Christians and Halloween

Since today is Halloween I thought I would link you to an article about Halloween. John MacArthur takes on the issue in an article titled "Christians and Halloween."

He discusses the origin of the day. He looks at the Christian Response to Halloween as well.

I would enjoy hearing your thought about the article. How do you celebrate the day, if you do. What are other alternatives?

A Remarkable Quote

God chooses what we go through; we choose how we go thought it.
~ John Maxwell ~

Parenting 101

I wanted to link a couple of sermons about Parenting. The speaker, Aaron Wilson, is a friend of mine and my youth pastor back in the day. He has 4 children and the oldest just turned six. He's definiteley getting the experiece, but he'll be the first to tell you that he doesn't know it all.

Aaron shared the following sermons at a Parent's Conference in Southern Arkansas.

Raising Children to Hope in God MP3 Audio

Evangelizing Your Children Faithfully MP3 Audio

The audio links will take a couple of minutes to download.

Daddy & Anna

Hey it's my blog so why can't I?

The Importance of One Vote

The state of Florida has an interresting article on the importance of one vote. They have searched through the history pages and found important elections that were determined by one vote.

I thought it was pretty neat. I hope you like it.

Fifteen Pro-Life Truths to Speak

By: John Piper

"You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." - Jesus Christ

1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother's womb (except in the case of abortion).

2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.

3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is legal beyond this limit.

4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.

5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.

6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.

7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.

8. Ultrasound has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.

9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.

10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.

11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.

12. The outcast and the disadvantaged and exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.

13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.

14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.

15.Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.

Church Reformation

Reforming the Local ChurchThree Examples and Three Principles
Fred A. Malone

Many say that it cannot be done in an SBC church, but they are wrong. I have been involved in reforming three Southern Baptist Churches. They were each different situations, requiring different approaches to the needs of the congregation. By God's grace, there were many things I did right; others I did wrong. Any honest pastor must say the same. However, in the process, God blessed reformation in all three churches.Three Examples of Reformation

1. The first was a typical Southern Baptist Church, North Pompano Baptist Church, in Pompano Beach, Florida. There I began as Associate Pastor to Pastor Ernest C. Reisinger and later served as Pastor. When Ernie arrived in early 1977, he found a congregation in turmoil due to a youth worker's molestation of young boys, a huge financial debt from a previous pastor's financial mismanagement and theft of building funds, and a deacon board of some good men who were strongly influenced by dispensationalism. Ernie began teaching the deacons the Abstract of Principles and developing a pastoral relationship with them. When I arrived later in 1977, the church was recovering financially, Ernie's preaching was starting to take affect and the deacons were growing spiritually.

However, soon after my arrival, things began to heat up. Some were dissatisfied with Ernie's preaching on holy living, especially those from a dispensational, "carnal Christian" background. They thought him a legalist. As I began to lead the choir and worship with good hymns of substance, explaining what the words actually meant, a negative reaction set in. When I evaluated the Sunday School literature and found the gospel absent from the preschool and elementary years, I stirred up a rebellion from preschool teachers. Some people began to leave the church, some because of Ernie's preaching, others because of mine. But others came in, especially young families, when they heard of our teaching of the Bible.

The first year and a half were marked with some being saved, some true Christians accepting sound teaching, and others just leaving in confusion. The Word of God divides. However, over all, God spared us from a church split. Many faithful young couples entered the church. When Ernie retired at the end of 1978, I became pastor and he became Missionary-at-Large. In this position he started the Boyce Project, printing James P. Boyce's Abstract of Systematic Theology and distributing it to all graduating students in SBC seminaries. The response from many students and pastors was enthusiastic. They wanted to know why they were not taught the SBC founders' theology in seminary. This was the beginning of what later morphed into Founders Ministries.

In the first two months of my pastorate, forty people who had opposed our ministry left the church. Then the chairman of deacons resigned, having accepted atheism. After this we discovered the financial secretary had embezzled funds. Later, the new chairman of deacons was disciplined for adultery. Yet, at the same time, many were growing in grace, accepting the reformed faith of our Baptist forefathers, and leading faithful lives. In August 1980 I left to work on a PhD. Ernie resumed pastoring the church and continued the pursuit of reformation.

In the years that followed, however, the church faced a difficult situation that eventually led to its decline. A co-pastor, who was added to serve with Ernie, decided he could no longer stay in the SBC. He resigned and took many of the active young couples with him and formed Emmanuel Baptist Church, a Reformed Baptist congregation. North Pompano never recovered from the split and finally was handed over to the local Baptist association for oversight.

2. The second was Heritage Baptist Church, a brand new church start in Fort Worth, Texas. I served there as founding pastor along with Bob Martin and Ben Mitchell in the early days. It was a joy to start a church from scratch with beliefs and practice as I saw them in the Scripture and the 1689 London Baptist Confession.

I worked as a bivocational pastor for the first few years in forming the church. It was the hardest time of my life yet, in many ways, the most satisfying. We need more young men who are willing to sacrifice and work bivocationally to start churches in cities that have small groups of believers who want a reformed and Baptist work. Too many are looking for an established reformed work in which to labor. Too many are fleeing into the PCA for an easier road. Where are the sacrificial "Bunyans" willing to suffer to build sound churches?

I experienced many joys at HBC along with many sorrows. Many seminary students from Southwestern came through the church. Some were very grateful for the work and were trained in ministry. Others always had a better idea of how things should be done and left the church. Some members were affected by theonomy, New Covenant Theology or a critical prideful spirit. Problems of church discipline for adultery plagued us through the years. Problems within the eldership almost led to a church split. But by the time I left in 1992, by God's powerful and transforming grace, HBC was a stable and growing church plant.

Sadly, further problems within the eldership led to difficulty in calling a pastor and for a season the church declined. However, with the coming of Larry Vincent and the stable leadership of Steve Garrick, the remaining elder, HBC is today a growing, happy and stable reformed SBC church with a bright future.

3. The third church is First Baptist Church, Clinton, Louisiana, where I have served as Pastor since 1993. This church went through reformation under the previous pastor, Bill Ascol. It was a difficult reformation that involved the beginnings of church discipline for adultery. A large number of members, who did not want to hear preaching on holiness or confront difficult situations requiring church discipline, left. Those who remained consolidated under Pastor Ascol. Soon after, a number of younger families joined, coming from a sovereign grace church in the area that had split over the pastor's adultery. When I arrived at First Baptist, the church was sound on the doctrines of grace and its members demonstrated a desire to lead a godly lives. There was much for which to thank God.

However, after arriving, I soon discovered that there were tensions in the church between some of the original members and some of the newer sovereign grace members. Issues arose on the necessity of church membership, the biblical validity of Sunday School for children, admission to the Lord's Supper, the need of other elders. Christian liberty concerning women's dress, crying babies in worship services, how to educate children, the biblical basis for insurance, women working outside the home and other matters consumed my time. Theonomy and political activity for Christians became a divisive issue.

All in all, the first few years were given to addressing these issues with individuals and the congregation to clarify the Bible's teaching on such subjects. In the midst of this, church discipline became necessary for adultery, unwed pregnancy, inactive members, DWI's and illegal drug use. So, even for a church that had gone through an effective theological and practical living reformation, other issues from serious minded Christians necessitated further reformation. I am happy to report that after 13 ½ years, God has brought about stability and unity in the church membership. We have lost many young people to the world, but God has also brought many into His kingdom. It is a privilege and joy to serve such a sincere people of God. We are not perfect, but we are growing in the faith.

Summary:

All three churches were three different situations, with different issues, different backgrounds, different kinds of people and different pastoral needs. There is no manual of "How to Reform a Church" which guides step-by-step what to do and when. Rather, each church requires the pastor to be sensitive to "where they are…where they need to be…and what to do in-between." Those who follow a book or theory of reformation step-by-step are opening themselves up to pushing the people too fast or lagging behind too slow. God has His own timetable for reformation through the use of biblical means. A "canned" approach can lead to disaster, as many a pastor can now testify on the other side of a church split or his own firing. There is no panacea or formula for church reformation. We can long for reformation, pursue it and pray for it, but we cannot produce it. When reformation comes, we must acknowledge that it is the work of God's mercy in His timing as He chooses to bless. We must trust Him and look to His Word alone to guide us. As I have watched God bring reformation to these three churches, I have gleaned some biblical priorities or principles which I believe must be followed in every church situation seeking reformation according to God's Word.

Three Principles of Reformation

1. The first principle that leads to reformation is a sound preaching and teaching ministry. This is obvious to those of us who believe that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The Holy Spirit uses the means of the Word of God to do His work in the human heart: "Where there is no vision [i.e., revelation, not "strategy"], the people perish." However, I am convinced that most of us have not been sufficiently prepared to preach expository messages that focus on the biblical text yet apply the Word to the lives of the hearers in a Christ-centered way.

Many styles of preaching are out there today—expository, exegetical, historical—redemptive, current events, topical, pseudo-psychological and what I would simply call "story-telling superficially tied to a text." But rarely do I hear Christ preached like the Apostles preached Him, both evangelistically and didactively to the church. I rarely hear a well-rounded, Christ-centered, textually accurate, practically applied sermon like those of Charles Spurgeon or Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. We are not turning out men who preach Christ and Him crucified like these two great men.

There is a lot more to preaching Christ expositionally than being exegetically accurate to the text or giving a running commentary. Paul and Peter preached the whole message of Christ to the whole of man: mind, emotions and will. They interwove the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascended rule, and glorious return of Jesus Christ into their preaching of every conceivable issue. Lloyd-Jones calls that "theology on fire." They brought Jesus' resurrection into every evangelistic message to call the hearer to face a risen Christ. They could not teach marriage without referring to Jesus' sacrificial death as the model for husbands and wives. They could not teach humility in the church or while suffering unjustly without mentioning the humility of Jesus Christ in His humbling incarnation or humiliating crucifixion. Our church people are starving to death without hearing much of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. This problem is not restricted to non-reformed ministers. Even good, reformed preachers are not immune.

I encourage those who want to see reformation and biblical Christianity in their churches to begin by preaching through one of the Gospels, showing the character, teachings, love, and self-denial of the Son of God. In each text we should preach a whole Christ to the whole man, applying Him and Him crucified to marriage, child-raising, Christian unity, evangelistic effort, God-centered worship, spiritual warfare, trials and the future hope. All of Scripture since Genesis 3:15 is about Him and His truth and His Kingdom. Every exhortation to obedience is about His atonement for disobedience and His grace for obedience. Every obscure passage is about being condemned under law and/or saved under His gospel of grace.

I believe in preaching the doctrines of grace. But in reformation with a people who have been untaught, centering on the life and work of our dear Lord will bring those great truths to light at the foot of His cross. Start with one of the Gospels and set Christ before them. Faithful exposition of a Christ-centered Scripture will call the hearer to deal with Christ and His apostles on the doctrines of grace, instead of inviting attack on the imperfect preacher. We need to reform our preaching before we can even think of reforming our churches. I encourage the reader to read Preaching and Preachers by Lloyd-Jones slowly, thoughtfully and annually to reform the way you think about true Christ-centered preaching. This is the greatest need to accomplish any genuine reformation.

2. The second principle that leads to reformation is gracious pastoral care. By this, I do not mean moving to a plural eldership before qualified men are in place. Church order is a biblical truth. But it does no good without biblical men who are mature, doctrinally-sound, family leaders and gracious in their dealings with others. Authoritarian elders are a plague to reformation.

A plural eldership can be a great blessing to biblical reformation—or a great hindrance. To rush toward a plural eldership does not a reformation make. I consider it one of the last things you do in reforming the local church. Few men in our churches understand sound doctrine. Few understand the gospel in its breadth and application to daily life. Few are so mature in their faith and character that they have a gracious and patient spirit with obstinate people. Why rush to an eldership until faithful men are prepared to take the office with wisdom, maturity, and love for sinners? God gives elders in His time.

Paul exhorted Timothy:

Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2:22-26).

The first matter of pastoral care is to deal with oneself as a mature, faithful man. Only out of a personal maturity in following Christ does a godly man develop the refusal of quarrelsomeness and the grace of gentleness in teaching and correcting those in opposition. Reformation rarely proceeds at the rate we choose or wish. God has to "grant them repentance" as a result of our labors. We cannot control that or rush that. If we have nothing that we did not receive from God, we of all men must be gracious, forgiving, loving and self-sacrificing in our pastoral work of reformation. To do less is a denial of the doctrines of grace we profess.

We must start with the church leaders and become their pastor and dear friend. We must love the obstinate and teach the ignorant and always serve them. Only then will we raise up leaders to stand beside us in the more difficult days ahead of changing worship, administering church discipline, and holy living. We must be by their sickbeds, hold their hands as they deal with wayward children and help them form loving marriages. We cannot let their reluctance for reformation allow them to become our unpastored adversaries. It is the sovereign grace we show them that will lead to reformation under such grace.

3. The third principle that leads to reformation is prayer. This is no trite thing to say. I do not know why God brings revival under one faithful pastor and not under another. Nor in one of His churches and not others. It is His choice, His sovereign will, to do so as He pleases. We are called to preach the Word and pastor the flock with all the grace and truth we can muster at Christ's feet. But we must always remember that He was despised and rejected of men. He was a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief because He was faithful, truthful and loving in His earthly ministry. Only after His suffering and death did the Father answer His prayer to build His church. It may be so with you as well.

Prayer, faithful prayer, crying out to the Father that He might give saving grace to the unconverted and enlightened minds to the sheep is an absolute necessity for biblical, Christ-centered reformation. Not the kind of prayers that all would accept the preacher and His ministry without causing so much trouble. But the kind of prayers that set eternal souls individually before the Father and the Son, begging for mercy on their poor souls for life and godliness. Especially, prayer for one's enemies.

God has promised to honor prayer as a means for reformation as much as preaching the Word faithfully. At our Lord's darkest times, He prayed for strength and wisdom. He prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail. He prayed for the Father to keep His own in the world and for workers to bring in the harvest. And He thanked the Father for hiding the truth from the proud and revealing His grace to spiritual babes. Reforming pastors must follow their Lord.

The Second Great Awakening had multiple simultaneous beginnings. But one significant event occurred on the campus of Hampton—Sydney College when several new converts prayed for revival and reformation. These prayers were answered with a revival on campus that spread into the churches from graduates. It changed the face of America and its churches. Brethren, we must pray.

Conclusion:We need revival and reformation again. But you will notice that all three principles above have to do with the pastor's life and behavior. If true reformation comes, it must come with preaching the Word in a Christ-centered, expositional, applicatory way. It must come by gracious and patient pastoral care to earn the people's trust and following. And it must come by faithful prayer by pastors for themselves and for their people—without ceasing. This takes time, patience, forgiveness and love by the pastor. There is no other biblical secret or strategy ordained by God in the Scriptures.

Our Lord promised to build His church, universal and local, and that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. But He does it in His sovereign time, in His sovereign way and with His sovereign means. What is needed is reforming pastors who trust Him themselves and who labor faithfully, graciously and lovingly until He chooses to bless the means He has given. Be thankful for every glimmer of grace you see in your people. It is a miracle! And do not enter into controversy with our Lord because He is not moving fast enough for your comfort and joy. Look unto Jesus always, the greatest Reformer of all, and He will give you the strength to preach the gospel, which blesses and divides at the same time. And then you will hear these words one day: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Copyright © 2006 Fred MalonePermission granted to copy this material in its complete text only for not-for-profit use (sharing with a friend, church, school, Bible study, etc.) and including all copyright information.

A J.C. Ryle Thought

A little child is easily quieted and amused with gaudy toys and dolls and rattles, so long as it is not hungry; but once let it feel the cravings of nature within, and we know that nothing will satisfy it but food. So it is with man in the matter of his soul. Music and flowers and candles and incense and banners and processions and beautiful vestments and confessionals and man-made ceremonies of a semi-Romish character may do well enough for him under certain conditions. But once let him 'awake and arise from the dead', and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn triflings and a waste of time. Once let him see his sin, and he must see his Saviour.
J.C. Ryle

A Remarkable Book

A few months ago my wife started a weekly class on Biblical Counseling at the Bible Church of Little Rock. She hasn't enjoyed the 2 1/2 hour drive (one way) each week, but has learned a lot through the class. Dr. Wayne Mack has been instructing the class through his Nouthetic Counseling training.

I wasn't able to attend the class due to my work schedule, but I have learned a lot too. I pick Phoebe's brain each week as she returns home. I have learned the most from the books she has received. Through the weeks, she's piled up at least 7 books.

One of the books is "How to Help People Change: The Four-Step Biblical Process" by Jay E. Adams. This book is a step-by-step approach to counseling. There is more than changing a person actions ... It's changing the heart.

Adams points to the 4 steps in counseling from 2 Timothy 3:14-17. They are teaching, conviction, correction, and disciplined training in righteousness. By counseling with Scripture you help the person not to rely on himself, but to rely on God for change.

Some of the highlights that I took away were that we all must be counselors and the Bible equips us all to help one another. The Bible is able to meet all of our needs. Also, a primary purpose of counseling is evangelism. There is no hope until you are submitted to following Christ. Adams says, "You cannot build where there is no foundation. Trying to edify unevangelized people produces Pharisees."

I also took away the need for us to hold each other accountable. There is a great need in the church for discipline. Not for the "lost" either but for the saved. Only believers are able to understand and apply scripture and we must help each other to become more holy. As it says in Matthew, if we see a brother sinning, we must go to him and show him, in scripture, how he is sinning. By teaching him where he has failed, you start the 4 steps mentioned above.

I encourage you to find a copy and give it a read. It's easy to follow and encouraging to see how God can use you to help someone else.

If you have read the book already, I'd love to hear your comments.

Anna Turned 6 Months

Click here to see all of her other pictures!

Are We Giving Clear or Confusing Invitations?

I have sat through many invitations times over the years and I believe we sometimes get stuck in a tradition instead of offering a Biblical truth to those listening.

Over the past few years while speaking at children's ministry events, I've tried to stress the idea of keeping things simple, real, & true when teaching children. Children have such a literal mentality.

A few days ago I spoke at a seminar and was discussing the topic of words that we use when teaching children.
As an example, I gave phrases that are commonly used during the invitation time in our churches.

Lets look at the list:
Will you invite Jesus into your heart?
Will you surrender your life to Christ?
Will you promise to commit your life to Christ?
Will you confess your sins and ask Jesus to forgive you?
Will you make Christ the Lord of your life?
Will you give your heart to Jesus?
Will you accept the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him as your personal Savior?Will you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the grave?

The group of 70 agreed that all were fine invitations, but are they?
How did you do? I broke the questions down below.

Let look at each phrase.
Will you invite Jesus into your heart?
This one is confusing! Children picture a literal asking Jesus to come into their Valentine shaped heart.

Will you surrender your life to Christ?
This one is confusing. This one puts the focus on man's actions. We give nothing to Christ. We must accept what He has done.

Will you promise to commit your life to Christ?
This can be confusing. Salvation is based on God's Grace alone and not our actions. Once saved, the commitment will come.

Will you confess your sins and ask Jesus to forgive you?
This one is confusing. Repentance is involved with Salvation. Confession is involved with your daily Christian walk once you are saved. There is no way a lost person can confess every sin they have commited.

Will you make Christ the Lord of your life?
This one is confusing. This one I like the least. Jesus is the Lord of Lords and who are we to make Him anything. We must accept that He is Lord and submit to His Lordship.

Will you give your heart to Jesus?
This one is confusing. Children take this literally and gives an idea that we must do something rather thnn accepting a free gift.

Will you accept the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him as your personal Savior?This one is clear. Each person must personally trust in Jesus alone.

Will you believe that Jesus Christ Died for your sins and rove from the grave? This one is clear. We must place our trust in what Jesus did.

I believe that we must examine how we share the Gospel. We are commanded to share this Good News, and we must do it accurately. If not we may be sharing a false hope.I would enjoy reading your thoughts on this subject.

If you have other phrases that you’ve heard, feel free to share those.

Homosexuality, A Sin?

I read an interesting sermon today entitled “Conflict in the Church: Is Homosexuality a Sin?” The sermon was presented on January 29, 2006 by Betsy Singleton, pastor of Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church in Little Rock, AR. She is also the wife of Arkansas Congressmen Vic Snyder.

This was her fourth sermon in a series of “Difficult Questions Christians Face.” She begins with how she developed her thoughts and ideas. She referred to “four basic tools to help us listen for God’s living word to us today” and they were “the primary one is Scripture, in addition to tradition, experience and reason.”

If you allow me to do so, I’d like to quote her definitions of the four tools above. These quotes are taken from another sermon that I will post later.

“1) Scripture. The first is scripture. While it does not and cannot specifically answer questions about which its writers knew absolutely nothing thousands of years ago, scripture is the story of God’s promises to us, not a rigid rule book. Like some Christians, we could pick apart its contents and find one or two lines to support almost any position, but that violates the integrity of its historical formation over thousands of years as people evolved in their relationship and understanding of God. The story contained in Genesis to Revelation, particularly the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, is our primary guide.

2) Christian tradition is another tool. It includes church teachings over the last 2000 years: the accumulation of creeds, liturgies, prayers, hymns, as well as church history. For United Methodists, it also includes the Book of Discipline and The Book of Resolutions, our own laws and official positions that guide our Christian actions. For example, our church has an official statement on inter-religious dialogue that should help guide our discussions with persons of other faith traditions. We may not always agree with these (and I do not always), but we do believe that God’s Spirit is working with human leaders to speak anew to the church today.

3) Experience is a third tool we bring to answering difficult questions. Experience refers to how the Spirit of God is at work in our lives as a community of faith for one another and for the world. It is not merely about how you or I experience something, but how God’s Spirit is at work through us, our prayers and our mutual witness.

4) Reason is another tool. Along with experience, John Wesley, our founder, believed that we must apply our ability to reason using the other tools, so that we can make a reasonable statement of our beliefs, and know why we believe what we believe.”
(Taken from “Is Christianity the Only Way?” – Betsy Singleton January 8, 2006)

She also uses personal stories of people she has met over the years who struggle in homosexuality and how they came to their conclusions.

Below are a few quotes taken from her sermon:
“The other two passages in the Old Testament refer to Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13: “a man shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.”

Why is this?

In ancient Israel there are two kinds of evil: 1) sin and 2) uncleanness. “Sin” is an intentional rebellion against God. Yet “uncleanness” comes from contact with some physical object—animals, foods, corpses, pagan rites, sexual process, etc. In other words, it’s contagious. Thus ancient Israel understood cleanness to be about wholeness, perfection, and completeness, so that this requirement of completeness means that classes cannot be mixed: cattle are not to be bred to a different kind; fields are not sown using different seeds, etc. Thus homosexual behavior is understood similarly as mixing what should not be mixed; it is uncleanness, not sin”

“Now to the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul provides a list of those who are living lives in opposition to God’s plans including male prostitutes and sodomites. There is debate about what these two Greek words actually mean. Some believe the words constitute a reference to any homosexual behavior, and some believe the text is only citing a specific vice called “pederasty,” a practice of male adult domination over a submissive minor male for sexual purposes. In Romans 1, Paul addresses our fallen human nature, including examples of same-sex relations by both genders. For Paul, this behavior is a result of sin because it is chosen behavior. The problem for readers today is that we also take into account that homosexuality may be “natural” for some and thus not chosen, sinful behavior. Neither passage recognizes a possible committed homosexual relationship as reality because that was not understood to be normative for some.”

Through her teaching we can see that she believes that Scripture alone is not enough. You find yourself in trouble when you start using the thoughts of man to base your beliefs on. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that the Bible is inspired and sufficient for all teaching, reproof, correction and training. I guess she missed the “all” part of the verse. I also didn’t see an asterisk pointing me to a note at the bottom of the page that says “this will not apply in 2000 years.”

Scripture on homosexuality is just as relevant today as it was then. That’s why Paul was addressing the issue above. It was rampant then as it is now. The same Word applies to then and now. You cannot take the unchanging Word from an unchanging God and interpret your personal beliefs into them. The opposite is true. Our beliefs, actions, and life should be derived from God’s Holy Word. It’s either right in all aspects of life or no part at all.

I also wanted to comment on her “natural” thoughts. Lets say that she’s correct in saying that homosexuality is natural and cannot be wrong. Ok. I said it. I believe it’s natural for people to lie, steal and lust. But the Bible teaches that these are sins as well. So we can’t say it’s ok to lie just because it’s natural. The Bible teaches that the natural man must die. A believer is a new creature bought with a price. And with His strength in us we can say no to the natural things.

Now, should the church raise the sin of homosexuality above any other sin? No, but that’s another post.

God Bless America

Creation

What To Do About Life

Today the Senate passed a law allowing the use of embryos in research. President Bush has promised a veto. Here are a few quotes from our leaders. I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
"The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder. He's one of them," White House spokesman Tony Snow.
"I do not believe that a frozen embryo in a fertility clinic freezer constitutes human life. Now, I believe that being pro-life involves helping the living. Regenerative medicine is pro-life and pro-family," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
"It is human, and it's alive, and under H.R. 810 we say that the federal government is going to fund the destruction, the killing, of that embryo," Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.
"There has been an upsurge of demand, Support for the legislation has crossed every line we could imagine, certainly partisan lines, ethnic, racial, geographic lines." said Sen.Hillary Clinton, D-NY.
"I strongly believe neither Congress nor independent researchers nor any human being for that matter should be allowed to, in effect, play God by determining that one life is inherently more valuable than another," Sen. David Vitter, R-La.
"These embryos are never going to be babies," said California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

A Sobering Thought

After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong.

Finally, the boy replied, "That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I want to stay with you guys.

A Nice Church Picture

Blessed Sacrament Church

Unselfishness

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'

Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"

Hummmmmmmmmmmm!

My Cross

My Cross

You took away

My tears

My hurt

My loneliness

You took away

My thorns

My nails

My shame

You took away

My cross

2005 Mark Edward Leslie March 18, 2005