Did Jesus Die on Friday? Is This a Good Question?

This a repeated byline on one cybernews site: "Did Jesus Die on Friday?"

Wrong question.

Completely unimportant when looking at the big picture.

I have my opinions, ones that will be reserved for academic discussions. But this is not the question we need to be answering for the general public.

The question is not even, "Did Jesus Die?" The legal evidence, found not only in the Bible, but also in history books from that time show that it was common knowledge that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified at the time of Passover somewhere around 29 or 30, C.E. (that's CHRISTIAN ERA, not "Common," folks). So we know he died. We know how he died.

The question you must answer is, "Why did Jesus die?"

Paul answered it this way, when correcting some heresies that were prevalent in that great Grecian city of Corinth:

1 Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it. 2 You are also saved by it, if you hold to the message I proclaimed to you—unless you believed to no purpose. 3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, . . . (1 Corinthians 15, Holman Christian Standard Bible)

The most important thing Jesus Christ taught Paul in that Arabian desert was that Christ died for our SINS.

There are four important words that we need to be clear about here: "for," "sins," and "according to."

Jesus' death sentence was handed down from the highest court--that Heavenly Court where God sits as the Judge. Think of a prison. A new guy or gal arrives and his cellmates begin to ask, "What are you in FOR?" The newbie answers, "Robbery," or whatever it may be. It does not mean (we hope) so that he can learn to rob, but instead because he robbed. Why did Jesus die? It was because of our sins. Ours.

Your sins. My sins. The sins of the world.

Though the Jewish leaders wanted him put to death out of jealousy, and though the Roman court laid down the sentence, "King of the Jews," the Heavenly death sentence was the prevailing one. It was the true sentence.

You killed Jesus. So did I.

He suffered my death--the one that was hanging over my head, just waiting to be carried out.

God turned all his wrath, his hatred of sin, that sin that kept you separated from God, onto Jesus so that he could bring you back to himself.

All this was in keeping with all of what we call "The Old Testament." Those divine and innerant words prophesied that Jesus would suffer this kind of death. This is what "according to" means. It is in keeping with what was already said.

I fear too often we have begun to take "according to" to mean, "some say;" or, "some sources tell us." In the case of Jesus' death, it is all in keeping with what God said would happen, going all the way back to Genesis 3. Everything was planned, in other words. It was not accidental, as some lost and misguided God-thinkers have said. It was planned and carried out to buy your freedom.

Jesus died. He did it to take your place.

Accept what Jesus did for you. Embrace the cross.

A Jungle Saga

The following is from one of our IMB missionaries serving in the jungles between Peru and Brazil:

Ashéninka Team
Peru

April 7, 2009

The entrance to the indigenous community of Ashéninka people called San Pedro is a long grade at about a 40 degree angle, about 300 yards long. You have to carry all your gear from the river, across some muddy ground, across a log that lies over a small brook, then up some 50 degree clay steps to the main sloping pathway that rises into the village center. By the time you get there with a heavy backpack you feel like your heart will never slow down. In many communities the folks hear your motor and know that someone is arriving. They hurry to the river to see who it might be and quickly descend to the boat when you reach the bank. Then they generously grab your cargo and carry it energetically to the place where you will lodge. At San Pedro the river is so far from the village center that usually no one knows when we arrive and we’re left to carry everything on our own! When I’m laden with my overstuffed backpack, a bedroll under one arm, a folding camp chair slung over one shoulder, and my back of teaching materials and cameras in the other hand, I look more like a storage rack trying to walk uphill. I asked Dena today how many trips down and back up the San Pedro hill I should make per day in order to get into shape. She suggested three. I just glared and wondered when you’re too old for this line of work.

Because of our short-handedness during the last several years and our emphasis on the farther extremes of the Pichis River valley, we’ve simply not been able to get back to the Río Azupizú to visit and encourage our friends at San Pedro since 2007. In September of that year, along with volunteers from South Carolina, we built upon previously started ministry at nearby Puerto Pascuala as well, but we’ve since not returned. This outing will be to check on the status of the San Pedro church which we helped initiate back in 2003, and to look in on and encourage believers at Puerto Pascuala.

In San Pedro, Pastor Alejandro and his wife Ana, have labored with a solid commitment to the local church, and have weathered criticism and the opposition of errant sects. The formerly strong Adventist community no longer has an Adventist church, but throughout the region there is still much adherence to that group’s emphasis on keeping the Saturday Sabbath, as well as strict rules about which foods can be eaten. Alejandro has faithfully stood for an evangelical doctrine of salvation through grace, and liberty in Christ. They have faced additional obstacles as well. In 2006 their bamboo church building was blown down by a storm. The church rallied with small financial gifts and the Lord sent them outside help as well. Today they worship under a metal roof with walls of sawn lumber.

Please pray for this visit to these two Ashéninka communities and that the Christians in both places will be encouraged in the Lord and will deepen their commitment to following Him, even when persecuted.

Quilmer has been continuing teaching in the Río Negro communities since I left him there in March. He will be joining me again for this Río Azupizú trip. Please pray for the following:
1. Safety in all travels
2. Growth from all teaching and training in Río Negro communities
3. Transportation to San Pedro from town of Puerto Bermudez; we no longer keep a boat in Bermudez
4. Fruitful times of teaching and personal ministry in San Pedro and Puerto Pascuala
5. Leaders Alejandro and Ana in San Pedro, Giovana and Ernesto in Pascuala.
6. Dena, Jacob, and Berta who remain in Pucallpa

We love you and thank the Lord for your support in prayer.

Marty McAnally
Strategy Coordinator
Ashéninka People Group
International Mission Board
Pucallpa, Peru
mcanally@asheninka.net
http://www.asheninka.net/

Ode to a Dog

Like many of you, we have a dog. He's nothing extraordinary; just a 5 year old Miniature Schnauzer. His name is Rufus. He does no tricks. He barks more than we would like. But his loyalty is without compare.

This morning, Rufus taught me a lesson.

A lesson about God.

When I got up this morning Rufus was there at the bedroom door, waiting as he does most mornings. He was standing against the door, but quickly moved to raise up and stand against my legs as I came out. All the way down the hall Rufus bumped and pawed at me. He stood, tail wagging, head moving from side to side, doing that thing that dogs to to let their masters know they are excited to see them. Rufus stood by my side, moving along with me, looking up expectantly. He wanted his morning attention.

The desire for attention was when I learned my lesson this morning. Rufus' tenacity reminded me how we should be when we pray. Jacob told the angel, as they wrestled, "I will not let you go until you bless me." Rufus would not leave my side until we engaged in his favorite game of tug-of-war with his blanket. I was reminded from that insistence that I must be so tenacious with my Lord. I must cling to him, remain by his side, and otherwise call out to him until he answers me. He promised Jeremiah, "Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know."

God used a dog to remind me of this. God took a simple created animal and taught a great spiritual lesson.

Learn from the dog. Cling to our God, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pressing for a Victory, Part Four

I watched some of the NCAA Elite Eight playoffs the other night. One thing I noticed in some of the games that I saw was that the winners seemed to have a higher level of concentration than the losers. They kept their eye on the goal when they shot, on the ball while it was being dribbled or passed--by either team. They concentrated and they won. That was the culmination of their efforts and training.

The Culmination of Israel's 40 years was their entrance into The Promised Land. It was a glorious morning. Forty long years had passed. The only original Hebrews in this group where Caleb and Joshua, the two God-fearing spies who had tried to convince Israel to go in and take the land 38 years earlier. But, as often happens, the majority prevailed. And as often happens, the majority was wrong.

Joshua 3:7 - 17 tells us the culmination of their wilderness time:

7 And the LORD said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 8 You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.’” 9 So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God.” 10 And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. 12 Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.” 14 So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest), 16 that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. 17 Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.

I need to point out a couple of things the experts tell us. One, it's flood time. Harvest time is flood time along the Jordan. In the rest of the year, the Jordan River is about 100 yards wide. But in harvest time, the Jordan swells to as much as a mile wide, according to these experts. And it was time for a flood.

Why is that important? I think it shows that God brought these people to where they were at such a time that they could not possibly take the slightest credit for it. They were going to have to give God all the glory. Joshua told them, "By this you will know that the Living God is among you." (v10) The "this" is the fact they have to cross this swollen river at the least convenient time for them. It was very convenient for God. Anytime is the right time for Him!

You may be struggling for a victory over something in your life, and you may be trying to set aside a specific time to deal with it; but you may be discovering that, as soon as you set the day or the time, something comes up. Why do you think that is? One, the devil likes having you bound up and defeated. The other is that God needs this to be something that glorifies Him and Him alone.

The priests marched into the water; they were some thousand yards ahead of the rest of the group. There they stood, water rushing across their feet. I don't know how much time passed, but after awhile the water began to slow down. Slowly, but surely, the waters receded and dried up, the priests standing firm all the while.

Forty years earlier Moses stood by another body of water: the Red Sea. He stretched forth the rod God had told him to carry and God caused a strong wind to blow and part the waters. He did it in front of them.

This time God chose to do a different thing. He parted the waters, but did it a different way. He stopped the waters some 20 miles upstream.

My point is this: don't expect your victories to come the same way every time. God is God. He does things in a way that brings him the glory. Not only that, but when God does things differently it keeps our relationship fresher.

It was finally done. Israel had finally crossed over. They were finally in the land. The Promised Land. Canaan. A place where they were going to experience victory after victory.

Press on! The victory awaits you!

Pressing on for a Victory, part three

In the last post, I urged the readers to consider the importance of consecration as a key part of victory in the Christian life. Our lives are consecrated--sanctified--positionally before the Lord. Christ's holiness is our holiness. He was made to be sin so that we may be made the righteousness of God in [Christ]. We are in Christ, seated at the right hand of God.

But practically speaking, I don't feel all that consecrated; not every day, anyway. So I must make a conscious decision to separate myself from the ways of the world, from the practices that would not be seen as "holy" before God. I must wash myself in the water of the Word of God. I must repent of evil that may be in my life.

Consecration is only the first part of pressing on for a victory. The second word I need to share is concentration. We need to learn the fine art of concentrating on Christ. Joshua had told Israel to let the priests bearing the ark on their shoulders to proceed on before them. Then he told them something important: "Watch the ark (paraphrased). Keep your eyes on the ark."

That ark represented the presence of God, among other things. It is a symbol of Christ for us. You will find some important truths in the New Testament about walking with the Lord. You have to keep your eyes on him. Jesus, speaking of his relationship with the Father, said, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." Now he can only do what the Father does if he has his eyes on the Father. You can't see what you aren't looking at. You have to keep your eyes on Jesus.

You can't go forward if you are looking backward. Now some of you are about to say, "Yes you can!" You try to walk on a sidewalk while you are looking over your shoulder. See how far you get before you walk into something, or walk off the sidewalk. See how straight of a line you walk. Farmers will tell you that, in order to plow a straight furrow, you need to fix your eyes on a target ahead of you and keep them fixed there. Otherwise, your furrows will be crooked.

You can't go up if you are looking down. Colossians 3 tells us to keep our eyes fixed on things above, not on earthly things. Your job is a good thing; but it's not the greatest thing. Your home is a good thing, but not the greatest thing. Fix your eyes on things of the kingdom, not on things of this life.

If you want a victory, learn to concentrate on Christ and on the things of Christ.

Pressing for a Victory, part two

The nation of Israel, in the time of Moses and Joshua, reveals a great illustration of the Christian life. Israel in captivity is a picture of the Christian before he is born again. The Passover lamb is a picure of the Lord Jesus' death for us. Crossing through the Red Sea is a picture of baptism. The wilderness is a picture of our struggle to grow in Christ. It's also symbolic of the carnal believer. A carnal believer is that believer who depends more on himself than on God. It is that believer who never achieves the full victory that God desires for him.

Please note: We need to be careful with our illustrations. As with every illustration, if you look hard enough, you can poke holes in it. You cannot make every single aspect of the wildnerness time, or the land of Canaan, to be a perfect picture of the Christian life. I don't intend for this illustration to do that, so please don't make that assumption. Now, on to the story....

We find ourselves on the banks of the Jordan, looking over into The Promised Land. Israel has been waiting years for this day. Now it comes. Now come the victories and the blessings God had promised. Israel, as a nation, had brought on itself the 40 years they had spent in the desert. They did not believe God the first time he had taken them to this place. But they believed him this time! They are ready to go.

You can read about this in the first few chapters of the book of Joshua. You will find an anxious nation and a fearful leader. After all, all they had known for years and years was the leadership of Moses. But God tells Joshua time and again that God will be with him as leader, to go forward. So he does. Perhaps with some fear and trepidation, but he does. And within a few days, the victories start.

I suspect all of us would like to experience more victory in our Christian life than we currently do. I think all of us hunger for a palpable presence of God with us. In Joshua, chapter 3, we have the steps for such a life. The first few verses follow:

1Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and he and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and they lodged there before they crossed.
2At the end of three days the officers went through the midst of the camp;
3and they commanded the people, saying, "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.
4"However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this way before."
5Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you."

If you truly want victory, then your victory begins as theirs did: with CONSECRATION.

Now the experts tell us that in this time period the way that God's children demonstrated consecration (sanctification) was by bathing. Water was not a common commodity. They did not bathe daily. So when the order for consecration came down, the people would wash their clothes and wash their bodies.

You and I need daily consecration to live in victory. We need to wash up. John 13 taught this when Jesus washed the disciples' feet. Jesus said we needed to wash up. Then in John 15 Jesus said this: "Now you are clean through the word that I have spoken to you."

Do you see that? The word of God washes us! If you want to be consecrated, spend time in the word. Let God speak to your heart. Let him reveal with the word what needs to change in your heart and let him change you. As God shows you what is out of order in your life, repent of it. Request his forgiveness. And let him have his way. This is how to press on for a victory.

Pressing for a Victory

Maybe this and the subsequent posts are influenced by March madness. I love college basketball, after all; and this is the time that is most interesting in that great sport. Sixty-four teams began (last week) pressing for a victory. The invitation alone was a great honor for them. I imagine that most, if not all, of the teams all imagined themselves in that final game on April 6th. I don't think any coach, team, or player began the season thinking, "I am going to to my deadlevel best to strive for mediocrity. Lukewarmness is enough for us!" If they did, they got what they deserved. At this point in the season, those remaining teams are beginning to believe that the ultimate victory is just a game away.

So I want to take a few days to speak about victorious Christian living. I scan a few blogs, read a number of Christian websites, and I seldom see a study or exhortation towards victory in Jesus. [I guess that it's not a popular way to say things anymore. After all, I am often surprised with some of the pop language I hear. It's a sign of being left behind, culturally-speaking--the hazard of living somewhere in South America.]

Victory is not automatic, even though we have the sure promise and great truth that Christ has already won the victory for us. There are many verses in Scripture that assure us that victory is ours. We even sing about it in many churches, from that great old hymn, "Victory in Jesus," to some of the modern praise songs about victory. It's there. It's ours.

There are two aspects about victory that we need to understand. One is that we already have the victory. Christ won it. We fight our spiritual battles from a place of victory; that is a "positional truth." That is, it's the truth about our position in Christ. One day I will write more about that. But for now I want to focus on a second point about victory.

That point is that, practically speaking, we have to press forward towards personal, practical victory. In your daily life--in the practical outworking of the Christian life, that victory is not automatic. But it is promised. It is achievable.

Our lessons about victory will come from the story of the Hebrews as they enter the Promised Land. Briefly, let me say that The Promised Land, Canaan, is not a good symbol for heaven. Why? There are wars in Canaan. There are none in heaven. There are enemies there; not in heaven. Canaan is not about heaven. But it does teach us about daily Christian living. It's found in the Old Testament book of Joshua.

We will learn more about that tomorrow. Get ready to press on for a victory.

HOW Long??!!

Today is a milestone for me. No, it's not my birthday; that comes soon enough. No, it's not another anniversary. Well, "anniversary" does not exactly fit.

Today is the 20,000th day of my life. Twenty thousand. That's a 2, followed by 4 zeroes. That is 28 million, 800 thousand minutes. It's 103 billion, 680 million seconds, if I did the math right.

Twenty thousand sunrises. Twenty thousand times I have heard birds sing (and they started early this morning!). Twenty thousand opportunities to look up at the sky and thank God for his beautiful creation. Twenty thousand times. Think of it.

I don't know what God's "clock" looks like, but knowing I have lived 20 thousand days makes me take stock of my life and ask what I have done with so much time. Admittedly, I don't like all the answers I could give.

There is one answer for which I am eternally grateful: there has been more than enough grace for each of those 20 thousand days that I have lived. Romans 5 tells us that where sin increased, grace increased all the more. This is so grace could rein. In my life, that's 103 billion, 680 million seconds of God's grace; poured out; overflowing; increasing according to need.

Get the picture that God paints for us: sin overflowed like a river in the rainy season. It floods everything it can touch. I have seen that kind of flood. I saw the Mississippi River in the floods all throughout Tennessee and Missouri. They tell me it was pretty precarious down in Mississippi, too. But I was in those states when I saw Old Man River at its worst. Sin ravages us like that. But along comes grace, overflowing even more than sin. Wiping it out. Covering it up. Grace reins.

No wonder John Newton shouted out through his great hymn, "Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!"

If I have another 20 thousand days--and I would not mind it a bit--I have the joy of knowing God's grace is sufficient for every single one of them.

Yes, grace reins. All day. Every day. Forever.

The Great Adventure

Today is a milestone for me. I surrendered to preach the gospel message 31 years ago today. I still remember the battle, which had begun quite a long time before that. The battle heated up on March 5th, when the revival preacher said, “I believe God has called some young man to preach the gospel.” My heart nearly burst inside me. My knees grew weak. I began sweating and trembling. I gripped the pew and held on for all I had, hoping that invitation would end. Every night during that revival meeting the story was the same. I stood there, my sweat showering every one nearby, waiting for that conviction to pass so I could relax again.

A week later another guest preacher asked us if we were right with God to show it by giving him the right hand of fellowship. He did not want to take mine; I had hair past my ears and on my collar. No one dressed like that could be right with God, so far as he was concerned. I was just recovering from spinal paralysis (a herniated disc left me unable to move my legs at all), so it was difficult to make it down that aisle. But down I went. On my way home, singing the invitation hymn (I Surrender All) for all I was worth, God spoke. He said, “You’re lying.” The conviction began all over again. I asked the Lord why he said that. He told me I knew why. And I did. I could hardly get home. I got into the family room and fell to my knees; my parents were on the coast visiting family. I cried out for mercy. There was none. The path was clear. The call was clear. I grabbed my father’s topical Bible, looking for verses about the call to the ministry. My eyes fell on Is. 6:8. And I cried out again. This time Isaiah’s words were mine. It was only then that peace came.

It was there that the greatest journey of my life began. Before that day, to stand before anyone was emotional torture for me. I trembled so badly that I could not control my motions or my voice. After that moment, if I stand to preach, I am a completely different person. God takes over. I am empowered. There is no fear. There is only a burning passion to make clear every word God has spoken to me. I would not trade it for anything in the world.

Some do not believe that there is such a thing as “surrendering to preach.” Some well-meaning theologians ignore that possibility. If you did not have to surrender, fine. But believe me: I did not want to preach. I wanted to make money. I was not opposed to the ministry; I just wanted to do God’s work on my terms. So for me, I had to surrender. I surrendered all my dreams. I surrendered my will. I surrendered my entire future. I had to crawl back onto the cross and die to self. I had to remind myself I was crucified with Christ. I had to remember that the life I live today is the Christ-life. He makes my plans. He chooses my path. I just walk where he points. I say what he says to say. I am his. And he is mine.

As I said, I would not trade it for anything in the world. It’s a great adventure.

Christianity, as We Know It

Tonight I read an opinion regarding the decline of Evangelical Christianity. The author, one who professes to be an evangelical, even describes his cyber world as a "post-evangelical wilderness."

Is the world to become more antagonistic towards Evangelical Christianity? If you believe Scripture, it will. Consider 2 Thes. 2: 3ff: Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin[b] is revealed, the son of perdition..., [emphasis added]

Apostasy is characteristic of the end times. Before Jesus returns, men will prefer doctrines of demons to sound doctrine. Men will see conservative Christianity as a detriment to "progress." We may even face a level of persecution that few of us in the West have ever seen.

So the question is, have we reached the end? I do not know. I cannot assume that my task is finished until the Lord's trumpets sound. In the meantime, I must continue to press forward, sharing the gospel, preaching righteousness, pointing lost men to the light, helping saved men to shine their lights more brightly.

If my support system collapses around me, I will have to do it however and wherever I can. This, because ultimately, my support is from God. He is my Rock, my Fortress.

Is There a Crisis, Men?

Last Sunday I listened to a very good preacher declare that there was (is) a crisis in masculinity. As I read the news and listen to the postmodern culture pundits, I tend to agree. We have been in a crisis for about 20 years now, maybe longer. With our cliches and emphases on metrosexuality and homosexuality, how can we not see that we are in a crisis? Have you watched many shows lately? Men are portrayed as sexually confused, sexually perverted (in every sense of that term), or sexually weak. The only men shown in a positive light are those who have achieved enough enlightenment to be in touch with their feminine side, or those who have shown great tolerance to those who wish to be sexually perverted, or have willfully submitted themselves to their female partners. A strongly masculine man is often portrayed as a homophobic, intolerant, whoremongering sociopath. That, or he is so stupid he cannot tie his own shoes.

Even commercials show men as mental slugs. We know nothing. We are incompetent. We can't do it, whatever "it" may be in the commercial. Women to the rescue!! They save us from ourselves.

When did it begin? Do we blame "Gloria?" Do we blame that association of pyschologists that declared that homosexuality was an alternate lifestyle, worthy of acceptance? Do we blame our moms or our dads? Look deeper, dude.

Two things happened in the 20th century that changed us. One, during WWII many women left the home to go join the work force. It was deemed to be a necessary evil. We needed women to run the factories while our men went off to war. But when the war was over, the women had tasted the "freedom" that this gave them and they liked what they had tasted. So culture shifted and now women were slowly accepted into the work force. How they were treated is another story we cannot go into now.

Second, we came home from the wars and conflicts pretty disillusioned. Our perspective on spiritual things was changing. We lost our spiritual anchor. As we became biblically illiterate and sexually liberated, we did something unthinkable. We began to use culture as the primary source of biblical interpretation and we changed the meaning of Scripture to fit our cultural understanding. We contextualized Christianity and left the biblical message that describes the home. Because men, in general, lost their interest in spiritual things, we allowed the popular thought of the day to govern our ideology. That includes how men see themselves.

Yes, there is a crisis in masculinity. God still asks us men the same question he asked Adam in the Garden of Eden, "Where are YOU?" We need to rediscover our masculine role and get busy in the things God expects of us.

Leadership and the People We Lead

Are you a leader? Someone said the best way to know if you are a leader is to look around and see if anyone is following you. Once I thought I was leading someone down here; then discovered that the ones following me were casing me with the idea of picking my pocket. They were good at it, too. My group of followers suddenly surrounded me and slipped my empty wallet right out of my back pocket. Slick. But God let me catch the perpetrators and get it back. At that point, I was the follower, not the leader!

Okay, so I am a leader of sorts. Sometimes I lead. I also have to follow. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to find leadership flaws in the ones we are following? But have you also noticed how difficult it is to spot our own leadership flaws? I don't know many that are exempt from such as that. I suppose I am not speaking to all of us who lead; but, still and again, there are many of us who would be able to wear that shoe really well.

Consequently, I read lots of books on leadership (Now if I could only get to where I put that stuff into practice!). One I read last year caught my eye as I looked for another book in my shelves. It's by Hans Finzel and is called The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. What a great read! It was originally published in 1994, but republished in 2007. I found it, of all places to be, in the airport in Charlotte, NC. If you can get to a bookstore, or look online, and if you are a leader, you want this valuable book.

What are Finzel's top ten? Here they are:

1. The top-down attitude, which he sees as the biggest gaffe we make.
2. Putting paperwork before "peoplework."
3. The absence of affirmation.
4. Allowing no room for mavericks.
5. Dictatorship in decision-making (thinking you know and have all the answers).
6. Dirty delegation (not letting go of a job once you have delegated it; read it carefully, Mr. Micro-manager).
7. Communication chaos, learning to sing from the same page in the hymnal.
8. Missing the clues of corporate culture (it's not what it may sound like).
9. Success without successors (passing the baton to others)
10. Failure to focus on the future.

What would your top ten be? Get the book and give it a read. It's worth $15.

A Tale of Two Cities

Pardon me for borrowing Mr. Dickens' title. It was too tempting.

Since January we have done a bit of traveling. We have travelled into the lovely Andes mountains, where the clouds and the snow seemed to kiss the mountains around us. It was a welcome change from the unchanging, constant drone of cars and buses that buzz by our house each day. The large flocks of livestock--sheep and cattle--dotting the hillsides were a welcome sight to the masses of people that plod up and down our roads in this city. The occasional pig tied out by the side of the road was an interesting diversion for our eyes.

The unkempt mountain roads were hardly a welcome thing for us. We had only made half our trip when one of the sharp, jagged stones pierce the tread on one tire and left us on the side of the road to change it out. With so many miles left to travel, and with the lack of tire places to get the hole fixed, it was an unwelcome prospect. But God is good, and we made it.

Our task was a pleasant one. Both my wife and I were participants in a leadership conference. We were going to do what we most love: teach and preach the Word of God to hungry souls. There were over 300 gathered for this great meeting, which lasted from a Tuesday through a Friday in early January. How invigorating to see the men eat up the teaching like a starving man at a Baptist dinner on the grounds. How exciting to hear my wife speak of the enthusiasm of the ladies she taught.

It was more impacting when we learned that many of these participants had travelled for hours in a rickety, poorly-cared-for bus. Some of those had also walked another several hours just to be able to catch the bus. And it is the rainy season in that part of the mountains. They walked along muddy trails, in some cases, to be able to catch the bus. When was the last time you were that interested in the Word of God?

Less than a month later we found ourselves rumbling down the runway, heading via air to a city south of here; it was for an annual business meeting of the Baptists in this country. What a change from the previous meeting. The former meeting was inspiring; this one, well, tedious. Everyone who had an opinion felt compelled to share it. Many of us looked for reasons to be called out of the meetings. I was excited each time my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. In fact, I was excited each time someone else's phone rang. As another opinion reverberated in the room in which we had gathered, my eyes would follow the person whose phone had rung. I yearned to go with him to see if I could help him answer the phone.

Why such a contrast? Why such a difference? In the former meeting--the January meeting--men and women had approached the meeting with deep prayer. The coordinators had enlisted hundreds to pray for that meeting. God showed up in power. Once, as I led the men to gather in groups and pray for the lost in their communities, the presence of God was palpable. My wife would say the same about the ladies' meetings.

In the latter meeting, it was not prayer that marked our meeting, but politics. Yes, politics. Oh, we prayed, to be sure. But we were so interested in who would be president, who would be in this role or that role, that when the Bible studies rolled around, we hardly perceived that the Lord was speaking to us.

In the former meeting, men and women met with God first. In the latter, we saw little to say we were meeting with God.

As Dickens said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...."

Give me a meeting where people want to hear God speak any day of the week. Yes, we need to tend to business; but business does not have to be unspiritual in nature. It does not have to be calculating and void of God's presence. We have, I fear, so very much to learn about how God wants things to be handled in this old world.

I've Been Stimulated!

I have to divert from my intended purposes and expose something going on up there, in that place called Washington, in the building called, "the Capitol." I am as tired of this subject as most of you are. But I have to point this out, because what I know has stimulated me. Yes, I have been stimulated!

Our congress--both houses--has voted, or is voting, on the infamous "stimulus bill." But they are (READ THIS CAREFULLY!) VOTING ON A BILL THEY KNOW LITTLE OR NOTHING ABOUT! Would you sign a contract for a new house or car without knowing what it said?

You should be outraged. They are socializing your health care, socializing your commerce, and creating a debt your grandchildren will be paying for years to come. There is so much of a socialist agenda hidden in this so-called recovery package that you will not recognize your country once it passes. It's downright sinister!

It may be too late to point this out to you. But perhaps you can still contact your house or senate members and admonish them to vote this carefully crafted communist bill out of existence. This is no exaggeration, folks. This bill will mean the end of many important values you carry as a free American. Your freedom is at stake.

These men and women asked us to trust them. We did. Now they prove that they think we are so stupid we would allow them to vote in such a way. Please, please, please; don't let this happen.

God help America in this dark hour of the blind leading the blind.

We're Number One!

Finally, something Mississippi can hold their head up over. Mississippi is often the butt of many news stories, including things like pregnancies and obesity. But here is one that should count for something, no matter how small it is. Mississippians believe that religion is an important part of their lives.

Now I'm no fool. I know that the numbers quoted (85%) do not mean that many people are born again; I don't doubt some who said it had to hide their Bud behind their backs when they said it. But it does speak well of the overall respect my fellow Mississippians have for spiritual things.

If you check the list, you will find that the south, by and large, is still fonder of spiritual things than those in other parts of the US. Now let's tap that rich source of spiritual oil and get it spread around the world...

Can the Great Commission be fulfilled in our lifetimes?

I read an interesting article today. You can find the main article here. The main question the article asks is the one I used for a title. The short answer to the question is, yes. Key evangelical leaders see us having shared the gospel with all the world in the next decade, certainly in our lifetime.

How could we do that? Do we fly over and drop fliers and leaflets? Do we mail Bibles? What do we do?

The key to sharing the gospel with every person is not as complicated as we sometimes think it is. The key is obedience. And we are now seeing a groundswell of motivated believers around the world, heading out with Bible in hand, ready to share the good news that Jesus forgives and fills us with hope.

That is our purpose now. We seek to be motivators in South America. I met with 2 ladies just 2 weeks ago that feel called to go into the world, away from South America, to a people far away. One wants to go to Japan. She wept as she told me of her burden. Another had tears in her eyes as she spoke of reaching the Muslim world. There are others, too. God is calling. People are responding.

Pray for God to send out more laborers from South America.

Urban Aches

This week was a vision trip with the youth pastor of a Louisiana church. It was to be to give him a vision regarding how his youth can plug into what we do down here. It was as much a fresh vision for me, as I rode with him and two of our three missionaries that he connected with. I saw sights and listened to pleas for spiritual help that stirred me deeply.

Some sights were so gripping that I was forced to stop speaking. As I watched men, women, young people, and children wandering in and out of crowded housing in Lima's inner city, I choked back tears. As we drove by the transvestites, prostitutes, and drug addicts, I felt their pain and wanted to reach out to them. Watching the homeless moved me, as well.

The incongruity of the sights was equally compelling. One street would be orderly and clean. Two blocks away, garbage would line the road and people would be thicker than the fleas on the street dogs down the road. In one part, tourists gawked at the interesting sights that a Latin American city offers. In another, we had to hide our belongings from the sight of the probable thieves that watched us. In fact, one man began running up to my window until he realized we spotted him; then he darted off in another direction.

All over the city, I was reminded of two things: Jesus died to set these people free. And we need many more workers to reach them before it is eternally too late.

Please pray for God to send his laborers to the urban centers around the world. Please pray for these large, lost groups of city dwellers.

About Holiness, part two

Yesterday, I posted part of a message one of my friends preached to his congregation in Tennessee. He told me virtually all of the church stood before him during the invitation, head bowed, tears falling to the floor. Here is the second part of that message:

The Models of a Holy Heart

First of all, Paul is quite clear to announce who can be the models of a holy heart. It is the ones that are “having these promises.” It is not just any promises that declares who is qualified to have a holy heart. “These promises” are the ones that Paul gives right in the text. It is unfortunate that the compilers made a chapter division here in the Corinthian letter because the first verse of 2 Corinthians 7 depends on at least five other verses of chapter six to understand the whole of the message of God here. The first verse of chapter six says, “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” Did you know that some people can and do receive the grace of God in vain. They get under conviction under the gospel preacher. They squirm in their seat. Someone nudges them to go forward and talk to the preacher. They even go so far as to step into the public eye and profess faith in the grace of God through Jesus Christ and are baptized to show their death to the old way of life and resurrection to a new life. Then they last not longer than a fish out of water. They immediately head back to their holes and hideouts of sin. They believed in vain. They took the grace of God in vain. It was useless, absolutely useless, an empty formality that didn’t even raise the pen of God to write their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The devil himself has deceived them because they had a two-faced heart. They courted heaven all the while thinking of their hellish lovers they couldn’t leave. But they wanted to appear spiritual in the church. Because of that they will never appear in heaven but for a moment before they are sentenced in the damnation of their own unbelief and sent to hell. Why? Why? Why would people do that? It is because the pleasures of sin for a season are more tantalizing than the promises of God for eternity.

What are those promises? Look at them with me in verse 16. “I will dwell in them” - that is habitation. “I will walk in them” - that is occupation. “I will be their God” - that is invitation. “They shall be my people” - that is salvation. “I will receive you” - that’s affiliation. “I will be a Father unto you” - that is regeneration. Finally, “ye shall be my sons and daughters” - that is appreciation. My dear friend, seven promises and the thought that you could miss these is the worst of all predicaments of life. It would have been better that you were not even born to miss these or play with the gift of God’s grace and toss it aside as it were nothing to cherish and rearrange your life by. What does it take to have a holy heart and get these promises? Maybe I should say that the other way around. What does it take to get these promises and have a holy heart? Dear friend, you cannot be holy without the Holy Spirit living in your heart. Paul says in chapter six and verse 14, “for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” Some folks think they are saved and have the promises but they have never once and for all turned their back on unrighteousness. I don’t mean to say that these waterless wells, these figless fig trees haven’t put on a spiritual garment. Oh no, they may wear the finest church garments but their heart is not changed. Let me tell you dear soul if that is the case with your heart you don’t have these promises but you have some others. You have the promise of condemnation upon your soul right now as I speak. You’re not a condemned criminal against the cross of Calvary because you do certain things that God doesn’t like. You’re condemned because of your unbelief. True faith and true belief has a heart change, a total remake of your life. You have the promise of death to your body and death to your soul because it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment. You have the promise of experiencing the greatest shock of your life that can never be reversed when Jesus opens the Lamb’s Book of Life and your name is not there. You have the promise of hearing words that will send electrifying waves of shame over your being, “depart from me ye workers of iniquity for I never knew you.” You have the promise of living without end in a place called hell where there is weeping, screaming, and grinding of teeth. You will never get out. How can you bear it this morning to hear this truth and not reach out with the most sincere heart for Jesus Christ to be your Saviour?

Seven precious promises and all given to the ones Paul calls “dearly beloved.” Did you see that? How those words ring the highest bells of affection. Ephesians 1:6 says, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” It is because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary that the thrice Holy Father can call us “beloved”. If you don’t accept Jesus you cannot be given this title of affection by God - beloved. If you don’t have such a life change through the blood of Jesus that you separate yourself from a patterned life of sin you’ll never be able to have a holy heart. Jesus today for real - that is the greatest decision a human soul can ever come to.

The Methods to a Holy Heart

Let me hasten on to tell you of the methods to a holy heart. Paul says, “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness.” There are three methods to God’s sanctifying work on our hearts. First of all, there must be some personal action. “Let us cleanse ourselves” - that means we would do a good job if we were just as fond of straightening our own selves out as we are to find the faults of others. It is God’s Holy Spirit that will do the work but we must enter in to an active cooperation with God on this matter. The word for cleanse is the same word for what the Jews did when they celebrated the Passover. Seven days before the Passover the wife of the home searches for all leaven used in bread and cleans it all out except for ten pieces. Her husband has instructed his wife purposely to leave ten small pieces of leavened bread in the house. Then the father takes the children, along with a candle, a wooden spoon, a feather, and a piece of linen cloth, and searches through the house for the ten pieces of leaven. By nightfall on the day before Passover a final and comprehensive search is performed. At this time, the house is completely dark except for the candles. Once the father finds the leaven, he sets the candle down by the leaven and lays the wooden spoon beside the leaven. Then he uses the feather to sweep the leaven onto the spoon. Without touching the leaven, he takes the feather, spoon, and leaven, wraps them in a linen cloth, and casts them out of the door of the house. The next morning, on the fourteenth of the Jewish month Nisan, he goes into the synagogue and puts the linen cloth and its contents into a fire to be burned. This is called purging out the old leaven. Children of God, we need to do a good bit of this. Leaven in the Bible is the symbol for sin. We need to search it out and take it out. We need to search for it by the candlelight of God’s word. We live in dark houses, overcome by the darkness of this world. I grew up in a G-rated society. Our entertainment was movies like Roy Rogers, Tarzan and Huckleberry Finn. In just 50 years we have become a XXX society where Christians think nothing of sinning because everybody else is doing it. When Dan Brown can write a book, The DaVinci Code, saying that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and had a child, and that blasphemous nonsense sells at $25 for 25 million copies, and Christians buy the trash we’ve got filthy hearts. Ron Howard made a movie out of it and it grossed over $700 million worldwide. All I’ve got to say about that is Opie has gone Dopie. When multitudes of parents just smile and look the other way as their children read Harry Potter novels which teach the casting of spells, rebellion against parents, lying, and divination, we’ve got a sickness in our Christian homes that is far worse than cancer. We need to get clean. We need a holy heart.

Second, there not only must be personal action, there must be some painstaking acknowledgment. Paul says we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to put the spotlight on both sins of the flesh and spirit. Sins of the spirit lead to sins of the flesh. Have you got anger you can’t control? Its time to get rid of it. You’re a filthy hearted Christian if you don’t. Have you got a lazy disposition about working in the kingdom of God? That is dangerous leaven in the home of your heart that defiles the message of Passover. Have you got pride in your heart that you think you’re pretty clean? Maybe you’re hiding from the spotlight of God. Turn off your little penlight that hardly finds a speck and let the blazing noonday sun of His convicting word shine all over your dirty spots so you can get clean. You know, Christians have for the most part in this age lost their sensitivity to the ruin of sin. We’re dangerously close to an Ananias and Sapphira scandal in the church today. When Christians keep back what belongs to God and they pretend to be such fine dedicated saints it is a mystery to me why God allows them to live. He didn’t let Ananias and Sapphira live in the first century. He cleaned up His church by death then and it is only the mercy of God in longsuffering that He’s patient and doesn’t do that as the first resort today. But I can tell you, He will not be patient forever.

Thirdly, there must be some powerful accomplishment. Paul describes this process to a holy heart with the words “perfecting holiness”. That word “perfecting” is epiteleo in the Greek. It comes from the same word Jesus used at the cross, tetelestai, “It is finished.” There is no accomplishment of holiness if the cleansing stops midstream. If you edit the sermon for your pleasure you’ve short circuited God’s cleansing work. If you hear the whole sermon well and have the presence of mind to recall the sermon point by point yet you file away those points that convicted you making no response, hoping they’ll go away, you’ve derailed God’s train of holiness from its tracks. Follow through. Decide to get clean. Accomplish the full work of God’s cleansing Word by making a decision during the invitation time. Hebrews 12:11 says, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” This is why folk’s problems seem to never go away because they choose an alternate route than to take God’s correction, a quick solution devised from the heart of man calculated to avoid the deeper cleansing of God upon their heart. You see, men and women, God loves us the way we are but He also loves us too much to leave us that way.

The Motivation for a Holy Heart

Now, I must close to tell you the motivation for a holy heart: “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” The fear of God is something that is dangerously missing from God’s church today. Do you know why a Church of England bishop, the Right Rev. David Gillet, can stand in his pulpit and say that they are going to have a Mothering Sunday to emphasize the motherhood of God in order to counter masculine images? It is because that bishop has no fear of God. Do you know why the inauguration committee and Barrack Obama can invite a homosexual episcopalian bishop to come and pray at the 2009 inauguration of a new president and Rick Warren, the pastor of the largest Baptist church in America, a man who led the fight against the same-sex marriage amendment in California, praises the decision. It is because Barrack Obama nor Rick Warren has any fear of God. Do you know why church members can sit in their pews or chairs on Sunday and act as though they have nothing to change in their hearts demonstrated by their unwillingness to come to God’s altar at invitation time? It is because they have no fear of God. Another passage echoes it well, “Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We have witnessed to airplane crashes this week on the news. A few years ago a US AIR airplane crashed near Pittsburgh. The cause of that crash was a mystery, because the plane just seemed to fall from the sky. So it was with great interest that the investigators listened to the information recorded in the plane’s black box. CNN played a portion of that recording on the air, revealing that there were just a few seconds from the time the pilot detected trouble until the plane crashed. The black box revealed these sounds from the cockpit: First, there was an “Oh,” followed by profanity and a string of “curse words,” then came the crash and silence. It was in those final moments that the pilot’s real habits and life message was laid bare before the whole world. There is going to come a day when you’ll have your last chance to change and cleanse a defiled heart and then you’ll meet Jesus Christ face to face. In that last hour you will be exactly what you have left your heart to be. Revelation 22:11 says, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.” If you were to describe your life in one word would that word honestly be “holy?”

About Holiness, Part One

The following is a manuscript from a friend. Dr. Tim Adams is pastor in middle-north Tennessee; he is a faithful prayer warrior for this wandering missionary. For brevity's sake, I am going to make this a two or three part post. Aside from that, the manuscript is unedited.

“The Vision of A Holy Heart” 2 Corinthians 7:1
It is October 14th, and the sun is reflecting mirages of water on an Air Force base runway in southern Florida. The silence of that scene is interrupted as a long-winged plane touches down on the runway and taxies to the hanger. A thousand planes a day go through this same routine, but this one plane’s payload is different from all the others. Its payload is just a few rolls of film, but the information on that film will shape the events of the world. It will shift the balance of power in the world. The film is transported to a top-secret laboratory and developed. It is sent to the Pentagon and then to the Oval Office in the White House. The year is 1962, and a young president, John F. Kennedy, just 44 years old, sits at the desk in the oval office of America. The decision he makes moves the armies of the most powerful nation in the world to counter a crisis of immense proportions. The photos taken were from a U2 reconnaissance aircraft. One picture in particular revealed that the Soviets had placed medium-range missile silos in Cuba. These missiles were capable of reaching strategic targets throughout the United States. The risk of world conflict hadn’t reached this level since WW2, and it involved the two greatest superpowers in the world, Russia and America. The president moved decisively, ordering Premier Khrushchev to halt all further deliveries of weapons and to immediately dismantle the missile sites. A broadcast to the American people let us know the gravity of the situation. The president said, “This secret, swift, extraordinary buildup of communist weapons is a deliberate and unjustifiable challenge to our national security, and it will not be accepted.” America braced for what was to come. President Kennedy ordered an immediate naval and air blockade of Cuba. Premier Khrushchev decided he would test this young president’s fabric and challenge this nation’s resolve. The Soviet ships sailed on toward Cuba. The world held its breath in nervous anticipation as hours crept by and ships grew closer and closer to one another. As kids we played a little game called ’chicken’ but this was no harmless game. There is a word for this standoff in wartime vocabulary. It is called “brinkmanship.” Brinkmanship is the willingness to expose oneself to risk, to press the limits of safety for a cause. It is walking the tightrope of disaster. The Soviets were going to press the boundary, walk the line, and see just how much they could get away with. The Soviet ships were 100 yards away from our American ships. Our Navy was on full battle alert with orders to stop the Russians at all costs. Some of you recall those moments as people were glued to the radios and TV’s to see who would flinch, who would fire, or what the world would look like in this latest age of nuclear war. With just feet to spare, at the brink of disaster and destruction, the Soviets turned.

There are a lot of people who play this game of spiritual brinkmanship with God. They push the envelope of their lives into realms of darkness, compromise, filth, carnality, and wickedness all the while calling themselves a Christian. Some of the greatest pornography lovers are in the church. Some of the worst thieves are in the church. Some of the worst liars are in the church. Some of the worst adulterers are in the church. But that doesn’t mean they’re in the family of God. Let those who name the name of Christ forsake their iniquity. Brinkmanship - pushing God to the limits of mercy and grace right on up to the last few hours in the Intensive Care ward at the hospital and crying crocodile tears for a life wasted in the devil’s lair and these folks think God will treat them royally in the judgment. Better to think again. Brinkmanship - sailing deep into the waters of adultery and fornication and expecting God to rescue a condemned vessel when the storms of disease and death hit. Wearing the wedding ring of God is no guarantee you’ll make it to the marriage supper. Brinkmanship - very little church involvement, don’t want to talk about your salvation, couldn’t quote one scripture if your life depended on it but you expect that God will smile on you as you walk through the pearly gates. There may be no gates except the prison walls of consuming darkness in hell and no smile, just weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

We are living in times of unprecedented deception. The god of this world has indeed blinded the minds of men lest they truly believe and the light should shine unto them. Did you know that 21 percent of Americans consider themselves to be holy. Yet the same 21 percent of those responding to a holiness questionnaire said they admit they don’t know how to be holy. There is a mass of people attending church today that do not understand the concept of holiness. Proverbs 30:12 says, “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.”

Would we dare to think God is not serious about holiness when He mentions it 659 times in scripture? “Ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” That verse echoes across the centuries of time and 1500 years later Christ is saying, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” The incense they burned in the tabernacle was holy incense made of specific and unique ingredients. Only the best and pure for God. The High Priest could only go into the Holy of Holies where God dwelt between the cherubim on the ark of the covenant once a year and when he did it he was scared senseless. They tied a rope to his waist and feet to drag him out in case he died in the holy presence of God. The Bible says in Habakkuk 1:13 that God is too pure in His eyes to even look upon evil. If you were to come into the presence of God in your mortal state and see Him face to face the exposure of mortal with immortal, corruption with total incorruption, filth and wretchedness with absolute purity would kill you dead right in the spot where you stand. The great prophet Isaiah who encountered the call of God on his life in an amazing way: one of the seraphim who stood before the throne of God shouting praise, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory,” flew down with a live, white hot, cleansing coal off of God’s altar and burned purity into Isaiah’s mouth and tongue calling him to the prophetic ministry, that Isaiah declares in the 57th chapter of his prophecy and the 15th verse, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” God’s name is holy. God’s celestial city is holy. God’s worshipers are all holy or they don’t ascend the hill - remember Psalm 24:4, “clean hands and a pure heart.” The offerings given to God all had to be holy and consecrated. God’s thoughts are holy and just. The Bible says all of God’s judgments are holy (Isaiah 5:16). God never, never, never, ever makes a wrong judgment. If He wiped every living soul off the earth it would be a holy act of God justified because of man’s defiance of a thrice holy God.

God has moved upon my heart to preach this morning on The Vision of a Holy Heart for God. In the earth today there are tremors of God’s judgment to bring the church back to His bosom. We must come back to be a people of prayer, extraordinary prayer, spending time - even hours with our God to be sustained by His power. There is the tightening of the noose of judgment upon the economics of the land, not that we elect another president of another mind hoping he can solve the disappearing dollar mystery. It is no mystery, I promise you. It is God waiting for His people worship Him in spirit and truth, to have no other gods including the ones in our wallet or even the ones we wish were in our wallet, so that the Lord of Heaven may operate within His righteous character, turning calamity into blessing for those who seek Him. Now, this morning we are called to the Throne Room to be smitten once again for our healing. The church is sick, deathly sick. We suffer from a grossly backslidden heart that has let all kinds of unholy and carnal infestations creep into the soul, a soul that in salvation was set apart to be a clean vessel for God. Do you drink of clean water from a scum crusted cup? No, you don’t. Neither will God drink and fill Himself full from a life that has docked in the harbor of sin and iniquity becoming totally crusted with the barnacles of filth and wickedness. God has called us to have a holy heart, church. He has not called us to clean the saucer up on the outside that it may be a pretty place setting in the church house while bearing the smears and smudges of hidden sin. There are three things you need to see in our passage today to receive the message of God on having a holy heart.

Thinking of Home

The past 4 weeks have been a whirlwind. Our youngest daughter had flown home for a visit. "Home" is in South America. Melissa was born there. She grew up there. And, to a large degree, her heart is in her home country of Peru. It's her delight. When Melissa speaks of it, her eyes light up; there is an excitement in her voice. You know how it is. You remember the foods, the sounds, and the sights of things that bring you to that nostalgic point in your mind.

As we rode together through the twisting streets of Lima, I reminded Melissa and one of her friends that our true home is ahead of us. We are part of the celestial family. Our citizenship is in heaven. Home--our true home--is with the Lord.

Now the Lord was wise in how he set things up. He knows us. The Lord Jesus told us a little about how heaven would be (John 14). Then he said, as it were, "Don't worry, guys. I am sending you the Comforter to be with you till we see one another again." "The Comforter" is the Holy Spirit. Among other things that the Holy Spirit is for us, is that word that Paul used in 2 Corinthians and Ephesians: "the down payment." He is a sample of what is awaiting us.

This is my point: the Holy Spirit of God keeps us yearning for "home." If he did not reside within us, I fear we would wander off, carried away by the interests and cares of this world. We would not be interested in, or longing for, the presence of God. We would not be further motivated to encourage others to turn to Jesus for salvation. We would forget, both where we came from and where we are headed.

But Paul said in 1 Cor. 2 that, even though it has not entered into the mind of man what "home" is really like, the Holy Spirit reveals that to our spirit. He whispers about the beauties of heaven. Sometimes I think he fairly shouts it to us. He taps us on our spiritual shoulders when we get too distracted with the things around us, pointing "upward" to heaven.

In short, keep thinking of home. One day we will, I hope, meet one another there. One day we will see that the wait has been worth it all.

Eco-political thoughts about 2008

There have been some phrases and words used in 2008 that have become so cliche, I am sincerely hoping they disappear from our computer screens, mouths, and magazines.

One is the word "change." It was so ravaged by the politicians, that I am sick of hearing it. It's a catch-all word for those guys, that does not really mean what they think you think it means. For the politicians, the only change they want is a change in power; well, they got it, didn't they? We gave it to them. We believed them. But don't expect their use of change to change your quality of life; it probably won't.

Next on my list is "carbon footprint." What a contrived idea. Seriously. Every organic object has a carbon footprint. They all expend energy; it's part of life. Living things expend energy. Yes, "carbon footprint" is mostly used to describe your voracious appetite for, and expenditure of man-made energy. But this is in the mostly-debunked myth that man-made energy is a bad thing for the environment. What? You did not know that all the hooplah over global warming is just that? Sorry to spoil your day. My dog's carbon footprint just temporarily expanded by a natural expulsion of methane. Oops. TMI.

My top two are equally related: "green," and "global warming."

I once owned a green car and a green truck. Those were the colors. Now it takes on another meaning and you have to be very specific as to what you mean. Sorry if this upsets you, but it's an abuse of your good minds to be convinced to use that word in such an anti-human way. Yes, some of the most ardent defenders of the green concept believe that they can reclaim the earth by removing the worst influence: people. It's odd that they mean everyone but themselves.

As for global warming, too many conferences had to be cancelled in 2008; it was too cold to meet. There was one purpose for that phrase: to get bigger-government people in office, so that you would lose more control, pay more taxes, and have less responsibility for your own future. Don't think I am making this up. You have to read the bottom line that these guys have written. It's all about power, no pun intended.

I suppose I should be spiritual, or something, in this last post of 2008. I do, in fact, believe in global warming. It's prophesied in Peter. The earth shall melt with a fervent heat. I just happen to believe it will happen all at once, not gradually. What does that mean for now? Since we do not know when the Day of the Lord will happen, I suggest you forget the carbon footprint and follow the Creator's footprints. Jesus said to take up your cross and follow him. Those are the footprints you need to be focused on.

Just Jesus!

I bet you think this is going to be another pontification about Christmas being about Christ. Though it is, I have something else in mind; I read a news article today that showed America's apostasy. That is, when it comes to heaven, salvation, and those kinds of things, too many professing Christians have bought the tolerance lies that Satan has spewed out since the Garden of Eden. They believe that salvation is about your sincerity of belief. Okay, maybe they did not use those precise words. But they did affirm multiple ways to heaven.

A majority of professing Christians have moved from respecting one's right to choose their form of worship, to actually believing that there are multiple ways to heaven. In fact, that figure reaches to an alarming 65 percent. This includes all professing Christias. Fifty-one percent of evangelicals believe that there are multiple ways to heaven. That figure was higher six years ago, so someone woke up and smelled the burnt coffee. Thank the Lord for a little good news in the midst of the bad.

Still, too many people think that salvation can be about Buddha, or Allah, or some other person. It's not, folks. Salvation is through Jesus. Period. Not Jesus, plus your works. Just Jesus. Not Mohammed as God's prophet. Just Jesus. Not the Noble Path. Just Jesus.

The good news is that God provides a full pardon for our sins. He paid the debt himself by sending Jesus to die for you. God proved he was satisfied with Jesus' sin payment by raising Jesus from the dead. And God said, as it were, "You want salvation? You want eternity in paradise? It's paid for, but you have to accept my payment as good enough. And my payment was Jesus' death on the cross. And to prove I was satisfied, I raised him from the dead after 3 days."

The good news cannot be good without bad news alongside it. The bad news is that, no matter how sincere you may be, if you do not turn to Jesus and place your faith in him and him alone, there is no salvation. There is only that terrible place called hell. Not annihilation. Hell. Not purgatory. Hell. The bad news gets worse: "He that does not believe [in Jesus] is already condemned." Read about it in John chapter 3. So if you do not believe in my Jesus, dear friend, you have already been condemned and are only awaiting the execution of the death sentence. You are on death row. That is what makes the good news good. Someone else was executed in your place, if you are willing to accept his payment. If not, you stay on death row.

Don't place your hope in your ability to earn your way to heaven. Don't trust your religion. Just trust Jesus.

Pray for America. Perhaps God will spare America a few more years so that we can turn to him.

What Christmas Means to "Them"

Many in the western world are busying themselves with their Christmas preparations. Even in our city, one can drive around and find houses trimmed with lights and all kinds of joyful signs of this great celebration. We laughed as we made our way to the airport a few nights ago. There were all kinds of lighted snowmen, angels, bells, and other decorations lining the median in the avenue. We were amazed to see them, till we saw the locks holding them to the posts. But even at that, it is the first Christmas I remember seeing such decorations on open display in that part of town.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, things don't look quite the same. Christians in parts of India fear for their lives. You can read about it here. Not far away from there, many Chinese are suffering for the cause of Christ, as stated here. There is an agressive attempt to erradicate Christianity from China. Some people never learn; God opened the door and no man will shut it. Nigerian believers are suffering; the same goes in many other parts of the world.

And we westerners still express dismay and amazement over our nativity scenes, over our right to openly display the words "Merry Christmas." Do not misunderstand me; I have a great appreciation for the liberties we have historically enjoyed. I don't want to lose them anymore than the next guy. But when compare with the believers in Iran, or Iraq, or Bangladesh, such harrassment is so small and inconsequential.

Next week, when you stop to open that gift that your loved one bought or made for you, take time to remember your brothers and sisters around the world whose lives may be in danger in the very moment you are sharing your love with one another. "Merry Christmas" for them just may mean living through the night without fear of reprisal for living for Jesus.

Pray for Persecution in Gambia

Pray for David and Fiona Fulton. These British Missionaries are being held in Gambia for sedition. Pray for each of them to be able to be a witness for the glory of God, even in the midst of suffering. But pray for them to be set free, if at all possible.

While the charges against them may be sedition, their crime is proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Muslims despise the truth as much as secular humanists in the west do. Some Muslims just happen to be more decisive in their opposition to the word of God.

About Suffering

It's far easier to speak about suffering when it isn't your own. It's far easier to be an encourager when you are sitting comfortably, looking over at the person, or persons, who are hanging on by a thread. It's that ivory tower mentality that gets us in trouble.

So this is not from my tower. It's up close and personal. It's the kind of comments that come after many a sleepless night, heart palpitations brought on by wondering what the next phone call would bring, and lots and lots of prayer.

Why does God let us suffer? Why do we pass through the fire? Why do we have to pass those sleepless nights, or have to be unable to alleviate the suffering of others? I can think of several reasons. Here are just a few, for starters.

Sometimes suffering is our own doing. You'll find illustrations in King David's life about suffering he brought on himself, as well as on others. You can also see Peter's admonition in 1 Peter 4:15 - "If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler." When it is our own doing, we need to repent.

Sometimes suffering is the result of the evil of this world. I am not in the camp that thinks that everyone is basically good. Most of us have a measure of goodness in us; but the Bible teaches we are not basically good; instead, God teaches that there is none good, not even one (see Romans 3). There are, consequently, a lot of people out there who have given themselves over to evil, to practice what is in their hearts. And we end up suffering because of it.

Do you think that those men who commandeered the jetliners on 9-11 were basically good? They were depraved, indifferent, evil men. Do you think that handful of terrorists who struck in Mumbai were good? They were violent men who sold themselves to do evil. What we often fail to remember, however, is that the same spirit that will lead us to lie is that spirit that will lead us to cheat, curse others, give in to road rage, and even kill.

So some suffering comes as a consequence of evil in others.

Sometimes we suffer because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Americans are too often unaware of such suffering. We have actually reached a point where we seem to think that it is our right to prosper and live at ease. And when suffering comes, we groan and weep, questioning God for that which comes upon us. Or we file lawsuits. Or we go to the press. And we cast our pearls before swine (the lost world), mumbling something about our rights being trampled. Of course they are being trampled! The world has no interest whatsoever in the things of God's children.

Around the world, even as you are reading this, men and women (and sometimes children, too) are suffering for the cause of Christ. Some are in prison. Some are being starved to death. Some are being tortured in attempts to make them recant their faith in Jesus Christ. Some are being burned alive.

Would you like to know what Peter said about that? Read these verses from 1 Peter 4:12-14:

"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you."

Don't be surprised. You are blessed. Rejoice.

It ain't easy to rejoice when you feel like God's enemies are squeezing the life out of you. But we can do it. It isn't easy to give thanks when everything around us goes wrong; but we can do it.

One more thought comes to mind. Suffering can be God's means of shaping us to be more like Jesus. He is the potter, we are the clay. God can use pressure to mold us. The purest of gold comes out of the smelter's fire. The finest jewels are formed under pressure. The pressures of suffering produce Christ-likeness in God's children. If we allow it. If we let God have his way. If we wait patiently for God to finish the work.

Suffering is not enjoyable. It's not something we need to seek. Troubles will find us soon enough, sooner if we are sold out to Jesus. But suffering is to be expected; it's a part of life. Receive it when it comes. Let God demonstrate what he can do with someone submitted to him.

Are You a Waiter?

There are tens of thousands of men and women, both young and old, that make your meal or other event a little more pleasant when you visit your favorite feed trough. That's what they are there for; they wait on you. They stand to one side (if not scurrying from table to table) and wait for your request so that they can serve you. Today they call themselves "servers" in many places. We once called this group "waiters." Because their single goal was to wait for your call and command and then fulfill it.

That concept is ancient now. The idea that someone would wait for another to give them direction has faded, perhaps due to the fast-food culture that permeates too many societies now. Not so, here. Even the fast-food places have people who will be your waiter. It's nice.

Gone with the concept of a waiter is the concept of waiting, too. Do you like to wait for that word from someone else? Do you find yourself frustrated with serving others? Moms once had to serve as waiters. Now with both parents working in so many places, there are exceptions to that way of life. [I did not say only moms should do that; it's just how things were.]

King David often spoke of waiting in the Psalms. He spoke of it as a privilege. He compared himself to a hand-servant waiting on his master. Our relationship with God should include such a concept. God is the King. We are the servants. He gives the orders; we wait on him to give them to us. And then we fulfill them in his strength and for his honor. It's not to be congratulated. Waiting is strictly for the honor of the one we serve.

Be a waiter for God today. Wait for him to speak and then do what he says.

The Birth and Growth of an Idea

This morning I sat on a couch in our office complex, looking across at a couple who have been called to, and trained for, missions. Together, we two couples form a team. We are a team of international missions consultants. Our job is both simple and complex. Simply stated, we find those called and help them get to their place of service, as I wrote a few weeks back. The complexities come in when you consider interviewing candidates, training, networking, and the entire proverbial ball of wax that is a part of sending out missionaries.

This couple--Peruvians by birth, up-bringing, and culture--was excited as we shared our vision for sending out Latin-Americans into all the world. For me, the most gratifying thing was hearing the wife ask (names omitted intentionally), "Who is on our team?" Did you see that small possessive pronoun in that? "Our." It's "our" team. She did not ask, "Who is on "your" team; she asked about "our team."

That is a great hurdle that we have crossed. We bridged a river. Find the cliche that works for you and run with it. We see one another as equals, partners in ministry. We bring to the table what each can bring, showing (trying to, at least) mutual respect and learning what we can from one another.

One important ramification is that when any of us shares an idea, it is not filtered quite as much as can normally happen in cross-cultural communication. So when I brought up some ideas as to how we may accomplish sending out missionaries, I saw their faces light up. When they shared their opinions regarding some of the details, they got to see my excitement.

It was an incubation room. An idea was born and began to grow. It is not a North American idea; it is not a South American idea. It is a mission team idea. I am excited about this for two reasons: one, the goal to send out missionaries from this country is a realistic one in the eye of those with whom we work; two, when the "product" is finally presented to the national church or churches, it won't be seen as imported from another world.

May the idea of sending out laborers continue to grow and bring fruit!

Mr. Obama Is President-elect; Now What?

America cast its vote. Congress did not change all that much; it did move to the left. But the presidency took historic steps. So now what do we do? We pray. We do the same thing we would do, no matter the winner. We pray for our leaders. We depend upon the hand of the living God to mercifully move this country to a third great awakening.

Above all, we obey what God teaches in Psalm 37:3 - "Trust in the Lord and do good."

God save America. God save the congress and the president.

An Election Day Prayer

This was placed as a comment on another post. I chose to post it here to be sure it is seen by more people.

A Prayer for the ElectionNovember 3, 2008 By: John Piper
Category: Commentary

Father in heaven, as we approach this election on Tuesday, I pray

1) that your people will vote,

2) and that they will vote with a sense of thankfulness for a democratic system that at least partially holds in check the folly and evil in all our hearts so that power which corrupts so readily is not given to one group or person too easily;

3) that we would know and live the meaning of being in the world, but not of it, doing politics as though not doing them, being on the earth, yet having our lives hidden with Christ in God, rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesars, and to God the things that are God’s;

4) that we would discern what truths and values should advance by being made law and which should advance only by the leavening of honest influence;

5) that your people would see what love and justice and far-seeing wisdom demand in regard to the issues of education, business and industry, health care, marriage and family, abortion, welfare, energy, government and taxes, military, terrorism, international relations, and every challenge that we will face in the years to come;

6) and above all, that we will treasure Jesus Christ, and tell everyone of his sovereignty and supremacy over all nations, and that long after America is a footnote to the future world, he will reign with his people from every tribe and tongue and nation. Keep us faithful to Christ’s all important Word, and may we turn to it every day for light in these dark times.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

Another Holiday Somewhere in South America

November 1st is a holiday where we live. It's All Saints Day. Had this day fallen during the week, schools and businesses would have closed, for the most part. It's that important to some here.

So what goes on? What do people do on All Saints Day? I can't speak for all parts of the world. But here, entire families often go to the cemetery where their departed loved were buried. Often musical bands will be in the cemeteries. The families makea big party out of the event. They bring food, flowers, and beverages. Strong beverages. Intoxicating beverages. They will place the flowers and plates of the deceased's favorite food, and pour them a drink. Then the living family members will often begin to drink along with them. The particpants drink themselves drunk. They dance, tell tales, and drink some more.

This morning, our house helper showed up early--8 AM. She told us that the streets were filled with drunks. I asked if she was speaking of her neighborhood, some 90 minutes away from here. She told me that yes, in that part of the city they were drunk; but right in front of my house the local security personnel had loaded up several who were drunk. Fights, she said, broke out all over. Men fighting men, women fighting women (I have seen the same, as well).

Seeing such a sight is heartbreaking. There is no way I can convey the images through words. Men and women alike pour themselves into this raucous carnival-like event. God is dishonored. Christ is ignored. He is mentioned, but only the most perfunctory manner. After all, it's All SAINTS Day. It's not about Jesus. It's about the dead.

I see little root difference between this kind of celebration and that of ancestor worship. I am pretty sure the same devil dreamed up both of them. And I am fully persuaded that God is not honored in either.

Why does it happen? It's because mankind has set up false gods to satisfy his desire to live free from the God of glory. Mankind seeks a means to justify his life; this is just another of many false truths circulating around the world.

May we seek the living Lord, not celebrate the dead!

Where Do They Stand?

Before you in America cast your vote, know where the two primary candidates stand on the main moral issues. As I said a few weeks back, it is not about the economy; this is about the moral future of our nation.

Vote with wisdom!

No Room for Complaints!

I don't know who originally wrote the following. It has been attributed to various TV celebs. It doesn't matter who the author was. I think it is worth a read:

'As most of you know I am not a President Bush fan, nor have I ever been, but this is not about Bush, it is about us, as Americans, and it seems to hit the mark.'

'The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some Poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right? The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the President. In essence 2/3 of the citizenry just ain't happy and want a change. So being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, 'What are we so unhappy about?'

A. Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 Days a week?

B. Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter?

C. Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job?

D. Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

E. Maybe it is the ability to drive our cars and trucks from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move thro ugh each state.

F. Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter?

G. I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough either.

H. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

I. Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home.

J. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family, and your belongings.

K. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.

L. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

M. How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world?

Maybe that i s what has 67% of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see ;us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have, and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks? The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me?

Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad? Think about it......are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it because the 'Media' told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an 'other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a ''dishonorable' discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans?

Say what you want, but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer wha t sell s, and when criticized, try to defend their actions by 'justifying' them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it this way......Insane!

Turn off the TV, burn Newsweek , and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad. We are among the most blessed people on Earth and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and appreciative.' 'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, 'Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

When We Pray for the Harvest

If the name were not a trademark, I would call myself an International Harvester. That is the calling upon my life. I am involved in soul-harvesting. It's a life-changing thing, both for me and the ones that respond to God's call.

Jesus told us the fields were white--ready to be harvested (John 4). He also said that there were few laborers to be found. I live in South America, where the harvest is big enough. But I try to think globally, not just about South America. So one thing I do is pray for the harvest. As Jesus told us to do, I pray for laborers.

Now when we pray for the harvest, we need to be ready. Two weeks ago a man approached me with a claim on his life. God answered our prayers for the harvest for a closed country. This man and his wife feel called to go. So, knowing I try to find ways for men and women to fulfill that call, the man asked me how I could help him get to his harvest field.

Not long before the man I just mentioned, I received other calls and e mails from other people who have answered God's call. They have the same question: how do they get from South America to the place where God has told them to go?

We are delighted to actually see God answering our prayers for laborers for the world. I want to encourage you to continue to pray for laborers. God is answering. God is sending his laborers. When we pray, the Lord of the Harvest answers...

A Time for Intolerance

The skinheads are on the march. Their latest antics include threats against Obama and promises to murder blacks in Tennessee.

Now is the time for intolerance. We should stand up and speak out against such a reprehensible plan. Such racial bigotry is repugnant. Thank God these thugs were found out before they could perpetrate such evil.

Christ broke down the middle wall of separation. As we sang when I was a child, "Red and yellow, black and white; they are precious in his sight." Obama may not share my values; but he has the right to his own personal journey. God said we should pray for him, not persecute him.