Of All Nations -Jesus told His disciples to make disciples of all nations. We often try to determine if this person or that person, or this group or that group, is worthy of becoming a disciple. In the early days of our country, many southern churches tried to say Blacks weren’t worthy of being disciples. Many did not allow them to hear Christian teaching. Some allowed them to sit in the slave gallery where they could hear but not participate. It was hoped that by hearing Christian teachings, they would be content to be slaves and not rebel. Jesus didn’t have any such illusions. He expected His disciples to make disciples of all nations. It is important to send missionaries into lands where they have never heard the Gospel, but their goal should be to train their converts to become disciples who would carry on the work among their family and friends, because people will listen to their family and friends before they will listen to a stranger from a foreign land. The same goes in America. People will listen to their family and friends before they will listen to a preacher. All Christians should be reaching their family and friends and the church should be training them to do so.
Fifth Sunday of Eastertide-May 7
Making Disciples- Christ called on His disciples to make disciples of all nations. He did not say to train disciples to oversee the churches. Therefore, He implied that all followers should become disciples and it was the responsibility of His current disciples to do it. A disciple is not just someone who believes what the master believes. A disciple is one who becomes like the master. A disciple should therefore be teaching and ministering like Jesus did. Yet few churches today train their members to become teachers and soul winners. In fact, many churches are becoming soft on teaching the Bible truths and many members are hard put to explain what they believe. It is impossible to teach others what you don’t know.
Important Issues-Intro-C
The danger is in being reactionary. They come out with a radical proposal like banning the cutting of trees to save the environment. While that is a worthy goal, it would put thousands of lumberjacks, newspaper people, and carpenters out of work and deprive us of wood needed to make paper and build houses. Conservatives immediately came back with opposition to it, which paints them as unconcerned about the damage we are doing to the environment. However, calmer heads realized the damage from each of those positions and enacted laws to require companies to plant a tree for every tree they cut down. That saved the jobs and continued to provide the lumber we need without damaging the environment. We need to be careful about just reacting and insist on a full examination of the issues in order to find a middle ground. While they insist that their ideas are based on science and conservative ideas are just baseless ideas, the fact is that a full examination of their positions show that their ideas are often based on appearances which can be deceiving. To counter their ideas, we must seek the facts to back up our position. They say that a baby is not fully formed until it is born, however we now have ultrasounds that shows that it is fully formed and we can detect a heartbeat and brainwaves within a couple weeks of conception, showing that it is a complete person and fully functioning by the time that most babies are aborted.
Important Issues-Intro-B
While liberals call for an open mind and open discussion, their actions indicate they have a far different attitude. The second article illustrated what I mean. It told about a town that was opposed to the liberal agenda. What was disturbing was that it painted those who opposed the agenda as terrorists seeking to overthrow the government and silence opposition. This has become a common tactic of theirs to silence opposition. The reporting in the regular media is very biased in favor of liberals and they have heavily censored conservative voices on the social media. In addition, President Biden has called on the FBI to investigate those who speak up in school board meetings as domestic terrorists in order to threaten and intimidate parents to remain silent. It is obvious they have no intention of allowing an open discussion and keeping an open mind. They want to freely state their case, but refuse to allow the expression of any other views. As a result, those who want to vote intelligently must do their own research and share what they learn. I have continued to research the topics and share what I learn, however I reach only a very small portion of the American audience and rely on faithful friends to share what they learn with their friends.
Important Issues-Intro-A
I just saw a series of disturbing stories on the net which I feel need to be addressed. The first story was titled “How do you know someone is a Democrat?”. It stated that they want everyone to be open-minded and engage in open discussion on the topics, so I will be dealing with them in the next couple of weeks. It laid out 15 points which it states that a Democrat stands for. It was a good description of what we are hearing on the media. What was disturbing was that they were set out in a way that it is hard to disagree with. Everything sounded good and what we can all support. However, what is disturbing is that what we hear in the media is not what we are seeing in practice, and as they say, actions speak louder than words. Unfortunately, many voters are listening to the words and not paying attention to the actions. While those who vote for Democrats may support those issues, the fact is that the way Democrat politicians vote shows they have a far different understanding of the issues. While I cannot go into an issue in detail in a single post, the posts will have links to other things that I have posted on the topic so you can get a more in depth understanding of the issues.
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Fourth Sunday of Eastertide-April 30
Preach the Gospel Christ commanded His disciples to preach the Gospel. The Gospel means good news. The good news is that Christ died for our sins and set us free from the power of sin and darkness. Most pastors speak to their congregations in church, but there is rarely a clear presentation of the Gospel. Few member’s lives are affected by it and those around the church never hear it. Many people are desperately seeking answers to the problems around them. The church has the answers, yet it is silent. It neither proclaims the truth nor demonstrates it through the lives of its members. The church must clearly proclaim the Gospel to its members and teach them how to demonstrate what it means to be a believer in their daily lives. The church also needs to teach them to engage those around them and explain to them the basis for what they believe.