Ben Stein’s Confession… September 30, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Venting.1 comment so far
My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees.. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.
It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrati ng this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’
In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK.
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
The bailout… September 23, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Politics, Stupidity, Venting.add a comment
Times are tough, no doubt. The financial markets are indeed in trouble and something has to be done.
The issues surrounding this problem are complex; the government (using the taxpayers money) is not equipped, nor should they be, to handle a bail out of the companies adversely affected by thier own greed and short sightedness, but they have to do something.
The markets are self-correcting, we know that, however the far reaching effects of that self-correction will be horrendously damaging to the economy. Not only will major companies fail, but the ripple effect throughout the economy would be devastating to many citizens - lost jobs as mortgage companies fail, lost housing buy’s and building would cost more jobs, the hit to the retail industry that many of us are already feeling would be exponentially amplified. Companies like Lowes and Home Depot would be very hard hit; layoffs, store closures, et al would damage the employment rate even further, and the subsequent loss of income for the average American would spread like a cancer.
So it is clear; something must be done, we cannot simply allow the economy to ‘adjust’ itself unaided.
However, what is also clear is that the operators of these companies which have placed the economy in such dire straights should not benefit from a bailout. CEO’s, COO’s, CFO’s (you name the acronym) should not personal benefit from one cent of taxpayer’s money. Save the companies, absolutely, but hold those responsible for the failures of these companies to a tight leash, and limited, extremely limited, benefit.
We are talking salaries and bonuses. If I run a company and through my efforts of mismanagement, that company teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, I should not expect, nor should I recieve, anything…
I hope and pray that congress takes this idea into consideration when hashing out the details of whatever ill-concieved bail out plan they come up with. No bonuses for the leaders of these failed companies. No high level salaries for these company officers. Limit them to a reasonable salary if they are staying in place, and put a caveat in the plan to keep those salaries limited until the companies in question pay back every single cent the government puts in their coffers.
Then the idea of regulation comes in…. I loathe the idea of the government regulating the ‘free’ market, but something has to happen, or these greed mongers and inept managers will do the same thing again; acting stupidly out of greed and destroying the lives of our citenzry.
God’s Silence August 29, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Faith.1 comment so far
The fog on your lake is neither accidental nor fatal. So while swimming, listen very carefully and patiently for His voice. Some days you will be seized with panic and dog-paddle like mad. You’ll try various approaches: breaststroke, butterfly, backstroke, float. But all the time, you want to be listening for His voice. I urge you to listen with great sensitivity, because His message will come in various ways.
I get nervous around some people and the way they talk about hearing God or seeing Him at work. Sometimes I freely admit that I want to recommend a good therapist. Especially when I hear people say things like, “The Lord spoke to me in my kitchen at 2:15 this morning.” Or, “God found me a parking space today.” I consider these folks “bumper-sticker Christians.” They’re often scary folks, almost spooky. Miracles are everyday occurrences to them. They see skywriting in the clouds, and they hear voices in the night. Hear me well, that’s not the kind of “voice” I’m talking about.
God gave you a mind. God gave you reason. God gave you a unique sensitivity; it’s built into your spiritual system, and each person’s system is tuned differently. God wants to reveal His will to you and to teach you while you are waiting. So while you are waiting, don’t start searching for spooky stuff. We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Get into His Word. Get on your knees. Accept counsel from those who are maturing and balanced believers, solidly biblical in their theology and in their own lives. And wait.
However, there are tangible things to connect with. Passages of Scripture that bring comfort and insight. Messages that enlighten and enliven. Certain people you respect. Tap into those, wait, and listen with a sensitive ear. Like Esther, don’t rush into big decisions. And may I be painfully direct? Don’t talk so much! Believers who are maturing not only respect God’s silence, they model it as well.
Why God Allows Christians to Suffer August 12, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Faith, Uncategorized.13 comments
Never forget that God is in control of all the circumstances that surround a believer’s life. God is in control of your life, and involved in all the details.Your suffering has not escaped His notice. Your situation has not somehow been buried in His inbox. He is intimately aware of everything going on in your world, and no detail is too small to escape His attention. The word “oops” is not in God’s vocabulary.
And as we can so clearly see from the book of Job, the devil can do nothing in the life of the believer without the express permission of God.
Okay, you say, but if He’s in control, why does He allow these hurtful things to happen to me and to people I love?
1. Suffering makes us strong
The apostle James tells us:
“When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t treat them as intruders, but as friends. Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. . . . you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity, with no weak spots.” (James 1:2-4 phillips)
God allows hardship in our life so that our beliefs will become more real to us, and less theory. We can start living out our faith-life in the real world.
I’m reminded of all the people you see driving SUVs. Most of these fancy rigs have 4×4 capabilities. Some guys take it a notch above that, putting lifts in their rigs, buying those big gnarly tires, and mounting huge lights on top.
And what do they do with these powerful vehicles? They brag to their buddies, and say, “Yeah, just look at this thing. Look at what it can do. I could drive this baby up the side of a building.”
“Well,” someone might ask, “do you want to go out in the dirt?”
“Are you kidding? Do you know how much I paid for this thing? No way! In fact, I was just on the way to the car wash.”
So they never want to actually use that vehicle for its intended purpose?what it was actually designed to do.
We can be that way with our beliefs. I can imagine God saying, “You know, you have a lot of really great beliefs. You talk about them all the time. I think it’s time you started putting some of them into practice. You talk about how you trust Me. You talk about how you believe I can provide for your every need. Let Me put you in a situation where you have no other resources and really have to trust Me for that provision.”
You see, God can allow these hardships and trials and shortfalls in our lives so that we will exercise our faith muscles, and step out on trust alone. We need to transfer our faith from the realm of theory to reality.
2. Suffering can bring God glory
Any fool can be happy and peaceful when the sun shines down from a blue and cloudless sky. But when those qualities shine out from the midst of a dark and destructive storm, that’s another matter entirely.
That, in essence, was the challenge Satan laid before God. “Job follows You because You have blessed him in every way, but if those things were taken away, it would be a different story. He would curse You.”
In order to show the falsehood of Satan’s argument?and to strengthen Job’s faith at the same time?God allowed these multiple tragedies to crash into Job’s life.
The result? Job not only refused to curse God, he actually blessed Him. What a rebuke to the enemy! What a witness to the world.
It is a powerful testimony when a believer can praise God while suffering. Remember the story of Paul and Silas, arrested for preaching the gospel in the city of Philippi? The Bible tells us that the jailer had them stripped and flogged. Then they were put in a dungeon, where their feet were fastened in stocks.
How did they respond? Here’s what the Bible says:
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” (Acts 16:25 nkjv)
That word “listened” could be translated as listened with great interest. Why? Because they had never heard anybody sing praises to God in such a place. And that’s about the time the Lord sent an earthquake:
“At once the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” (Acts 16:26-28 niv)
The jailer responded by saying, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” In effect, he was saying, “I’ve been watching you guys. I’ve seen how you have taken such terrible punishment without cursing. I’ve seen how you can worship in the worst circumstances, and how you could have escaped but didn’t. All I can say is, whatever you have, I want it.”
Your circumstances may not be as dire as those of Paul and Silas. But people are watching you. If you’re in the midst of a hardship or a difficulty, they’re watching to see if you will really practice what you preach, and live out what you proclaim. The way you handle suffering in your life can bring great glory to God.
Paul the apostle also suffered from an unnamed “thorn in the flesh.” No one really knows what it was, but he spoke of it in his letter to the Corinthian church, and said that he had asked the Lord on three separate occasions to remove it.
But God said no. Even though God had done miracles through Paul, bringing healing to others, He chose not to bring that healing in the life of His loyal servant in this particular situation.
When Paul asked why, God gave him this answer: “My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 nlt).
Was Paul discouraged by this answer? It sure doesn’t sound like it! He goes on to say, “So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (vv. 9-10).
So God can be glorified through your weakness. His light and power can shine through the chips, cracks, and cracks in your life, drawing others to Himself.
False Teachers… August 7, 2008
Posted by JP in Bible Study/Reference, Discussion, Faith, Scripture.1 comment so far
The false teacher is deceptive. Verse 15 of today’s passage describes him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He appears to want people to know the “real” truth about God, but his interpretation of Scripture may contain outright lies or a distorted mix of fact and error. Since wise believers study God’s Word, they can detect a “sheepskin” starting to slip. The wolf is further exposed by his personal life, which won’t be consistent with righteousness (Matt. 7:16). A close study of his decisions, actions, and words will reveal that he does not follow the Lord’s will or biblical principles.
The false teacher’s life and message are self-indulgent. His enticing ideas appeal to his listeners’ fleshly nature. In fact, he’ll often permit activities prohibited in Scripture. Some deceivers describe God’s grace as a license to live without restraint (Jude 4). Paul clearly denounces this lie, teaching that believers have died to sin and shouldn’t live in it (Rom. 6:2).
The body of Christ is expected to use Scripture as the standard against which to measure a leader’s lifestyle and words. When we seek divine truth, we are given the discernment to know a holy message from a misleading one.
A false teacher wants to create uncertainty in his listeners. In order to gain followers, he must persuade his audience that he possesses knowledge they lack. The people who accept this misleading information as absolute truth will usually return to the false teacher for more. Having followers strokes his ego and provides “proof” that he is right.
Those who have a sound doctrine won’t be led astray. That’s why it is so important for our faith to rest on biblical truth—for example, Jesus Christ died for the sins of mankind, the Holy Spirit dwells in believers, and Christians will be resurrected bodily. Defeating false teachers takes more than “my pastor says . . .”When confronted, we must defend our faith with Scripture we ourselves have studied. By regularly reading and applying God’s Word, we will be better prepared when confronted with untruth.
Building a sound doctrine protects believers from misleading messages and arms them to defend the faith. Do not be caught unprepared. If you haven’t already started, begin to study the Bible today. Should you need help, ask your pastor or a godly mentor for guidance.
The crime of Christianity August 6, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Uncategorized.add a comment
If being a Christian was illegal, and you were accused of being a Christian, in a court of law, could the prosecutor get a conviction, or could your defense lawyer get you acquitted?
Would you be found acquitted due to lack of evidence? Would you be found not guilty because there was reasonable doubt?
This is the question I’ve begun to ponder as of late and am reminded of my pet phrase:
Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary - use words.
He’s been reading my mail… August 5, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Stupidity, Venting.add a comment
I have this theory about men and aging. We have two ages: the age we really are, and the age we are in our heads. Most men are almost always about 31 or 32 in their heads — just ask them. Even Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons” is 31 in his head. One of the most universal adult male experiences is of standing before a mirror and saying, “I’m sorry, but there’s been a horrible mistake. You see, that’s not really me in the mirror there. The real me is tanned, throws Frisbees, and kayaks the Columbia River estuary without cracking a sweat.”
August 1, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Scripture.1 comment so far
A great commentary by Kenneth Hemphill…
I listened intently as he patiently asked the following three questions: 1) Are you certain that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? She responded “yes.” 2) Do you believe that the Bible is God’s Word and is sufficient for all our needs? Again she responded in the affirmative. 3) If I show you truth from God’s Word that deals with the issues that concern you, will you obey them immediately and completely? My friend did not elaborate at this point, but the lady began to exclaim that we wouldn’t understand. She pointed to her financial need and loneliness. My friend listened patiently and then started again repeating the three questions.
The implication was obvious. If we pointed her to Scripture which she confessed to be a “sufficient guide” and she refused to obey God’s Word, we had no other advice to give her. It would be like going to the doctor and refusing to follow his prescription.
While you might smile in agreement, let me pose a question: “Is the Bible sufficient for church growth and health?” I’m not suggesting that we don’t need to organize for Bible study and outreach. God is not a God of confusion; He works through orderly strategy. But do we really agree with the Apostle Paul that it is “God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:7)? And if it is God who actually causes true growth, it only makes sense that we find His design for these matters in His Word. We face the temptation of relying too heavily on the next model, method or marketing strategy to grow our church, rather than looking primarily to Scripture for our growth strategy. I believe that if we search the Scriptures and apply their emphases, we will experience the growth and health the Lord desires.
Coming soon: “Saturday” Sabbath… July 15, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Uncategorized.add a comment
I’ve been working on a post regarding the “Saturday” Sabbath, mainly as a rebuttal to the teachings of the Seventh Day Adventists and other such cults, and hope to have it ready soon.
It has undergone many rewrites as there is much to be said in this area but I find the tone of my essay be continually harsh. I don’t want to put across the truth of the matter in such a way as to unnecessarily offend people (although anyone stupid enough to promote such a legalistic, false doctrine should be offended), so I am working it and reworking it.
If anyone has some points to ponder on this subject that they would like me to explore and incorporate, please let me know. I’m trying to cover all aspects of the debate and something important may get lost in the shuffle.
Being sin or sinning… July 10, 2008
Posted by JP in Discussion, Faith.1 comment so far
Recent discussions online have bandied about the idea of sin being a noun, a verb, or an adjective. Some suggest that sin is a verb and verb alone, some have suggested otherwise. My understanding of sin as discussed in scripture is that it is a relatively generic term for an action, a state of being, or a thing.
Apparently the greek word translated as ’sin’ means to “miss the mark” encouraging one participant in these discussions to assert that it is a verb and applies only to actions which ‘miss the mark’.
I think the whole idea can be summed up in the idea that sin represents unrighteousness in comparison to the righteousness of God.
Thus we have a few concepts of this unrighteousness and only one really pertains to the whole:
Our state of being.
The fall of Lucifer begins this idea, through his pride he set himself as equal to God and thus rebelled against God, after his ejection from God’s glory he deceived Eve who disobeyed God, and Adam along with her, subsequently placing all humanity into a state of unrighteousness. This is the condition in which we are all born. A condition not predicated on what we do or don’t do, but simply a state of our being. All ’sins’ we commit are a result of this condition, the condition is not a result of the sins we commit.
Scripture is very clear on this concept when it explains that there is none righteous:
Psa 14:2-3 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understood, dealt wisely, and sought after God, inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him [of vital necessity]. (3) They are all gone aside, they have all together become filthy; there is none that does good or right, no, not one.
Rom 3:10-12 As it is written, None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no, not one. (11) No one understands [no one intelligently discerns or comprehends]; no one seeks out God. (12) All have turned aside; together they have gone wrong and have become unprofitable and worthless; no one does right, not even one!
The Gospel of Christ Jesus lived, crucified, and raised again speaks directly to this state of being. It is His atoning sacrifice which took upon Him our unrighteousness and killed it for all time on the cross. It is His resurrection that allowed His righteousness to be imputed to us. The idea of committing sin after that bestowed righteousness is secondary to the rectification of our natural condition into that condition which God created us originally.
