New Year's Comfort

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As we launch out into another year, there is little visible prospect of a smooth and pleasant voyage. To the natural eye, the clouds are dark and fierce storms seem imminent. The very uncertainty of what the morrow may bring forth, fills many with uneasiness and trepidation. But how different should be the state of God's children—an all-sufficient Object is presented to the eyes of their faith, from which unbelief derives no comfort. If the poor worldling is concerned with what lies before him, it is the blessed privilege of the believer to be occupied with Who goes before him—the One who is his Captain, his Guide, his Forerunner. "The Lord! HE it is who goes before you" (Deut. 31:8). What a difference that makes! O that writer and reader may be enabled to lay hold of this grand Truth as we enter another period of time and keep it steadily in mind throughout the coming days!

1. The Lord has gone before you in the grand decree of His PREDESTINATION. Last year was one of suspense and sorrow, of trial and trouble—and perhaps you tremble at what this one has in store. Well, here is solid comfort. Your futurehas all been marked out for you! You shall not tread a step which is not mapped on the grand chart of God's foreordination. All your circumstances have been Divinely ordered for you. Ah, Christian reader, what an immense difference this makes that you are not a child of chance, that your lot is not decided by the caprice of fickle fortune. Infinite wisdom and infinite lovehave arranged everything. You will go nowhere during 1943—but where God has decreed, His "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2), planning your path, your life. A predestinating God has appointed "the bounds of your habitation" (Acts 17:26). You may be thrust into the furnace of affliction—yet you will not be deserted. You may be brought low—yet it will be for your future blessing. You may be chastened—yet the rod is in the hand of your Father.

"Your times of trial and of grief,
Your times of joy and sweet relief,
All shall come and last and end—
As shall please your heavenly Friend."

2. The Lord has gone before you in the preparations of His PROVIDENCE. "My God shall supply all your needs" (Phil. 4:19), full provision has already been made for it. Jehovah does not have to improvise. No unexpected emergency can overtake Him, "known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18). Therefore is it written, "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer" (Isaiah 65:24). Before we reach a place, God has provided for us wherever the road leads, all has been made ready. "He went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in" (Deut. 1:33); and He will not do less for His people today. Canaan was fully prepared for Israel long before they arrived there, "The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land filled with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant" (Deut. 6:10, 11). Here is comfort for the preacher too, "The Lord, He it is who goes before you," to prepare hearts for the message, for the reception of the Truth.

3. The Lord has gone before you in PERSON. The path which He calls you to tread—has first been traversed by Himself. None other than the Lord of Glory became incarnate, entered this world of ours and tabernacled here for thirty-three years in the flesh, that He might be the Captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10). "When He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them" (John 10:4). Are they required to tread the way of obedience? Well, their Shepherd has Himself preceded them therein. Are they required to deny themselves and take up their cross? Well, He Himself did nothing less. Are they called upon to be buffeted, not for their faults but when they do well, to be persecuted for righteousness' sake? Well, "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps" (1 Peter 2:21). What comfort is there here—that the trials we endure for the Truth's sake, that the unkind treatment we meet with from professing brethren because we dare not compromise are an essential part of the process of our being conformed to the image of God's Son! Shall we be called upon to pass through the valley of the shadow of death? Well, the Christian has nothing to fear, for Christ has gone before Him and extracted the sting of death.

4. The Lord has gone before you in the directions of His PRECEPTS. "Your Word is a lamp unto my feet—and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105), revealing the way of peace and blessing through this dark world. Especially is that true of its preceptive portions, for they make known the paths of righteousness which we are to tread. Ignorance of God's will concerning the way we should go is inexcusable, for He has already clearly and definitely made known His will. The highway of holiness does not have to be made by us—it is there plainly enough before us in the Word and it is ours to walk in it. "You shall guide me with Your counsel—and afterward receive me to glory" (Psalm 73:24). A "guide" is one who goes before us, directing our course and the "counsel" of our Divine Guide is contained in His prohibitions and commandments and according as we heed them shall we escape the dangers around us and be kept in the narrow way which leads unto Life.

5. The Lord has gone before you in the provisions of His PROMISES. What are the Divine promises, but so many anticipations of our varied needs and guarantees, which God stands pledged to supply. They are so many proofs of His omniscience which foresaw what would meet our requirements. They are so many tokens of His loving-kindness to manifest His tender concerns for us, long before we had any historical existence. They are so many evidences of His faithfulness, that He will withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly. Whatever tomorrow may hold, the Divine promises assure the Christian that the Lord has gone before and made every provision for him. No dire situation, no pressing emergency, no desperate peril can possibly arise, but what there is one of the "exceeding great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4) exactly suited to our case. Their value lies in the fact that they are the word of Him who cannot lie. "This God is our God forever and ever—He will be our Guide even unto death" (Psalm 48:14).

6. The Lord has gone before you into PARADISE. Did He not expressly announce before He left this scene, "In My Father's House are many mansions—if it were not so I would have told you—I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2)? Not for Himself, but for His redeemed—nor would He entrust this task unto the angels. How it tells of the love of the Bridegroom for His Bride! Christ has entered Heaven on our behalf, taking possession thereof in our name, "where the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus" (Heb. 6:20). His entry, ensures ours. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world" (John 17:24).

"He and I in one bright glory
Endless bliss shall share:
Mine, to be forever with Him,
His, that I am there."

"The Lord, He it is who goes before you" (Deut. 31:8). Here, then, is real substantial comfort—and what shall be my response thereto?

First, my eye should be constantly fixed upon Him, "looking unto Jesus" (Heb. 12:2), looking away from all else, trusting none other.

Second, then it is my business to follow Him—for what other purpose is a Guide? "When He puts forth His own sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him" (John 10:4). And as they do, so they find that He makes them to lie down in green pastures, that He leads them beside the still waters. Ah, who would not follow such a Shepherd! O that the Lord may say of us as He did of Caleb, "he has followed Me fully" (Num. 14:24).

Third, then fear should be entirely banished from my heart. And will it not be so—if faith really lays hold of this, "The Lord, HE it is who goes before you, He will be with you, He will not fail you, neither forsake you; fear not, neither be dismayed" (Deut. 31:8).

7. The Lord has gone before the PREACHER. This little message would hardly be complete if we failed to include a special word for the minister of the Gospel. Nor has God overlooked him at this very point. "Behold HE goes before you" (Matthew 28:7), is addressed immediately unto the servants of Christ and it is for their faith to appropriate the same. According as they do so—will their hearts and hands be strengthened. If you are really the servant of Christ, your Master has not called you to draw a bow at a venture—but has appointed your specific place in His vineyard and has ordered everything in connection therewith. That does not mean that all will be smooth sailing. It did not mean that for the Apostles, as the book of Acts shows. But it did mean that they were not left without a Pilot. HE not only went before them but gave assurance, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). That is the grand consolation of this writer. May it be yours, too!

~Arthur Pink, 1943

White Liberals Use of Black People

Let’s look at some of the ways white liberals use black people. One of the more obvious ways is for liberals to equate any kind of injustices suffered by homosexuals and women to the black struggle for civil rights. But it is just plain nonsense to suggest any kind of equivalency between the problems of homosexuals and women and the centuries of slavery followed by Jim Crow, lynching, systematic racial discrimination and the blood, sweat and tears of the black civil rights movement....

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are about 200 police arrest-related deaths of blacks each year (between 300 and 400 for whites). That number pales in comparison with the roughly 7,000 annual murders of blacks, 94 percent of which are committed by blacks. The number of blacks being murdered by other blacks is of little concern to liberals. Their agenda is to use arrest-related deaths of blacks to undermine established authority.

Liberals often have demeaning attitudes toward blacks.

~Excerpts from Dr. Walter Williams, "Liberals Use of Black People" (He also addresses the education concern.)

Your Greatest Test

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Mars Hill Invited Rick Warren To Give Last Message Before It Closes Its Doors

Mars Hill church where Mark Driscoll was fired and where some of the elders finally came out and admitted conspiracy or guilt in his sin, has accepted heretic Rick Warren's offer to give the final message of that closing church, according to "Christian" News.

Satan's children have each other's back. Let's not forget that John Piper endorses both these men as close friends and "brothers in the Lord". None of them have any shame or humiliation before the thrice Holy One of Israel, much less those they defraud. So much for the leadership there that "repented" over their guilt in his sin. Just as I thought.

"“God is not honored by conflict, strife, disunity, arguing, slander, gossip, or anything else that is inconsistent with the fruit of the spirit, and I am deeply sorry, genuinely sorry, for the times I have not lived peaceably with all men,” Driscoll said. "

Actually God IS honored by biblical conflict and strife when it is in the battle for biblical Truth. In fact Jesus said He came NOT to bring peace but a sword and that entire families would be divided against each other BECAUSE OF HIM, and this is only right. 2 Cor. 6 and Romans 16 demands division from those who are not unified on Truth--those who rebel against the King of kings and HIS doctrines. There is already division between those who hate Christ and those who love Him. It's time the posers are revealed for the enemies of Christ that they are. It's time to slay the idol of unbiblical "graciousness" and tolerance for those who quarrel with their Maker yet dare name HIS name.

Men like Warren and Driscoll ARE themselves bearing fruit not of the Spirit but of the flesh, heretics themselves as they divide from the Truth and gather around them their own disciples. They are the very thing they fancy themselves not to be.

Rom 16:17  Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. 18  For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. 

2Co 10:5  We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 

2Jo 1:9  Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.10  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11  for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. 

1Co 5:11  But now I am writing to  you NOT TO ASSOCIATE  with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler--not even to eat with such a one. 

Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals." (1Co 15:33)

1Jo 4:1  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 

There are more, but these are sufficient to show the doctrine of separation is biblical.

Such is the stand biblical Christians take with Driscoll, Warren, Mars Hill, and Acts 29. God is slamming its doors shut because of this very heinous thing.

Woe

"Woe unto you, Chorazin! woe unto you, Bethsaida!" (Matthew 11:21).

Christ came into the world in order to dispense blessing—but if His person is despised, His authority rejected, and His mercies slighted—then He has woes in reserve—and His woes are of all, the most dreadful. But how many who attend church, now hear anything at all about this? O the treachery of the modern pulpit, its abounding unfaithfulness! It has deliberately taken the line of least resistance, and sought only to please the pew—guiltily withholding what is unpalatable and unpopular. How often was this writer told, even twenty years ago, "our people would not tolerate such plain speaking" and, "preaching of that kind would empty our church," to which we replied, "far better close your church altogether, than keep it open for the purpose of deceiving souls!" And souls are deceived if a sentimental Christ is substituted for the Scriptural Christ; if His "Beatitudes" of Matthew 5 are emphasized, and His "Woes" of Matthew 23 be ignored. 


~AWPink, "The Call of Christ"

God's Word Is Practical

"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psa. 119:105).

"It is to be duly observed that the above verse plainly intimates that God has placed His Word in our hands for an intensely practical purpose, namely, for the directing of our walk, the regulating of our deportment. This at once shows us what is to be the first and principal use we are to make of this Divine gift. It would do a traveler little good to diligently scrutinize the mechanism of a lamp, or stand admiring its beautiful design; rather he is to take it up and make a practical use of the same. Many today are zealous in reading "the letter of Scripture," and many are charmed with the evidences of its Divine Authorship, but how few appear to realize the primary purpose for which God has given the Scriptures, how few are making a practical use of them--ordering the details of their lives by its rules and regulations. They eulogize the Lamp, but they walk not by its light."

~ Arthur Pink, "Divine Guidance"

That is why doctrine is always taught first, then it is given practical application, in Scripture. Doctrine is NEVER impractical. Therefore those who *claim* to believe in certain doctrines, say, Scripture alone, yet go to the world first for wisdom (evolution, psychology, humanism, mysticism), are actually proving they do NOT believe in Scripture alone. 

What you DO reveals what you actually believe.

To see how God views pragmatism, read Isaiah 28-31.

Are You Fit To Judge The World?

"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" (1 Cor. 6:2). Does not this clearly denote, yea, require, that the "saints" shall exercise a distinguishing holiness and live quite otherwise than the world? Could one who now takes the Lord's name in vain be righteously appointed to sit in judgment upon those who profane it? Could one who lives to please self be a fit person to judge those who have loved pleasure more than God? Could one who has despised and ridiculed 'puritanic strictness of living,' sit with Christ as a judge on those who lived in rebellion against Him? Never: instead of being the judges of others, all such will find themselves condemned and executed as malefactors in that Day. 

~AWPink, "Regeneration"

Officers Turn Their Backs On Mayor At Funeral

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ABC News reported:

Hundreds of police officers turned their backs on a screen showing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as he spoke at the funeral of one of two officers killed last week in what has been called an "assassination."

The funeral at the Christ Tabernacle Church, in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens, was broadcast to thousands of police who gathered outside.

End quote.

While I understand the sentiment, it's still not right. God demands we respect our leaders because He has given us the government to rule over us (Rom. 13). I'm not sure this is much different than the rebellious anti-cop folks' protests except that it's obviously very peaceful.

Btw, this is what many pseudo-Christians do to the Lord --rejecting His lordship and being disrespectful of Him and His authority.

Obama Wants to Designate Brunei As Most Favored Nation: the threat is not communism, but Islamist totalitarianism

Despite the nation’s record of religious persecution, the Obama administration is pressing forward with plans to designate the Sultanate of Brunei as a most favored nation with special trade privileges under the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said approving the agreement is one of his top priorities.

During the Cold War, Democrats and Republicans restricted trade with countries that denied their citizens basic freedoms.

For example, the Jackson-Vanik amendment cut off trade with communist nations that did not allow citizens to freely emigrate. It was approved unanimously in both houses of Congress in 1974 over the objections of Henry Kissinger, who saw it as an obstacle to a smooth-running global order....

Now that the threat is not communism, but Islamist totalitarianism, Obama and the GOP congressional leadership are ready to embrace a Shariah regime as a privileged trading partner under the rubric of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.

The TPP is a trade and global governance agreement the Obama administration is negotiating with eleven Pacific Rim nations: Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Chile, Malaysia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Mexico and Peru.

Brunei is not the only nation in the proposed agreement with a record of persecuting Christian believers. In neighboring Malaysia, Christians are sent to concentration camps for forced conversion to Islam. Vietnam requires churches to register with the Communist authorities and monitors all prayer services. House churches are routinely attacked and priests have been murdered.

~WND

Piper and the Pope

So Piper tweeted about the pope and enlarged his circle of "Christian" brothers to include the pope. Is that a shocker? Not to me. His pal and teacher Beth Moore has said the same ("God" told her RCers are in Christ), and Piper has tweeted a "prayer" that God would give the RCC a godly pope, as well as has said that even if an RCer rejects the imputation of Christ's righteousness, as long as he believes "other parts" of the Gospel, he's saved. Piper's heard the siren call by Rome.

John PiperVerified account‏@JohnPiper

The Pope dresses down the Vatican for the “cancer of clerical careerism.” In other words, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals.

7:35 PM - 22 Dec 2014

Christ's Sheep

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The wolves and goats are offended by them though:

Isa 30:9  For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;
Isa 30:10  who say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,
Isa 30:11  leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."

Joh 6:59  Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. 

Joh 6:60  When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" 

Joh 6:61  But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? 

Joh 10:2  But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 

Joh 10:3  To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

Joh 10:4  When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 

Joh 10:5  A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." 

Joh 10:16  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 

The Holy Spirit

When the Holy Spirit does his work of regeneration in the hearts of men he does not come on them with great powerful feelings and emotions which cannot be resisted. He does not possess men as evil spirits take possession of their victims. 

~John Owen, "The Holy Spirit"

Summation of Today's "Christianity"

Someone rightly summed up the current climate of today's "Christianity" this way:

To call biblical and normal Christianity "extreme" or "radical" is a judgment against such pseudo-Christianity and its softness.

Destruction of the Fat-Makes-You-Fat Myth

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(NaturalNews) There's a reason why many of the people you see regularly guzzling down diet sodas and opting for low- or fat-free dairy when they order their morning lattes are some of the most overweight, unhealthy people in society. Dairy products that have been stripped of their natural fats and fatty acid profiles not only promote unhealthy weight gain but also increase a person's risk of developing heart disease, diabetes and other related ailments.

Believe it or not, the ridiculous "fat makes you fat" myth is still surprisingly prevalent in many segments of society. Many old-school doctors and dietitians, for example, still actively encourage their patients to eat plenty of whole grains and avoid saturated fats, two grossly ill-advised recommendations that will continue to make people fat and ill until this flawed ideology is completely and forever tossed into the dustbin of bad science.

But this will only happen through continued education on the latest science, which is abundantly clear on the matter. As highlighted by Dr. Chris Kresser on his blog, a series of recent studies conclusively shows that consumption of low- and non-fat dairy products encourages the formation of metabolic disease and everything that it entails, including obesity, high cholesterol, insulin resistance, diabetes and heart disease....

~Natural News

Where Did Handle Get His Lyrics? From Scripture

In the famous "Hallelujah Chorus", these immortal and grand words are boldly proclaimed and rightly so as the pinnacle of his "Messiah":

Rev 11:15  Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."

There Is No Christian Faith Without Sound Doctrine and Instruction

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To be a believer, then as later, meant believing what the apostles taught. It is in this sense that apostolic succession is a New Testament truth. Believers succeed the apostles as they accept what the apostles taught. It is this succession not of ecclesiastical power as the Church of Rome teaches but of doctrine. This is why the apostles not only framed the Christian faith in doctrinal terms but called for its preservation and protection in this form. There is no Christian faith in the absence of " sound doctrine"(1 Tim.1;10; Tit.1:9),"sound instruction" (1 Tim.6:3),or pattern of sound teaching" (2 Tim.1:13-14). It is this doctrine, or more precisely, the truth it contains and expresses, that was "taught" by the apostles and "delivered" to the Church. It is this the message that is our only ground for hope (Tit.1:9) and salvation(1 Cor.15:2;1 Peter 1:23-25). Without it, we have neither the Father nor the Son (2 John 2:9). Indeed Paul says we can grow in Christ only as we stay within this doctrinal framework, for its truth provides the means for our growth (Col. 2:6). It is no wonder that Christians are urged not to depart from the apostlic teaching they received "in the beginning" (John 2:7,24,26; 3:11) or they had heard ( Heb.2:1), for it is the "faith once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3). 

~David Wells No Place For Truth Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?

Where Does Peace Come From And Is It For All People?

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Peace:

1Th 5:23  Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isa 9:6  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isa 48:22  "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked."

Mat 3:17  and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." 

Luk 2:14  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" 

Rom 5:1  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Scripture vs Psychology

“Scripture does what psychoanalysis can’t do-it pierces the heart, penetrates deep into the soul and judges the motives. To see yourself in the light of Scripture, is to see yourself as you really are." 

~John MacArthur

Exactly. Scripture tells us the reality--the TRUTH--about ourselves in light of the thrice Holy God. It bears our guilt upon our feet and shows us our need for salvation and sanctification which are spiritual in nature. Why go to the dead who cannot see nor understand absolute truth? Psychology is a doctrine of demons, set up against Christ Jesus and His Word.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

The Help: you say it like it's a bad thing

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Michelle, you say "the help" like it's a bad thing.

Or perhaps it's just that you treat "the help" in an ungracious way yourself? Otherwise it shouldn't be an insult.


As ABC reports,

On one occasion, she said, her husband “was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee.”

The first lady also described being mistreated at a Target store in suburban Washington, during ashopping trip she took in 2011.

"Even as the first lady," she told the magazine, "during the wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf."

End quote.

Oh the horrors of being asked by some lone woman for help to reach an item! 

I thought being "the help" means being employed and thus a good thing?

Michelle, you say it like it's beneath you, an insult. Only a guilty person would think that way.

As another person pointed out: Michelle, trust us when we say YOU haven't been any help to our nation at all except to divide and conquer it for your own marxist racist worldview.

What a fabricated, generated fib. Most of America is not racist. It's  those who think like that (liberals) that are. 

Proclaiming the Gospel Might Turn People Away From Christ?

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Muslim Terrorist In Sydney Uses Shahada Flag to Promote the Political/Military Religion of Islam

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This isn't extreme Islam. This is quranic Islam. This is the proclamation they all make--a STANDARD creed by all Muslims. This incident is not isolated. This is why Islam is a POLITICAL and MILITARY religion.
 

Note, "god" and "allah" are TWO DIFFERENT words; "allah" is NOT the name of god, it is a PERSONAL NAME of the Muslim god, therefore no Christian should ever use "allah" for "God".

From the article:

WHAT IS THE SHAHADA FLAG?

Held up to a window by terrified hostages, a black flag covered in white Arabic was the first sign that the Martin Place siege could be linked to extremist Islam. 

Witnesses initially believed that it was the standard of ISIS. However, close examination revealed it was in fact the Shahada flag, bearing the words 'There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah'
It is used by the extremist group, Jabhat al Nusra, which is fighting the Assad government in Syria.
But it has meaning for all Muslims, in that the Shahada is the Islamic Creed, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, which is recited by Muslims when they pray.

End quote.

~Daily Mail

Staffers Wrote the CIA Summary "Report"

Like I said, it's the staffers that write these "reports" and does the research and then tells the senator or House rep what they want them to know. It's the same with Supreme Court Justices too. They are not doing their own research, they hire others to do it for them. That's dangerous. Especially when these young guns just out of law school with minds brainwashed with liberalism's agenda and Post-Modernism:

 "One of the psychologists who developed the tactics is disputing the Senate staffer..." It's really not a Senate Intelligence Committee report. It's a Senate staff report.

The staff wrote it. They didn't interview anybody at the Senate, didn't talk to any of the interrogators. It's a purely political document. It's just low-rent rump, is what this is. One of the psychologists who developed the tactics says it's not true. "'Some of the things are just plain not true. It's a bunch of hooey,' James Mitchell told Reuters in an interview published Wednesday. 'Some of the things are just plain not true,' he said, adding that the report 'took things out of context.' ...

End quote.

~RS

Consolation

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"Whenever we want consolation, let us never go away from the gospel to find it."

~Spurgeon




Psa 1:1  Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 
Psa 1:2  but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psa 1:3  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 
Psa 1:4  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
Psa 1:5  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
Psa 1:6  for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

World and Contentment

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"The Christian is the most contented man in the world, but he is the least contented with 

the world." 

(C.H. Spurgeon)

Wheaton Hires Open Lesbian As Spiritual Advisor For Students

World Magazine reports:

Three months ago Wheaton College, one of America’s leading evangelical undergraduate institutions, hired Julie Rodgers to provide spiritual care for students. Not surprising in some ways: She has a master’s degree in English, has mentored inner-city youth, and speaks at Christian churches and conferences. One surprise: She openly identifies as homosexual.

“The best way I can describe my experience of ‘being gay,’” Rodgers, 28, wrote on her blog, “is that with certain women I feel the ‘it’ factor: that sense of chemistry that longs to share life with them. … Most women feel that chemistry or longing for other men … while I usually feel like ‘bros’ with men.”

Wheaton, located just west of Chicago, sees homosexual behavior as sin. Rodgers, though, is a “gay celibate Christian”—someone who identifies as homosexual but does not act on her same-sex desires because she also believes such behavior is sinful....

In her role as ministry associate for spiritual care in Wheaton’s Chaplain’s Office, Rodgers has the special task of counseling students in Refuge, a community group at the college for students with same-sex attraction.

End quote.

The perverted and unnatural desire of sodomy is just that: UNNATURAL and it is a curse from God for those who reject Him as Creator (Rom. 1). It is not like any other sin: it is specially heinous to God, so much so that He destroyed entire cities for it. And never does Scripture state the desire is normal like any other sin, or that having the desire is ok. It denies both of these things. The desire shows the heart that is not changed, because this desire is unnatural. This notion of sodomy of the heart is a VERY NEW notion that "Christians" borrowed from doctrines of demons like psychology. So is the eternal victimhood and ever-recoverying/never recovered doctrine. It has historically NEVER been part of the thinking, much less accepted, by even "nominal" "Christians" until in the last 10 years or less.

"Rodgers said, “My convictions about how I am expected to honor God … are as integral to who I am as being gay is.” "  So she's blaming God for creating her this way. Yet Romans 1 expressly states that people BECOME sodomites by their own rebellious and wicked desires as the result of not acknowledging God. HE didn't create them this way. They CHOSE it. This woman needs salvation.

The Facts: 140 blacks were killed by cops in 2012, 386 whites killed by cops

photo source

The recent “rash” of police officers killing blacks is prompting “civil rights activists” to describe America – despite the election and re-election of a black president – as still a simmering caldron of racism. Never mind that according to the CDC, in 2012 (the most recent year with available data) 140 blacks were killed by cops – versus 386 whites killed by cops.

In 1997, CNN and Time conducted a poll that asked white and black teens about “racism.” Question: Is racism a major problem in America? Both black and white teens said, “yes.” But when black teens were asked if racism is a “big problem,” a “small problem” or “no a problem at all” – in their own lives – 89 percent called racism a “small problem” or “not a problem at all” for themselves.

In fact, 17 years ago, not only did black teens see racism as an insignificant problem in their own lives, but nearly twice as many black teens than white teens called “failure to take advantage of available opportunities” a bigger problem than racism.

What damage do “activists” inflict by convincing young black men that cops – or, for that matter, Republicans, tea party members and black conservatives – are out to get them? This emotion-based paranoia has real-world consequences. Fear and paranoia hurt potential and careers....

~Larry Elder

Scorn For The Christian

"If, my dear friend, you are a thorough-going Christian, you must not expect to escape 

scorn, because your life is a standing protest against the lives of others."

~ C.H. Spurgeon

Christ the Lord

"It is a delusion to imagine that His priestly sacrifice may be received while His kingly rule is refused, that His blood will save me though I despise His government. Christ is both “Lord and Saviour” and in that unalterable order."

~ Arthur Pink, "Interpretation of the Scriptures"

AMEN!

Confidence?

Arrogance and lording over others is NOT confidence nor maturity in Christ the Lord. Rather, it's fleshly and immature. Such qualities prove a man to be unqualified to be an elder.

Today's Christian Is No Different Than Yesterday's Wicked Israel

Religious works while motivated by selfishness is sin. What is true of Israel in this chapter is absolutely true of most professing Christians today.

"Good enough" isn't good enough to God. Claims to "delight in God", claims of humility and to seek Him daily is basically a lie because at the SAME TIME they have a disdain for worshiping God HIS way on HIS terms for HIS glory. Today's "Christians" are largely Pharisees, then, because they seek their own glory, they seek the world's approval, and  they seek to obligate God, and they seek to worship God in their own way, by doing a bunch of "good" works (social justice). Yet at the same time their hearts are far from God for they have not received a love for the truth and so be saved.

Isa 58:1 "Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. 
Isa 58:2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.
Isa 58:3 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?' Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 
Isa 58:4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.

These people who fast and claim to delight in God's commands are the VERY ONES who are spiritual whores and selfish rebels:

Isa 57:3 But you, draw near, sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the loose woman.
Isa 57:4 Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit, 
Isa 57:5 you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

Jas 4:1  What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 

Jas 4:2  You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 

Jas 4:3  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

Jas 4:4  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 

Jas 4:5  Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? 

Jas 4:6  But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." 

Joh 4:24  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."