For this reason you could not defeat your enemies

— Posted inChristianity, Church, Culture and Society, Islam links, Spiritual Growth — 12 min read

The House of Representatives debate on the healthcare bill made for some great theater last night. There were high points (see Mike Pence’s moving speech) and low points, and in general it was fascinating to watch this great engine of state in operation.

We certainly live in a divided nation, and it doesn’t look to be getting any better. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who actually had promised us that the more Democrats we elected, the more bi-partisan Congress would be, gave her entire speech facing only the Democrats. Evidently she’s Speaker for only one part of the House. And Obama himself has proven to be, not the post-partisan national healer he promised, but if anything, partisan to the highest degree. But then, anyone who had researched beyond what the media handed us (see, eg, The Case Against Barack Obama) expected exactly that.

But for me the most telling point of our divisions came during the consideration of the Stupak Amendment, whose goal was to ensure that no tax money went toward funding abortion. Democrat Stupak and his friends are in the difficult position of being prolife in a decidedly pro-choice party. And to his credit, despite pressure from Pelosi to toe the line, Stupak has said that if his prolife position costs him his seat, so be it.

(more…)

Pages: 1 2

Another Muslim atrocity

— Posted inCulture and Society, Islam links — 5 min read

Yet another Muslim atrocity has been committed, this time within our own military. There is so much to say here that I don’t know where to start.

Let’s start with the obvious. As he broke into calm, focused, calculated violence, the perpetrator at Fort Hood shouted Allahu Akbar, the Islamic war cry. Immediately, using the politically correct culture’s own criteria, we have a hate crime. Religion was a major component of this atrocity. And if it wasn’t the main component, it at least gave sanction.

Violence cannot be separated from Islam. It’s in its source book, the Koran, and it’s in the personal example left by Muhammad – a legacy of conquest, murder, rape, pillage, strategic lying, ruthless subjugation, sexual slavery, and forced conversion. When a Muslim gets serious about his faith, he turns to his prophet and the Koran for guidance, and this is what he finds. How do we then expect such a one to then act?

But, you say, Christianity also has its atrocities down through history! Indeed it does, and sickeningly so. But the difference is that every one of those atrocities was done in contradiction to the teachings and example left by Christ, who went to the Cross rather than advance, or even defend, himself. So when a Christian gets serious about his faith, and he turns to Christ and the New Testament, we should expect him to become forgiving, patient and non-violent. Violence, conquest, forced conversions and the like are irreconcilable to Christianity.

(more…)

Abortion in the healthcare bill, documented

— Posted inCulture and Society — 5 min read

The ACLJ has come up with the abortion provisions in the House healthcare bill, H3962. You will find it here.

Joe Wilson was right about Obama’s bald-faced lie to the joint session of Congress and to the American people. Recall that Obama had wrapped his lie about abortion coverage in a harsh accusation that it was his opponents who were doing the lying. My impression of that speech was that Obama under pressure is far less smooth – and no more honest – than the debonair candidate much of America came to believe in.  His true nature was surfacing, recalling incidents such as when he discretely flipped off Hillary and McCain from the podium.

There are other proofs that Obama had boldly lied to us. Rep. Stupak, a prolife Democrat, tells how Obama called and insisted that during that speech he had said “my” healthcare plan does not support abortion. There are two problems with that. First, the record shows that he said “our” healthcare plan, indicating the one before Congress, and Second, Obama hasn’t even released a healthcare plan, so a) no one knows if it even exists, b) therefore no one can rationally comment on it, c) it would have been absurd for Obama to be referring to an undisclosed plan no one knew the provisions of in his joint session defense. He was referring to the Congressional plan, in particular the one that Pelosi was championing, and he was lying.

Additionally, Stupak has said that Pelosi continues to pressure him about his resistance to the abortion provisions of her plan. Why would that be, if those provisions didn’t exist? (more…)

A solemn, dire warning, from Naval Commander Jerry Wilson

— Posted inBible, Church, Culture and Society, Persecution links, Prayer — 9 min read

Before I print Jerry Wilson’s letter I need to affirm some foundational points. This is first and always a Christian blog, yet I feel the need to delve into cultural and societal issues because they affect us so deeply. I also believe that we are living through a period of extraordinary crisis and change, and that the change we’re seeing is emphatically not for the good. That makes the need to speak out more compelling.

God works the way He, in His perfect goodness and unlimited wisdom, chooses. He can use the world’s evil to bring about good, while at the same time punishing those who choose the evil. He prefers to bless rather than send affliction, but in an imperfect world He does what He needs to do. This is not a game.

We as a nation are perilously close to incurring the horrible judgment of God. Kicking God out of the schools and the public square decades ago was not a victimless crime; its consequences can increasingly be noted by simply scanning the news headlines. Or ask 50 million dead babies, in the US alone, what they think of our new-found humanist values.

The one thing Jerry Wilson barely mentions below is the coming elections. I believe this is America’s final chance to forestall punishment. If we wake up, admit our mistakes, and send a clear message to arrogant and ungodly powers that we are not going to tolerate this assault on our values and families, there is a chance we can turn the tide.

The enemy has established himself deeply within our institutions. Another generation is about to go down to the indoctrination, and a change lasting three generations generally signals the loss of  the original values – a catastrophic situation remedied only by starting again, almost from scratch. And that is very hard. The golden age of democratic republics has passed. It would take profound national repentance, a return to God and His Word, and a miracle of mercy and grace.

I’ve spoken enough, so I’ll end with a call to prayer and then bring on Jerry Wilson. Remember, God was willing to spare Sodom if He found just a few righteous people. We can do this, if we rise up and seize the opportunity.

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. -2Chr 7:14

(more…)

Amazing rendition of the National Anthem

— Posted inCulture and Society — 1 min read

I got this from Tracey Porecca’s excellent Finding Myself in Alaska blog.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCJRkUO_odo&feature=player_embedded]


Share to your social media:

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

Time to start a ‘One Nation Under God’ movement

— Posted inChristianity, Culture and Society, Faith, Spiritual Growth — 3 min read

From Florida comes an outrageous story of a young man who was fired from Home Depot for wearing a “One Nation Under God” button on his orange apron. He had worn the button for a year, got no complaints, even had one supervisor admire it and want to get one for herself. But when he began bringing his Bible to work, management clamped down and demanded he removed the button. He refused.

The good thing about this story is the amount of support he’s getting from the community. Everyone is proud that the young man is standing up for his values and beliefs.

How could we have fallen so far that wearing a simple button, whose words are merely an excerpt from the Pledge of Allegiance, is not acceptable in a place of business? Because of the encroachment of politically correct secular humanism, we have lost the ability to discern between good and evil. Our nation has a case of spiritual AIDS, whereby our immune system fails to identify life-threatening parasites.

Make no mistake, this was all intentional. If you don’t believe that, read the two Humanist Manifestos. The first, around 1933 if memory serves, was overtly religious. But the humanists realized that labeling their ungodly beliefs as a religion aroused the opposition’s defenses too much. So in the 60s they corrected that by issuing a secular manifesto. Now their beliefs were able to seep into our institutions at the same time they used a perversion of the First Amendment to exclude all overt religion from the public square.

Most of the troops on the ground were not aware of this, but the leaders were. They knew exactly what they were doing. The goal was to remake the United States in their own godless image. And that was not enough, they wanted the world as well, so globalist multiculturalism was thrust on us as well.

Since the election of Obama, we have seen an unbelievable acceleration of statist totalitarianism, from the takeover of private industries to the selling of future generations into slavery to an almost unresolvable mountain of debt. None of this would have been possible but for the complicity of the media, which has blown all credibility for its fawning over the president. It is no exaggeration to say that the media elected Obama.

At some point, if we are going to turn things around, the little guy has to stand up. Here’s the beauty of it: it doesn’t have to be anything grand that is done. In fact, it’s best if our assertion of values and beliefs is NOT grand, because flashes in the pan too quickly subside.

Instead, let’s make an unthreatening, quiet, but lasting statement. Let’s all get ONE NATION UNDER GOD buttons and start wearing them. Not a word need be spoken. And if we all do it, businesses will have to adapt. They can’t fire everybody.

Little things indeed mean a lot. If everyone gets on board we can rekindle our nation’s founding spirit. It’s really worth doing. Let’s redeem the time and make that statement.

Follow-up: Ex-Home Depot Worker to File Religious Discrimination Lawsuit: Christianpost.com

Share to your social media:

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

Even MORE free software modules

— Posted inBible, Software — 2 min read

It was bound to happen. A free Bible program as good as The Word is going to draw a lot of dedicated talent willing to transcribe resources to go into it. And quality content creators are going to give permission for their work to be transcribed.

I just came across another cache of modules for The Word, and it’s a dandy. It’s well-organized by genre, the titles are high quality, including many highly-desired classic resources, and everything is free, and to my knowledge, cleared in terms of copyright.

The site is here. I’m downloading now as I type, amazed at such an amount of quality Bible resources, and it’s all free. A big thanks to everyone who has been involved in this effort, and may the Lord bless it to spread Saving Knowledge of Him throughout the world.

Also, I received confirmation directly from David Guzik just now that his commentary has been released for free use in The Word.

Dear Paul:

Thanks for your email and your inquiry.

Yes, it is OK with me that my commentary is used as a module for e-
Sword and other related programs. I'm happy for it to have as wide a
distribution as possible.

Thanks for asking.

Blessings

David Guzik

It’s at the site I listed in a recent article here. Try out this gifted expositor’s commentary for fresh, really good insight into the Word.

The addition of these standard reference works and study tools elevates the The Word package into the ranks of the best commercial Bible software packages, in my opinion. And it’s all FREE! There also are some commercial modules available, and more will be coming, undoubtedly. That’s a good thing, as the worker is worthy of his wage, and some resources can only be produced if there is remuneration. Still, there now is no excuse for everyone to have quality access to modern Bible study tools.

Hint: click on this blog’s ‘bible software” tag in the sidebar for all articles relating to this program and its modules.

Share to your social media:

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

review: Destined for the throne, by Paul Billheimer

— Posted inBible, book review, Christology, Church, Faith, Prayer, Review, Spiritual Growth — 5 min read

At 134 pages, Destined for the Throne is not a big book, yet it took me nine months to read it. What it lacks in length it more than makes up for in depth and power.

I came across Destined while review-hopping at Amazon. When I finally got around to reading the book I had forgotten why I had bought it. But it didn’t take me long to remember.

Billy Graham forewords the book by saying that “every” Christian looking for a deeper witness should study this book prayerfully and apply its principles. Billheimer himself introduces his work as what some will consider a “totally new and unique cosmology”.

I’ve got to say that most of what Billheimer has written is not new to me at some level, but never have I seen it stated so clearly and powerfully. He puts his case together so thoughtfully, logically and circumspectly that the book’s immediately huge impact only grows as one continues to read. (more…)

More on Bible software

— Posted inBible, Software — 2 min read

First –  Yes, this is still the same Following Christ blog. I thought it was time for a theme change. When things aren’t changing I begin to get confused!

I’ve been spending time getting acquainted with and adding modules to The Word, which I introduced in an article below, and from helpful people at The Word’s forums I have come across a couple of helpful links I’d like to pass along.

For reviews and ratings of many Windows Bible programs, see Jerry Foster’s page. These reviews are done from the point of view of most readers will find most helpful – intelligent but not top-level scholarly. He covers an awful lot of ground, is very perceptive, and his evaluations are spot-on, as far as my own experience with Bible software goes. (more…)

“The Word” Bible software

— Posted inBible, book review, Review, Software — 2 min read

I’d like to make everyone aware of new free Bible software. The Word is totally free, uses few computer resources, so that even older computers should be able to run it, and is a delight in terms of functionality, design and aesthetics.

I’ve been searching for such a program for a long time. I have Logos, which while being very powerful and offering many resources, is not user-friendly, uses a lot of computer resources, and is expensive. For in-depth study, I will still use it.

TW is young, and at this point its resource base is small. But this program is so well thought out, and so visually appealing, that it can’t help but grow in popularity and available resources. And its author actively engages with the user base on a continuing basis. For normal reading and study I am switching over to it.

There are other free Bible programs available. They are good, and some have a fairly sizable resource base. But none of them in my experience approaches the excellence of The Word. Maybe when I’ve used this program for a while I’ll do a review of it here.

I have no connection to The Word or its author. I’m just trying to pass on something that I think can help a lot of people in their study of God’s word.

There’s a portable flash drive edition available as well, also free.

Hint: click on this blog’s ‘bible software” tag in the sidebar for all articles relating to this program and its modules.

Share to your social media:

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

I’ve Updated ‘Hebrews 6: restoration of a fallen Christian’

— Posted inBible, Faith, salvation — 1 min read

I reworked my post from last April, concerning how the difficult passage in Hebrews 6 is really about restoring, rather than condemning, fallen Christians, and I think it now speaks more directly and powerfully to the issue. This is one of the hardest passages in the Bible. It’s easy to misunderstand where the author is coming from, and to fall into a sense of condemnation that can have disastrous consequences.

So if you’ve wondered about what Hebrews 6 is getting at when it says that it’s impossible to renew someone who has fallen away, give the updated piece a read: Hebrews6: Restoration for Fallen Christians/

Share

America’s descent into Marxism

— Posted inChristianity, Church, Culture and Society, Faith, Persecution links — 7 min read

It’s amazing when more truth can be found in the editorial pages of Pravda than in those of the New York Times, but that’s exactly the state in which we find ourselves.

The Pravda edit speaks of the systematic take-down of the American system of free enterprise, hitting on these major steps:

  • First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger… than for their constitutional rights.
  • Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another.
  • The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

Simplistic, perhaps, but essentially correct. Liberalism crept into our institutions slowly at first (and I hasten to add the media to the above list), but now the dam is breaking. Accordingly, we are seeing a massive response from people who are aware of what is being taken from us. Will it be enough and in time?

(more…)

Should Joe Wilson have apologized?

— Posted inChristianity, Culture and Society — 2 min read

You’re probably aware that during Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress last week, Representative Joe Wilson called out at one point, “You lie!”

Obama had been claiming that the proposed healthcare reform bill did not cover illegal aliens, did not pay for abortions, would not break the budget, etc.

FactCheck.org, an organization that claims to be neutral but which I feel leans leftward, weighed in saying that Obama had indeed been making unsupportable claims.

Wilson did apologize to Obama, but subsequently has refused to apologize to the House.

I’m wondering how people feel about this.

A) do you think Obama was lying?

B) do you think Wilson should have spoken out? Or should he have chosen a different forum?

C) do you think Wilson should have apologized?

D) if he should have apologized, should it have been directed to  the president, the House, or both?

I find this whole thing a sticky subject.

  • I personally think Obama was lying.
  • I understand protocol, and that Wilson violated it. But I also think how Jesus cried out at the high point of a major feast, a major breach of protocol. It would have been very hard for me to sit and listen to Obama, but that’s why I haven’t run for office. I don’t have the temperament for it.
  • If Wilson should have apologized, I think it should have been for the protocol breach alone, not for the content of his statement.
  • But if that’s the case, I don’t see why he shouldn’t apologize to the House, where the deed was done.

So you see my thoughts don’t fit into a neat little package that could be used as fodder by either side.

Moreover, it is clear that our cultural fabric is stretched tauter than ever. During the campaign Obama positioned himself as the race healer, the common-ground culture wars healer. But things have only gotten worse in both areas. If the House is beginning to sound like a Fox News shout-down, if reps spend their desk time playing computer solitaire rather than listening to the other side’s arguments, where are we heading, and what should be done about it?

Do any of you have insights on this?

Be blessed,
Paul

Share to your social media:

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Furl | Newsvine

Numbering the people

— Posted inBible, Church, Spiritual Growth — 12 min read
What was David’s great sin in numbering the nation of Israel, and why is it important to us now?

If there’s anyone out there who in looking at the church has despaired of its condition (see the David Ryser piece, The Question That Changed My Life, that I’ve posted here, for a powerful take on the condition of the church), and then wondered if the church could ever possibly possess the gates of its enemies, there’s a powerful pericope from the life of David from which we can draw a lot of insight and perspective. It centers around when David numbered Israel, thereby incurring God’s wrath and bringing a pestilence upon the nation. Let’s take a look and see what we can pick up.

Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2 Sam 24.1

The first thing we learn is that David had just cause to be angry with Israel. We are not told what had transpired, but something Israel had either done or left undone had caused the Lord’s anger to burn against the nation.

So it was not out of the blue that David woke up one day and said, “Hey, let’s number the people!” No, he had very good reason to suspect that Israel was in a weakened state, and that, in turn, would prompt concern about how effective the nation would be in battle. That’s something a commander-in-chief understandably wants to know.

Wouldn’t it have been remiss of David not to have kept tabs on his nation’s strength and readiness? I think so. Yet look what happens. (more…)