Very Interesting!

Now this is what news should be all about.

The Long Road to Forgiveness

More Truth

Something the media is quite reticent to report. They did manage to squeeze it in once at 7:35 Am Eastern time on a Monday morning. In case you were still sleeping or had other plans here is the report again.




Here is the background behind their Wish List. I guess the results caused them to severely downplay the reporting.



And this one...

Are Your Teenagers Getting The Truth?

Listen to Mark Cahill Challenge High Schoolers

to Share their faith in Jesus Christ.

Check out the rest of his messages here.

Do you have this kind of love?

More Common Sense

Common Sense

This man has more sense in one interview than the other candidates do in their entire campaign.

08' GOP Contenders!

Do you think morality belongs in politics? Do our government leaders have a duty to legislate right and wrong? Are you planning to vote Republican because of social conservative values? Then I ask you, in what order do you view the most pressing issues for America? How would place the following issues in order of importance?

Fiscal Responsibility
National Defence
Abortion
Parental Rights
Tax Cuts
National Medicare
Same-sex Marriage
Foreign Policy
Religious Freedom
Minority Rights
Immigration Reform

Then ask yourself, is your choice of nominee consistent with your personal views?

Women Leaders?

When does God allow women leaders? Read the article by Zac Poonen of India.

Free Grace

Tim Challies has posted a brief quote from John Newton. What is your take? Do you see this as still relevant in the Church today and what forces would you consider at odds with the doctrine of free grace and justification by faith?

What do you think?

Times sure have changed!

Click on the picture to enlarge.

My Brother Brian

To all my blogger friends, Brian from "For Love of God" has lost administrative control of his blog and certain wicked influences have usurped it for evil purposes.

He is requesting that you immediately de-link him so as to prevent others from inadvertently running across this site.

I do hope he will re-emerge soon as his content and insight are greatly appreciated.

2008 Hype!!

Well, it seems that the rhetoric and name calling has started for the 08' presidential nominations.

If you could pick any person of solid character and principle to be the next president, who would you pick?

Resurrection Life

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Colossians 3:1-17

This chapter begins with an obvious assumption, that of our being raised with Christ. Therefore what follows is based upon our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. As such, we are then commanded to live in a certain way and reckon the body of sin dead to its former passions and lusts.

Verse 2 gives us the key; setting our minds on the things above, where Christ is. Many times we read in scripture of the need to guard our minds from corrupting thoughts. Our mind is the gateway to our heart and as such we must guard what we allow to be entertained there. What we allow into our minds ultimately enters our heart and becomes the things we wrap our affections around. This is where idolatry begins, by entertaining wrong thoughts which effectively ensnare our heart in misguided adoration.

We are warned to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ, and furthermore this is where Satan begins to attack our faith. If we resist the devil, he will flee from us. David wrote, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee". He obviously understood the need to train his mind to focus on scripture and by doing so, his response would be to medidate on the law of God, thereby restraining him from sinning.

As believers today, we have not only the word of God but also His holy Spirit. His indwelling Spirit is opposed to our fleshly desires as scripture says, "the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh". They are indeed contrary to one another. By taking God's grace, we are able to overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil. God has commanded that we live an overcoming life, we have no legitimate right to sin or excuse for the same. He has provided all the means for our victory, His very life and nature. Christ Himself is our victory and wants to express Himself through our lives. However, we must daily yield to Him and by taking up our cross, deny our own lusts and selfish pleasures.

God's grace is the enabling quality to overcome any temptation, sin, or trial. For where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. We are never beyond the place where his grace cannot lift us up. God's grace is simply Christ offering Himself as our supply.

Fineprint on Finney

I have read much of Finney's heresy in the blogosphere. While not very familiar with Charles Finney, I did read a short biography the other night as I was very curious to see who this man was. However, I found nothing in that biography worthy of labeling him a heretic. So my dear readers, could you please enlighten me as to what exactly this man is guilty of. I would appreciate a point form list of what exactly you find disconcerting.

Missions Minded

I have been slipping here, obviously. Here is the next addition of the missions focus I am trying to maintain.

Gospel for Asia is one of the premiere missions currently operating in the Indian subcontinent. While they are based primarily in India, their influence extends into many neighbouring countries, including Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.





If you have not read Revolution in World Missions by brother K.P. Yohannan, then you have missed out on one of the most important movements happening in the kingdom today. GFA is on the cutting edge of evangelism in the 10/40 window and has seen thousands come to Christ every year. There are simply too many things to say about this awesome organization so I will simply refer you to their website where you can become more familiar with their work.

Filler

(I hope to return to regularly scheduled programming soon, until then please read this important development concerning the EU)

Europe's New Official Language

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such asreplasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas. If zis mad you smil, pleas lev und coment.

Love & Marriage

If you are not married, this post may seem irrelevant. However, I think you can probably understand what I am trying to say.

For those of us who have been married for a while (myself 13 years), the early days of courting and marriage seem a bit distant as the rush of life consumes our thoughts and energy. But if we think back to those times when we began to fall in love with our future wife or husband, we realize how much our every waking moments had been spent comtemplating our future marriage and life together.

Now I must confess that my thoughts are not consumed all day long with my wife now, as work and the responsibilities of life crowd in, but my love for her is definitely richer and deeper than when we first married. I am beginning to understand the love that Paul talks about in Ephesians, although I have far from arrived.

Is this your experience as well...that marriage has progressed from purely warm and fuzzy to something of depth and meaning? Is this not what the norm should be, that we grow closer together in oneness as we set our affections upon the Lord?

Sadly, this is not the case for thousands of marriages. The proof is that divorce has become a common and everyday occurence in our society. Even in the Church today divorce is rampant, and to make it worse we have preachers who compromise this message making it more acceptable. It is hard to find one family that has not been affected by a marriage breakdown.

Marriage is a wonderful picture of Christ and His Church, and Paul speaks of this mystery in Ephesians. For no reason will Christ forsake His Bride but is lovingly preparing us to meet Him and enter into a joyful fellowship for all eternity. But as God's people, are we truly loving the Lord with all of our heart, or has the love of money and temporal pleasures caused us to lose our first love? Christ's warning in Revelation was quite severe to the church at Ephesus. They had become guilty of losing their first love and He warned them to repent lest He should come and chasten them.

God loves us with a jealous love and will do whatever it takes to correct us when we stray from Him. But His desire is that we submit to Him and enjoy the riches of His grace and the fellowship of His table. In His presence is fullness of joy, and at His right hand are pleasures for evermore. What are you being satisfied with today? Let us return to the Lord, for He will pardon our iniquity and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

New Link

Well, it's about time I added a new link in the chain. So out of a completely selfless motive, I am linking to JD Hatfield's blog, Voice of Vision. JD has suggested I need to round out my theology a bit more and he is happy to assist in that matter.

There are a couple of reasons I like JD, first being we share the same name. Secondly, our fathers share the same name...and before you ask, no, we are not cousins. JD pastors a church down in the sunny citrus land of Florida, and has a very good attitude towards discussing topics of a Biblical nature. I appreciate his willingness to avoid contentious name calling and seek unity based on scriptural truth.

I can't help but think that I have heard the name Hatfield somewhere before though...hmmm...could it have been on an old episode of the Flintstones where Fred goes to visit some distance relatives in Arkansas. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Anyways, I think I am now well roundedly linked to reformed brethren and calvinistically minded individuals. To avoid the danger of becoming unbalanced, I need to find some other view points. Does anyone have some recommendations?

By the way, nobody likes a person to remain unlabeled. What in your opinion is the label you would attach to my beliefs as you have read them. How am I coming across?

Faith Alone

We all know the verse in Ephesians that declares we are saved by grace through faith, and this totally apart from any form of works. The mere fact that it is the grace of God that saves us precludes any act on our part of coming to Christ on our own merit. I think we would all agree on this point.

However, I think sometimes the meaning of 'faith' can become obscured or fuzzy, and we attach meanings and assumptions that are possibly not correct to try and properly understand this word. Hebrews chapter 11 states that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. Therefore faith at its core has the implication of something that is not really tangible, and yet so profoundly understood that it transcends the realm of logic and reason and that of sight and sound.

Curiously enough, the word 'faith' stands alone and is only defined by its measure or activity. I have not confirmed this 100% completely, but I cannot think of one instance where faith has a modifier either preceding or following it.

Is there such a thing as a modifier for the word 'faith'?

Sinless Perfection

The doctrine of Perseverance teaches us that a genuine believer will last or persevere until the end of his or her life. They will ultimately prevail over sin by demonstrating fruits of repentance. While not perfect, their lives will have obvious signs of works which therefore prove the legitimacy of their faith.

I do not wish to discuss the Biblical accuracy of this doctrine today, but rather to look at the matter of sin in the life of a 'genuine' believer. As we know, God does not wink at sin nor does He overlook our sins. We know that He has paid the ransom to redeem us from our sins and the power of sin. Why then do we continue to sin?

If we have the nature of Christ within us as the Bible says, why do we as christians continue to sin? Why do some of us experience more victory over sin than others? How much can a believer sin and still be a 'genuine' christian? Has God ordained that we sin?

From the following verses, it would seem God desires us to be perfect in all that we say and do. Is this theoretically possible for us to do? Why or why not? I would really love to hear from my Calvinist friends.

2Co 13:11
Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

Php 3:15
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

2Ti 3:17
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

1Pe 1:15
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;

1Pe 1:16
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

1Jo 2:1(a)
My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

Joh 8:11
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.