I Never Dreamed

For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
- Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:35-37)

Jesus Christ said some pretty shocking things during His time on earth. The passage I have quoted above is certainly one of the most disturbing. In it Jesus stated that His coming would bring division between the most intimate family relationships – division so intense that it would make the members of one's own household his enemies. For years I thought – wished perhaps – that Jesus was merely being hyperbolic. I recently discovered that He was not.

Last week, the Lord directed me to study Ezekiel 33. In that passage the Lord told Ezekiel that He was making him a watchman for Israel. God told Ezekiel that if He sent a warning through him and he failed to deliver it to the people then Ezekiel would be responsible for their failure to respond, but if he delivered the message and the people ignored it their calamity was on their own head. I felt that God was giving me the same charge.

A few days later God called me to deliver an important message to someone who is very close to me. They have been openly engaged in sin and effectively asked me to endorse it. I reminded the individual of my position and the reason why I could not approve. I explained the hope of the gospel to them and encouraged them to repent and turn to God. They were offended. I got unfriended (on Facebook). And from what I have heard some less than kind words were spoken about me.

I'll be honest, it makes me sad. I had hoped that the individual would be born again. Unfortunately, it went the other direction. I suppose it could have been a lot worse. I hope it won't be, but the violent reaction I got made me wonder just how this person will respond if they continue down the path they have taken much longer. I love this individual and really hope that one day our relationship can be restored.

As much as I desire that, there are some things that I cannot compromise: I cannot endorse something that the Bible calls sin, and I cannot allow a person to walk in sin without warning them.

I love this person too much to allow them to believe that their sin is OK. I cannot withhold the truth when directly confronted by the deception that they are living under. A person may think that a stick of dynamite is a candle, but if I let them walk around with a lit stick to find their way I am not loving them as I should. If I don't try to stop them their destruction is certain. Thus it is with sin.

The Bible tells that there is coming a time when people will not endure sound doctrine, but will seek teachers that will tell them what they want to hear, leading them away into deception (2 Timothy 4:3-4). As Christians it is our duty to hold the line and not compromise the message of the Bible. That doesn't mean that we have to be hateful. In fact, it would be best if we're not. We are to speak the truth in love. Does it guarantee that we won't still be hated and reviled as ignorant? No. Jesus always spoke the truth in love and they crucified Him. The Bible tells us that we will become a fragrance to all we encounter – to some we'll be the beautiful fragrance of Christ but to others the stench of death. It will all depend on the path they are taking.

We must be willing to stand unblinking before the wrath of the spirits controlling those we love and desire to see born again. We must hold up the mirror of the Word before them so that they know their true condition and recognize their need for the radical change that can only come from the Savior. We must keep loving them even though they think we are the enemy. And we must believe that God will get through to them eventually as we pray and hold the line against their deception. Never quit! He is mighty to save.

I never dreamed that Jesus' words in Matthew 10 would be true for me. But I was wrong.

Revival

For God to revive our nation as we look to the future with hope

Then we will not turn away from You; revive us, and we will call on Your name. Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make Your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.
—Psalm 80:18

O Holy God, only You are worthy of the praise of our lips and the songs of our hearts. Only You are worthy of glory and honor and majesty above all rulers, powers and authority! All hope is found in You and there is no hope apart from You. You are the Lord and master of time and I am so grateful that You look on us with love and compassion.

Today, O God, our nation is in need of a fresh wind from You. We are wearied by sin and disobedience to You and Your ways. We fall short of Your standard, and worse, we sometimes deliberately move away from You and toward sin and evil that will steal, kill and destroy. Revive us today, O Lord, revive us. Bring a spirit of repentance as we seek Your face. In Your kindness, renew our passion for holiness and righteousness today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

This is the latest in the series of prayers led by the Presidential Prayer Team for the new President and for our nation. If you are interested in receiving the email with each day's prayer assignment you can click here and sign up.

Recognizing Our True Condition

For a passionate desire to walk in God’s love and light to sweep across our nation, resulting in obedience to His commands

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.
—II John 1:6

O Lord God, You are light and there is no darkness anywhere in You. You are love and there is no ... evil anywhere in You. I praise and thank You for the security and hope this brings me today. You are victorious over every form of darkness, and I praise You for this, in Jesus Christ!

Holy God, You know the great darkness that lurks in our country, and You see how innocents and wise ones alike are fooled into thinking that darkness is light and wrong is right. I ask for Your truth to be shown in our country today, that together we may desire to walk in Your love, spurning evil and dark ways. Do this, because of Your kindness and love I pray, O holy God, amen.

***The picture above is really striking. Does anyone know where this is? I think I'd like to visit there sometime.***

This is the latest in the series of prayers led by the Presidential Prayer Team for the new President and for our nation. If you are interested in receiving the email with each day's prayer assignment you can click here and sign up.

The Stench Of Moral Decay

There are times when I just feel the sadness and frustration of watching America's slide into depravity more than others. Tonight is one of those times. I look at the corruption that is so rampant and I see the perversion that is so prevalent and all the while more and more of the society is trying to marginalize those who stand for truth, and I frankly begin to welcome the judgment of the Lord.

It has taken much to get me to this point, because I know that the "Day of the Lord" is a dreadful thing. I know that many lives will be lost - and many souls will be as well. What could be more dreadful than that? It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a righteous God. I am reminded of the words from Jonathan Edwards' sermon:

It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one second; but you must suffer it for all of eternity. There will be no end to this extreme horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains.

My God, what a dreadful end!

I think that the only way that I can even hope to stomach such a thing is knowing that God is patient and that when He chooses the time to unleash His judgments against a people that it is the perfect time to do so. The people will have earned His wrath in full, and they will be beyond hope of repentance. (Well, I would also add that I do have hope, knowing that judgment will remove the stumbling blocks from our nation and will bring the purification of our land once again.)

Still, it saddens me to see what seems like the entire world running as hard as it can run to utter destruction. Yet this is the very picture painted by the Scriptures. Why am I surprised? I guess it is partly because it is so foolish and unnecessary. And perhaps I am also shocked by how evil men's hearts really can be. I have always been a little naive.

Today I read about Russian warships doing joint exercises with the Venezuelan navy and visiting Cuba. The government and Pentagon seemed very unconcerned. This seems very foolish and arrogant to me. The Russians would have never pulled such a stunt when Reagan was in office, and we would have never taken it so lightly either. Hubris is a dangerous sin.

I also read about the arson of Sarah Palin's church, and of the numerous frivolous lawsuits being brought against her to discourage her from ever even THINKING about running for office again. God help her!

Then I read about the corruption in Governor Blagojevich's administration and saw the connections between him and Jesse Jackson Jr. I read about how Blagojevich will likely be impeached because he refuses to resign - after being arrested on federal felony charges. (Is anyone else puzzled by this? What, does he think he can pardon himself?)

Finally I read about the Newsweek article that tried to make it sound as if the Bible and Jesus endorse homosexual marriage, and also about a "leader" in the evangelical movement that said that such unions should be allowed.

This is why I rarely read the news anymore. And this is why I take hope in judgment when it comes... but how I dread it.

Contrary to popular belief it is not hateful to tell a person that they are headed towards destruction. It is one of the greatest demonstrations of love that a person can give. This is especially true when that warning is coupled with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But how many know the true Gospel? How many churches actually teach it? How many know that our right standing does not come because of anything that we do or don't do, but it comes as a result of God's grace through faith in the sacrifice that Jesus made for us through His death on the cross and through His resurrection?

How many teach that grace demands obedience to Jesus? Is belief truly belief without corresponding obedience? Can a person walk in his own way if he has truly been converted? True grace inspires obedience. True grace is based on a walk with the Spirit of God and living life based on His laws being written on a person's heart. True grace leads us to sin less - not more. As the Apostle John wrote, a person who claims to be walking with God yet walks in sin is a liar and the truth of God does not dwell in him.

Salvation is not a "get out of hell free" card. Salvation is the trading of masters. You are either a slave to the devil or you are a slave to Christ. There is no middle ground. If you are a slave to Christ you should be seeing a dissipation of the sins of the flesh and conviction about the ones that remain. If there is no difference in your life before you were "saved" and after, perhaps you had best re-examine your conversion. It sounds like you are still a slave to the devil.

Yes, it is true that God is love, but He is also jealous, just, holy, righteous, pure, patient, merciful, vengeful... the list goes on. If we focus on only one of His attributes, we put ourselves in grave danger of error - error that has not only temporal but also eternal consequences.

God Help Us

I just read a very distressing article about the downward ethical trends among our nation's youth. According to the article:

The Josephson Institute, a Los Angeles-based ethics institute, surveyed 29,760 students at 100 randomly selected high schools nationwide, both public and private. All students in the selected schools were given the survey in class; their anonymity was assured.

Michael Josephson, the institute's founder and president, said he was most dismayed by the findings about theft. The survey found that 35 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls — 30 percent overall — acknowledged stealing from a store within the past year. One-fifth said they stole something from a friend; 23 percent said they stole something from a parent or other relative.

...Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse. Sixty-four percent of students cheated on a test in the past year and 38 percent did so two or more times, up from 60 percent and 35 percent in a 2006 survey.

Thirty-six percent said they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment, up from 33 percent in 2004.

Forty-two percent said they sometimes lie to save money — 49 percent of the boys and 36 percent of the girls.

Despite such responses, 93 percent of the students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character, and 77 percent affirmed that "when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know."

Is it just me or does anyone else detect a disconnect between the data in the first part of this quote and the statement in the last paragraph? This is utterly appalling to me. Such a discrepancy would either indicate to me that there are some really bad people not accounted for in this survey or that a whole bunch of people have absolutely not clue about what is moral or ethical.

Just as scary as the results of this survey is the responses that the article reported from educators that were presented the results. A typical response came from Peter Anderson the principal of Andover High School in Andover, Massachusetts. He said, "This generation is leading incredibly busy lives — involved in athletics, clubs, so many with part-time jobs, and — for seniors — an incredibly demanding and anxiety-producing college search."

Another "educator" said, "We have to create situations where it's easy for kids to do the right things," he added. "We need to create classrooms where learning takes on more importance than having the right answer."

I think though that Michael Josephson hit the nail on the head when he "contended that most Americans are too blase about ethical shortcomings among young people and in society at large. 'Adults are not taking this very seriously,' he said. 'The schools are not doing even the most moderate thing. ... They don't want to know. There's a pervasive apathy.'"

Why are many adults not taking this seriously? I would suggest that a similar survey given to adults about the age of the kids' parents would find that they are no better than the kids surveyed. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, America is in a serious moral crisis.

Good grief! The guys I quoted above made excuses instead of even acknowledging that these behaviors are wrong. I wonder if the tone of these individuals would have been different if the survey showed that intolerance, ethnocentrism, or conservatism were on the rise. And one suggested that if we make it easy enough then they won't have to cheat! These people are morally bankrupt! It is a classic case of the blind leading the blind. No wonder we're so screwed up!

Information like this just convinces me that a reckoning is coming and coming soon. God help us.

This Annoys Me

According to a Michelle Malkin piece today, eHarmony has wimped out and agreed to change its business model to include homosexuals because of a lawsuit leveled against them. Would somebody please get a spine?! If nobody stands up to this crap it will not stop - in fact it will get worse. I would rather shut down my business than give in to this kind of unconstitutional coercion.

The absurdity of this lawsuit is beyond bounds. That the AG of New Jersey even countenanced it is an outrage. Are there not plenty of websites that help homosexuals hook up? Are there not plenty that help them find a "life partner?" Well, hooking up homosexuals or adulterers isn't, er, wasn't eHarmony's thing. They were serving the portion of the market that they wanted to serve. Should a business be forced to serve all portions of the market? I suppose that the pedophiles and folks that like our four-legged friends will be up in arms demanding equal access too. Perhaps they could serve necrophiliacs too?

Where does it stop? Perhaps I should sue JC Penny's because I can't get milkshakes there.

The Sins Of Sodom

OK, with a title like that I am sure that you are expecting a diatribe against homosexuality. Nope. Not going to happen - well, not a diatribe anyway. And frankly, this post really isn't even about homosexuality. So you can breathe a sigh of relief.

WHEW!

As many of you may know, I try my best to read through the Bible each year. (Not that I think that makes me super holy or anything, it is just some background information for what I am about to write.) I have been reading in the prophets now for quite a few weeks and at the present time I am reading in the prophecies of Ezekiel.

Reading through the prophets is a very scary thing to me, because each time I do I hear echoed in the charges brought against the people of Israel charges that could be legitimately brought against America. History has shown us how the Lord executed his vengeance against Israel with the conquests of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. It was truly a terrible time to be in Israel. Because God is just, I cannot help but believe that we face similar judgments. I have said this recently, and I believe it to be as true now as when I said it before.

Now before you turn me off, thinking that this is going to be another doom-and-gloom "thus saith the Lord" sort of message, please hear this encouragement. Throughout the prophets God tells His people that they can avert the coming judgment by repentance. So please keep that in mind as you read.

Anyway, as I was reading I came across a passage that compared Israel's sins to the sins of Sodom, and then it named the sins that brought about Sodom's judgment.

I'll bet you think you know what at least one of them was, don't you?

You'd probably be surprised to find that you are wrong. I was.

Ezekiel 16:48-50 says:

"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you (Judah) and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. "

Surprised? I'll admit that I was.

Sodom's greatest sins were as follows:

1.) They were arrogant
2.) They had abundant food and careless ease, but they did not help the poor and needy

The interesting thing is that the perversion of Sodom was not listed in the charges leveled against her - it was an outcome of her other sins.

I doubt that many could effectively argue that America is not guilty of these very sins, and the very tragic thing is that they are just as prevalent in the church as they are outside of it.

How many people inside or outside of the church truly believes that our military forces could be beaten by anyone in the world? Why is that? Is it because of our ingenuity? Perhaps we feel that way because of our technology. We certainly have some of the coolest weapons at our disposal. Maybe we even believe that we are morally superior to anyone that we would fight.

I hate to be the one to break the news, but the truth of the matter is that confidence in any one of these things is pure arrogance.

Do we really believe that our economy could collapse to the point that we would no longer be able to buy bread let alone a new iPod? Why? Because of our manufacturing greatness? Maybe we'll lean on that Yankee ingenuity again. Because it has never happened before? And there is good old fashioned hard work, grit, and determination too, right?

ARROGANCE.

Reliance on ANYTHING other than God's providence is pure unadulterated arrogance.

America is a nation of a great abundance of food (as my waistline can verify.) Can anyone deny it? I have heard reports that enough of our grain is eaten by rats every year to feed the whole world. Yet there are people within our nation that do not have enough to eat - and there are people the world over who are starving to death. With such abundance how is it possible that there are starving people? This very fact is a testimony against our nation.

Who has more leisure than Americans? Is there another people as over-entertained as we are? We feel entitled to entertainment in America. How much time is wasted every day on entertainment? How much time do we spend on YouTube, Facebook, or MySpace? How much time do we spend watching TV? How much time do we spend watching movies?

If you want a good idea to the answer to those questions consider these. How much of our time during the day is spent getting to know our neighbors? How much of our time is spent interacting with other people? (I'm not talking about grunting at your cashier at the grocery store - I'm talking about engaging with another human on a personal level.) How much time do we even spend truly interacting with our immediate families? (Once again, screaming at your kids for inconveniencing you and griping at your spouse about how they are not meeting your needs is NOT what I am talking about here.) Is there any time spent on personal growth and intellectual pursuit? (Computer Solitaire doesn't count.) How much time is left over for worship? How much of our time is truly dedicated to work?

Because we are overly content we are oblivious to the very real problems that exist all around us. Because we are overly entertained we can't be bothered to do anything about the problems that we somehow do become aware of. We are like morphine addicts drugged with food and pleasure - utterly useless.

What is the result? We don't care for the poor and needy. Sure there are some generous people. I'm not denying that. I will, however, question just how generous we really are. How many people do you know that really and truly give even 10% of their income to help those less fortunate than themselves?

Let's take it even further. How many people do you know that give 10% of their TIME to help those less fortunate than themselves? I daresay that the numbers are abysmally low on both counts.

If even 10% of our population gave either 10% of their time or money do you think that we would find the same situation in the world? Would the ghettos be getting bigger or smaller? I know we'll never eradicate poverty. Some people refuse to leave it. Some are too broken to live any other way. But how many could be helped if we truly put an effort towards ending it?

There is another outcome too. Our arrogant, contented, distractedness leads us to become haughty towards God which leads us into abomination.

Once again, even a casual observer of our culture would have to agree that this is the case in America. The perversion of our people has accelerated since the 1960s. Sexual sin so saturates our culture that even Christians don't complain when it is boldly portrayed in the shows that they watch or on the billboards that they see. Our nation brazenly murders millions of its children every year. More and more God is being forced out of the public life. Our attitudes say so clearly that we don't believe that we need anyone's (especially God's) help to succeed. We'll do it on our own thanks to our own power and ingenuity. Our culture has turned more and more to other gods - false religions and non-religions.

What was God's response to Sodom? It wasn't nice.

What is the proper response from us? Repentance. We have to begin to compare our lives and our culture to the template of righteousness found in the Bible. And when we become aware of an area where things don't match God's Word, we need to cut off that excess just as a tailor would who is cutting out cloth to make a suit. I pray that our nation will heed these warnings and repent before it is too late.

I Am One Of Only Four Percent In America...

who believe the following things:

1. Absolute moral truths exist.
2. The Bible defines these absolute moral truths.
3. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life during His ministry on the earth.
4. God created the universe and continues to rule it today. He is omnipotent and omniscient.
5. Salvation is a gift from God. It cannot be earned through good works or behavior.
6. satan is a real living entity.
7. Christians have an obligation to share the gospel with the unsaved.
8. The Bible is accurate in all of its teachings.

This is according to a Barna poll that I learned about in an excellent article by Harry R. Jackson, Jr.

I must say that finding myself in such a minority in America is shocking to say the least. What was even more shocking was to discover that less than one in ten evangelical Christians hold to these 8 beliefs! (You can also reference the beliefs of those considered "Born Again Christians" by the Barna Group.)

According to Jackson's article,

Shortly after the Civil War, the Protestant church divided over this belief in a literal interpretation of Scripture. Liberals moved away from Scripture as the sole authority in order to accommodate “rational truth,” which they saw as incompatible with the Bible. These liberals embraced the “essence of Christianity” rather than the inerrancy of Scripture so they could synthesize their Christian thought with so-called scientific findings of the day.

One of the preeminent voices to emerge in defense of absolute truth shortly after the turn of the century was a Princeton Theological Seminary professor and Presbyterian minister, J. Grescham Machen, who would later lead a split within the Presbyterian Church over the rejection of biblical orthodoxy. In his definitive work, Christianity and Liberalism, Machen said that liberalism was not only theologically wrong but was not connected at all to true Christianity. “What the liberal theologian has retained after abandoning to the enemy one Christian doctrine after another is not Christianity at all, but a religion which is so entirely different from Christianity as to belong in a different category.” Machen felt that the argument was no longer between two views of evangelicalism, conservative and liberal, but rather a conflict between two religions. Liberalism is “a type of faith and practice that is anti-Christian to the core,” Machen wrote. (Emphases mine.)

I couldn't agree more. Mr. Jackson went on to share the statistics that I referenced at the beginning of this post and pointed out just how serious this problem is. He wrote, "Unfortunately, a growing number of Christians are influenced more by the popular culture than Scripture in terms of their worldview. Even younger evangelicals, who tend to track conservatively on most core social issues, do not consistently view the world from a biblical perspective." (Emphases mine.) If less that 10 percent of all EVANGELICAL believers hold to this definition of biblical worldview we have serious flaws in our foundation.

All standards other than the Bible fall far short of acceptability when judging the culture. The Bible is the only pure standard that we have. When we abandon that standard we are telling God that we are wiser and smarter than He is. That never ends well.

Mr. Jackson went on to say,

In light of these dispiriting statistics, Christians must return to emphasizing God’s truth and God’s love. America currently stands at a crossroad. Many of our national problems are a result of our churches abandoning truth. It is not the institution that needs to seek God – it is every individual in each one of the nation’s pews.

A truly repentant church will experience a spiritual renewal. A renewed church can once again be salt and light to the nation. A critical mass of godly Christians must be reached. If we use the imagery of today’s light bulbs we don’t yet have a high enough wattage light bulb to truly lighten our nation. Once we have reached critical mass, the Lord will pour out tangible blessings upon the entire nation in honor of a faithful church that lives and preaches biblical truth.

I pray to God that the church will repent. The consequences are too great if we fail to.

Thank you, brother for the awesome article.

Revive us O Lord.

Interesting Quote

I read this today in an editorial by Brian Fitzpatrick:

Evangelical theology teaches that a person is saved based not on how he votes, or any other action, but on whether he places his trust in Jesus’s sacrifice to pay the price for his sins. Trust Christ today and you’re “saved” today. Therefore, salvation is not so much a future event as a present possession. Once people are “saved,” however, they undergo a spiritual transformation that affects the way they think, behave, and vote.

Exactly. This is why I am astounded when people who claim to have experienced such a spiritual transformation can enthusiastically support any candidate who is in favor of abortion, infanticide, or the redefinition of marriage. I am similarly shocked that anyone with this claim can support any of these policies.

The Bible has much to say about God's standard of right and wrong. It talks about the things that God hates. It talks about the way that He created things to be. It talks about God's nature and what He is like.

It is interesting that God through the Bible does not explicitly deal with these issues. However, He does give us some very strong principles that logically bring us to certain conclusions.

God shows us many examples of marriage - including the very first one. He is very explicit about the sexual relationships that He endorses and condemns. And none of these boundaries are ever revoked in the Bible.

Similarly, it is very clear from the scriptures that God is intimately involved in life even from the womb. It is also clear from the Bible that God hates those who harm children, the helpless, and the innocent.

So I have a real disconnect when someone who claims to be saved can support either of these issues. I have read through the Bible many times, and I can only think of one very weak argument that would support abortion and none that support the redefinition of marriage.

The only way that I can conceive that a person could logically come to the conclusion that these things are alright would be for them to be operating from a different base of moral authority than the Bible. If the Bible is the ultimate authority for morality, I don't see any way to justify these things. Anyone is welcome to try to convince me otherwise. (But I can assure you that if you aren't using a holistic view of scripture you will fail.)

Cal Slams the Hypocrites

I really enjoy reading Cal Thomas, as many of you already know. Here is a quote from one of his most recent articles:

Abstinence is a standard that works 100 percent of the time for those who practice it. There are consequences for those who do not and Bristol Palin has joined a growing list of young women who have come to realize that too late. As to whether any of this should reflect poorly on Sarah Palin or her husband, I suspect most Americans will empathize with all concerned and say no.

This doesn't reflect so much what the article is about. Most of the meat of the article was slamming the media for its hypocrisy in its dealing with Bristol Palin's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Still, I love that Thomas doesn't deny the truth even as he defends Bristol. The truth is the truth. Sin is sin. You can still be compassionate and even defensive of the person, but it doesn't change the fact that sin is sin and sin begets consequences. This will never change.