Why did the senseless violence happen at Fort Hood, Texas last week? In a word, the Koran. For a more detailed look, visit this news article from London (I can’t find any American media coverage yet that has been willing to look at the issue.)
Category: Commentaries on life and faith
Quote to ponder
“A ship in port is safe. But it’s not what ships are for.”
Stop avoiding what you could be doing to glorify God because you are afraid.
Are tracts worth it?
“Had you asked me when I graduated from seminary how many you met who came to Christ through a tract, I would have said none. Since then, I’ve met so many people who came to Christ through reading a tract I hand them out at every opportunity. I try to never be without one.” –Evangelist Larry Moyer of EvanTell, from his blog
Turn from your self-righteousness to Christ alone
You were not saved by the good work of “turning from your sins,” so don’t lay that burden at the feet of lost people to whom you are preaching Christ. If you are saved, it was by God’s grace alone which you received by faith alone in Christ alone. Faith in Him and His finished work on your behalf is the only way you could have received Him, and if you trusted your works and your efforts to “turn from sin,” you failed to receive Him and therefore do not have Him.
“Straighten up and get your life right and clean, and then come to God to receive His favor” is how a muslim pleases Allah. It’s how an unconverted Jew pleases his rabbi. It’s how a Buddhist seeks to come to peace with the universe. But it is not how a child of the true and living God becomes pleasing to Him.
Tonight’s Bible study will look at Galatians 2, and at how when under pressure, even those like Peter and Barnabas who have a record of standing for the pure gospel message can be frightened into compromising the purity of that message to be pleasing to legalists and “false brethren” who seek to bring men, not to Christ, but into bondage to themselves.
In evangelical churches today, it looks like this: A pastor preaching the gospel for years grows weary of the fact that some profess faith in Christ but show no outward signs of change. His weariness, combined with the critics of his teaching, who say “Your converts aren’t saved because they live like the world,” make him try to alter the message. He starts to preach Christ plus repentance, defining repentance as changed behavior, being good instead of bad now. This pastor is trying to bring about the external result of good works by means of human effort, no longer trusting the Spirit of God to bring about those changes of behavior He works out in all who put their faith in Christ.
But you can’t perfect the people of your congregation through demanding that they turn from their sins, which is something no unregenerated man could ever dream of doing.
Even though we preach and don’t always like what we see in people’s response, we still have to keep the message the same. That Christ alone can save, and that man is irreparably corrupt in heart and nature apart from a new birth that comes about only by faith and never by actions or a determination of the human will.
Repentance unto salvation involves not making oneself good to earn God’s favor, but admitting to one’s hopeless state as a sinner in need of mercy, and coming to the throne of grace to receive such by asking for it in faith in the One who lived a perfect life in our place and died a sacrificial death in our place on the cross. When someone has done this, faith and repentance are present, and Christ is acknowledged by this repentant one as his only hope as Savior and Lord.
Lord-willing, a recording of the study will be posted on this blog afterward, and you’re invited to listen to it online, if you’re not in Cluj and able to attend the discussion in person.
Cluj and the Jewish holocaust
The building pictured above is in the neighborhood where our church meets. We stand in front of it while waiting for the bus to take us home after each service. The plaque on the front of it, pictured below (with English translation on the right), speaks for itself and shows why I have so often been in a very somber mood standing there.
It is financially the poorest area of the city. The Lord will bless those who bless His chosen people, and curse those who curse them.
Mary Worship Quite Contrary to True Christian Faith
Pictured here is the view out our window of some of the crowd gathering to worship Mary today at the Orthodox Church. Today is one of several annual holidays in her honor. If they were to set aside a day to honor Jesus (they don’t), unfortunately there would be no such crowd to gather.
Like bananas? You’re an ape–university logic
A youtube video that I’m not linking to because some language in it is offensive, had a situation where a Creation Science writer had offered a quarter million dollars for verifiable evidence that evolution was true. Also on the show with him was an evolutionary scientist, who ranted and complained that the reason the host of the program had failed to win the money was because the creation scientists set the standard of proof unreasonably high.
The evidence that the host had just provided in order to demand payment of the money was this (you be the judge):
Host: Do you ever eat bananas?
Creation Scientist: Yes, of course.
Host: Pay up.
The host was a comedian who was playing a character and was joking.
The university professor who responded immediately by complaining that the Creation Scientist hadn’t ever given the money to anyone because he set the standard of proof unreasonably high was serious. As the interview continued, he didn’t even make any attempt to provide a piece of evidence for evolution, though.
Still waiting for that evidence
Truth about abortion, in a film
This one says it
I’m not a big fan of poetry in general. In fact, I’m so much not a fan that when I read a book in which the author quotes some poetry, I’m most often apt to actually skip over it because of how much it feels to me a complete waste of my time to figure it out.
But every once in a while, someone actually says something deep and heartfelt in verse, that speaks words I want to say. Such is the case of the old worship hymn, “Come Thou Fount,” and this verse of it, that says things we usually wouldn’t dare share about ourselves, and yet they are all too true:
“Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be;
Let Your goodness, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to Thee;
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it;
Seal it for Your courts above.”
A joke that makes a good point on atheism
An elementary school teacher explained to her class of young children that she was an “atheist.” She asked her class if they were atheists too. Not really knowing what “atheism” was but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands went flying into the air. There was, however, one exception. A girl named Lucy had not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asked her why she decided to be different. Lucy said, “Because I’m not an atheist.” The teacher then asked, “What are you?” Lucy said, “I’m a Christian.” She asked Lucy why she was a Christian. “Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian.” The teacher angrily said, “That’s no reason! What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron? What would you be then?” Lucy paused, thought about it and said, “Then, I’d be an atheist.”
For what will I stand?
There are many things in this world a man could take a stand and fight for: a political party, a philosophy, his own rights and the rights of others to be free. The list goes on, and even contains wicked things, such as those who fight for false belief systems: atheism, islam, vaticanism and the teachings of various cults. Still others stand and fight for public acceptance of sin itself–homosexuality, abortion, pornography, and other immoralities. While others expend their energies fighting against those sins.
Every man who makes a difference, good or bad, in the world, is a man who takes a strong stand for something. And I’ve been asking myself lately how to choose my battles wisely so to be standing for what is really worthy of the fight.
My conclusion is this. I won’t fight for myself, for my rights, for my political philosophy, or for other temporal things anymore. When a battle rises up against me personally, I will, by the grace of God, let Him take up the fight in my place. I’ve learned that as long as I refuse to fight in my own defense, He does not refuse to do so; and He never knows defeat.
But what will I stand for?
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.”
That gospel and the word of God. That is what my energies will be spent fighting for; and false teachings that lead people away from salvation, even if they do so by leading them to religion, will be what I stand against. I’m withdrawing from now on from the political battles of this life that do not affect the spiritual battle.
But for the gospel, I do contend, and will contend to the very end–even if that end be hastened by my contention.
Then my life will have been worth living.
Walk of Faith - Dave Bunnell 