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Violence and Social Strife-2-Y

16 Dec

My wife and I visited the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage just outside Cleveland, Oh and it was impressive.  It reminded me of how many Christians, especially evangelical Christians, ignore the Jews and the Old Testament. They feel the Old Testament is no longer relevant. The problem lies with the modern understanding of the Scriptures.  It’s not Biblical. Jesus said He didn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it. It also says God’s Word will not pass away. God’s Word in the Old Testament is just as relevant today as in Jesus’ time. You can’t tell a child to love their brother or sister, because they don’t know what love is. They have to learn how by watching their parents love each other. Until they learn how, you must lay down the law. They are not to kill each other, steal from each other, etc. When man rejected God, he became like a baby who wants what it wants, when it wants it. God had to teach the Jews to obey the law, before they could learn to live it. The law must continue to exist for those who don’t know God or who have just learned about God, but have not yet learned what it means to love each other. The church often uses the Old Testament stories to teach children how to walk with God, but fail to see their own need to learn from it. Just as a child needs to learn to obey before he can become a mature individual, new Christians must learn to walk in obedience before they can become mature Christians. Many Christians look down on Jews and feel God has abandoned them, however God is merely waiting for them to recognize the truth and return to Him.  Jesus was a Jew and never rejected Judaism, He merely condemned the Jewish leaders who had corrupted Judaism and rejected Him. In addition, most of the early Christians were Jews. The Bible says that in the last days, the eyes of the Jews will be opened, and they will turn to Him. We are seeing Jews turning to God in previously unknown numbers as they recognize the truth of God’s Word. Pray for more Jews to see the truth.

 

 
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Violence and Social Strife-2-X

16 Dec

The FBI just released its statistics on hate crimes for 2021. Unfortunately, its data is incomplete because it uses data from the National Incident-based Reporting System and not all law enforcement agencies submit their data to it. It was reported that 22% fewer agencies reported their results last year meaning that it is increasingly  inaccurate in giving us a true picture of hate crimes. In  fact, many major cities do not submit information because they do not want to broadcast how bad they are failing to curb violence. The data shows an increase in hate crimes against Jews, which is alarming considering the data does not include major cities in New York and California who are a hot-bed of  anti-Jew incidents, but don’t report their data.

 

 
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Church Ministry-I-E

15 Dec

When the church has a choice of dealing with government agencies or church related agencies, it seems to feel that the government agencies are more qualified. I was working for the welfare department when a church first approached me to help them develop a ministry to the poor. The church had no one that was experienced in working with the poor and knew I was a pastor as well as a Social Worker. While the government has many professional staff that have much that they can teach the church, many frontline government workers do little to deal with the problems clients face. While government workers have the training, they work mostly with paperwork and rarely get directly involved with clients. When I worked for the welfare dept., I sent out the forms and the client filled them out and sent them back. I reviewed the form and approved them, if they qualified. I was only supposed to contact the client if I had a problem with the paperwork. I wanted to help many of them and often went outside my assigned duties to help them, when I could, but I rarely had time to do much. Workers can rarely delve deeper into the client’s problems then seeing that they have the necessary paperwork and meet the necessary criteria, due to heavy caseloads. If they can’t help, they generally tell them to look elsewhere. On the other hand, church agencies often deal directly with clients and seek to locate other resources the client may have that they can use to help themselves. In addition, they are often aware of a wide variety of resources beyond their own which they can refer clients to. As a result, government agencies often refer clients they can’t help to church agencies like the Salvation Army who are more aware of resources available and have more time to help.

 

 
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Posted in Church & Society, Church ministry

 

Church Ministry-I-D

15 Dec

Christians wonder why so many people don’t like the church in spite of all the good they do. During the cold war between Russia and the US, both sought the favor of African and South American countries. Russia sent arms so dictators could control their people while the US sent food, yet the people rioted against the U.S. A study found that the US sent the food but left it on the dock. The Russians transported the food to the people and the people thought the food came from Russia. The Russians told the people that America was rich but refused to help them so they rioted against the US. The church today has turned Social services over to the government and para-church organizations. Since the para church organizations get their support from the community, not from the churches, unbelievers see them as community organizations, not Christian organizations. As a result, the people love the government and don’t like the churches, which they see as uncaring and unconcerned.

 

 
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Posted in Church & Society, Church ministry

 

Fourth Sunday of Advent-Dec 18

15 Dec

Hope For Our Community-  Because Christ lives, there is hope for our community. While liberal proponents complain that churches provide no benefit to the community and merely take up valuable space that could be used by tax paying businesses, churches provide a valuable resource for the community. While many liberal churches now support abortion and Gay privileges, Bible believing churches continue to uphold the value of life, the value of the rule of law, the value of the family, and the value of the individual. Bible-believing parents often have stable marriages which provide consistent training to their children in moral living which would not exist if the churches did not exist, since there are no other organizations in our society that promotes those values on the scale that the church and other religious based organizations do. Churches provide support for non-government social service agencies which provide invaluable help to those struggling which goes far beyond the sterile monetary support they get from government agencies. We are seeing the effects of the loss of Christian values in our society as killing increases, lawlessness increases, families crumble, and suicide increases. As churches are increasingly silenced, it will only get worse.

 
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Posted in Advent, Christmastide, Church & Society, holidays

 

Gay Rights-I-E

09 Dec

The Supreme Court ruled that Gays have a right to marry and so abolished bans against it in the States where it wasn’t legal.  Regulating marriage is not granted to the federal government by the Constitution and is therefore delegated to the States by the Constitution. The Supreme Court decision therefore ignores the Constitution. In addition, the House just passed the “Respect for Marriage Act which makes same sex marriages legal in all States. It now goes to the White House where President Biden says he will sign it. It also strips the States of the right to vote whether they want to accept same sex marriages or not. Since regulating marriage is not granted to the federal government by the Constitution, it is delegated to the States. Therefore, the law openly violates the Constitution. It also poses a grave threat to religious liberty because it mandates compliance by everyone acting under the color of the law, which includes anyone who receives federal funds, as well as anyone working for a city, county, State or federal government entity. It also allows private individuals, the Dept of Justice, and State attorney generals to bring civil suits against alleged violators, which opens those who object to frivolous lawsuits. It is a huge step in destroying the family and silencing opposition. Amendments proposed by Republicans to protect those whose faith opposes same sex marriage were defeated. Since Conservatives did not get a majority in both the House and Senate in this election and do not control the White House, there is no chance of repealing it anytime soon.

 
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Posted in Gay Rights, Marriage

 

Politics-AB-U

08 Dec

Our President has again shown his loyalties for all to see. He just exchanged a terrorist for an American prisoner in Russia. That was bad enough. The choice of prisoners tells his priorities. President Biden exchanged the terrorist for Brittany Griner who is a sports figure who hates America. He passed over Marine Paul Whelan who is also a prisoner of the Russians. Paul Whelan has served his country faithfully. Both are Americans, both were convicted of dubious charges, both have served several years in a Russian prison. Why is a sports figure who hates America more valuable to America than a Marine who has faithfully served his country and why is he valuable enough to trade a terrorist for?

 

 
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Posted in Politics

 

Third Sunday of Advent-Dec 11

08 Dec

Hope for Our Family-Because Christ lives there is hope for our families. Liberal policies discourage long term commitments, especially marriage. As a result, many people never marry and many marriages end in divorce. Those who are divorced or don’t marry will often float from one relationship to another. As a result, many children grow up with unstable parenting. They may have a series of fathers, a series of mothers, or a series of both. As a result, they are subjected to a variety of values and training leaving them confused about what is right and wrong. It also leaves them subject to neglect and abuse by adult figures who don’t care about the children because they don’t plan on staying very long. In addition, with no incentive to work out problems, the adults quarrel frequently and the children are often used as pawns in their quarrels which is very destructive. On the other hand, two parents, transformed by the love of God will be committed to the marriage for the long run providing consistent training guided by Biblical principles and will be determined to raise their children to care about each other and to respect each other.

 
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Posted in Advent, Christmas Season, Faith in practice, Marriage

 

Politics-AB-T

08 Dec

It is interesting how liberal media and politicians are constantly attacking right wing extremists and white supremacists as if they are the same. Yet those who know anything about history should not be fooled. Before the Civil War, Southern Democrats promoted White Supremacy and protected slavery. After the Civil War, when slavery was abolished, Southern Democrats continued to control Blacks through  terrorism carried out by the Ku Klux Klan (a White Supremacy group) and through Jim Crow laws, enacted by city and State governments controlled by Southern Democrats. In the early 1900’s, Democrats promoted welfare programs. While they helped many in poverty that could not work, they forced the breakup of families by requiring the father to leave the home and by making it difficult for recipients to find work, enslaved many recipients in endless poverty, since many recipients could only get entry level jobs that paid less than they got on welfare. Blacks were  hurt the most because of discrimination in education and jobs. They manipulated Blacks to vote for them by telling them that Republicans would abolish the welfare programs. Today, it is Democrats that are highlighting racial incidents to create tension between Blacks and Whites. People need to learn from history and not be fooled by political propaganda.

 

 
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Posted in Politics

 

Media-A-G

08 Dec

The stories that come out of the liberal media are interesting. They immediately proclaim solutions before the facts are even known. If it is a shooting, they jump on gun control and tougher purchase requirements. When it comes out the gun was stolen, they go silent. If a Black man is attacked, its racist. When it comes out it was a Black that attacked him, They go silent. If a Gay bar is attacked, its anti-gay. When it turns out it was someone who was Gay, they go silent. No retraction, no correction, no apology.  They leave their listeners thinking their original statement was correct to further their agenda. They have lost a lot of listeners who got wise to their tactics, but a lot of people still listen to them and don’t check the facts. There are no national alternatives except Fox news and sometimes the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) which reports on some American stories. While liberal politicians and financiers like George Soros control the major news networks and social media, many local stations, not affiliated with the national broadcasting companies wait until the facts are out before commenting on stories and Christian stations are usually good about getting the facts first. With social media blocking many large conservative organizations, it is important for people to search out the facts from conservative organizations or reliable public media and pass them on to their friends. Social media doesn’t have the capacity to monitor all posts yet, so they are concentrating on the big organizations for now. However, they have issued a call for an army of volunteers to monitor the web and report conservative postings that expose liberal lies. If they succeed, we will be no different than China or Russia who strictly control all media. Recently, someone shot up two electric substations and shut down electricity over a wide area. The media immediately stated it was White supremacists, even though nobody knows who did it or why. It could have been Muslim terrorists, Chinese or Russian operatives, or even an unhappy electric company employee who got fired and wanted to get back at the company.

 
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Posted in media

 
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