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Good Friday-April 3

08 Apr

Good Friday/Black Friday-B  Jesus was arrested in the Garden and tried during the night. It was the custom for Pilate to release a prisoner on the Passover. When Pilate asked who he should release, the Jewish leaders wanted him to release Barabbas. It is interesting to note that the Jewish leaders considered Jesus who was meek and mild to be a greater threat than Barabbas who was a terrorist known for his murder and destruction. It is no different today. Our government is currently ignoring threats from ISIS and other Mid-Eastern terrorist groups and concentrating their harassment and intimidation on Christian groups that preach the Word of God. Apparently, they consider the preaching of the Gospel to be more of a threat than terrorists.

 

 
 

Values-E

08 Apr

We are in a war of values between the values that made America great and the values of those who feel they know a new way. However the new way is just the old way repackaged to make it sound good. It doesn’t deal with facts but with feelings. Like Satan told Eve, it looks nice and will make you wise. It appeals to the self. We are told that abortion is good because it helps a girl solve her problem. People want to help her and they offer a simple solution. But when you look at the facts, you have to ask if you are really helping her? Satan also told Eve that God lied when he said she would die because she won’t. There won’t be any consequences. People avoid things that have bad consequences but if there aren’t any consequences, there is no reason to avoid it. The liberal solution seems to solve the problem of how to have sex and not worry about a pregnancy because they have the solution. For every problem they have a simple solution that looks good and seems to solve the problem, but does it really solve it, it just sweeps it under the rug. Society doesn’t have to deal with the consequences, but does the girl really walk away untouched? God told us not to have sex outside marriage because it prevents the problem and we don’t have to worry about any consequences. God gave us guidelines for a purpose because He knows what is best for us. It is better to prevent problems than to mop up after them. For every problem the world has an easy solution but God told us how to avoid the problem in the first place. The church has not been vocal in offering God’s solution and so people follow the world and then have to mop up afterward. God laid down His values in the Ten Commandments and reinforced them in the New Testament. God’s guidelines will help us deal with the problems we face today. That is why I wrote my series on Christian values. Those values are as important today as they have ever been.

 
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Uganda Remembered-Mission trip

05 Apr

 
 

The Meaning of Eastertide

05 Apr

 

Palm Sunday-Mar 29

27 Mar

Palm Sunday (A) Palm Sunday is a perfect example of what happens when we put our agenda before God’s agenda. Palm Sunday celebrates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The people waved palm branches and laid them on the road before Jesus to celebrate His coming because they thought He was coming to overthrow the Romans and set them free from the domination of the Romans so He could set up His kingdom on earth. However, the Passover celebrates the time in Egypt when the lamb was slain to atone for their sins and the blood put on the doorpost before the coming of the angel of death, to show the sacrifice had been made. It foretold when the Lamb of God (Jesus) would come to die on the cross to take away the sins of the world and set us free from the power of sin and death. When we stand before the throne in heaven, if our heart is cleansed by the blood of Christ, it will testify that the sacrifice has been made. Had the Jews remembered the meaning of the Passover, they would have recognized what Jesus came to do.

 

 

Intro to Holy Week

27 Mar

 

God’s plan for His people

27 Mar

God commanded the Jewish people to celebrate a trilogy of holidays that spell out our spiritual walk. God has fulfilled two of them and is preparing to fulfill the third. God spelled out His plan for the Jewish people and for us in the design of the celebration of the Passover (the first celebration commanded by God) where the death angel slew the first-born sons so Pharoah would release the Israelites from bondage. Those who sacrificed the lamb and put the blood on the doorpost were spared. It foretold Christ’s death as the Suffering Servant when He would die to take away our sins and free us from the power of sin and death which He fulfilled on Passover. Then the Israelites would wander in the wilderness to bond them into a nation, just as the Holy Spirit would then come (on Pentecost) to set up God’s kingdom in our hearts (Pentecost-see Isaiah 53) and the body of believers going through trials would bind us into a church, just as the Israelites wandering in the wilderness bound them into the people of God. Finally, God led the Israelites into the Promised Land where they enjoyed God’s blessings, just as one day Christ will return as the Conquering King and set up His kingdom on earth fulfilling Rosh Hosanna (the third celebration commanded by God) but the Jews ignored what God told them and created their own visions of what God would do. Christ could not overthrow the powers of this world until He first overthrew the power of sin in our hearts, lest we all be lost.  (See “Before Our Eyes” in “Understanding the Path We Walk” for more on the meaning of the holidays.)

 

 
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Study course-The Value of Family and Gender-video-promo

26 Mar

 

M-F Relations-F

26 Mar

While liberals have criticized Christianity for its treatment of women, they ignore the fact that Christianity values women and motherhood far above most other religions. Most cultures and religions range from ignoring the value of women to enslaving them. Most of the benefits women enjoy are the result of Judaism and Christianity. Though men oversaw the business of the church, the women oversaw the needs of the community. They served formally and informally as teachers, nurses, and Social service workers caring for the needy in the community. Most of those who mistreat and devalue women in our society have nothing to do with the Christian faith. The wife-beaters and the pimps are not only outside the church but are strongly condemned by the church. While liberal women claim that society views women as sex objects, our society as a whole, due to the influence of Christianity, condemned such a view. It is the liberal influence which has resulted in the increasing view of women as sex objects in our society. Liberal women, true to the liberal philosophy ignored the facts and used such arguments to open the door to allow women to use themselves as sex objects to attract men and have opened the doors to the widespread exploitation of women we see today. As a result, it has been increasingly difficult to enforce laws protecting women from rape and children from incest. (See “Truly In The World, But Not Of It-part-A” under “”Women’s Liberation And Women’s Rights” by Lulu Press) While they claim that they are pushing for the liberation of women, they have broken down the laws protecting women, which their mothers and grandmothers fought so hard for.

 

M-F relations-E

26 Mar

We are faced with an attack on women like never before. Our country was founded by people who believed that a man protected his wife and she worked right along side him. Men did not dominate women but worked with them to build America. While women weren’t allowed to vote or actively participate in government affairs, they were highly respected. Perhaps men felt they were protecting women or they were protecting the family, but women weren’t looked down on generally. Some men dominated women and abused them but it does not seem to be a general practice. Men that abused women or mistreated them often quickly found themselves put in their place by other men who did not tolerate that. Women were active in civic work and charity work as well as working to improve their communities, as well as taking care of their children and helping care for both sets of parents as they got older. Mothers trained their children for taking their place in society while their husbands worked or they worked alongside their husbands on the farm or in a family business. The liberal philosophy has actually degraded  the place of women by demonizing staying home to raise kids and traditional women’s occupations like nursing and childcare. It has demonized women in general and forced them to be like men, causing them to be ashamed of their natural desires and feelings. It has demonized men and turned women against them and wonders why they don’t get along. They have destroyed the family and disrupted the normal training of children so many children are reaching adulthood while still thinking like children and our society has paid dearly for it. Society expects the school to train up children like the family did but it doesn’t work because the kids don’t have any consistent example. Society now says that a single man or single woman, or two men or two women can teach a child what they need to know to be a boy or girl and how to relate to the opposite sex when the children never see it demonstrated. Society expects a boy or girl to grown up to be well adjusted while it confuses kids so they can’t even figure out if they are a boy or a girl. The current trend is not seeking to build a better future like they claim, they are seeking to destroy civilization so they can seize control.