter of fact, I am proud of it.

I am very concerned about the direction of this country, as many are. I also know God is on the Throne and He is in charge. So I rest in his sovereignty. At the same time, I am convinced we need to speak out and uphold the things which have made this country great and a country greatly used by God.

Here is a great video of a man singing the second verse of the Star Spangled Banner. Please watch and enjoy, reflecting on God's grace and blessings which he has poured upon our nation.

God Bless America and Happy Fourth of July!

Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?

2010-06-23T00:21:00.003-04:00

By THOMAS SOWELL from Investors Business Daily

When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.

Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.

The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.

Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.

And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP's oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated.

But our government is supposed to be "a government of laws and not of men."

If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion — or $50 billion or $100 billion — then so be it.

But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without "due process of law."

Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.

With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.

If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don't believe in constitutional government.

And, without constitutional government, freedom cannot endure. There will always be a "crisis" — which, as the president's chief of staff has said, cannot be allowed to "go to waste" as an opportunity to expand the government's power.

That power will of course not be confined to BP or to the particular period of crisis that gave rise to the use of that power, much less to the particular issues.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt arbitrarily took the United States off the gold standard, he cited a law passed during the First World War to prevent trading with the country's wartime enemies. But there was no war when FDR ended the gold standard's restrictions on the printing of money.

At about the same time, during the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law "for the relief of the German people."

That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people — indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others.

If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.

The man appointed by President Obama to dispense BP's money as the administration sees fit, to whomever it sees fit, is only the latest in a long line of presidentially appointed "czars" controlling different parts of the economy, without even having to be confirmed by the Senate, as Cabinet members are.

Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power — vs. the rule of law and the preservation of freedom — are the "useful idiots" of our time. But useful to whom?

HT: Investors Business Daily

The Video Obama Doesn't Want You to See

2010-06-17T16:47:00.005-04:00

HT: Patriot Update

Dennis Prager on the greatest threat facing America

2010-06-09T23:33:00.001-04:00

HT: Christian Research Network

Benny Hinn Squirms in the Hot Seat

2010-06-05T22:36:00.001-04:00

HT: CRN

Actor Jon Voight Speaks Out Against Barak Obama

2010-06-04T00:51:00.002-04:00

HT: Christian Research Network

A Word Spoken With a Clear Conscience

2010-06-03T01:43:00.000-04:00

"Speak for eternity. Above all things, cultivate your own spirit. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin. Remember that God, and not man, must have the glory. If the veil of the world's machinery were lifted off, how much we would find is done in answer to the prayers of God's children."

-- Robert Murray McCheyne

God Bless Those Who Gave Their All-Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-29T21:42:00.005-04:00

Here is a neat little incident which happen at the Baltimore airport where our soldiers were honored for their service to our country. I thank God for those defending our freedom and I thank all the many soldiers. God bless you all!

Soldiers from Iraq at the Baltimore Airport By Will Ross

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control. Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got on the PA and said this,

"Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you and we love you."

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heart-felt applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it happen.

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense

HT: Crossroad.to

God’s Sovereignty and Prayer

2010-05-27T00:17:00.000-04:00

"It grieves me that so many believers view the doctrine of God’s sovereignty as a deterrent to a healthy, vibrant prayer life. That kind of thinking demonstrates an inadequate, incomplete and unacceptable understanding, both of God’s sovereignty and of prayer. In truth, we pray because God is sovereign. He alone has power over all human events. In praying, we don’t run from His sovereignty, we run to it. It’s absolutely true that God is sovereign over every detail of our lives. Job acknowledged that even the number of every person’s days is determined (Job 14:5). Life and death are in His hands (Jam. 4:15). Yet we eat and breathe and sleep and take measures to avoid any kind of calamity that might end our lives prematurely. Why? That’s the very same question as, “Why pray if God is sovereign?” Here’s the answer to why we need to breathe, and why we need to pray: God ordains the means as well as the end. And our prayers are one of the important means by which He accomplishes His will and glorifies Himself in the process." – John MacArthur HT: Christian Research Network

7 Thoughts on Reading the Bible by J.C Ryle

2010-05-04T20:57:00.002-04:00

1) Read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it.

2) Read the Scriptures with a simple, childlike faith and humility.

3) Read the Word with a spirit of obedience and self-application.

4) Read the Holy Scriptures everyday.

5) Read the whole Bible and read it in an orderly way.

6) Read the Word of God fairly and honestly.

7) Read the Bible with Christ constantly in view.

~ J.C. Ryle

Here is a short, 2 minute video, explaining each of these 7 thoughts.

HT: jcrylequotes.com

Demands My Soul, My Life, My All

2010-04-02T18:29:00.000-04:00

When I think about the words to this old hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" by Isaac Watts, especially the last two lines ...

"Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."

...it reminds me of the passage in Philipians 2: 8-11 where it says that every knee shall bow before Christ and confess that He is Lord. His love is so amazing, and what He did on the cross is so amazing that EVERY knee will bow before Him.

People think they have a choice. They really do not have a choice as to what they will do regarding Jesus. They only have a choice as to when they will do it. They may reject Jesus now but Jesus will receive His Lordship from all of creation. They will bow. They may choose not to bow now but they will bow. What he did on the cross demands nothing less. Even if He had never paid for our sins on the cross and allowed us to go into a lost eternity without Him we would still bow before Him. It is what He deserves. It will take us an eternity to be able to fathom His glory, His magnitude, and His plan of salvation.

To quote the two Moravian missionaries who willingly sold themselves into slavery for the sake of the the gospel

"May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward for his suffering".

...something to ponder during this Easter weekend.

OLD HYMNS-OLD PEOPLE

2010-04-01T01:22:00.003-04:00

I remember as a kid, the age of about 4 or 5, being in my old church, looking over at a very very elderly man sitting next to me as the congregation sang "The Old Rugged Cross". I remember watching him as he sang, somehow it seemed as though he understood. He understood the story of the old rugged cross. I did not know who he was or even if I ever saw him again but just looking at that old man and hearing that song for the first time made an impression on me as a small child. Generations apart, yet as a child I marveled at him and remembered the words to that old song.

I also will never forget Dorothy Cleveland. Always smiling. I was told she was born on a missionary trail in Africa. I never once saw that lady open up a hymn book but she sang every word of every song. I always wondered about that. Mrs. Cleveland used to look across the room during the service and give me the biggest smile. I knew that there was one person who looked right through me and loved the person deep inside regardless of my childish faults.

It was a small church but every Wednesday night we would gather. Kids and adults. The elderly and the very young. We gathered for prayer. We sang the old hymns. I wasn't ushered off to some children's program. I was there with these old people. I know it was boring, I know kids can't relate to that, I know I would wander off into la la land and would become totally bored with church and when I get older I will have no interest in God because of those old songs that don't relate to the youth and the boring speakers, you know how we MUST BE RELEVANT etc...blah blah blah. You've heard it all before. We've all heard it all before by the experts. However, somehow something stuck. As a child I witnessed a faithfulness to God in the elderly

I know there is nothing inherently sacred with old hymns. It's not really about the hymns. It's more about a truth which transcends generations. A truth which unites generations. The songs that I saw Dorthody Cleveland sing without ever opening a hymn book were the same songs that I was learning as a child. It was the same songs that my mother and father were singing. It was the same songs that Dorthothy Cleveland's parents and grandparents were singing as she looked up at them as a child, studying their faces the same I had done when I was a child. There was a heritage. There was a legacy.

I can't understand what we are doing. Why are we so eager to get rid of the hymns which have lasted from generation to generation to generation? Aren't we supposed to get rid of the things which are a hinderance to our faith being built up? I guess our leaders know better.

Also, I have to wonder, why are we so sure that we have to separate the old people from the young ? For crying out loud, isn't there any value in our young children and teenagers being in the same room as the older people ? Do we think it's right to just throw out the value and spiritual wisdom and stability the kids can learn from being with, worshiping with, even participating in Bible studies with the elderly ?

Some of my fondest memories as a child learning about this marvelous faith in Christ was the interaction I had with the elderly. Some of the richest and most spiritual acts of faith I saw demonstrated as a child were manifested in the character and actions of the elderly.

I learned from them. I sat listening to them, silent. I sat there and did not say a word. I listened. I learned. I remembered.

"Blest Be the Ties That Bind"...every Wednesday night, as we ended our prayer meeting, we would all hold hands in one big circle and sing that old hymn. I look forward to that day when we will sing that song again together, the old and the young...as one.

"Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

Before our Father’s throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

We share each other’s woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again."

Proof of America's Shift Toward Socialism.

2010-03-27T15:11:00.002-04:00

Just in case you had any doubts, here is proof of America's shift toward Socialism via the U.S. government's national healthcare takeover.

The Church is a Soul Expert, Not a Social Agency

2010-03-27T00:45:00.003-04:00

HERE is an excerpt from Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the purpose of the church posted on OldTruth.com:

"... the business of the church is to deal with the real problem of men and women--not to give alms, but to offer a cure for the paralysis. This is the unique message of the church, and this is what differentiates it from every other institution under the sun. The church is an expert on the soul. It is not a cultural center or a psychological clinic or a social agency. No; her calling, her commission, is to deal with the souls of men and women"
--Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This doesn't fit so well with the social gospel advocates running rampant through the churches today.

"Brothers, We Are Not Figure Skaters" by Phil Johnson

2010-03-08T20:13:00.001-05:00

Pulpit Highlights - Phil Johnson from Grace Community Church on Vimeo.

AGONY by Leonard Ravenhill

2010-02-20T23:09:00.001-05:00

Wrong Doctrine = Wrong Behavior

2010-02-06T22:18:00.000-05:00

"If you go wrong in your doctrine, you will go wrong in all aspects of your life. You will probably go wrong in your practice and behaviour; and you will certainly go wrong in your experience. Why is it that people are defeated by the things that happen to them? Why is it that some people are completely cast down if they are taken ill, or if someone who is dear to them is taken ill? They were wonderful Christians when all was going well; the sun was shining, the family was well, everything was perfect, and you would have thought that they were the best Christians in the country. But suddenly there is an illness and they seem to be shattered, they do not know what to do or where to turn, and they begin to doubt God. They say, "We were living the Christian life, and we were praying to God, and our lives had been committed to God; but look at what is happening. Why should this happen to us?" They begin to doubt God and all His gracious dealings with them. Do such people need 'a bit of comfort'? Do they need the church simply as a kind of soporific or tranquillizer? Do they only need something which will make them feel a little happier, and lift the burden a little while they are in the church? Their real trouble is that they lack an understanding of the Christian faith. They have an utterly inadequate notion of what Christianity means. Their idea of Christianity was: "Believe in Christ and you will never have another trouble or problem; God will bless you, nothing will ever go wrong with you"; whereas the Scripture itself teaches that 'through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God' (Acts 14:22), or as the Apostle expresses it elsewhere, 'In nothing be terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake' (Philippians 1:28-29). Our Lord says, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world' (John 16:33). There is nothing which is so wrong, and so utterly false, as to fail to see the primary importance of true doctrine." --Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Heresies

Make Mine Freedom-1948

2009-11-12T01:08:00.004-05:00

Somebody please show this video to Obama and the liberals in Congress who are methodically destroying freedom in this country.

God Bless America. He is our only real hope:

Dismantling America, Part II

2009-11-07T18:50:00.007-05:00

Many years ago, at a certain academic institution, there was an experimental program that the faculty had to vote on as to whether or not it should be made permanent.

I rose at the faculty meeting to say that I knew practically nothing about whether the program was good or bad, and that the information that had been supplied to us was too vague for us to have any basis for voting, one way or the other. My suggestion was that we get more concrete information before having a vote.

The director of that program rose immediately and responded indignantly and sarcastically to what I had just said -- and the faculty gave him a standing ovation.

After the faculty meeting was over, I told a colleague that I was stunned and baffled by the faculty's fierce response to my simply saying that we needed more information before voting.

"Tom, you don't understand," he said. "Those people need to believe in that man. They have invested so much hope and trust in him that they cannot let you stir up any doubts."

Years later, and hundreds of miles away, I learned that my worst misgivings about that program did not begin to approach the reality, which included organized criminal activity.

The memory of that long-ago episode has come back more than once while observing both the actions of the Obama administration and the fierce reactions of its supporters to any questioning or criticism.

Almost never do these reactions include factual or logical arguments against the administration's critics. Instead, there is indignation, accusations of bad faith and even charges of racism.

Here too, it seems as if so many people have invested so much hope and trust in Barack Obama that it is intolerable that anyone should come along and stir up any doubts that could threaten their house of cards.

Among the most pathetic letters and e-mails I receive are those from people who ask why I don't write more "positively" about Obama or "give him the benefit of the doubt."

No one -- not even the president of the United States -- has an entitlement to a "positive" response to his actions. The entitlement mentality has eroded the once common belief that you earned things, including respect, instead of being given them.

As for the benefit of the doubt, no one -- especially not the president of the United States -- is entitled to that, when his actions can jeopardize the rights of 300 million Americans domestically and the security of the nation in an international jungle, where nuclear weapons may soon be in the hands of people with suicidal fanaticism. Will it take a mushroom cloud over an American city to make that clear? Was 9/11 not enough?

When a president of the United States has begun the process of dismantling America from within, and exposing us to dangerous enemies outside, the time is long past for being concerned about his public image. He has his own press agents for that.

Internationally, Barack Obama has made every mistake that was made by the Western democracies in the 1930s, mistakes that put Hitler in a position to start World War II -- and come dangerously close to winning it.

At the heart of those mistakes was trying to mollify your enemies by throwing your friends to the wolves. The Obama administration has already done that by reneging on this country's commitment to put a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe and by its lackadaisical foot-dragging on doing anything serious to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That means, for all practical purposes, throwing Israel to the wolves as well.

Countries around the world that have to look out for their own national survival, above all, are not going to ignore how much Obama has downgraded the reliability of America's commitments.

Iraq, for example, knows that Iran is going to be next door forever while Americans may be gone in a few years. South Korea likewise knows that North Korea is permanently next door but who knows when the Obama administration will get a bright idea to pull out? Countries in South America know that Hugo Chavez is allying Venezuela with Iran. Dare they ally themselves with an unreliable U.S.A.? Or should they join our enemies to work against us?

This issue is too serious for squeamish silence.

Copyright 2009, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Evangelism Under the City

2009-10-30T21:51:00.001-04:00

Dismantling America

2009-10-28T23:33:00.002-04:00

by Thomas Sowell

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official -- not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate, but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President -- could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers -- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones?

Does any of this sound like America?

How about a federal agency giving school children material to enlist them on the side of the president? Merely being assigned to sing his praises in class is apparently not enough.

How much of America would be left if the federal government continued on this path? President Obama has already floated the idea of a national police force, something we have done without for more than two centuries.

We already have local police forces all across the country and military forces for national defense, as well as the FBI for federal crimes and the National Guard for local emergencies. What would be the role of a national police force created by Barack Obama, with all its leaders appointed by him? It would seem more like the brown shirts of dictators than like anything American.

How far the President will go depends of course on how much resistance he meets. But the direction in which he is trying to go tells us more than all his rhetoric or media spin.

Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to "change the United States of America," the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles, and the people of this country.

Jeremiah Wright said it with words: "God d--- America!" Bill Ayers said it with bombs that he planted. Community activist goons have said it with their contempt for the rights of other people.

Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans, to a captive audience of children.

Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House?

Nothing is more consistent with his lifelong patterns than putting such people in government -- people who reject American values, resent Americans in general and successful Americans in particular, as well as resenting America's influence in the world.

Any miscalculation on his part would be in not thinking that others would discover what these stealth appointees were like. Had it not been for the Fox News Channel, these stealth appointees might have remained unexposed for what they are. Fox News is now high on the administration's enemies list.

Nothing so epitomizes President Obama's own contempt for American values and traditions like trying to ram two bills through Congress in his first year -- each bill more than a thousand pages long -- too fast for either of them to be read, much less discussed. That he succeeded only the first time says that some people are starting to wake up. Whether enough people will wake up in time to keep America from being dismantled, piece by piece, is another question -- and the biggest question for this generation.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Dr. John MacArthur Calls Obama A "Non-Christian"

2009-10-26T21:23:00.000-04:00

Is Obama to Sign Away U.S. Sovereignty?

2009-10-25T20:44:00.002-04:00

I care for my country, and I think what this current administration is doing is wrong, so I make no apologies for spreading these warnings. Please listen:

Declaring War on "the Sinner's Prayer" by Paul Washer

2009-09-28T21:50:00.001-04:00

Hear this:

THE WAY WE APPROACH TRUTH

2009-09-19T00:22:00.002-04:00

"The present chasm between the generations has been brought about almost entirely by a change in the concept of truth. Wherever you look today the new concept holds the field. The consensus about us is almost monolithic, whether you review the arts, literature or just simply read the newspapers and magazines.... On every side you can feel the stranglehold of this new methodology—and by ‘methodology’ we mean the way we approach truth and knowing. ... And just as fog cannot be kept out by walls or doors, so this consensus comes in around us, till the room we live in is no longer distinct, and yet we hardly realize what has happened....

"Young people from Christian homes are brought up in the old framework of truth. Then they are subjected to the modern framework. In time they become confused because they do not understand the alternatives with which they are being presented. Confusion becomes bewilderment, and before long they are overwhelmed. This is unhappily true not only of young people, but of many pastors, Christian educators, evangelists and missionaries as well. So this change in the concept of the way we come to knowledge and truth is the most crucial problem... facing Christianity today.... The shift has been tremendous."

-Francis Schaeffer from "The God Who is There" (1968)

Environmental Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

2009-09-17T22:55:00.002-04:00

Here is a good article by Chuck Colson from thechristianpost.com on our society's warped view on the issue of environmentalism:

These are discouraging times for environmentalists. The momentum to adopt sweeping measures to combat man-made global warming has slowed, even ground to a halt in some places.

Australia and New Zealand, for example, have rejected and repealed their attempts to reduce CO2 emissions. And the French public is up in arms over the government’s plan to impose a “carbon tax.”

Even after all the scare stories, people are having second thoughts about the cost of-or even the need for-reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What’s needed, according to one prominent environmentalist, is a more reliable source of motivation-that is, religious belief.

At the British Science Association Festival, Lord May, the group’s president, said that population growth, climate change, and other environmental offenses “threaten our existence on this planet.”

This litany is a familiar one whose power, judging by recent events, has diminished. May, the former chief science adviser to the British government, told attendees that better motivation for changing behavior is needed.

So what better motivator than religion? May noted that “religion had historically played a major role in policing social behavior through the notion of a supernatural ‘enforcer.’” Since “religion may have helped protect human society from itself in the past,” it may be able to do it again by invoking this “supernatural punisher.”

Actually, what May wants isn’t so much the threat of punishment as the respect for authority and the obedience produced by religion, Christianity in particular. If people won’t reduce their carbon emissions for the sake of Mother Earth, perhaps they will do so for their Heavenly Father.

Mind you, Lord May is an “avowed atheist.” Still, as the British magazine Spiked summed it up, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”

For people who believe that “we are already exceeding the ecological footprint which Earth could sustain,” having others invoke a non-existent deity is a small price to pay for averting catastrophe.

The transparent cynicism of this appeal is almost amusing-what’s not is the willingness of religious people, including some Christians, to play along.

In providing a religious rationale for the policies of people like Lord May, they are not, as they suppose, caring for creation. As Robert Acuff pointed recently pointed out at our new website, ColsonCenter.org, the kind of environmentalism espoused by May and others is a kind of idolatry. It elevates the creation above the Creator-and everything else.

As I have said before, for this kind of environmentalism, the problem is people. “Nature” can only thrive if human beings are diminished. It’s why a new study by the London School of Economics, revealingly entitled “Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost,” concludes that contraception is the most cost-effective way to reduce global warming.

Christians ought to have no part in promoting this kind of anti-human environmentalism. If May and company desire the aid of a deity, well, their own idol will just have to do.

The Hijacking of 9/11

2009-09-11T23:33:00.002-04:00

By Jan Markell

The infamous date of 9/11 is about to be hijacked. This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with leading the nation along the path of the radical transformation of America. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated September 11 as a National Day of Service.

September 11 is hardly a sacred day. Those days belong to God. But it is one of the most memorable days in American history when 3,000 Americans died a horrible death just for being Americans. So what's wrong with the plans being made for this solemn day?

President Obama was counting on two Marxists who blame America for the 9/11 terrorist attacks to help turn September 11 from a day of solemn remembrance into an unseemly celebration of radical environmentalism and big government. One of them was Van Jones, a radical Marxist who thankfully stepped down this past weekend after Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and others revealed his perverse connections. The other is Lennox Yearwood, an ordained minister of the Church of God in Christ who is also a Marxist, wishing America no good.

As stated in The American Spectator, "about 60 groups including those associated with Yearwood and Jones, are planning to help the Obama administration greenwash the meaning of 9/11. They want to turn each September 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the importance of bicycle paths, ethanol, carbon emission controls, putting solar panels on your roof, and radical community organizing." Some of those groups are ACORN, the AFL-CIO, Friends of the Earth, Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, the Urban League, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and the unsavory left-wing pressure group Color of Change.

Though Jones stepped down a few days ago, one has to wonder why he was one of the appointees in the first place. What kind of judgment does a person have to appoint a Van Jones to a committee who after 9/11 stood with the terrorists? Just one day after 9/11, he held a vigil in which he expressed solidarity with Arab and Muslim Americans as well as "victims of U.S. imperialism around the world."

World Net Daily reports those who are opposed to health care reform are to be blasted as "right-wing domestic terrorists" on 9/11. As The Heritage Foundation says, "The Obama team has designed September 11 as the day to liken conservatives to al-Qaida terrorists."

The antics of the religious Left are not much better. The appointed guru of this movement is Jim Wallis, himself a Communist. Shane Claiborne, writing for Jim Wallis's magazine Sojourners, suggests remembering 9-11 by donating to Christian Peacemaking Teams (CPT). Clairborne writes,

"We lament the violence suffered by 9/11 victims and their families, and we lament the violence that people in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered these past eight years. We cry out against the violence, and we want to act now for peace."

Note the religious pacifist's moral equation. The U.S. suffered "violence" on 9-11. And Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered "violence" at the hands of the U.S. ever since then.

Sadly, this comes down to politics. The Left believes that 9/11 is a "Republican day" because it focuses on issues like patriotism, national security, and terrorism. According to the Left, 9/11 was long ago hijacked by Republicans and their enablers and unfairly used to bludgeon helpless Democrats at election time. The current plan is to turn a "day of fear" that helps Republicans into a day of activism called the "National Day of Service" that will help the Left. Nihilistic liberals are planning to drain 9/11 of all its real meaning.

September 11 is a national day of mourning and not a day for service projects led by hard-core Leftists and Marxists. Taking the focus off the events of 9/11 disrespects and dishonors the memory of those who died. But we must never forget that God had His hand on America that day. The terrorists had hoped to kill hundreds of thousands. Their plans were foiled. As horrific as the day and its aftermath were, remember that it could have been 100 times worse.

Rather than politicizing this event, how about spiritualizing it? Use the time to pray for America and thank God that He has kept us safe for eight years. How much longer will He have mercy on this nation?

And remember that 3,000 people got up that morning thinking life would go on a lot longer for them. It came to an abrupt and agonizing end. The same could happen to you. Eternity spent in the right place will be glorious. Eternity spent in the wrong place is unthinkable because forever is a very long time. If you are unsure of your salvation, I encourage you to turn your life over to the Lord Jesus today -- while there is still time. There may not be time tomorrow.

Awaiting His return,

Jan Markell

"Persecution or Great Awakening?" by Paul Washer

2009-09-09T23:31:00.001-04:00

Great insight from our brother Paul Washer:

Outside the Camp

2009-09-03T22:11:00.002-04:00

by Charles Spurgeon:

"JESUS, BEARING HIS cross, went forth to suffer outside the gate. The Christian’s reason for leaving the camp of the world’s sin and religion is not because he loves to be singular, but because Jesus did so; and the disciple must follow his Master.

Christ was “not of the world.” His life and His testimony were a constant protest against conformity with the world. Never was such overflowing affection for men as you find in Him; but still He was separate from sinners.

In like manner Christ’s people must “go out to Him.” They must take their position “outside the camp,” as witness-bearers for the truth. They must be prepared to tread the straight and narrow path. They must have bold, unflinching, lion-like hearts, loving Christ first, and His truth next, and Christ and His truth beyond all the world. Jesus would have His people “go forth outside the camp” for their own sanctification.

You cannot grow in grace to any high degree while you are conformed to the world. The life of separation may be a path of sorrow, but it is the highway of safety; and though the separated life may cost you many pangs, and make every day a battle, yet it is a happy life after all.

No joy can excel that of the soldier of Christ: Jesus reveals Himself so graciously, and gives such sweet refreshment, that the warrior feels more calm and peace in his daily strife that others in their hours of rest. The highway of holiness is the highway of communion. It is thus we shall hope to win the crown if we are enabled by divine grace faithfully to follow Christ “outside the camp.”

The crown of glory will follow the cross of separation. A moment’s shame will be well recompensed by eternal honor; a little while of witness-bearing will seem nothing when we are “forever with the Lord."

The Reaction & Revulsion of a Holy Nature

2009-08-29T00:21:00.002-04:00

This was posted on Challies.com. I found it to be a helpful reminder of God's just displeasure with our sin.

What makes you angry? We all have our triggers, don’t we? We all have certain things, certain situations, certain affronts to our dignity or pride that stir anger within. I know I’ve got mine. And actually, I know quite a lot about anger, as Aileen could attest (and probably will if you think to ask her!). When she and I talk about God’s grace in our lives, and evidence of it, she will often point this out—that God has mellowed me, taken away that anger that often bubbled within and occasionally boiled over. When I moved out of my parents’ home on the day I got married, I left behind a hole in the wall (hidden from their view by a strategically-placed poster) that I had smashed in a fit of anger a few months before. At one of the first homes Aileen and I lived in I cracked a door frame when I tried to smash it shut, once more in a fit of stupid anger. My immature anger just sometimes boiled over and got me into trouble. I always felt like an idiot after acting out, but in the moment my anger got the better of me; I often surrendered to it. I am profoundly grateful that God, in his mercy, has blessed me and blessed my family by taking away much of the immaturity, the irrationality, the lack of self-control that caused me to lash out like an angry toddler. I still known what it is to be angry, but no longer tend toward violent reaction.

As I sat yesterday and pondered anger I eventually turned to a dictionary to seek a definition of it. According to one, anger is a strong feeling of displeasure, a kind of belligerence aroused by a wrong. And from experience I can say it is equally likely that it is anger aroused by a perceived wrong. If someone truly wrongs me, I may well express anger and do so with some justification. If someone slights me or otherwise damages my pride, it may also cause me to act angry but with no justification at all. Anger is inherently reactive, awaiting a trigger and then waiting to react in accordance with my nature.

I think we’ve all met angry people, haven’t we? People who react to tough situations with anger and people who often act out in this anger. Such people may react in surprising, unexpected and terrifying ways. They act as they do out of emotion. And anger is not one of those enjoyable emotions. It may channel a strange, sick kind of pleasure for a moment or two, but like all sin, it very quickly loses its luster. There is something scary about seeing a person act out in anger. And the bigger that person, the more powerful his position, the greater the fear. If my three year-old gets angry and lashes out, I am bothered but not much afraid. But if I were to become angry and act out in anger, she would rightly be terrified because of what I could, I might, do to her in my emotion.

It is little wonder that man fears an angry God. If we believe that God is so much greater than we are, so much stronger, so much more powerful, and if we believe that God is capable of anger and wrath, then we have little choice but to fear him as a child may fear a parent. And, indeed, man’s history with deity, whether with the true God or with any number of idols has often been a position of terror, seeking by deed or sacrifice to appease his wrath. And so often, I think, we confuse human anger with divine wrath, imposing our own sinful, irrational, emotional anger upon God’s just, perfect, holy wrath. So no wonder, then, that we seek to appease him, to assuage our guilty consciences and to hope against hope that we may have turned aside his wrath for another day.

And here it strikes me just how different the wrath of God is from my anger, from what we see in most human anger. Charles Leiter has said it well: “God’s wrath is not a temporary loss of self-control or a selfish fit of emotion. It is His holy, white-hot hatred of sin, the reaction and revulsion of His holy nature against all that is evil.” God’s wrath is revulsion. It is not mere emotion and is not at all irrational. It is so much more than emotion. You may know what it is to be revulsed. Some time ago I heard of a woman who, upon finding out that her husband had been cheating on her, immediately vomited. It was as if her whole body was so affronted, so repulsed by her husband’s sin that it acted all on its own. Revulsion may be our reaction to a lukewarm sip of water when we were expecting ice cold or piping hot. We spew it out, repulsed. And this is sin to God. God’s wrath is a holy reaction, it is a holy and white-hot hatred of all that is evil. This is a good and just and fair reaction to something that is absolutely, fundamentally opposed to God’s very nature. For sin is against all that he is and all that he wants us to be.

God’s reaction to sin is the good and the necessary, the absolute best and perfectly just reaction. He will not act rashly in anger but will act justly in wrath. He will express this wrath against all sin. He must express this wrath against sin, for sin opposes all that he is as the perfectly holy creator of all that is. And how good it is, when we ponder God’s wrath, to know that his wrath has already been satisfied for those who trust in him. For there on the cross, Jesus Christ took that wrath upon himself on behalf all those who were his own. There God required the just penalty due for that sin. And there the Father found perfect, eternal satisfaction for his wrath. And there you and I can turn our eyes and turn our hearts and trust and believe and know that Jesus Christ has paid it all and has paid it for us if only we cast ourselves upon him.

A Puritan Prayer

2009-08-17T03:05:00.001-04:00

Great God,  in public and private, in sanctuary and home,  may my life be steeped in prayer,  filled with the spirit of grace and supplication,  each prayer perfumed with the incense of atoning blood.  Help me, defend me, until from praying ground  I pass to the realm of unceasing praise.  Urged by my need, invited by Thy promises,  called by Thy Spirit,  I enter Thy presence, worshipping Thee with godly fear,  awed by Thy majesty, greatness, glory,  but encouraged by Thy love.
I am all poverty as well as all guilt,  having nothing of my own with which to repay Thee,  but I bring Jesus to Thee in the arms of faith,  pleading His righteousness to offset my iniquities,  rejoicing that He will weigh down the scales for me,  and satisfy thy justice.  I bless Thee that great sin draws out great grace,  that, although the lest sin deserves infinite punishment  because done against an infinite God,  yet there is mercy for me, for where guilt is most terrible,  there Thy mercy in Christ is most free and deep.  Bless me by revealing to me more of His saving merits,  by causing Thy goodness to pass before me,  by speaking peace to my contrite heart;  strengthen me to give Thee no rest  untiI Christ shall reign supreme within me  in every thought, word, and deed,  in a faith that purifies the heart, overcomes the world,  works by love, fastens me to Thee, and ever clings to the cross.

What Will They Do In Heaven?

2009-08-04T09:42:00.000-04:00

“Look at the greater part of those who are called Christians, in every part throughout the land…What are the tastes and pleasures of the majority of the people who live there?…Observe the manner in which they spend their Sundays. Mark how little delight they seem to feel in the Bible and prayer. Take notice of the low and earthly notions of pleasure and happiness which everywhere prevail, among young and old—among rich and poor. Mark well these things—and then think quietly over this question: ‘What would these people do in heaven?’“

~ J.C. Ryle; Regeneration, p. 26.

You Might Be Emergent If...

2009-07-28T19:35:00.004-04:00

I didn't write this but it's good. It's from Tim Challies' newsletter quoting Kevin DeYoung from the book he co-authored entitled Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be)

You might be Emergent If...

"...you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash's Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings, and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D. A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu; if you don't like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity; if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage; if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty; if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life; if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant; if you search for truth but aren't sure it can be found; if you've ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn't count); if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naive, and rigid; if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic; if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe who goes to hell is no one's business and no one may be there anyway; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us; if you disdain monological, didactic preaching; if you use the word "story" in all your propositions about postmodernism--if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian."

The Prayer Meeting

2009-07-11T19:54:00.001-04:00

"It is good for us to draw nigh unto God in prayer. Our minds are grieved to see so little attention given to united prayer by many churches. How can we expect a blessing if we are too idle to ask for it? How can we look for a Pentecost if we never meet with one another, in one place, to wait upon the Lord? Brethren, we shall never see much change for the better in our churches till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians."

-- Charles Spurgeon from his sermon, "The Kind of Revival We Need"

Give God No Rest...

2009-06-23T21:50:00.002-04:00

Challies.com had an old Puritan prayer in his post. The last sentence spoke to me the most. I hope this becomes my life one day:

"strengthen me to give Thee no rest  untiI Christ shall reign supreme within me  in every thought, word, and deed,  in a faith that purifies the heart, overcomes the world,  works by love, fastens me to Thee, and ever clings to the cross."

A Man's Good Opinion of Himself

2009-06-15T22:21:00.004-04:00

"In all unbelief there are these two things--a good opinion of one's self and a bad opinion of God. Man's good opinion of himself makes him think it quite possible to win God's favor by his own religious performances; and his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case wholly into His hands. The object of the Holy Spirit's work (in convincing of sin) is to alter the sinner's opinion of himself, and so to reduce his estimate of his own character that he shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by an excellency of his own. The Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that the God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace.

But the inquirer denies that he has a good opinion of himself and owns himself a sinner. Now a man may SAY this, but really to KNOW it is something more than SAYING. Besides, he may be willing to take the name of sinner to himself, in common with his fellow-men, and yet not at all own himself such a sinner as God says he is--such a sinner as needs the cross, and blood, and righteousness of the Son of God. It takes a great deal to destroy a man's good opinion of himself; how difficult it is to make a man think of himself as God does! What but the almightiness of the Divine Spirit can accomplish this?

Unbelief, then, is the belief of a lie and the rejection of the truth. Accept, then, the character of God as given in the gospel; the Holy Spirit will not give you peace irrespective of your views of God's character. It is in connection with THE TRUTH concerning the true God, "the God of all grace," that the Spirit gives peace. That which He shows us of ourselves is only evil; that which He shows us of God is only good!"

--Horatius Bonar (1808 - 1889)

Little Sins

2009-06-04T23:25:00.003-04:00

Beware of "little sins". If not repented of, they always lead to much worse.

"Oh! take heed of those small beginnings of sin. Beginnings of sin are like the letting out of water: first, there is an ooze; then a drip; then a slender stream; then a vein of water; and then, at last, a flood: and a rampart is swept before it, a continent is drowned. Take heed of small beginnings, for they lead to worse."

--Charles Spurgeon, Sermons Preached and Revised by C. H. Spurgeon: Sixth Series, p. 205, published 1860

Dirty-Mouthed Christians

2009-05-30T16:00:00.004-04:00

Here is a timely topic from A.W. Tozer. He offers a point of view which needs to be considered in our culture of reckless speech, in many cases within the church, unfortunately.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers… Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 4:29; 5:4)

"One of the most shocking things in the church is the dirty-mouthed Christian who always walks on the borderline. There is no place for borderline stories that embarrass some people, and there is nothing about sex or the human body that is funny if your mind is clear.

There was once a gathering of officers, and George Washington was present in the room. One of the young officers began to think about a dirty story that he wanted to tell, and got a smirk on his face. He looked around and said, “I’m thinking of a story. I guess their are no ladies present.”

Washington straightened up and said, “No, young man, but there are gentlemen.” The young officer shut his mouth and kept the dirty story inside his dirty head and heart. Anything you could not tell with Jesus present, do not tell. Anything you could not laugh at were Jesus present, do not laugh at.

What an important reminder, Lord! Keep my thoughts pure. Amen."

(A.W. Tozer, Tozer on Christian Leadership, May 30)

Soldiers From Iraq

2009-05-23T17:49:00.006-04:00

Here is a neat little story I found online. It shows how many American citizens, like me, are proud of the sacrifice our Armed Forces are making to defend us from terrorism.

God bless these soldiers and the many who served before them in defense of our nation's freedom.

Happy Memorial Day!

~~~

Soldiers from Iraq
at the Baltimore Airport
By Will Ross

"I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control. Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got on the PA and said this,

"Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you and we love you."

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heart-felt applause. The soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it happen."

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense

AGONY by Leonard Ravenhill

2009-05-20T23:15:00.000-04:00

HARD TIMES AHEAD by Paul Proctor

2009-05-15T20:34:00.002-04:00

It’s time to prepare for hard times, my friends. And, if you’re a bible believing, Christ-following Christian, I believe the coming years will be particularly troublesome. I say “bible-believing, Christ-following Christian” because our degenerating culture has all but stripped the biblical definition of the word “Christian” from today’s collective conscience so that it has lost much of it’s scriptural meaning, even among many of today’s attending church members.

The enemies of Christ have clearly risen to great power in this country and are, as I write, busy endeavoring to finish off what remains of the church for the purpose of replacing it with a god and religion more suitable for global government. Though they may well in time take possession of the many debt-heavy mega churches and other grand houses of worship around the country in order to turn them into federally-subsidized community centers for faith-based social services, they won’t be successful at completely silencing or eliminating the true body of Christ who will likely be forced to abandon them in order to keep hearing and proclaiming God’s Word uncensored. Unless the Lord Himself intervenes to alter the current course of events, those now in power will most certainly rule over us for a season – and an arduous one at that.

Considering the unbiblical and unconstitutional legislation at hand, it’s looking more and more like faithful Christians could soon be viewed as enemies of the state for no other reason than having believed, proclaimed and obeyed the Word of God. Not only is the church being attacked from without, it is also being undermined from within by charlatans who would transform it into something more spiritually pliable, socially useful and dialectically accommodating.

I believe Christians will again and again be called upon to choose whom we will serve in the coming days in ways that will bring more persecution and suffering than we are accustomed to, requiring a spiritual farsightedness and desire for the eternal things of God over the temporal rewards of this world.

We need to be ready. We need to be willing. And we need to be empowered, not by the mere passion of patriotic zeal, but by the Holy Spirit of God and His Word. It is not we against them – it is an angry and rebellious world against God, and we would do well to remember that when the devil comes knocking at our door demanding more tolerance, diversity and unity.

Vengeance is not ours – that belongs to the Lord, as He clearly states in His Word. Those who live by the sword will surely die by it – again, not my words – His.

When our Constitution and Bill of Rights are completely discarded for the New World Order, there will be no going back to the way things were. There will only be the Word of God to edify, encourage, inspire and sustain us through the hard times ahead. Those who understand and appreciate the power of that Word know very well what I’m talking about. Those who don’t will ignore it at their own peril because to them, it is foolishness.

Best we get into His Word now more earnestly and take it to heart in preparation for a time when bibles are no longer allowed or even legal, than get caught spiritually ignorant and scripturally unarmed when temptation and tribulation come.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.“ – Hebrews 4:12

SHIPWRECKS

2009-04-25T13:49:00.004-04:00

"Alas! how many young converts have made shipwreck against such churches. Instead of being a harbor of delight to them, they have proved false lights, alluring them to destruction. Isn’t it time for us to get down on our faces before God and cry mightily to Him to forgive us our sins. The quicker we own it the better. You may be invited to a party, and it may be made up of church members, and what will be the conversation? Oh, I got so sick of such parties that I left years ago; I would not think of spending a night that way; it is a waste of time; there is hardly a chance to say a word for the Master. If you talk of a personal Christ, your company becomes offensive; they don’t like it; they want you to talk about the world, about a popular minister, a popular church, a good organ, a good choir, and they say, "Oh, we have a grand organ, and a superb choir," and all that, and it suits them; but that don’t warm the Christian heart. When you speak of a risen Christ and a personal Savior, they don’t like it; the fact is, the world has come into the church and taken possession of it, and what we want to do is to wake up and ask God to forgive us for ‘Grieving the Spirit."

Dear reader. search your heart and inquire, Have I done anything to grieve the Spirit of God? If you have, may God show it to you today; if you have done any thing to grieve the Spirit of God, you want to know it today, and get down on your face before God and ask Him to forgive you and help you to put it away. I have lived long enough to know that if I can not have the power of the Spirit of God on me to help me to work for Him, I would rather die, than live just for the sake of living. How many are there in the church today, who have been members for fifteen or twenty years, but have never done a solitary thing for Jesus Christ? They can not lay their hands upon one solitary soul who has been blessed through their influence; they can not point today to one single person who has ever been lifted up by them.

--D.L. Moody

The Evangelical Abomination

2009-04-18T18:34:00.004-04:00

This is a great video by Phil Johnson from the 2009 Shepherd's Conference...

Are We Offering Our Children To Molech?

2009-03-31T23:41:00.004-04:00

"…modern liberal theology is more heinous than following the Molech of old.

Do you know the facts concerning Molech? Molech, whose idol was in the valley of Hinnon, was a heathen god whom the Jews were constantly warned against following. What kind of a god was Molech? He was the god of the sacrifice of newborn babies. This was the central act of his worship: the firstborn of every woman’s body had to be sacrificed to Molech. According to one tradition, there was an opening at the back of the brazen idol, and after a fire was made within it, each parent had to come and with his own hands place his firstborn child in the white-hot, out-stretched hands of Molech. According to this tradition, the parent was not allowed to show emotion, and drums were beaten so that the baby’s cries could not be heard as the baby died in the hands of Molech. And there, I would say, stand many in our day.

Many of those who come to me, those with whom I work, are the children destroyed by a worse than Molech. Men--men who were supposedly the men of God--have stood by while their children were eaten up by modern theology. And then we are told that there is supposed to be no emotion shown.

Some of you who read this bear the marks of these things from the background from which you come. All of us are marked by this in some way, to some extent, because our Western, post-Christian world has been undercut by liberal theology. Every scar this present generation has, every tear cried, every baby aborted, every drug trip taken, cannot be separated from the fact that the church has turned away and become unfaithful. This generation are the babies in the hands of Molech. And are we supposed to stand by and hear their cries and cover them up by beating loudly the drums of a profitless discussion? No, we are to weep and to act."

--Francis Schaeffer, Adultery and Apostasy: The Bride and Bridegroom
Taken from The Works of Francis Schaeffer

God Uses Bold Men

2009-03-21T01:11:00.001-04:00
"The gospel of Christ does not move by popular waves. It has no self-propagating power. It moves as the men who have charge of it move. The preacher must impersonate the gospel. Its divine, most distinctive features must be embodied in him. The constraining power of love must be in the preacher as a projecting, eccentric, an all-commanding, self-oblivious force. The energy of self-denial must be his being, his heart and blood and bones. He must go forth as a man among men, clothed with humility, abiding in meekness, wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove; the bonds of a servant with the spirit of a king, a king in high, royal, in dependent bearing, with the simplicity and sweetness of a child. The preacher must throw himself, with all the abandon of a perfect, self-emptying faith and a self-consuming zeal, into his work for the salvation of men. Hearty, heroic, compassionate, fearless martyrs must the men be who take hold of and shape a generation for God. If they be timid time servers, place seekers, if they be men pleasers or men fearers, if their faith has a weak hold on God or his Word, if their denial be broken by any phase of self or the world, they cannot take hold of the Church nor the world for God."

--E.M. Bounds (1835-1913), Power Through Prayer

What It Means to Be a M.A.N.

2009-03-15T20:55:00.003-04:00
Mature
- In honorable, holy, responsible behavior (1 Thess. 4:3-5).
- In God honoring work (1 Thess. 4:11-12).
- In wisdom and understanding (2 Tim. 2:15).

Accountable
- To God (2 Tim. 2:15)
- To Family (Eph. 5:21-31)
- To the Church (Heb. 3:12-13)

Nurturing
- As provider & protector of the family (1 Tim. 5:8).
- As gentle & humble to all (Col: 3.12, Titus 3:2).
- As defender of the weak, the young, the old (1 Tim. 5:1-3, Prov. 31:8-9).

Obama's Cloward-Piven Strategy

2009-03-09T22:04:00.007-04:00
Is this country's economic collapse deliberate? Could this be an intentional and strategic move toward Socialism by the radical left Obama administration?

If you think this sound too far-fetched to be true, THIS ARTICLE might give you reason to think otherwise.

Similarly, THIS AUDIO describing the Cloward-Piven Stradegy may cause you to stop and seriously consider whether or not this in fact is true.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:

"First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse."

David Horowitz summarizes the Cloward-Piven Strategy as:

"The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse."

and from Newsmax:

"Their strategy to create political, financial, and social chaos that would result in revolution blended Alinsky concepts with their more aggressive efforts at bringing about a change in U.S. government. To achieve their revolutionary change, Cloward and Piven sought to use a cadre of aggressive organizers assisted by friendly news media to force a re-distribution of the nation's wealth."

If God is So Powerful and So Good, Why Do Bad Things Happen? by Voddie Baucham

2009-03-05T23:58:00.001-05:00
This is excellent:

Get Your Texts From God

2009-03-03T23:08:00.000-05:00
“Get your texts from God—your thoughts, your words, from God. In great measure, according to the purity and perfections of the instrument, will be success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God’s Spirit, is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin.”

-–Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813–1843)

The Kind of Men God Used

2009-02-27T08:39:00.006-05:00
Horatius Bonar, writing the preface to John Gillies' Accounts of Revival, proposes that men useful to the Holy Spirit for revival have been marked in these nine ways:

1. They were in earnest about the great work on which they had entered: "They lived and labored and preached like men on whose lips the immortality of thousands hung."

2. They were bent on success: "As warriors, they set their hearts on victory and fought with the believing anticipation of triumph, under the guidance of such a Captain as their head."

3. They were men of faith: "They knew that in due season they should reap, if they fainted not."

4. They were men of labor: "Their lives are the annals of incessant, unwearied toil of body and soul; time, strength, substance, health, all they were and possessed they freely offered to the Lord, keeping back nothing, grudging nothing."

5. They were men of patience: "Day after day they pursued what, to the eye of the world, appeared a thankless and fruitless round of toil."

6. They were men of boldness and determination: "Timidity shuts many a door of usefulness and loses many a precious opportunity; it wins no friends, while it strengthens every enemy. Nothing is lost by boldness, nor gained by fear."

7. They were men of prayer: "They were much alone with God, replenishing their own souls out of the living fountain, that out of them might flow to their people rivers of living water."

8. They were men whose doctrines were of the most decided kind: "Their preaching seems to have been of the most masculine and fearless kind, falling on the audience with tremendous power. It was not vehement, it was not fierce, it was not noisy; it was far too solemn to be such; it was massive, weighty, cutting, piercing, sharper than a two-edged sword."

9. They were men of solemn deportment and deep spirituality of soul: "No frivolity, no flippancy . . . . The world could not point to them as being but slightly dissimilar from itself."

Hat Tip: christisdeeperstill.blogspot.com

THE OCCULT, CONTEMPLATIVE SPIRITUALITY, AND HITLER

2009-02-23T00:15:00.004-05:00
Is it possible for Americans to fall under a similar delusion? I think so.

We need to be very careful, especially when multitudes upon multitudes of people are enthralled and enamored with a political leader

This is interesting to watch:

PART ONE:

PART TWO:

HT: Christian Research Network.com

True Faith Requires Thinking

2009-02-15T22:22:00.007-05:00
"Faith according to our Lord's teaching in this paragraph [Matthew 6], is primarily thinking; and the whole trouble with a man of little faith is that he does not think. He allows circumstances to bludgeon him. ... We must spend more time in studying our Lord's lessons in observation and deduction. The Bible is full of logic, and we must never think of faith as something purely mystical. We do not just sit down in an armchair and expect marvelous things to happen to us. That is not Christian faith.

Christian faith is essentially thinking. Look at the birds, think about them, draw your deductions. Look at the grass, look at the lilies of the field, consider them. ... Faith, if you like, can be defined like this: It is a man insisting upon thinking when everything seems determined to bludgeon and knock him down in an intellectual sense. The trouble with the person of little faith is that, instead of controlling his own thought, his thought is being controlled by something else, and, as we put it, he goes round and round in circles. That is the essence of worry. ... That is not thought; that is the absence of thought, a failure to think."

--Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Obama's Revolutionary Neo-Marxist Views

2009-02-14T18:29:00.014-05:00
Is the information in THIS AUDIO true? Is even 25% of it true? If so, I have to say, we may be seeing the end of a free America.

R.I.P. America (July 4, 1776 - January 20, 2009).

Below is a summary of THE AUDIO:

"Have you ever heard of Saul Alinsky, do you know what he proclaimed? President Obama is a disciple of this Neo-Marxist and taught his ideas for years as a community organizer. Saul authored the book, "Rules for Radicals" and used the word "change" over and over. By change Saul meant, "Revolution". He called for destruction of Christianity, the middle class and capitalism. Saul called for his followers to disorganize and then re-organize. Chaos is their friend. Saul writes that his book was dedicated to the first rebel known to man who rebelled against the establishment-Lucifer.

Michelle Obama during her Democratic National Convention speech quoted her husband quoting Alinsky.

Please listen and forward to all your family and friends. Americans must understand the worldview that will usher in Neo-Marxism."

Click HERE to listen.

I think we need to be praying for this president to REPENT! and GET SAVED!

Enemies of Totalitarianism

2009-02-14T00:18:00.003-05:00
"Let us not forget why the Christians were killed. They were not killed because they worshiped Jesus.... Nobody cared who worshiped whom so long as the worshiper did not disrupt the unity of the state, centered in the formal worship of Caesar. The reason the Christians were killed was because they were rebels....

"If they had worshiped Jesus and Caesar, they would have gone unharmed, but they rejected all forms of syncretism. They worshiped the God who had revealed himself in the Old Testament, through Christ.... And they worshiped him as the only God. They allowed no mixture: All other Gods were seen as false gods....

"No totalitarian authority nor authoritarian state can tolerate those who have an absolute by which to judge that state.... Because the Christians had an absolute... standard by which to judge not only personal morals but the state, they were counted as enemies of totalitarian Rome and were thrown to the beasts."

- Francis Schaeffer, How Should We then Live?, 1976, pps. 24, 26, 29.

Christians Afraid of Conflict

2009-02-05T19:42:00.004-05:00
"Christianity today is in conflict; in conflict against the secular world; in conflict with world religions—which are hostile to us—in conflict against the Kingdom of the Cults—and the Occult; in conflict against corrupt theology in our theological seminaries—and oftentimes in our pulpits; in conflict against all forms of evil surrounding us on all sides. And it is a foolish person indeed, who does not recognize that the Church was born in conflict; lives in conflict, and will triumph in conflict. We have been called to be soldiers of the Cross.

And if we’re going to be soldiers of the Cross that means that we have to be attired to fight. That’s why Paul could say here in 2 Timothy, chapter 4 — I have fought the good fight [v. 7]. He did not say, “I have taken the long vacation.” I have fought the good fight, I finished the course, I kept the faith. But the problem we are facing today in Christianity—and one of the reasons why we are in crisis—is this: A large section of the Christian Chruch simply will not come into conflict with the world. And that, is one of our greatest drawbacks"

--DR. WALTER MARTIN: CHRISTIANITY IN CRISIS OF CONFLICT, 1985

Two Women with ZERO Discernment

2009-01-30T22:51:00.015-05:00
Don't just take my word for it, watch for yourself:

Ahhh, contemplative prayer...the "what's in it for me" prayer, or the "what can I get out of it?" prayer. Just go through these steps, push the right buttons, and voilà, you too can "experience" the presence of God.

These women are sincere. Unfortunately they are sincerely deceived.

Don't get fooled into engaging in this dangerous practice.

Here are some articles which explain the unbiblical dangers of Contemplative Prayer.

What is Contemplative Prayer?

Contemplative Prayer and the Evangelical Church

Contemplative Prayer: Seducing Spirits and a Doctrine of Devils

John MacArthur on How To Change The Nation

2009-01-26T21:18:00.004-05:00
As posted on Christian Research Network:

White House Promoting 'Anti-Christian' Policies?

2009-01-24T17:56:00.004-05:00
Here is an article from OneNewsNow.com:

A leading conservative activist says President Obama has already signaled, during his first days in office, that his administration will be the most "extreme, left-wing, and discriminatory" in American history.

President Obama's plans to cater to the priorities of homosexual activists are laid out under a section called "Civil Rights" on the website WhiteHouse.gov.

The website makes clear Obama's intention to expand federal hate crimes statutes to include extra punishment for crimes that are deemed to be motivated by bias against one's sexual orientation or gender identity. The site also stresses Obama's support for homosexual civil unions and expanded adoption rights for homosexuals, as well as his desire to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (a.k.a., DOMA).

Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel, believes many Americans will be shocked to find out just how radical some of Obama's positions are on social issues.

"I certainly cannot judge whether or not Barack Obama has a relationship with Christ. That's between him and God, and only they know that. However, scripture tells us that you will be known by your fruits, and here Barack Obama is promoting counter-biblical, anti-Christian policies," he contends. "[These are] policies that elevate deviant sexual behaviors and dangerous sexual behaviors that are destructive spiritually, physically and emotionally, and certainly -- when embraced as Barack Obama has embraced them -- are destructive societally."

Barber adds that "for all the talk of hope, change and coming together, it's becoming abundantly clear that Barack Obama's administration will be the most leftist, divisive, and discriminatory in recent memory."

Don't Pamper Your Doubts

2009-01-20T22:29:00.003-05:00
Don't Pamper Your Doubts
Your weekly dose of Spurgeon by Phil Johnson

~~~

I Shall not dwell so much upon this particular instance of the disciples' unbelief as upon the fact that the Lord Jesus upbraided them because of it. This action of his shows us the way in which unbelief is to be treated by us.

As our loving Saviour felt it to be right rather to upbraid than to console, he taught us that on some occasions, unbelief should be treated with severity rather than with condolence.

Beloved friends, let us never look upon our own unbelief as an excusable infirmity, but let us always regard it as a sin, and as a great sin, too. Whatever excuse you may at any time make for others,—and I pray you to make excuses for them whenever you can rightly do so,—never make any for yourself. In that case, be swift to condemn.

I am not at all afraid that, as a general rule, we shall err on the side of harshness to ourselves. No; we are far too ready to palliate our own wrong-doing, to cover up our own faults and to belittle our own offenses. I very specially urge every believer in Jesus to deal most sternly with himself in this matter of unbelief. If he turns the back of the judicial knife towards others, let him always turn the keen edge of it towards himself. In that direction use your sharpest eye and your most severely critical judgment. If you see any fault in yourself, you may depend upon it that the fault is far greater than it appears to be; therefore, deal more sternly with it.

It is a very easy thing for us to get into a desponding state of heart, and to mistrust the promises and faithfulness of God, and yet, all the while, to look upon ourselves as the subjects of a disease which we cannot help, and even to claim pity at the hands of our fellow-men, and to think that they should condole with us, and try to cheer us.

Perhaps they should; but, at any rate, we must not think that they should. It will be far wiser for each one of us to feel, "This unbelief of mine is a great wrong in the sight of God. He has never given me any occasion for it, and I am doing him a cruel injustice by thus doubting him. I must not idly sit down, and say, This has come upon me like a fever, or a paralysis, which I cannot help; but I must rather say, 'This is a great sin, in which I must no longer indulge; but I must confess my unbelief, with shame and self-abasement, to think that there should be in me this evil heart of unbelief.'"

Pray Obama Fails?

2009-01-20T00:04:00.004-05:00
This article by Joseph Farah explains why:

Many American Christians believe, as an article of faith, that we are to pray for the success of our leaders.

It has become a sort of conventional wisdom among soft-minded believers. The biblical proof-text for this misguided way of thinking is Romans 13:1-4:

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

"Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

"For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

"For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."

What could be more clear-cut? At face value, it would seem the Bible is telling us government is a God-ordained good and that we are not to resist its terrors.

Many a coward has been bolstered in his conviction against challenging tyranny by not reading too deeply into the Scriptures. Yet, nowhere does the Bible ever suggest evil rulers are to be obeyed. When the rule of men conflicts with the commands of God, the Bible leaves no doubt about where we should stand.

That's why I do not hesitate today in calling on godly Americans to pray that Barack Hussein Obama fail in his efforts to change our country from one anchored on self-governance and constitutional republicanism to one based on the raw and unlimited power of the central state.

It would be folly to pray for his success in such an evil campaign.

I want Obama to fail because his agenda is 100 percent at odds with God's. Pretending it is not simply makes a mockery of God's straightforward Commandments.

So you will not see me joining in the ritual of affirming Obama and his mission in public or private prayer this week – or any other week.

Instead, I uphold the words of Jesus in Matthew 15:14: "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." And I take warning from Isaiah 9:16: "For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed."

And please don't tell me about "rendering unto Caesar."

It's important to consider the circumstances and the audience behind Jesus' instructions to "render unto Caesar." The Sadducees were attempting to trap Jesus into advocating open contempt for Caesar. He recognized their wicked and hypocritical little game and answered them with a totally truthful response that astonished everyone.

But think about it. There are two components to Jesus' words. We are to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," but we are also to "render unto God the things that are God's." Well, everything ultimately belongs to God. But, most of all, this injunction by Jesus instructs us that government laws cannot trump God's laws – ever.

If government commands you to do evil, as a Christian you must resist. There is no alternative. Citing the "render unto Caesar" line is an apologetic for accountability to God – nothing more, nothing less.

Furthermore, it needs to be pointed out that in America we don't have a Caesar. Never have, never will. You see, our system of government is called a free republic, and it is based on the concept of constitutional self-government. We have no "rulers" in America – except ourselves and our God. We believe in the rule of law, not the rule of men.

This is an important distinction, not a semantic one.

Nowhere in the Bible does it teach us to obey evil rulers. Nowhere.

This is a time for principled biblical resistance, not phony Christian appeasement.

Hate Crimes Bill -A Threat to Biblical Teaching

2009-01-12T20:26:00.002-05:00
From OneNewsNow.com:

A Christian pastor and political activist warns that unless enough Americans "stir up a major stink" about the newly introduced federal hate crimes legislation, the measure is likely to pass in the first 100 days of the 111th Congress.

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., of the High Impact Leadership Coalition was among a group of black pastors who, two years ago, took out a full-page ad in USA Today titled "Don't Muzzle Our Pulpits." The ad, which was widely received, argued that the hate crimes bill before Congress threatened the free-speech rights of pastors.

Jackson believes such legislation elevates the homosexual community to a protected class.

"It puts their claim that they're discriminated against into a real civil rights argument," Jackson contends. "And ultimately in every place around the world where this kind of legislation has been passed, we find that people have taken out lawsuits against preachers for preaching what the Bible says about sexuality and morality. And it is grounds for a kind of harassment that, I believe, will bring a cooling of our biblically-based messages."

Jackson says under an Obama administration there is a danger the legislation will pass and stick, so he's issued a challenge to Christians. "Now is not the time to be silent," he says. "Now is the time to lift our voice."

Total Depravity Verse List

2009-01-09T22:29:00.005-05:00
Total Depravity Verse List

The doctrine of total depravity (or total inability) says that all men, as a consequence of the Fall, are born morally corrupt, enslaved to sin, at enmity with God, and unable to please Him or even of themselves to turn to Christ for salvation. (Thus the necessity of a gracious, unconditional election.) Here is a sweeping survey of the biblical support for the doctrine.

Is man basically good or basically evil?

Ecclesiastes 7:29 - "Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices."

Romans 5:7-8 - For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:12,19 - through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned... through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners

Job 15:14-16 - "What is man, that he should be pure, or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, He
puts no trust in His holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in His sight; how much less one who is detestable and corrupt, man, who drinks iniquity like water!"
c.f. Job 25:4-6; Ecclesiastes 9:3

All men? Are there any exceptions?

Psalm 143:2 - And do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no man living is righteous.

Galatians 3:22 - the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin

Romans 11:32 - For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.

Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

2 Chronicles 6:36 - there is no man who does not sin

Isaiah 53:6 - All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;

Micah 7:2-4 - The godly person has perished from the land, and there is no upright person among men. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed; each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe, and a great man speaks the desire of his soul; so they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright like a thorn hedge.

Romans 3:9-12 - What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. (c.f. Psalm 14:1-3, 53:1-3)

1 John 1:8,10 - If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make [God] a liar and His word is not in us.

Mark 10:18/Luke 18:19 - And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone."
c.f. 1 Kings 8:46; 116:11, 130:3, 143:2; Proverbs 20:9; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Jeremiah 2:29; Micah 7:2-4, Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19; Romans 5:12-14; 1 Corinthians 5:9-10; James 3:2; etc., etc.

Are people good deep down?

Mark 7:21-23 - "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." (c.f. Matthew 15:19)

Psalm 5:9 - There is nothing reliable in what they say; their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.
Are men totally depraved? Is every faculty of the person corrupted?

Heart (Hardened, Deceitful)

Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?"

Ecclesiastes 9:3 - the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

Matthew 15:19 - "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." (c.f. Mark 7:21-23)

Genesis 6:5 & 8:21 - Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually... from youth.

Psalm 36:1-2 - Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For it flatters him in his own eyes concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.

Matthew 13:14 - "In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.'"

Proverbs 28:26 - He who trusts in his own heart is a fool
c.f. Psalm 58:4-5; Ecclesiastes 8:11; Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; Psalm 10:4, 94:11; Mark 7:21-23; Ephesians 4:17-18

Mind (Depraved)

Romans 1:28-31 - And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being... without understanding
Titus 1:15-16 - to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled
Ephesians 4:17-18 - So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
Jeremiah 10:7-8,14 - For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. But they are altogether stupid and foolish. Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge
c.f. Romans 8:7

Will/Choosing (Enslaved)

John 8:34 - "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin."

2 Peter 2:19 - by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

Titus 3:3 - For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

Galatians 4:8-9 - However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?

Romans 6:6,16,17,19,20 - our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin... Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey...? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart... For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Romans 7:14 - For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

Romans 6:20 - For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

2 Timothy 2:25-26 - if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
c.f. Isaiah 42:6-7; Psalm 51:112; John 8:31-32,36

Affections/Desires (Perverted)

Romans 1:24-27 - Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

2 Timothy 3:2-4 - For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

Proverbs 21:10 - The soul of the wicked desires evil

Isaiah 32:6 - For a fool speaks nonsense, and his heart inclines toward wickedness

John 3:19 - "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil."

John 8:44 - "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father."
c.f. Genesis 3:16; Psalm 4:2, 52:3-4 140:8; Proverbs 10:23; 2 Peter 2:13

et al (Utter Ruin)

Titus 1:15-16 - to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled

Romans 7:18 - I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh

Isaiah 1:5-6 - The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil.
Can men change themselves or still do good when they want to?

Jeremiah 13:23 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

Job 11:12 - An idiot will become intelligent when the foal of a wild donkey is born a man.

1 Samuel 24:13 - "As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness'"

Matthew 7:18 - "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." (c.f. Luke 6:43)

Matthew 12:34 - "how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil."

Romans 8:7 - the mind set on the flesh... does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so

Genesis 6:5 & 8:21 - Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually... from youth.

Titus 1:15-16 - to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
c.f. Job 14:4; Matthew 12:34; John 15:5; Romans 14:23; 1 John 5:18-19

Are men at least born pure? What about the "tabula rasa"?

Psalm 51:5 - Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Genesis 8:21 - the Lord said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth

Psalm 58:3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb; those who speak lies go astray from birth.

Isaiah 48:8 - "You have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; and you have been called a rebel from birth."
c.f. Proverbs 22:15

What is the natural disposition of man toward God?

John 3:20 - "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."

Romans 8:7-8 - the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Colossians 1:21 - you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds

James 4:4 - You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
c.f. Romans 1:28-30

What is man's relationship to God?

Psalm 58:3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb; those who speak lies go astray from birth.

Ephesians 2:12-13 - remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:3 - Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
c.f. Isaiah 59:2

Can man then do anything to please God?

Proverbs 15:9 - The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord

Proverbs 15:8/21:27 - The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord

Proverbs 28:9 - He who turns away his ear from listening to the law, even his prayer is an abomination.

Isaiah 64:6 - For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;

Romans 8:7-8 - the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please [God]
c.f. Psalm 50:16; Proverbs 21:4; Isaiah 1:10-15; Amos 5:21-24

Are men at least seeking God?

Psalm 10:4 - The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God."

John 3:20 - "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed."

Isaiah 65:1 - "I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me."

Isaiah 64:7 - There is no one who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.

Romans 3:10-12 - "there is none who seeks for God"
c.f. Romans 10:20

Can the natural man comprehend the gospel or come to saving knowledge of God on his own?

1 Corinthians 2:14 - But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 - our gospel is veiled... to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

1 Corinthians 1:18,21-24 - For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Crist crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness

Matthew 11:27 - "no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.'

c.f. Psalm 119:18; Proverbs 4:19; Isaiah 42:6-7; Hosea 14:9; Matthew 16:17; John 8:43; Acts 22:14, 26:18; Ephesians 4:17-19; 2 Corinthians 2:15-16; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4; 1 John 5:20

Can men of themselves accept God's gift of salvation? Do men choose God or come to Him on their own?

John 3:27 - John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven."

John 14:16 - "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him

John 1:12-13 - But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 6:44 & 64 - "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;" And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father."

Romans 9:16 - So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Romans 11:35-36 - Or who has first given to [the Lord] that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

1 Corinthians 1:30 - But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus

Philippians 2:13 - for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
c.f. Jonah 2:9; Zephaniah 3:9; John 15:16; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Philippians 1:6; James 1:18

Who supplies faith/belief/repentance?

Romans 12:3 - God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

2 Peter 1:1 - Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours

1 Corinthians 3:6 - I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

Acts 5:31 - "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 11:18 - When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles
also the repentance that leads to life."

Philippians 1:29 - For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake... to believe in Him

Acts 18:27 - And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace

Acts 3:16 - "And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all."

Ephesians 2:8-9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

2 Timothy 2:25 - The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, [etc.]... if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth

1 Corinthians 12:3 - no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit

2 Peter 1:3 - His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence

Romans 11:36 - For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 4:7 - For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

John 3:6 & 6:63 - "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit... It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing;"
c.f. 1 Chronicles 29:14; John 5:44; Ephesians 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:2

Can men do anything to help themselves?

Romans 5:6 - For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Colossians 2:13 - When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions

Ephesians 2:1-2 & 4-5 - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked... But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
c.f. Psalm 49:7-9; Jeremiah 2:22; Ezekiel 16:6, 37:1-3

Who then can be saved?!

Matthew 19:26 - Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
c.f. Mark 10:27; Luke 18:27

What is the Gospel? (Dr. Alan Cairns)

2008-12-29T21:37:00.001-05:00
I have heard many sermons from Alan Cairns and have enjoyed his preaching for years.

Here is Alan Cairns giving a brief explanation of the Gospel:

Tomorrow May Be Too Late!

2008-12-19T19:49:00.001-05:00
"Here me! Every church without a prayer meeting condemns us; every Bible daily unopened condemns us; every promise of God unused condemns us; every lost neighbor condemns us; every lost heathen condemns us; every dry eye among us condemns us; every wasted minute of our time condemns us; every unclaimed opportunity for God condemns us. Next year is not ours. Tomorrow may be too late. Unless we repent now, unless we return and fire the prayer alters now, unless we fast and weep now, woe unto us at the judgment!"

--Leonard Ravenhill, Revival Praying, 1961