Genesis 6:5-8
January 31, 2011 at 5:59 pm | Posted in Bible Study | Leave a commentTags: abortion, adultery, America, angel, animal, ateasetees, Bible, blessing, blot, boat, bug, car, chaos, Christian, church, clothes, compromise, creation, crime, death, depravity, evil, evolution, faith, fallen, favor, flood, God, good, gospel, grace, grieve, hatred, heart, hell, holy, homosexuality, hope, house, idol, infidelity, Islam, Israel, Jesus, judgment, justice, law, lewd, lie, life, Lord, love, marriage, material, mercy, money, murder, neighbor, Noah, pastor, peace, plant, pornography, prayer, rape, religion, repent, righteous, salvation, scripture, sin, sorry, spiritual, strive, technology, ten commandments, theft, truth, vileness, violence
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. The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
This week, we pick up with Genesis chapter six. We’ve seen that things have gone downhill, but it seems like they just keep getting worse. Man has become violent. Whether you believe that the sons of God were the descendants of Seth or fallen angels, the result was vileness and violence. Things have gotten so bad that every thought of man’s heart was evil. Many people will read that and think, “Wow, that must have been a horrible time to live. Everyone was only thinking evil in their hearts continually”. The truth is, nothing has changed! Look around today in America alone. Pornography runs rampant and rakes in billions of dollars a year from men and women. Abortion, the legal right to kill your unborn (or almost born) child has become commonplace to many people. Homosexuality is a stain on our nation. Men committing lewd acts with other men, women committing the same acts with other women, in outright rebellion to God’s order of Creation. Marriages are torn apart by infidelity and adultery. Idols are raised almost on a daily basis as people try to find a “god” that will let them live exactly how they want to live. Evolution is touted as fact, even though there is little evidence (and the story continues to change), and few stop to realize that it’s a religion just like any other. Continue Reading Genesis 6:5-8…
Genesis 3:6-8
November 8, 2010 at 12:08 pm | Posted in Bible Study | Leave a commentTags: Abraham, Adam, adult, adultery, America, ancestors, argument, ateasetees, atheist, beauty, Bible, blood, bride, bridegroom, Britain, broken, Christian, church, co-worker, compromise, consequences, covenant, death, decay, depravity, desire, distraction, dogging, Eden, evangelism, Eve, evil, evolution, faith, faithful, Fall, fame, fig, fight, fighting, forsake, gain, gap theory, Garden, glory, God, good, gospel, grace, heart, hell, hide, holy, hope, hurt, husband, imagination, intelligent, Jesus, job, judgment, kiss, knowledge, law, lie, life, love, lure, man, mankind, marriage, mercy, millions of years, ministry, mirage, money, murder, naked, order, peace, pornography, power, prayer, process, progressive creation, reality, reasoning, rebel, repent, resist, salvation, Satan, science, scripture, serpent, sex, shambles, sin, smart, tempt, ten commandments, tension, theistic evolution, trap, truth, unblemished, voyuer, wife, wise, works
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
It’s somewhat odd that such a short passage of scripture would contain the beginnings of the fall and corruption of mankind, but it does. These three verses show the process of how Adam and Eve fell then, and how man still falls today. In the 6,000 or so years that the earth has been around, the process hasn’t changed. So why does it still happen? How do we recognize it when it comes our way? How do we stop it from affecting us? Continue Reading Genesis 3:6-8…
Boys or men?
October 19, 2009 at 3:49 pm | Posted in Christianity | Leave a commentTags: abortion, America, ateasetees, Bible, blasphemy, blessing, boy, cars, childish, children, Christian, clothes, death, deceived, definition, dignity, divorce, drama, entertainment, evangelism, faith, fake, family, fornication, generous, God, heart, hell, high school, homosexuality, honor, idolatry, image, immoral, inheritence, integrity, irreconcilable differences, Jesus, judgment, love, man, marriage, mature, men, mock, money, murder, politics, pornography, president, protect, right, righteous, role model, sacrifice, scoff, sin, single mother, std, teen pregnancy, ten commandments, theft, trial, truth, value, wicked, wrong
It seems that the definition of what it means to be a man has changed over the last 50 years. When I was growing up, a man was someone who worked hard to support his family, taught his children right and wrong, and disciplined them when they were misbehaving. Men were those who acted with honor, integrity, and dignity. They were protectors and role models and people looked up to them. They knew about sacrifice and were willing to do without so that family, friends, and even complete strangers could be helped. They married one woman for life and, barring death, stayed with her through everything; not just for the sake of the kids, but because he loved her. While this definition of a man still fits some, it seems to be a dying breed.
In America it is common now to see single mothers trying to eke out an existence on their own, working to support their kids and hardly having the time to spend with them to nurture and guide them. While there are the strange cases where the mothers don’t want a man around to help them (which I really can’t figure out…), a large percentage of them are due to the “man” leaving the woman and children to fend for themselves. Marriages are getting to be less common then they were and divorce is rampant (many due to “irreconcilable differences”). Now, “men” go around in fancy cars, designer clothes, and spend a lot of money in an effort to “get the girl” for a few weeks or months and when the newness wears off, they’re out. Some don’t even wait that long. They act like bigger versions of their high school selves with all the drama and tension.
When did men forget what it means to be a man?
Before someone gets mad at me, I’m not saying that all men that have nice cars, designer clothes, or spend a lot of money are boys in bigger bodies. Seriously though, when did men forget what it means to be a man? When did it become “cool” to leave the woman you professed to love yesterday for the new woman you met this morning? When did it become fashionable to leave the kids that need you so that you can go “do your own thing”? When did your word become so meaningless to you that you are willing to break your vows or walk out of a marriage? I just don’t get it. Look, I know that there have always been men that have been adulterers (the Bible shows me that). And I know that there have always been men that have requested divorces from their wives (the Bible tells me that too). I don’t recall there being much talk about what is currently going on though (and it’s not just America). The stories that I hear about many of the “men” in America are appalling. It’s like they’ve never grown up or learned to take responsibility for their actions. It’s like they are still back in high school playing all the little games that the kids play. And then there are the “men” who just don’t care. Where did this all start?
I actually think that I know when and where this all started, at least in America. This all started back in the early sixties when they began removing God from our public lives. When God and the Ten Commandments were removed from the schools, a number of troubling things started happening. Teen pregnacies rose by hundreds of percentage points. Sexually transmitted diseases rose too. Promiscuity and vulgarity weren’t far behind. I wonder how many people know that back in the early days of movies there were actually laws that prohibited the blasphemy of God’s name? They also prohibited profanity and other shameful things that have become commonplace in the “entertainment” industry. Because we removed God, He removed His hand and we’re reaping the results of that. Our kids are growing up in an increasingly immoral society. They are taught (and even raised) by immoral people who came from the same system. Back when it began, there were still reminants of the decency that comes from a fear of God. Now, those things are all but gone. Sins like homosexuality, pornography, fornication, and adultery are not only condoned, they’re celebrated (If that doesn’t sound like Romans 1 then I don’t know what does)! Greed and covetousness rule the political, industrial, and individual lives of many Americans. Murder is nothing to us anymore and to see that someone died is just another “normal” day.
The fact that our nation has thrown out its morals is the reason that we no longer see men being men. Now our many of the “men” in this nation are monsters, animals (which is what they’ve been taught through the evolutionary indoctrination they get from public school – so much for public schools being religion free…), or effeminate. They have become nothing like the men who used to be here. And the saddest part of all of this is the fact that more often than not, these same “men” are in the church! Some of them are actually leading “churches”. The church is full of men who let their sexual desires run rampant with no concern for themselves, the women, or God. It is full of boys in mens’ bodies who think they know what it means to be a man and are really nothing but a shadow of what they could (and should) be. It is filling up with “men” who love other “men”, “men” who have denied the way that God has defined them and chosen to let their depraved minds lead them down a path of sin. Marriages are torn apart by “men” who spend more time looking at pornography than they do with their wives trying to build their marriage up. Is it any wonder that our country is like it is when the “men” of the church are playing the roles they should be? I think that it’s somewhat amusing that there are many inside and outside the church who talk about what it means to be a man and each of them have their own definition. Oftentimes, these definitions contradict one another, but who cares right? I mean, as long as my definition of a man fits me and appeals to me, what else is there? What these “men” don’t realize is that it’s not their definition of what a man is that counts. The atheists, evolutionists, and secular humanists can talk all they want about how man is just a glorified monkey, but that definition isn’t true. Other’s talk about how a “man” is the one with the biggest house, the newest car, and the most money/toys; but that’s not the true definition of a man either. See, in our post-modern world, we’ve been taught that we can define everything however we see fit. If we don’t like something, we can redefine it. We see this is everything from public schools to the presidency. But that’s not how things work.
If something already has a definition, then that is how it is defined, whether I like it or not. A square is defined as a geometric shape with four sides that are all the same length. If I see a shape that has five sides then it’s not a square. If I see another that has four sides of differing lengths then that’s not a square either. The only things that are truly squares are those things that fit the definition of a square, regardless of how hard or how many times we try to redefine what a square is. The same is true for men. While we can try as hard as we want to define what a man is so that it suits us, if it doesn’t fit the true definition of a man, it’s not one. The true definition of a man is found nowhere else but in scripture. The Bible tells us exactly what a man is and what it’s not. If the “men” in our country don’t fit that definition then they aren’t men. Period. They can talk all they want, they can whine about it and how it’s not fair, but that doesn’t change the definition of a man. God has defined what man is and that’s that.
So what is a man? Here are some scriptures that will help make the definition of a man clear:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26-7)
-Man is made in the image of God. This means that we are like Him in many ways. It also means that while we are in His image, we are not exactly like Him. Unlike what many of the prosperity preachers seem to think, we are not “little gods” or “god’s with a little ‘g'”. We cannot create anything from nothing. We can’t “speak things into existence” or command wind and waves like God can. We can be relational. We can communicate and even create.
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man.” (Gen. 9:6)
-Here we see that God values the life of man. If God values the lives of men (and women and children), then a true man will too. They will protect the innocent and the defenseless.
He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. (Deut. 8:3)
-Regardless of what some “scientists” and other mockers of God say, every person on the planet owes their very life to God. A true man knows this and respects God.
Every man is to give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you. (Deut 16:17)
-A true man is generous. He gives as much as he is able to help those in need because he wants to. He doesn’t have to be forced to give or guilted into giving. He doesn’t hoard the things that he has because he knows that God has given them to him and can just as easily take them away (Job 1:21).
Blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)
-A true man will not give an ear to the wicked. He will keep himself from their schemes and the calamity that comes with them. He will not live his life in a way that will keep sinful man from coming to repentance. While he will be truthful and call things as they are, he will not mock or scoff like so many boys do. A true man meditates on the Law of God and keeps it in front of him day and night that he may not sin against the Lord.
What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty! (Psalm 8:4-5)
-A true man recognizes his place and does not see himself any higher than he should. While confident, a true man is humble enough to see his shortcomings and admit them.
A man will not be established in wickedness, but the root of the righteous will not be moved. (Proverbs 12:3)
-A real man does not depend on wicked deeds or schemes to build his life. Instead, he does those things that are right in God’s eyes, knowing that it is these things that will keep him strong in the toughest trials and worst storms.
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. (Proverbs 13:22)
-A true man thinks of his wife, children, and family before himself. He endeavors to leave his children better off than he was. He doesn’t do this just with material things because he knows that those things are fleeting. He leads his family in the way of the Lord, teaching them the things of God so that they spend their lives glorifying Him.
A good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. (Matt. 12:35)
-A true man knows that his heart is the source of evil things like murder, adultery, theft, fornication and other sins (Mark 7:21). He understand that his heart must be changed by God so that it will bring forth the good treasure that he and those around him need.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just man shall live by faith”. (Rom. 1:17)
-A true man does not live by his intelligence alone. He knows that this is foolishness because his heart and mind can deceive him. Becasue of this, he lives by faith, not in himself, but in the truth as revealed to Him in the scriptures of the Bible. This faith is not blind, but is the 20/20 vision that he needs to see through the veil of lies the world weaves.
Blessed is the man who’s sin the Lord will not take into account. (Rom. 4:8)
-A true man knows that he is forgiven. He knows that no work that he has done has merited him the free gift of salvation (Eph. 2:8-9). He understands, through the cross, the manifold grace and mercy of God that has been directed toward a sinner like him.
When I was child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; but when I became a man, I did away with childish things. (1 Cor. 13:11)
-A true man knows that maturity is one of his hallmarks. He doesn’t think like a child. He thinks like a mature adult. He doesn’t use the reason that he used to because he’s grown up and gained knowledge and wisdom. He has respect for God and for others and because of this, he does away with childish speech, thinking, and reasoning.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. (Gal. 6:7)
-A true man is not deceived. He is honest about himself and others. He knows that his actions have effects not only in his life, but in the lives of those that he loves. He knows that his actions can hurt others and therefore strives to live like God calls him to live so that he blesses those around him.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. (James 1:12)
-A true man understands that although he strives to live holy before God, trials come to test him and glorify God. He understands that others actions and choices can affect his life and takes everything that happens to him in light of the scriptures so that he can walk in righteousness.
While these scriptures are no exhaustive, they are an indication that the definition of a man does not come from anatomy alone. According to God’s definition, the definition of a man has nothing to do with the money that he makes or any other material thing. Instead, a man by God’s definition is so much more. The definition that the scriptures give for a man is not something that will be easy to live up to. It is something that will cause a man to choose difficult things and make him look at himself in the purest light. But a true man will make those choices becasue he loves God, loves his family, and loves the lost.
If our nation is to become a place that we desire our children to grow up in, then it will need men to act like men. The church needs the same thing. It is time for the “men” in church to grow up and stop playing. It is time for them to act like men as defined in scripture so that their children will grow up to do the same.
If you think that this is ust about men, you’re wrong. This is about women too. Women need to be women. They don’t need to try and fill the roles that men do. They have their own roles to fill and can find many graces and blessings in doing so. It won’t be until men are men and women are women (inside and outside the church) that things will truly change.
Play the man (or woman)!
Newslinks 05/02/08
May 2, 2008 at 11:15 am | Posted in Newslinks | Leave a commentTags: 05/02/08, abortion, ateasetees, Ben Stein, child prostitution, Christian, Darwinism, evangelism, expelled, God, Hitler, homosexuality, Iwo Jima, Jesus, Newslinks, Paul Vanhoeven, pornography, Proctor and Gamble, suffering, TIME
Friday’s Newslinks brought to you by
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080425/32107.htm
The director of movies such as “Basic Instinct” and “Robocop” has written a book on the life of Jesus. In his book, Paul Verhoeven says that he believes that Jesus was the son of Mary after being raped by a Roman soldier. Verhoeven also says in his book that Judas Iscariot didn’t betray Christ. The Dutch author is a well-known member of the Jesus seminar, a group of scholars and authors that seek to establish historical facts about Jesus. The author hopes to print the book in English next year and use it as a springboard for a movie. First, the Jesus Seminar has done nothing to find “historical facts” about Jesus. They may be “scholars and authors” but they are not Christians. They have voted against many of the events in the life of Jesus as being tales or not happening. Second, scripture says that Jesus was the result of the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary. Jesus is the Son of God. Mr. Verhoeven can say what he wants about Jesus, but that doesn’t make it true. Scripture also clearly states that it was Judas who betrayed Christ. It doesn’t leave any room for doubt about that, and yet, Mr. Verhoeven seems to think otherwise. This is just another in a long list of attempts to discredit the Bible and Christianity. If Mr. Verhoeven really wants to find the “historical” Jesus and make a “realistic portrait”, he needs to read scripture.
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http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=77328
Proctor and Gamble, the largest television advertiser today, has resumed airing open-mouth homosexual kissing on As The World Turns, the daytime soap opera owned by P&G. The AFA has put out an action alert once already for this and is calling on Christians to step up and boycott P&G. This is sad. P&G will not listen to its Christian consumers and seems to be pandering to the homosexual agenda. I will not be using any of their products and would encourage those of you who read this to do the same. There are plenty of alternatives to P&G products. They may not listen to our emails and phone calls, but they will listen to us when we spend our money elsewhere. I think that this is something we need to do concerning the gas companies as well. Instead of boycotting for one day, find out which companies have made the most money (in the billions!) and stop buying their gas.
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http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=77444
The increase in child prostitution can easily be linked to the availability of child pornography on the Internet according to Pat Trueman, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund. Trueman says that people see it on the Internet and then go looking for it on the streets. He says that many of the people looking for children to have sex with see it as a novelty and believe that there is less chance of them getting a disease. He also says that while those looking for sex with children are to blame, they aren’t the only ones. The pimps who put children on the streets are just as much to blame. They often use threats and violence to control the children or offer a type of “love” to those who have been thrown out of their house by giving the shelter and clothing. While the article talks about child prostitution in Oakland, California, it also says that it’s happening in Atlanta, Chicago and other places in the US. This is both sad and disgusting and is another reminder of the reality of the heart of man. The Bible says that there is no one that is righteous and that no one does good. It says that the heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” and this shows it. To use children as young as 11 on the streets as prostitutes is abominable. Those kids should be playing with dolls or playing baseball and having the ability to be children. Instead, there are people that are using them to make money and (just as bad) there are people out there that are looking to have sex with them! The state of America continues to plummet and it’s people turn away from God with vigor. To stop this, the church needs to be reaching the children, the seekers, and the pimps with the truth of the gospel. Not the “feel good” gospel or the “prosperity” gospel, but the truth; that those who die in there sins will find themselves cast into hell for eternity. And that those who hinder a child from coming to Christ would be better off having a millstone tied around their neck and being cast into the sea. As far as the Internet pornography problem, I’ve often wondered why they can’t make it easier to block? Why can’t they require porn trafficking sites to have a specific address (like .xxx instead of .com) to help filter them out? It would be easier for parents to block a large percentage of porn like that. I don’t think that that’s a permanent solution, but it would be a start and would allow Christians to reach the kids while they also reach out to those who run the porn industry…
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http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=77378
Renowned scholar encourages scientific debate
According to David Berlinski, author of The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions, science tries to squelch any type of healthy debate, especially where intelligent design and creation are concerned. Berlinski, who makes an appearance in Ben Stein’s move Expelled, says that people like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris spend all of their time pretending that they have some kind of standing when they do not. He says that it’s time that people look at the scientific community the way that they do the political community. “We look at a politician and we can certainly say we regard anything a politician says with a certain measure of well-deserved skepticism. We need to start doing that with our great scientists and the scientific theories they are advocating”. Berlinski also believes that the state should not regulate what can and cannot be taught in the classroom. My hats off to Mr. Berlinski. I believe that he has definitely said something that Americans need to hear. One of the major problems for most people is confusion between operational science and origins science. We turn on our computers and they work, we drive our cars and they work, we see the medical breakthroughs and they work, and we instantly assume that when some scientist talks about something that may have happened 140 million years ago that they must be right. That’s not true at all. Operational science, the kind that makes our computers and cars work, is something that can be repeatedly tested in the present. We can test our cars and computers and make them better, and we can do it repeatedly. We can’t possibly test something that supposedly happened millions of years ago. To be honest, nothing happened millions of years ago. While scientists keep spouting millions of years, there is plenty of evidence that suggests that the earth is only thousands of years old. Not only that, a plain reading of the account of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2 as well as the genealogies in scripture give us something around six thousand years old. I was listening to Way of the Master Radio the other day and Todd Friel shared a story that illustrates this. In the story, the scientists presented one of their many hypotheses on what happened millions of years ago. Todd then talked about how he saw a show on Adolph Hitler. In the show, scientists were discussing whether or not it was really Hitler that died in the bunker. They talked about the different evidence that they had (including a piece of his skull with a bullet hole in it and the fact that his dentures – verified by his dentist – contained glass from a cyanide capsule) and how they still weren’t sure it was Hitler. If they can’t be sure of something that happened in the late 1940’s with that much evidence, how can they be so sure of something that they think happened millions of years ago with no evidence for it at all? The truth is, they can’t. The reason they do it is because to admit that they don’t know is to allow the possibility of the divine and that goes against their naturalistic beliefs.
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http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=77490
TIME defends altered Iwo Jima photo
TIME’s managing editor Richard Stengel recently defended a cover photo used for the magazine. The cover photo is an altered image of the raising of the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II.
The image (seen right) has been altered to replace the American flag with the picture of
a tree. Many veterans, including those who were at Iwo Jima were outraged that TIME would do something like this. In the issue itself, TIME called “green” the new red, white, and blue, saying that the war on global warming was just as important a battle as World War II. This idea seems to coincide with Al Gore’s ad campaign. When defending the photo, Stengel said that he “doesn’t think journalism should really be objective anyway because he thinks objectivity is a fantasy”, which is a huge shift from the idea that journalism should be unbiased. I think that this, like the story above, should be a warning to Americans. If the managing editor of TIME magazine doesn’t think that journalism should be objective, I would just keep that in mind when (if) you read TIME. Understand that you’re not getting the truth; you’re getting someone’s idea of what the truth should be. Sadly, journalism isn’t the only place that this happens. As far as the doctored image goes, this is deplorable. To compare the “battle on global warming” to World War II is ludicrous! How many people died because of global warming? More than the millions of others that died in events leading up to the war and the war itself? Nope. Add to this the fact that “global warming” still hasn’t been proven and you’ve got a liberal propaganda machine. Instead of focusing on things that this country needs, we have a number of people promoting war on an issue that doesn’t even exist and wasting time and money that could be spent elsewhere to much better results. My heart goes out to the veterans and I apologize for the photo even if TIME won’t. I truly appreciate what you have done for me and for our country. I may not be old enough to have been around then, but what you did has allowed me to be around now. Thank you!
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http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042512.html
Huge Christian Ministry to Disabled Fined $23,000 For Rejecting Homosexual Employee
A Canadian Christian ministry has been fined $23,000 and told that they need to pay 2 years wages and benefits to a woman after she was dismissed from working there. Connie Heintz signed a morality statement when she applied for work at Christian Horizons. The statement says that employees are “not to engage in homosexual relationships, extra-marital sexual relationships (adultery), pre-marital sexual relationships (fornication), viewing or reading pornography, and lying”. She claims that when her employers found out that she was involved in a homosexual relationship, she was subjected to a poisoned work atmosphere and threatened with the loss of her job. She quit in 2000. Those who support the decision say that it’s important because it helps to let faith based organizations know when they are infringing on the rights of others and moving outside of serving the communities needs. This is another exercise in lack of common sense on so many levels. The company is called Christian Horizons for crying out loud! I realize that that may not mean as much as it should, but shouldn’t that be a clue as to what their standard will be? Not only that, Miss Heintz signed their morality statement when she got hired!!!! Wasn’t there something on the statement that said something to the effect of “I acknowledge the above and understand that if I engage in any of this I will be subject to termination without legal recourse”? If that isn’t on there, it should be. On top of all of that, she quit! The employer isn’t required to do anything for her are they? The fact that she knew that being in a homosexual relationship was against company policy (and rightly so for a Christian organization) and that she signed the statement before being hired should clear Christian Horizons from any legal requirement to pay her anything…
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http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042510.html
Middle School Student Punished for Silent Protest Plot Against Abortion
Janelle Bushnell, a 14-year-old at James Monroe Middle School, was given a silent detention during lunch for planning and advertising a silent protest against abortion involving red armbands and duct tape. She was inspired to do this when she found out that her biological mother was encouraged to abort her before foster parents stepped in. School officials said that this would inhibit students involved in the protest from answering questions. She is not the first to face this sort of thing. In an interesting development, even the ACLU agrees that students should have the right to engage in silent protests and that they do not lose their privileges and rights as Americans when they enter school. I can’t help but wonder if this would have ended differently if it was tied into the “Day of Silence” in support of homosexuality. I wonder if the school would have paid for the tape and made it mandatory? This is ridiculous. I think that the initiative Janelle shows is something that is lacking in so many young people today and the fact that her school leaders (those people who should be encouraging and developing this sort of thing) are standing against her and her rights only goes to show how indoctrinated even adults have become to issues like life and truth. I hope that Janelle doesn’t get discouraged by the lack of support she received from her “educators” and that she will continue to stand for the truth.
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http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080501/32207.htm
‘Expelled’ Correct on Darwin, Hitler Link, Says Christian Group
Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed spends a lot of time on the link between Darwinism and the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler. According to Richard Weikart, “there’s really not much debate about whether or not Hitler was a social Darwinist. He clearly was drawing on Darwinian ideas. It drove pretty much everything that he did. It was not just a peripheral part of his ideology”. He also said that Darwinian theory was popular in Germany and Hitler was drawing from what German academics were teaching in the early 20th century. All it takes is a little common sense and even the most basic definitions and teachings from evolutionary theory to see that this is true. When Darwinism teaches that we’re nothing be highly evolved apes, and that life is all about “survival of the fittest”, is it really hard to see the correlation? If I think that my race is more highly evolved than yours and that I can better ensure my survival by eliminating you, what’s to stop me from doing it? Not only that, Darwinism leads to things like population control and euthanasia as well. “If we can control the number of children people have, it will better help ensure our future survival”. Blah. Ask China how well this is working. To be honest, it raises an interesting question though. If evolution is supposed to be all about survival, why would life develop to the point where animals take care of their offspring? Isn’t that just creating more mouths to feed? Why would life have the desire to procreate and create other organisms that will compete for the food and other things that it needs to survive?
Related Articles:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080428/32143.htm
‘Expelled’ Filmmakers Sued Over Lennon Song
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http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080424/32090.htm
Theologians: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
Recently, two theologians have been engaging in a debate over why God allows suffering and evil in the world. Bart Erhman, a professor of Religious Studies at UNC, was a professing Christian who is now an agnostic. “Suffering increasingly became a problem for me and my faith.” “How can one explain all the pain and misery in the world if God – the creator and redeemer of all – is sovereign over it, exercising his will both on the grand scheme and in the daily workings of our lives?” Erhman also questioned why God didn’t stop droughts, help hunger victims, or answer the prayers of Holocaust victims. N.T. Wright, who represented the Christian viewpoint, said, “I read the story of Israel as a whole (not merely in its individual parts, which by themselves, taken out of that context, might be reduced to ‘Israel sinned; God punished them,’ etc.,) as the story of theodicy-in-practice: ‘this is the narrative through whose outworking the creator God will eventually put all things to rights’”. The debate has been going on over the last few weeks in a blog on BeliefNet. What I don’t understand is why the cause of suffering wasn’t even brought up? God allows suffering because of SIN! It is sin that has brought about the suffering and death in the world and that is not God’s fault; it is man’s fault. When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they disobeyed God. God had made it clear that if they disobeyed, they would die. When they disobeyed, their sin separated them from God and brought death into the world. Sin and death have caused suffering ever since. The fact that God didn’t kill Adam and Eve immediately shows that He has mercy and His killing of the animals to make skins to cover Adam and Eve shows it as well. Not only that, in the midst of their punishment (Genesis 3:14-19), God gave them the promise of redemption through the seed of the woman (a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ – women don’t have seed!). To say that God doesn’t care about what’s going on is ridiculous. He was willing to let His Son die on the cross (even though He had no sin) in our place so that we could be reconciled to Him. To be honest, God has every right to destroy each and every one of us for our sins. He could have done it at any time and been fully justified in doing so. Instead, He’s been extremely patient with all of us and given us the time to accept our sinful, wretched state and come to Him in repentant fear. He’s giving you the time right now to do the same. If you will repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ, you can know that you will go to heaven. That will not erase the suffering you may face here, but it will promise you a place in heaven where there is no death or suffering ever. That seems very caring and merciful to me…
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Oprah’s marriage counsel
October 14, 2007 at 12:14 am | Posted in Christianity | Leave a commentTags: abortion, adultery, America, ateasetees, Bible, Christian, church, compromise, death, evangelism, faith, God, gospel, grace, hell, holy, Israel, Jesus, judgment, law, life, love, lust, marriage, mercy, money, murder, pastor, peace, porn, pornography, prayer, repent, salvation, scripture, sin, ten commandments, truth
One of the most recognizable and well known afternoon talk show hosts has completely lost what’s left of her mind.
Oprah Winfrey recently aired a show which made a huge push to show that pornography and adultery were not only ok, but that it was good for your marriage! The show was a joke from beginning to end.
One of the speakers, Dr. Pepper Schwartz (no jokes please), has written a book about how she traveled around the world participating in one night stands and “friends with benefits”. The “good doctor” states that she keeps the relationships in their own little box and that they don’t leave it.
After this segment, Oprah then went around the audience to find stories of infidelity and the misuse of the marriage bed. Sadly, she didn’t have to look very far. The women in her audience spoke of everything from owning pornography (“erotica”) to using sex to get a house. Continue Reading Oprah’s marriage counsel…
A couple quick things
September 27, 2007 at 4:11 pm | Posted in Christianity | Leave a commentTags: abortion, abuse, America, ateasetees, Bible, Christian, church, compromise, covenant, death, evangelism, faith, God, gospel, grace, hell, holy, hope, Israel, Jesus, Juanita Bynum, judgment, law, life, love, marriage, mercy, money, murder, pastor, Paula White, peace, pornography, prayer, repent, salvation, scripture, sin, ten commandments, truth
I don’t really feel that I should spend a lot of time on this, but I wanted to just comment on a few things in the news as of late.
First is the divorce of Randy and Paula White, the former co-pastors of Without Walls church. While it saddens me to see another high profile Christian divorce (or any divorce for that matter), I’ve got to wonder what they’re thinking. I can’t say why they divorced other than what I’ve read, but it gets me thinking about something that should be commonsense and commonplace in the body of Christ. What does God say? I’ve seen some of the comments made by Ms. White and, while I admire her for her show of strength, I have to wonder where scripture comes into all of this. The article I read says that her and her ex-husband separated because of the “different directions their life was taking”…WHAT? Is that what a covenant is all about? Marriage is a covenant. It means that until death, you go through together. But what does this say about the God who Paula White preaches about? I realize that people make mistakes and that things happen, but with something like this where the reason for the split is “different directions”, shouldn’t the marriage take precedence over the ministry or the fame or the money? Shouldn’t they be more worried about what God will say when He reminds them that He “hates divorce”? No matter how much you try to tell yourself that it’s “for someone else too”, it’s still a slap in the face of Jesus. The comments that I read seemed like it was a nonchalant, ho-hum, kind of thing that mocks everything that a marriage should be. Forgive me if I sound judgmental, but it sounds rather selfish to me… Continue Reading A couple quick things…
