Repentance, Confession,

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Confession in the Lutheran Church is a sorta/kinda sacrament. Dr Luther never really tried to decide on it one way or the other, but whether it’s a sacrament per se, it is still a vitally important part of every worship. Every Lutheran worship begins with corporate confession and absolution. Lutherans also encourage individual confession. I must admit that at the beginning of my fifth year of ministry, I have not had a lot of participation, frankly hardly any, but I will faithfully be available for confession. I schedule every Thursday at 5:30, you don’t have to be Lutheran either.

My first experience with individual confession was at Seminary where the Seminary Chaplain held weekly confession. I found it to be a great way to come before the Lord, His minister, and face the sins that I’ve been committing. Through His minister I am assured of my forgiveness and the knowledge that my sins shouldn’t hinder my life and keep me focused on keeping on the track of the plan He has for me. I would point out that in the individual confession liturgy it’s not necessary to enumerate each sin, you can, but I think that until there is high level of trust and comfort between the confessor and the one hearing the confession. Even if you don’t enumerate the sin, the assurance of God’s minister in front of you telling you you’re forgiven and absolving you strengthens and encourages you.

One thing I do want to remind the reader, confession is not the only part, there’s also repentance. I have heard people get this arrogant attitude “I don’t confess my sins to any man!” Yea sounds all self-righteous and all about me, but it’s arrogant, we are told to confess our sins to each other: James 5:16- “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Hmmm, not to God, but to each other, why?
Now Rev’s Blackaby and I might disagree a little here, or this might be hair splitting, but James tells us to “confess” to each other, not to the Father. Why? When we confess we are telling someone who does not know anything about our act, we may be confessing to them for forgiveness, or to a brother or pastor, who we trust, very much, who can give us the assurance we need. We don’t confess to the Father, we repent to the Father. In the sense of: “Father I know you know my sin and I am raising it up to you in heartfelt repentance and asking for your forgiveness.”

I do like their discussion on prayer; “Significantly, James linked confession with prayer. Your prayers will be hindered if you hold on to unconfessed sin. When James promised that the ‘effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,’ he did so in the context of confession. If you wish to have a powerful prayer life, you must regularly confess your sin. Only when there are no obstacles separating you from God and others will your prayers be effective.” (Henry and Richard Blackaby “Experiencing God Day by Day” p 272). God hears the prayer of the Christian believer. But I do think that sin inhibits us and since our sin is taking us out of God’s plan, His will, that it does tend to nullify our prayers, like any sin in a relationship, sin does tend to strain and even put a kink in the relationship. I’m not saying that God is going to ignore your prayers out of spite, or it somehow overrides the fact that we are completely righteous in Christ, but I am saying that the Holy Spirit is working in us and it seems logical that our sin can disrupt and derail that work, so we are simply not in God’s will and our prayers aren’t in accordance with His will. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) When we ask in His Name, we ask according to His will, tough to do if we aren’t acting in His will.
“Confession is not a sign of weakness; it is evidence of your refusal to allow sin to remain in your life.”(Ibid) I may disagree to the extent that we will always have sin, but to the extent of asking God for help to overcome the sin at issue, and to move on in His will I would agree. It certainly is a consideration that when I go back to prayer and really haven’t dealt with a sin that will be hanging over my head and be something of a barrier. The sooner God absolves me sometimes through His minister, the sooner He can begin His work and I can move in my life according to His will.

We are called to confess and repent, when we do, we know we are focused  on God’s will, we know that we are forgiven and in God’s will, reminded of our forgiveness through Christ. Blackaby suggest that “if you want to have a powerful prayer life, you must regularly confess your sin.” That may be a little legalistic, but I think regular confession would certainly enhance and make your prayer life more meaningful and certainly enhance all aspects of your life in Jesus. But we are told to confess and repent and when we obey is there any doubt we grow in Christian life and maturity?

Mrs Joel Osteen or Paul and Isaiah??? Hmm Philippians 1:12-30 First St Johns September 21, 2014 6

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We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and in the Name of God the Son and in the Name of God the Holy Spirit and all who know joy in Christ said AMEN
“In the short, 37-second clip that has gone viral and led to intense criticism in recent days, Victoria Osteen, who co-pastors Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, along with her husband, Joel, is seen telling congregants that, when people obey the Lord and go to church, they’re not necessarily “doing it for God.”
“I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God we’re not doing it for God — I mean that’s one way to look at it,” she said from the pulpit. “We’re doing it for yourself, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy. That’s the thing that gives him the greatest joy this morning … just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy.”
She added, “When you come to church when you worship him, you’re not doing it for God, really. You’re doing it for yourself, because that’s what makes God happy.” (1)
Steve Camp, pastor of the Cross Church in Palm City, Florida, who said that Osteen ”honestly believes that God exists to make us happy rather than holy.” 1
OK, in a sense, are we necessarily going to worship to make God happy? No, God is entirely complete, within Himself. Nothing we are going to do, nothing we could do is going to change God’s mood, as it were. God is going to act according to His holiness, to His plan, to what He would do according to His sovereignty and not according to some kind of sentimentality or fuzzy emotional out burst. Frankly that is just a straight out pagan idea that Mrs Osteen is propounding. Human emotions constantly change, it is never a good idea to make decisions based on your emotional state, many people have. Thinking they are in love, when they’re really in lust. Thinking they’re being smart, when they’re just angry and want to strike back out of revenge. Thinking they’re being shrewd, when they’re just being greedy.
There are days when I would not describe myself as happy, but there is a joy I feel. If I just went back and forth with every emotion, every up and down, as most people do today, after awhile I would be a wreck and that’s what you find with most people today. “Well I’m not happy today, why aren’t I happy, what will it take for me to be happy.” That’s a prescription to drive you even further into unhappiness, even depression. Yet that’s where our society is, take a pill and you will be happy. Sorry, but neither Victoria or Joel Osteen have any real understanding of what “joy” is. Paul is writing from a Roman prison, on the face of it, by the standards of today’s society, Paul has no reason to be “happy”. Being in a Roman jail is not a pleasant experience, it is downright unpleasant. But Paul knows who he lives for, not for his “happiness” but as he says “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Our “happiness” is not in this life. Sure we will have happy times, studies show that devoted Christian believers have a much higher quality of life. Dr Harold Koenig, a medical doctor, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center writes: “…what does the research say about Jesus’ statement that His coming would give us a fuller, more abundant life? … YES! Indeed, those who are more actively involved in a Christian life experience greater life satisfaction, more happiness and greater well-being than those who are less actively involved. This is also true for other constructs such as optimism, hope, meaning and purpose, gratefulness and numerous positive emotions and virtuous traits. That fullness of life also goes beyond mental health to include relational health and possibly even physical heath…”2 Dr Koenig goes on to point out that he bases his statement on 326 separate studies, mostly involving Christians that over and over show the same results.
Our meaning in life is not about us, it is how we are sons and daughters of the Lord. It is about how we are part of the Body of Christ. God has given us the faith to trust in Him, in His plan, not in our expectations, not in what we see in the world around us, but in what God is doing in us.
Paul is in a Roman prison. For the regular old person in the world, what would they be doing in a Roman prison? For that matter, what would a Joel Osteen type be doing in prison? “Hey this isn’t the deal, this isn’t what it’s about. I’m supposed to have the big house on the shore in Caeserea, bunch of servants waiting on me hand and foot, the newest shiniest chariot with the biggest fastest horses.” What is Paul camped on? “…so that it has become known through the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.” Soldiers may not like this odd-ball Paul, but for those who deal with life and death, who aren’t getting big money, they do respect integrity and honesty. Soldiers lives depend on what those around them do or don’t do. If you have to fight for your life next to a guy who is kind of flakey, has nothing going for him except that he is or isn’t happy-clappy, a soldier will be concerned. In Paul they see someone who has integrity and bravery. Paul is faithfully and with joy, under difficult circumstances, has thoughtful and genuine concern for those around him, witnessing to the soldiers in the Imperial Guard about Jesus. Imperial Guard soldiers would be comparable to U.S. Secret Service today. Imperial Guard were responsible for the safety of the Emperor, his family and the elite of Roman government. These were intelligent, highly trained people who were to be taken seriously. These were men who knew who should be taken seriously and those who were playing. Frankly the Osteens are players, not to be taken seriously. For those who take the Osteens seriously because of the numbers, Chuck Swindoll has something to say: “Large numbers don’t necessarily reveal God’s blessing. They could, in fact, reveal error. They could reflect an ear-tickling ministry that panders to people and tells the crowds what they want to hear. A growing number of churches and denominations today have found the four essentials [teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer] unnecessary, burdensome … Archaic traditions of a bygone era … they have hired … ‘teachers in accordance to their own desires … to affirm them in their selfish and carnal lifestyles. No wonder the crowds expand … it’s as if God has officially approved their sin!”3
Hey those words are from the man, Chuck Swindoll, he goes on to observe something that I’ve said, that these “churches” set people up for failure. When something goes wrong with their lives, it becomes God’s fault, they reject God. For what? They don’t know, but as far as they’re concerned, this God thing doesn’t work either. Swindoll’s observation: “The tragedy is that these empty individuals think they have already tried God … and He has left them just as unfulfilled as the world has. It’s downright tragic.” 4
If I said the things Dr Swindoll has said you might write my comments off as sour grapes, discontent because I don’t have a congregation of thousands. But Chuck Swindoll has started a couple of churches that have gone into the thousands and he knows that numbers don’t always tell the story. That just because there’s a big crowd doesn’t mean what the speaker says is right, in any sense of being right.
There is not a cross, a crucifix, the symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, anywhere in sight in the Osteen’s auditorium. That would deny the worldly happiness they preach, that tickles the ears of the world and gives them big audiences and big bucks.
God wants us to be “happy”? No! We want us to be “happy”, we are our “god” and idol and we want our “god”, us, to be happy. What God wants is maturity, integrity, strength, joy. Happy is la, la, la, skipping along through life. It’s really not living, not life and life more abundant, but is waste, lost chances, missed opportunities for an abundant life. “Joy”, especially as we see Paul living it is “Wow! There’s a whole big world out there, a lot of living to do.” The world tends to watch, let life pass it by. They can’t figure out why they’re always mired in an emotional, spiritual, physical rut. Paul has joy, he certainly hasn’t been sitting around. You don’t hear Paul saying: “Hey, entertain me, make me happy, waw, I worked a whole forty hours last week.” Paul’s been doing on a massive scale, his joy is to see people saved, from physical and spiritual death, to life and life more abundant. Not sitting around in Texas listening to someone who has no clue telling you how great you are and how happy you should be. Yea, PT Barnum was right. Imprisonment made Paul stronger, as he said more bold to speak the word without fear. How can you live that abundant life, how can you put away what the world tells you about ‘happiness’ and find true joy and life in Jesus Christ?
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Our brains designed by God to be receptive to Him, our sin messes up that design.

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I’ve seen a lot has been written lately on the unique design of the brain. That the case could be made that  the human brain was designed by God to be receptive to God’s guiding. The point is also made that the human brain is very elastic, very malleable. This means that the brain was made one way and intended by God for His guidance. Because the brain is so elastic, though, it is very subject to being changed from its intended purpose and to our human thoughts and deeds. Meaning, by our sin, by our lusts, obsessions, hatreds, substance abuse, lack of exercise, poor diet, anger, bitterness, we change our brains to be very different from what God intended them to be.

The research I’ve seen has shown that damage to the brain either physical or psychic can impact the brain very negatively. The “prefrontal regions” of the human brain is responsible for what is referred to as the “executive functions of the brain”. This part of the human brain is vastly different than any other animal brain. As Gary Sibcy PhD points out: “Spirituality is not some separate part of our functioning, but refers to how well all the different components work together in a synchronized and coherent fashion. Just as the term ‘team’ is about how well all the players work together, spirituality is about how well our thinking, feeling, behaving, relating, communicating and problem-solving operate in relation to others and God. Jesus’ life itself represents a living example of perfect harmony across all these domains.” (Christian Counseling Today Vol 20 No 3 p 42)

One thing that does come out in the research is that this part of the brain is rather vulnerable, subject to physical trauma and also psychic trauma (issues like bullying, sexual abuse, trauma, stress etc). I know that there are people who have been affected this way and have become bitter and anger, often against God and those who try to help them. But, it does seem to me, albeit my lay mind, that the elasticity of the brain can be used to shape the brain back to being receptive to God and away from anger and bitterness. Seems to me, that secular ways of dealing with this simply reinforces the anger and bitterness, trying to find a way to justify the anger and bitterness and resentfulness against Christians who are trying to help someone by adjusting their brain away from the bitterness and toward the love, care, compassion of Christ and Christians.

Well this doesn’t seem to play well into the secular. It frankly seems that the secular is much more interested in justifying the anger, justifying striking back and dispensing with any hope that they can come back into a healthy relationship with others.

Anyway, the prefrontal regions regulate/coordinate the higher functions of the brain. The claim seems to be that when the brain is operating properly, when we are allowing God to guide the Executive functions, instead of what people usually do and resort to the use of the lower functions of the brain. Sibcy writes: “…the prefrontal region … plays a critical role in spirituality because it provides the underlying biological platform that supports a wide number of neurocognitive processes and allows us to achieve ‘maturity in Christ’.

I’m not going to camp on this or bet the house, but it seems logical; God operates the higher functions of the human brain, we take our brain to the lower functions. It’s not to say someone is “smarter” because, I believe, there are other parts of the brain more engaged in just pure intelligence. But it seems that we are allowing God to manage and coordinate the brain when we rely on Him to guide us by our prefrontal regions and that does give us maturity, emotional depth, warmth, patience, humility etc. I’m sure you know someone who is quite brilliant but has little ability to effectively coordinate their brain between their brilliance and having emotional depth, empathy, humility etc., a great example is Sheldon the off the chart brilliant astro-physicist on the television program “Big Bang Theory”.

Again, I am a lay person, but for some reason, lately, I’ve been reading some very deep material in the elasticity of the brain. This is a rather new development in science and a factor that isn’t taken into account in secular psychological treatment. It seems as if secular treatment allows the mind to be hardened into the trauma by repeating the trauma,  establishing who is the victim and villan and allowing the patient to be divided and enabled in their trauma, instead of trying to use the plasticity of the brain in order to overcome and move beyond the trauma.

As Christians we have to continue to pray and encourage those who are dealing with trauma, but we also need to challenge them to grow in maturity. We need to encourage them to trust healing in the Holy Spirit who, I have no doubt, will influence the patient, as He does with all of us, through the higher/executive functions of the brain. Through our encouragement and prayer I have no doubt that we are helping this person to use these executive functions in order to coordinate all the parts of the brain to rest and trust in God and follow His leading. It frankly seems that the secular says, “no you have to do everything by yourself, continually relive the trauma and let your brain harden into the bitterness and resentment of your trauma and you can simply sit and stew in your anger at the world and God.” We are called to a higher solution. God’s love, compassion, comfort, healing works through the prefrontal parts and heals, the world appeals to the lower parts of the brain and allows bitterness and anger to build. Obviously we are called to encourage, pray, include in community and turn from anger and bitterness to God in Christ.

Ignorance, bigotry and hate speech of the secular

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This was published by the York Dispatch, York Pa. on September 25, 2014:

OP-ED: Shame on Kreutz Creek Elementary
By MICKIE R. SINGER
Posted: 09/25/2014 09:48:51 AM EDT
Updated: 09/25/2014 09:49:42 AM EDT

It is amazing that a school would invite ignorance into their very doors, but Kreutz Creek Elementary has done just that. They have allowed a so-called Christian group to come into their school to provide, with parental permission, hours under “Released Time,” in which a child can be excused from a public school class to attend a Christian class on the Bible under the name of “religious instruction.”
Even though our nation’s law forbids a mixture of church and state, apparently a Pennsylvania statute states that school boards must comply with statutory requirements when granting excuses for religious instruction.
How such a statute ever came to be is beyond me; but then, we have hundreds of court decisions struck down yearly because someone with wisdom was able to prove a court’s decision was, in fact, unconstitutional.
Whether any religious group likes it or not, the United States is governed by that Constitution. It is only a matter of time before the ACLU or some other astute group strikes down this statute and Kreutz Creek — or any other school allowing this un-American activity to happen within its halls — will cease to be able to do so.
As a taxpayer whose taxes support the Eastern York School District, I hope that time comes soon.
In the meantime — Kreutz Creek Elementary, shame on you. For one thing, the statute specified time for “religious instruction,” not time for a specific religion’s instruction. Would you be just as welcoming to an organized religious group offering an educational program of instruction in Biblical Judaism, or the Koran, Zen Buddhism or Hindu belief systems? Are these not equally, as you described, providers of “moral and character development?” Do they not educate and encourage values?
Of course they do. But they are not Christian.
York County may have many Christian believers, but the fact is not all York countians are Christian. Are you ready to allow your children to be released from their classes to explore the morals and values other religious instruction can provide?
As an American public school, we want to see evidence you understand “public” is a word that refers to everyone. We want to see how an educational institution demonstrates understanding that in this country church and state do not belong together — for the moment we mix them, we are saying that America no longer belongs to everyone and anyone of any religious or non-religious belief.
There is nothing wrong with Christianity or Christian religious instruction. But they don’t belong in an American public school.
Religious instruction should never be the reason for an excused absence in a child’s public-supported education. How disappointing — and alarming — it is to watch you enact the opposite.
— Mickie R. Singer is a resident of Lower Windsor Township.

This was my response (don’t know if it will be published)

To the Editor of the York Dispatch:
Wow, it’s been sometime since I have seen such an ignorant, bigoted anti-Christian, anti-religion and outright hate speech as I saw with your Op-Ed column by Mickie Singer.
I served twenty-nine year s in the military, active & reserve, and so have certainly defended citizens right to free speech, but, Nazi’s march in Illinois (who are also hateful, bigoted, anti-Christians), so certainly I served to defend your free speech too.
Problem is that your very hateful op-ed, is seriously unfactual, to wit. You call Christianity “ignorance”, your lack of historical knowledge is rife through your piece. Our national culture is based on Christianity, legal, social, economic. To say otherwise shows a severe ignorance of American history and is just a frankly bigoted statement. The Constitution of the United States clearly states that the government shall not interfere in religious rights, while the “astute” ACLU has tried to prohibit freedom of religion to be practiced in government, the ACLU continually demonstrates its bias and bigotry by trying to shut up any religious discussion, which is a violation of the United States Constitution the third amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;”, I am entitled to the free exercise of my religion, anywhere and at all times. You seem to want to restrict, you seem to feel entitled to your hate speech in this respect, but anyone else better shut-up.
I’m a taxpayer whose taxes go to things that I don’t appreciate, why do we teach abortion in school?
Anyone who can make a valid case, i.e. any generally recognized belief, can go through the process enumerated in Pennsylvania statutes Title 24 15-1546. You are not limited by your religious beliefs and point of fact, any school that refuses is in violation of the law. This issue is supported by Federal Statute and United States Supreme Court decisions.
It seems to me that life has to be exactly according to your world-view, well that’s simply not the way the world is. Yes, I know bullying, misrepresenting and hate are often the way to accomplish your goals, which have been historically utilized by the secular, which your arguments represent, those being communism, fascism, and terror groups in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. If you feel you need to be a part of an intolerant society, you would probably feel at home under those governments, but it seems you either ignore the historical, social, economic basis of the United States. Christianity has been the basis for all the sciences, all of the original education institutions from public elementary up through collegiate were based and founded on Christianity. All of the Ivy League schools were explicitly founded to the glory of God and the Christian religion. For many years classroom texts were the Bible, it was the only common resource. The famous “McGuffey Reader” taught Bible verses along with the ABC’s. Frankly considering our violent, substance abuse driven society of today, you are on the wrong side of the issues by endorsing secularism. The twentieth century was the bloodiest century in history, bloodier than all of history combined. It was the secular, communism, fascism, anti-religious movements that guided that century. Maybe it is a time to reinforce the virtues taught by religion and to get away from the self-centered teaching , prevalent in twentieth century America.
In the meantime, you really should temper your hateful, bigoted attacks and get the facts.

Christian Persecution by Dr Jerry Kieschnick

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Dr Kieschnick is a former President of the Lutheran Church, please consider his comments on Christian persecution.

Volume VI Number 6—September 25, 2014
Christian Persecution

My first awareness of Christian persecution was in the 1951 movie Quo Vadis. Filmed in MGM Technicolor, the movie was based on an 1896 novel of the same title by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

One of my sisters and I saw that movie together. She was 11 and I was eight. We probably had other schoolmates with us, but I don’t recall that detail. The movie featured actors and actresses (that’s what we called female actors in those days) whose names meant nothing to me at the time. The list included Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Peter Ustinov and Sophia Loren.

My primary recollection from that movie is the shock of seeing the portrayal of early Christians defenselessly and brutally attacked by roaring, raging lions in an arena, most likely the Roman Colosseum. That unthinkable act was ordered by Nero, who became Emperor of Rome at age 17 and held that title from 54 to 68 A.D. It was during his rule that Rome burned (64 A.D.) and that the stage was set for the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem (70 A.D.).

Christian persecution continues today. According to Open Doors – “Serving persecuted Christians worldwide” (https://www.opendoorsusa.org/persecution/about-persecution) “Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide. An average of at least 180 Christians around the world are killed each month for their faith.” See End Note below.

At least four thoughts come to mind:
1. Deep concern and heartfelt prayer for Christians living under persecution.
2. Thankfulness for the blessing of living in a country relatively free from that scourge.
3. Encouragement for all who read these words to exercise the privilege and responsibility of electing leaders at every level who take seriously the growing threat of Christian persecution and its undeniable consequences in the world, including our own country.
4. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. (Edmund Burke)

Carpe diem!

Dr. Gerald B. (Jerry) Kieschnick

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism – Eph. 4:5

For previous issues of Perspectives go to http://www.jerrykieschnick.wordpress.com  

 End Note (From Open Doors — “Serving persecuted Christians worldwide”)

What is Christian Persecution?

Christian Persecution is any hostility, experienced from the world, as a result of one’s identification with Christ. From verbal harassment to hostile feelings, attitudes and actions, believers in areas with severe religious restrictions pay a heavy price for their faith. Beatings, physical torture, confinement, isolation, rape, severe punishment, imprisonment, slavery, discrimination in education and in employment, and even death are just few examples they experience on the daily basis.

According to The Pew Research Center, over 75% of the world’s population live in areas with severe religious restrictions. Many of these people are Christians. Also, according to the United States Department of State, Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or surrounding neighbors simply because of their belief in the person of Jesus Christ.

Where Christian Persecution Is Worst

In the United States, it’s easy for believers to take for granted the rights they so regularly enjoy. From praying and worshiping in public to attending Sunday worship services, practice of one’s faith is generally accepted in America.

But this isn’t the case in many nations such as North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Mali, Syria, etc. in which religion, itself, is banned or where one faith system is permitted and touted, with all others being continually denigrated. The persecution is so severe in many localities that Christians are systematically targeted and mistreated because of their religious beliefs. According to The Pew Research Center, The Economist, Christians today are the most persecuted religious group in the world.

50 Countries Where Christians Are Most Persecuted Across the Globe

1.    North Korea
2.    Somalia
3.    Syria
4.    Iraq
5.    Afghanistan
6.    Saudi Arabia
7.    Maldives
8.    Pakistan
9.    Iran
10.    Yemen
11.    Sudan
12.    Eritrea
13.    Libya
14.    Nigeria
15.    Uzbekistan
16.    Central African Rep.
17.    Ethiopia
18.    Vietnam
19.    Qatar
20.    Turkmenistan
21.    Laos
22.    Egypt
23.    Myanmar (Burma)
24.    Brunei
25.    Colombia
26.    Jordan
27.    Oman
28.    India
29.    Sri Lanka
30.    Tunisia
31.    Bhutan
32.    Algeria
33.    Mali
34.    Palestinian Territories
35.    United Arab Emirates
36.    Mauritania
37.    China
38.    Kuwait
39.    Kazakhstan
40.    Malaysia
41.    Bahrain
42.    Comoros
43.    Kenya
44.    Morocco
45.    Tajikistan
46.    Djibouti
47.    Indonesia
48.    Bangladesh
49.    Tanzania
50.    Niger

Sure it’s all about smoking marijuana, what makes me happy

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Gonna kind of step off the deep end here so stand by for serious squawking.
Burt Helm in Inc Magazine (Dec 2013/Jan 2014 p 56) about the corporate culture in Boulder, Co. Their local historian pleading not to “unfairly reducing Boulder to a playground where smug eco-liberals puffed legalized marijuana and compared triathlon times.”
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, gotta be a duck. “We’re so much more complex than that” says local historian Carol Taylor. No, no you’re not you think your sophisticated intellectuals with your degrees in Women’s Studies, how is that any kind of serious academic pursuit. Degrees issued from “prestigious” colleges, that are just really “degree mills”. No academic benefit, just a huge amount of money for a name and connections.
These are people who sit around and tell each other how good they are because they lobby for government to spend more taxpayer money, while they don’t give to anything and find ways to avoid any kind of tax.
They tell each other how good they are by finding ways to justify killing babies, elderly, anyone who really doesn’t stack up so that they can of course pursue much higher goals like legalizing marijuana. These are the same people who in the 60s and 70s told everyone that abortion, divorce, should be easier, but would never become common place. Yea, welcome to your short-sighted ignorance, where both are epidemic, tearing apart families, creating the last two generations that have known the most unstable, insecure lives in history outside of war zones, famine zones, etc.
Yea, good for you, you have so much money, most of which is mommy and daddies, who just gave you money petted you on the heard, and sent you on your way. That way you could have teen-age sex, abortions, drugs, you know the 90210 life-style that you strive for and that yo think is so edifying.
Good for Burt Helm, he writes “it’s hard to keep a straight face”. I may be taking his comment a little out of context, but boy it is. You have a bunch of people who are an inch thick and a mile wide.
Yea, good for you , you make big bucks. Yea, people who have very little integrity, who expertly appeal to the lowest common denominator (yea, marijuana for example). Principle takes a back seat to “what’s in it for me” (actually that is the principle they live by). There big social solution is legalizing marijuana, and they couldn’t care less how it affects the vast majority of people. Try being in my inner city church office where people spend so much time trying to con you out of a bit of money. How many times have I heard about someone who was just at our food bank, who just went out and sold about $40 worth of groceries for a joint. “Yea kids get free lunch and breakfast at school, I don’t have to worry about food.” Wow, if these pretentious fops from Boulder ever lived in a real place, got a dose of reality, these boors from Wellesley, Harvard and Smith Colleges who have always lived on “opm” (other people’s money). They don’t know what they’re talking about and they don’t care, “don’t try to confuse me with the facts, I’m so much smarter than you.”
So long as I get my way, because I have all my life, I really don’t care how much what I do creates a more decadent, debauched society.
Common denominator? It’s all about me, I’m my own “god”, it’s what makes me happy, yada, yada. Then when it all falls apart, they get bailed out by others, but of course, it’s someone else’s fault. Someone didn’t let me smoke a joint and get mellow. Yea, they really think that way. God is God, we are saved, we are only fulfilled in our lives through Christ. It just baffles me, I am showing you Christ, you show me a joint. There is life and life more abundant, or there’s sitting around with a joint, making money off of your self-centered lusts.

Christian version of “g” factor

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Pastoring is still such a new experience and adjustments. Twenty-nine years in the military, twenty years in corporations, I know the phrase has gotten kind of trite, but really, failure wasn’t an option. Failure happened, but you worked to find alternatives, to minimize the impact of failure. There just doesn’t seem to be that sort of dedication in the average, even above average Christian, pastor or laity for that matter. Rich Karlgaard is a great writer for Forbes and his article “Smarts in Business is not about IQ”, is right on the mark. (Forbes Magazine  December 13, 2013 p 46)

I don’t know if it’s an excuse or a genuine fear, but Christian’s usual cop-out is “I don’t know enough to talk to other people about Jesus.” It’s not really about what you know, the average person isn’t going to ask you technical questions, the Bible, it is about relationship, staying in touch, being tenacious.  You’re tough and tenacious at the office, why can’t we be the same when we are talking to someone about the Lord of your life, your Savior?

“The smartest people in business are not those who have the highest g; they are those who regularly put themselves in situations requiring grit. These acts of courage accelerate learning through adaptation.”

It’s the old ‘you only learn by doing’ philosophy. Be honest, you see situations where you should be talking to someone about Jesus and then avoid getting involved. Witnessing requires a level of comfort and the only way you will be comfortable is by looking for the opportunities and jumping in, I assure you no one is going to bite you. It’s not a works thing, it’s not required for you to be saved. But Scripture tells us that we will be known by our fruits, seems to me the average Christian’s fruits on display to the world is “run away!!”. How does that show the world our devotion to Jesus?

Karlgaard’s observation is a challenge to us to jump into the fray and be less concerned about our precious dignity and more concerned about how the Holy Spirit is working through us: “By facing up to the task of making a call, frequent callers put themselves on a faster learning curve. They discover more rapidly what works and what doesn’t. They’re quicker to learn techniques that overcome rejection. Thus, their success yield will improve…The act of making lots of calls also helps a person learn self-discipline and understand the rewards of delayed gratification.”

Yes, it is all about the Holy Spirit and what He does. We can’t talk someone into the Kingdom, we can’t by our own power be saved. But we can be faithful, we can trust what the Holy Spirit is doing with us in relation to someone else. This is the most important aspect of someone’s existence, eternal salvation. Care enough about them to trust the Spirit’s leading and then know that your reward waits for you when the Father says to you “…well done good and faithful servant You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'” (Matt 25:21). Let’s talk about it Wednesday morning 10am at First St Johns, mid-week Bible study Coffee Break. 140 W King St, park right behind the church.

Learn to forgive like Joseph forgave,

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Please click on the above link to listen to the audio version, or copy this link and paste it into your browser.

We make our beginning in the Name of God the Father and of God the Son and of God the Holy Spirit and all those who forgive because they know how much they’ve been forgiven said … AMEN!
Matthew, quoting Jesus, has really camped on a theme for our last few sermons, that being forgiveness. Specifically we’ve talked about holding grudges, being offended. “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Many people out in the world will tell you that’s in the Bible, “No! You are the weakest link! Goodbye.” It is from English poet Alexander Pope. Sort of presupposes that God forgives, but people, well… we just can’t rise up to that level. Yet, we do see forgiveness. Remember the story of Joseph?
He kind of flaunted the gift from his father, Israel. His father was originally named Jacob, but after wrestling with God all night, God renamed him Israel. He became the father of the 12 patriarchs, the men/brothers who would be the roots of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jacob/Israel had two wives, that is a whole other story, except to say that Rachel was his favorite. Now the wrinkle there was that while Rachel was the favorite, she was having a great deal of difficulty in conceiving. As we’ve said, not having children was a huge humiliation to the man and wife, but particularly to the wife. Jacob’s other wife, Leah, had 6 sons, that arrived soon and fast, while Rachel ached in embarrassment. Rachel finally had a son, Joseph and he became Jacob’s favorite, the son of his favorite wife. Rachel had another son, Benjamin, Rachel died giving birth to him. No doubt that probably caused problems being the son who caused his beloved wife’s death. It would seem that Jacob doted on Joseph and the rest of his sons resented that. Genesis 37:3 tells us that Jacob “made a richly ornamented robe for him.” for Joseph. Remember these people are nomads, they don’t run to the mall to buy their clothes, clothes are hard to come by and especially fancy clothes. The fact that he made this for Joseph and it was very lavish, made this an extraordinary gift and was certainly the talk of the tribe and no doubt made Joseph everyone else’s target. Now add to that Genesis 37:5-7 “Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.” And then he had another dream that even the sun, moon and stars would bow down to him. Hey he was a kid, he really didn’t know, but to everyone else he is over the top obnoxious. The coat, the bowing down, all makes Joseph the spoiled rotten, snott nosed kid that everyone hates. I don’t really believe that Joseph intended to be so obnoxious, but that’s how he came across. Can’t you see his brothers? “What you little punk, who do you think you’re talking to? You may be daddy’s favorite, but you’re just a kid and daddy’s not going to be around forever, and hmmmm, who knows, can never tell out there in the desert, ahhh, you just might have an “accident”. Jacob sends Joseph out to his brothers, really to check up on them out in the pastures tending sheep. That turns out to be a stupid move. His brothers saw him in the distance and decided, “great this is our chance, we are going to take care of this little punk once and for all.”
They decided they were going to leave him to die, then they decided, ahh, we should make a shekel out of this for ourselves and sold Joseph as a slave. He was a slave for awhile, then he was falsely accused, thrown into an Egyptian prison where he would have probably just died, but God decided He had bigger plans for Joseph and that’s where we see Joseph now. He has been made the second most powerful man in Egypt. He could have just let his family starve back in Israel or at least with his brothers now bowing down in front of him, just like in his dreams, he could have just done away with his brothers. He didn’t do that, he saw God’s hand in what happened: “…you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.” (Ge 50:20) He didn’t let his anger, hurt and bitterness keep him from seeing the big picture.
I can’t tell you to put all your anger and hurt into a kit bag and smile, smile, smile. I can’t look you in the face and tell you I’d do that, it’s not a question of stuffing it down or denying that you’re hurt. But it is a question of whether it will just drag you down, get you to obsess. Hey that’s just fine with Satan, if we are going to obsess about our anger and ignore Christ, then Satan has accomplished his mission, whatever it takes to get your eyes off Christ is the goal. If you are going to let your anger eat you up and devour you, then mission accomplished. We are called to move on. From the cross Jesus said, “forgive them Father they know not what they do.” What if He decided, “heck with this, I’m getting off this cross and I’m just going to show all these people who’ve tormented me what for. Then what about forgiveness for our sins? Three days later Jesus rose from the grave, that was the victory! We are sunk in our sins, no other way to escape except through His sacrifice. He died to give us the promise and assurance of forgiveness, and so we are. But if He had not died, He would not have rose again. We would not have forgiveness and we would not have the promise of eternal life through our resurrection in Him. He has shown us what the real effect of forgiveness is, so we can get bitter and consumed in our hurt and anger, or we can move on as Jesus did. When He moved on, He gave us victory over death and the grave, He gave us eternal life. He didn’t waste His time and effort fighting over the cross, He faithfully followed His Father’s plan. Through that He became Lord of our life, since He paid the price for our life. Most people would have thought Joseph would have been perfectly justified in just wiping out his brothers. “You guys, made my life as a kid miserable, you left me for dead, decided to sell me as a slave, I ended up in an Egyptian prison until God took me and put me where He wanted me.” Joseph knew his place, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?” He was not going to take revenge, he knew God would be faithful, remember last week’s sermon? “Vengeance is mine says the Lord”? I think we all agreed that God is going to work it out better than me. Joseph followed God’s lead, God had certainly provided for Joseph and now Joseph would provide for his brothers. Israel would grow, the tribes would increase and God would lead them back to the promised land to be a great nation.
How can you take your issues, your anger and bitterness, and instead of using it to return evil for evil, what can you do to glorify God through that. People watch you, you say you are a Christian and then the slightest little hurt, you react with anger and bitterness and you look for a way to hurt the other person. The world sees that and says “yea, big talk from Christians, but when it comes right down to it, they do the same thing we do, if they get slapped, they slap back. So there’s really nothing to this Jesus stuff.” Our witness is very much in what we do in our actions, it’s not easy, it wasn’t easy for Jesus, but to be a Christian is not the easy way. You can just slap back, or you can lift it up to God, let Him deal with it and then let Him guide you to use your hurt and bitterness for good. You can put the best face on what hurt you and forgive. Revenge, anger, payback, frankly I find that a lot of work. I’ve found it’s easier to get past the hurt, find a way to make-up, to put the best face on the issue or other person and get on with what and who is really important, that is Jesus Christ and His church. So how are you going to deal with your hurt feelings? Stay angry and drag everyone down, or find a way to use it to the glory of God?
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Shalom and Amin.

Focus on what we are taught to focus on 2 Timothy 4: 1-4

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Have you ever kind of camped on an issue, position, concept, that you knew in your heart was important, but you seemed to be kind of hanging over the edge? No one really backing you up?

If you don’t know, I’ve been writing a lot about how the contemporary Christian church is just really out of step with what Christianity is about. It’s moved way too much toward a consumer mentality, toward making people happy and comfy. I keep asking; how do you reconcile that with the persecution of Christians starting in the Acts church and continues today all around the world?

I haven’t seen, received, heard, etc, any type of response. Doesn’t seem as though anyone who is part of that movement has any incentive to respond. They’re bringing people in, they’re clearly raising money, they’re clearly impacting their followers and what some pipsqueak like me has to say just doesn’t register and isn’t worthy of any response. These “churches” clearly have an attitude of “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, don’t try to confuse me with the realities of Christianity. This works so I have no reason to change it. If anything maybe God’s changing course and I’m coasting in His wake. The only justification for this position is in worldly terms, numbers, money, big buildings, big shows, so it must be working. But God tells us that “my ways are not your ways…”, there is Scripture and what God tells us. The only thing the other movement has is numbers, but truth doesn’t seem to be something they get too caught up in.

Anyway, I’m reading “The Church Awakening” by the man himself, Dr Chuck Swindoll, and anything I’ve said, he’s said it better, in spades and makes a much more compelling case then I ever could. I take what he writes in “The Church Awakening” as affirmation of what I’ve been writing.

A side note; I didn’t become a Christian until my mid-twenties and around the same time I discovered Christian radio, heard Dr Swindoll early all and I was hooked. I have a lot of his books, but the guy writes a lot of books, so I’ll never have them all. Highly recommend any Swindoll book, heck I’d read his grocery list if he published it.

Please allow me to quote at length from the book (but you should buy it anyway and read it), the book was published in 2010, so I think Dr Swindoll has a good handle on the contemporary situation:

“When you look across the landscape of churches today, you find many congregations that have experienced phenomenal growth. Unbelievable growth. But upon closer examination, you discover that they have not committed themselves to the four biblical essentials for a church as prescribed in the Book of Acts: teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer (see Acts 2:42). The church may have more than these four… but it must not have less.

It is precisely these four areas the adversary will attack so he can disrupt and, if possible, destroy the church. That’s why it’s important to keep our priorities straight. It’s essential that we not get distracted by all that we can do as a church … and stay focused on only what we must do as a church. Otherwise, we may be attracting a crowd for the wrong reason.

This emphasis on the essentials is what the apostle Paul had in mind when he passed on the torch of ministry to a young pastor named Timothy:

‘I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.’ (2 Timothy 4:1-4)

Notice both the command and the reason for it. The command is clear: ‘preach the word’ – followed by an explanation of when and how to do it. But there’s also a why, a reason to proclaim boldly the Bible on a consistent basis: there will come a time when biblical truth will be rejected in favor of what people want to hear. The biblical alternative? We learned in the last chapter that the Lord will honor and bless any plan that upholds prayer and promotes His Word. This is what Paul was affirming to Timothy.

Large numbers don’t necessarily reveal God’s blessing. They could, in fact, reveal error. They could reflect an ear-tickling ministry that panders to people and tells the crowds what they want to hear, instead of what they need to hear. A growing number of churches and denominations today have found the four essentials unnecessary – burdensome, you might say. Archaic traditions of a bygone era. So they have hired what I call ‘pulpit whores’, or put more mildly, ‘teachers in accordance to their own desires’ – to affirm them in their selfish and carnal lifestyles. No wonder the crowds expand … it’s as if God has officially approved their sin!

But even a calloused conscience eventually aches with the emptiness that only God – the true God – can fill. The tragedy is that these empty individuals think they have already tried God .. and He has left them just as unfulfilled as the world has. It’s downright tragic.” (Dr Charles Swindoll The Church Awakening pp 71-73)

So yea, a long quote, but I think you can see why.

YES!! YES!! YES!! It has been my firm conviction with the happy-clappy/name it and claim it/prosperity types that they are setting people up for failure. They are not moving people to God. They are moving them to worship themselves. When trials occur, and they will. These people will be shaking their fist at God: “Pastor Billy Bob said that if I had enough faith that I would be pretty and wealthy and healthy, that God would bless me with infinite good stuff. Well I lost my job, my house, my wife, my child! How could you do that to me?! So the heck with you God, I’ll get a deal somewhere else.’ I always wonder how these people think. Where do they think they’re going to get a better deal? But they do. But it can only end one way? God doesn’t send you to Hell, you chose to worship yourself and what you wanted, you chose to be separated from God, so you can’t expect God to undermine that, right? Hey you have free will, right? Time for the church as a whole to repudiate these false teachers. The ancient church had no problem to gather in council and cut off people who were pushing spiritual poison. I know the public arena is not a friend to orthodox Christianity, but that is not a reason for the church to refrain. If the church expects to be taken seriously, at least respected, it has to distance itself from the false teachers: “Those people are not with us, they are wrong, people shouldn’t listen to them, for their spiritual health and we completely cut them off from any relationship in Christ. Yea, excommunication. Will it be popular? No. Is the church about being popular? It shouldn’t be. Our job is to edify and strengthen people in Christ, by allowing spiritual poison to be circulated we are not being faithful to our call in Christ. It’s got to be about living in Jesus and not what’s in it for me.

Marriage the cure for poverty

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The Poverty Problem is a Marriage Problem

Blog author: jcarter
Monday, September 15, 2014
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Broken Marriage RatesIf you’re out of work and can’t earn an income, it’s easy to slide down the economic ladder from working-poor to just plain poor. So it’s no surprise that the poverty rate in America has, since at least 1970, moved in sync with the unemployment rate. During each recession we would see a spike in the poverty rate and then a decline as the economy recovers and employment levels began to rise.

But around 2010, something seems to have changed. A decrease in unemployment is now no longer enough to reduce the poverty rate. According to a new memo by the Brookings Institute,

Between 2010 and 2013, the unemployment rate fell by 23% in the United States. The poverty rate, we predict, will have fallen by only one percent over the same time period. That is, for a second year in a row, we expect no significant change in either the poverty rate for all persons or for children. [emphasis in original]

Poverty Rate

The report also predicts the poverty rate likely won’t drop to pre-2007 levels anytime in the next decade:

We predict that there will be a gradual decline in the headline poverty rate for the foreseeable future; however, we do not expect it to return to its pre-Great Recession level by 2024 despite the fact the unemployment rate is projected to do so. This finding reinforces the idea that there are other significant drivers of the poverty rate in addition to the state of the job market—specifically, the composition of families and the generosity of the safety net.

The findings align with what many family scholars and economists have been predicting: the decline of marriage leads to an increase in poverty.

From 2007 to 2011, the American population increased by 10,360,000 while the number of marriages decreased during that same period by 79,000. Over the last few years we’ve seen the same trend: more people, fewer marriages.

The poverty rate among married couples is less than half the average (about 6 percent). And for married couples who both have full-time jobs, the rate is almost non-existent (0.001 percent). The rate for single parents, though, is about 4 to 5 times higher than for married couples (25 percent among single dads and 31 percent among single moms).

The effect of the decline in marriage, coupled with a increase in single parenthood, is that many more children live in poverty than they would if marriage was more common. As the Heritage Foundation reports, marriage is the greatest weapon against child poverty:

The collapse of marriage, along with a dramatic rise in births to single women, is the most important cause of childhood poverty—but government policy doesn’t reflect that reality, according to a special report released today by The Heritage Foundation.

Nearly three out of four poor families with children in America are headed by single parents. When a child’s father is married to his mother, however, the probability of the child’s living in poverty drops by 82 percent.

Wherever we look—whether in the streets or the social science research—we find confirmation that the breakdown of the family is correlated with societal ills such as poverty. We know the cause and we know the cure. But do we have the will as a nation to do what will be required to discourage divorce and single parenthood and encourage the development of strong marriages?