LAW=LOVE

“Having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.” -PSALM 119:6 

 “I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.” -PSALM 119:7 

 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” -PSALM 119:9 

 “For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” 

and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; Therefore love is the fulfilling of the LAW.” -ROMANS 13:9-10 

 Righteousness…Holiness, 

 …Christian… 

You claim to love these. 

Love… Grace… 

…Christian… 

You proclaim these. 

…YET… 

GODs word you ignore. 

HIS law you abhor… 

As if Christ came with a different interpretation. 

Christ & The Father with different definitions? 

 The very LAW you HATE… proclaim His character 

…this isn’t just defamation of a person… 

Your ABHORRENCE for LAW is HATRED for GOD 

This is absolute assassination 

 Like crucifying Christ all over again.

the Bible > Social Justice Part 2

before the LORD, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.

                                                    Psalm 96:13

In times of chaos, in times where your safety and security seem to be challenged, and maybe even your "world view", where do you turn? 

How do we define "safety", "security", how do we determine what is "good"? What is righteousness? as Psalm is declaring... is righteousness what works best for us as a human race? Is righteousness what just makes us feel good about ourselves?

If we answer any of these questions in a humanistic fashion we will end up very disappointed. We are called to a holiness that is defined by GOD, this holiness, isn't humanistic goodness, its beyond that.

"but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”- 1 Peter 1:15-16

It's God's law that shows us what it means to be "good"/"holy", only Gods law can draw a mans heart to repentance, only God working by and through the law can shine a light on the true darkness of our hearts, and only by faith in Christ are we redeemed. Yes, by grace we are saved through faith, and now because of HIS saving, because of Christ sacrifice, death and resurrection, we ourselves are resurrected to new live. The law that we once hated, we love, and by the Holy Spirit we seek to uphold it... 

Where is our sanctification process? are we seeking to be holy? If we determine what holiness is by God and His word, Then shouldn't we be focused on this? After all, how are our hearts changed? If we recognize "Racism" as sin(Which if you hold to the Bible thats a given) how do we defeat racism?

protests? riots? wearing a black life matter t-shirt? or is it with striving to actually live by what God says to, striving to live to the holiness HE demands of His people. I believe a major problem with a lot of the pastors that are embracing a non-biblical viewpoint and latching the church to social justice issues, the major problem with these people is they lack biblical fundamentals, they lack discipline, they lack a striving to live in holiness, they lack a working out of the sanctification process.

Now sure, these pastors will argue that how can we not say something about injustice that is happening to a person of color, standing up for a person of color is not the issue, standing up for those who are being abused and treated unjustly. This is not the issue. The issue is adopting an ideology that doesn't line up biblically. The issue is conforming to a world view that is not biblical, because as I said last BLOG, The Social Justice movement is not about JUSTICE...its an ideology that declares that white people need to feel guilty for  inherent "white privileged", that if you are white you are naturally privileged that you are an oppressor whether you want to believe it or not. That in and of itself is racist, again the social justice movement forces you to have a different world view other than the Bible itself. 

Again, people who hate others for their skin color is something that happens, but it is not something that society as a whole does. If you want to protest the unjust killing of a man, that doesn't make you unchristian, thats all well and good, however it becomes a problem when you as a christian start leading the church to adopt "critical race theory" or tell your white christian assembly they need to feel guilty for being white. You are just being a hypocrite, you are just doing the exact thing you are claiming to be against....

Lets remember that Paul was very Jewish, and definitely had a heart for his people, but his mission was mainly to the gentiles, he wasn't going around saying "Jewish lives matter". Thats because he knew, the sin of partiality...

"My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our LORD Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?"- James 2:1-4

This verse is obviously a partiality between "rich" and "poor" not race, but the fact still remains, partiality is a sin. Its also sinful to be like the world, so why do christians want to adopt a world view that is not based on the Bible? A lot of Christian pastors are standing behind critical race theory and proclaiming its biblical, but I guess I don't remember the verses in the Bible saying "be guilty for being white". 

Besides that, why adopt a worldly ideology that doesn't have the answer to solve the problem. Critical Race Theory can't solve racism, as anyone with a brain would know it only creates racism. Why will I not protest with black lives matter? why will I not donate to NAACP? Why will I not adopt critical race theory? because they are abhorrent! they can't solve the problem of hating someones skin color, you know what does? GOD...and His word, as I said before...we are all ONE RACE, I don't care if you are brown, black, white, yellow... you were created in the image of GOD. By my Christian biblical standard... YOU MATTER.

Pastors who want to act like they are doing people a favor by supporting social justice within the church are being led astray by their emotional whims and not the spirit of GOD. heres an argument I've seen from one pastor;

"I fear some theological conservatives today have become liberals on the issue of racial injustice. They speak vociferously and without hesitation on all kinds of moral issues, except one. On that one issue, the mantra is, “Do not talk about it; just preach the gospel.” I am too conservative for that approach. No matter what labels I am given, I will name the sin and preach the gospel. After all, the Bible tells me so. "- David Prince (read whole article here)

"As an Alabama raised biblical inerrantist and expository preacher who believes in the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I make a strange liberal, socialist, Marxist. I have never been called any of those names when I have preached on the horror of abortion and advocated for abortion being outlawed by a constitutional amendment. Also, none of those names came up when I have preached on the sin of homosexuality and opposed the tragedy of legalizing same-sex marriage."- David Prince (read whole article here)

Mr. Prince totally misses the mark, he can't seem to understand why he would be called a "marxist, socialist or liberal" for standing up for racial issues, but he isn't called those things when he stands up against homosexuality or abortion. His response here shows he is lacking in understanding.

First of all, its not about standing against racism, it's about the ideology you adopt in doing so! when you adopt critical race theory as fact, when you adopt it as your ideology then you are going to be called a marxist, socialist, and or liberal or by me you'll just be called an idiot. 

once again church, go ahead...go down this road of trying to appeal to the world, jump on board with what is popular to the culture... see how far that gets you. instead of preaching on sanctification... go ahead and preach on "social justice" then you can sit back and wonder why your church is eroding from within.

the Bible > Social Justice

"He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD."- Proverbs 17:5

Church can we stop being biblically ignorant, please? Stop emotionally reacting the way the world does, the world should not be our barometer for how we feel or act, the Bible should. The church keeps trying to define Gods word by the worlds standards, instead of defining the world by Gods. We, as a church, should be leading the way in correct thinking and action. You are disgusting church, trying to fit in to a society and world view that is totally contradictory to what you proclaim.

You even take scripture out of context to justify your worldly emotions, to fit along with arguments that are a complete waste of effort and time in the disguise of bringing justice, but without GOD and HIS word there is NO JUSTICE. Just incase you are missing it, there is NO JUSTICE IN SOCIAL JUSTICE! You're fighting a fight that revolves around an unbiblical world view, you are not fighting in the realm of the world view your suppose to be espousing.

A lot of the church responded to COVID19 in fear, just like the world, a lot of the church twisted scripture out of its context(Romans 13) to mean we must shut down our churches and comply with government demands(because of Romans 13). Completely ridiculous, as I explained last blog post. The church is starting to respond out of worldly emotion instead of sound biblical doctrine, yes doctrine, that thing nobody seems to care about anymore. I also realize that "Social Justice" is a broad term, and could incorporate many different worldly aspects, none the less, what I want to focus on, at least for this blog, is the "Social Justice" aspect of "Racism".

Now before I start let me answer the question "Does racism exist?", the answer is yes. does it exist in the aspect that every cop is racist, and every white person is....no. Does it even exist to the point that the media portrays it...NO. This shouldn't even be a church issue, what needs to be an issue is REPENTANCE, true conversion should be being preached, not jumping on worldly issues of "social justice". I don't care if your black, yellow, white, brown, if you are biblical than you would know we are all ONE RACE, we are all brothers and sisters created in the image of GOD, descendants of Adam. Enough said, end of story, the Bible leaves no room for skin color debates or personal preferences. the Bible is also completely against SELF, so any form of PRIDE... I.E "black pride" "white Pride" "yellow Pride" "whatever pride" is completely idiotic.

"The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate."- Proverbs 8:13

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."- Proverbs 16:18

The church is adopting critical race theory/ ideologies that do not line up with the biblical world view, adopting ridiculous applications of "75 things white people can do for racial justice", 75 things? how about 1 thing? just don't be racist? why is it assumed I am racist, because I am white? isn't that racist itself? and why do I have to do anything in the first place? as if I have to make up for something? as if I have to apologize for being white? Why are we as the church bringing in racial issues? it should not even be an issue in the church to begin with, if we believe the Bible, teach the Bible, and stop adopting worldly ideologies we wouldn't even have to address "racism". because it is so contrary to the Bible and JESUS that even addressing... " it is wrong " is completely a waste of time. 

But no the church is so blind, deaf and dumb, that instead of preaching repentance, instead of preaching mortification of sin and the sanctification process, we are going to focus our efforts on:

1. "How to have your best life now; locked in doors and streaming church service, because Romans 13"

2. "How to avoid people, because love your neighbor"

3." How to apologize for being white"

4. "75 things you can do as a white person for racial justice"

I got an idea church, how about you focus on living biblically....instead of "Social justice" because ironically if you focus on living biblically you'll naturally have JUSTICE, but if you focus on "Social justice" you'll only get injustice. STOP REACTING LIKE THE WORLD!

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." James 4:4

I suggest for those who read my blog, Watch this following video from Founders.org on Critical race theory and the church.

https://founders.org/cinedoc/#About

To Church or not to Church?

Warning

Now before I start on my rant, I want to give a fair warning.

#1 I am not a pastor, and I am not an elder

#2 I don’t think I am better than anyone.

                              #3 while I am disappointed with certain pastor’s decisions, I still respect them.

Not being a Pastor/Elder I know my position, I am just a partaker, a peon, a churchgoer…

And I realize their decision to “ church or not church” is a difficult choice.

However, the opinion I am about to give will not come softly,

It will not come sugar-coated or in a way that attempts to play both sides of the argument.

I will give it vehemently and unapologetically.

Again, while I am disheartened by pastors that I adore, with them either playing both sides or standing for the side I’m about to rant against, I do not disown them or think that they are heretics, I just disagree on this issue.

As for “Pastors” like Beth Moore, TD Jakes, Paula White, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and any other dumb blind goat of your ilk. I do not respect you, and you are heretics….may the LORD silence your voices. 

Warning

Hello again readers, now that my warning is out of the way its time to release the bull on the proverbial china shop of topics.. “To Church or not to Church”! Yes, I am going there! By this topic, I am not necessarily talking about; “should I go to church if I’m sick?” “Should I go if I have such and such going on?” 

NOPE, what I am referring to is the decision of some Pastors/Elders deciding to close the church in their area because of the “coronavirus” that is going around. I totally disagree with doing so! Yessir, let's make that clear off the bat, I don’t think closing church because of a virus is a good reaction, and I am certainly going to explain why right after I attack the horrendous use of scripture that some pastors are choosing to sight as their reason for closing the church doors. As I stated in my warning, some pastors I adore and love are choosing to cherry-pick this verse and I honestly believe its gross negligence, in my opinion, its like a blind deaf dumb pig trampling a horde of truffles, in this case, the truffle being sacred scripture. 

What verse are they bringing up you ask? Good old Romans 13… the “submission to Authorities” text. Because the Government is declaring no groups of 10 or more should be gathered together, again because of a “flu”…Pastors/Elders all over the country have gotten together and decided to close the church doors and certain pastors have decided to quote Romans 13 as their reason. What does Romans 13 say you ask? Well, let's take a look…

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴ for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”- Romans 13:1-7

Certainly a wonderful text on the Sovereignty of our God. Without a doubt it is about submitting to authority, specifically governing authorities, it is pretty straight forward and specific. But as with all scripture, we have to take it within context, and I don’t think scripture ever contradicts itself. For example, I could say; 

“ Well…what Paul means is we should submit to all authority if it’s Christian” 

but that would be ME taking the scripture out of context! because who is Paul writing to? Romans… in the disciple's time and the time of the writing, there was no “Governmental authority” that was Christian. actually, it was the total opposite…the disciples were actually told to stop preaching by the governmental authority of the time. Do you see where I am going with this yet? Do realize if Romans 13 means what these pastors are using it to mean I.E we shutdown our churches because the government tells us to…that makes the disciple hypocrites. I mean I don’t ever remember any of the disciples ever deciding 

“Hey, guys…the governmental authorities said we should stop preaching/gathering, we should listen to them” or is that flying over your head? Let's try this then…

Remember the Roman Emporer Nero, ring any bells? Thousands of Christians slain under his reign, he wanted them silenced…did they forsake meeting together? Stop preaching because the authority at the time threatened them with death? It seems Christians of Nero’s time didn’t “submit to authority” if Romans 13 means what these pastors of today think it means. Still not good enough for you?

How about William Tyndale…Remember him? Martyred for doing what the authority of the time told him not to do… translating the bible into English. You wouldn’t even have the bible in English if reformers like him didn’t go against the authorities of their era. You could cherry-pick other Reformers who were martyred for the faith going against the authorities of the time, not recent enough for you?

Did you know there are countries that persecute Christians today? Places like North Korea parts of China and other Asian countries/Middle eastern where their governmental authorities will put them in prison for meeting together and worshipping…. if not kill them? You have people literally risking their lives to meet together and worship God, and here in America, we close our churches because of the flu? 

The examples I’ve given can only mean one thing. Either A. The Disciples themselves, the martyr’s from Nero’s time, Tyndale and the Reformers, Asian/middle eastern followers of Christ today are all foolish and hypocrites of Romans 13or B. the pastors today quoting Romans 13 are out of touch and Romans 13 doesn’t mean what they think it means. I don’t know about you…but I am going to have to strongly suggest that it is B…the answer is freaking B! 

I would assume this would just be common sense, but again this is lacking even in our Christian circles…APPARENTLY. Romans 13 is not a good verse to use as an excuse to close your church doors. If you want to close your church doors, suit yourself, I’m sure it’s not an easy decision….however, don’t misquote scripture in doing so. Because surely the verse is not making the case that if the government tells you to shut down your church and not to worship Christ that it is ok to listen to such authority, GOD FORBID! We should never forsake meeting together because the government said so, and for heaven sakes certainly not because of a flu… come on PEOPLE! You are giving the government too much power over you. I can just imagine Christ getting ready to go minister to a crowd and stop himself and ask his disciples “Wait…hey guys…you think anyone in the crowd has the flu? We shouldn’t gather too many…” I guess that is what was meant in Matthew 5 where it says “seeing the crowds, he went to the mountains” he must have known somebody had the flu in the crowd.

What happened to us church? We are supposed to be a support system, a family, a place of refuge from the world…the idiotic culture itself! And we are going to close our doors? At the very least if you are worried about the elderly, can we not get those of us who are younger and not sick to gather together to….I don’t know….help the elderly shop so they don’t have to go out? Go and, I don’t know…have small groups spend time with them? Instead, we are going to just close the doors…do a stream on Sunday so people can watch at home? I thought it was important for us to be together? Don’t you highly encourage church attendance and not stream watching? But yet now things have changed because of a flu? Because the GOVERNEMENT says so? Shame on you.. specifically the pastors trying to use Romans 13 as their reason…SHAME  ON YOU!

Don’t take what I am saying out of context either, this doesn’t mean that if you are sick or have some health condition that I am saying you can’t miss church, I am specifically talking about choosing to shut down the whole church to everyone because either the government says so or because your afraid someone MIGHT be sick. I also can imagine there are some churches staying open for the wrong reason too…it’s not like the church doesn’t have bills to pay, so I am sure there are churches who are choosing to not close their doors and it only has to do with needing to make money…definitely a wrong motive to stay open. On the same token, I understand the church does have bills to pay and so choosing to close can be a very difficult decision to make financially, again not a reason to stay open…I am just saying I get that churches are going to face hardship. My prayer even though I disagree with the decision, is for God to continue to work through the Pastor/Elders who have decided to close their doors, through their sermons and time of reopening. For I have been blessed by some of those who have decided to close, and I know you are genuine believers good and faithful to our LORD Jesus, however in this specific situation…I believe your flesh is showing.[1]

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 

25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another,(unless of course, you have the flu).”- Hebrews 10:24-25

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[1][1]

Epidemic of idiots

Epidemic of idiots

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. -Romans 12:2

I haven’t updated this blog in years, there have been many reasons for that, who reads blogs anymore anyway? None the less, I certainly feel like this would be a perfect time for an update. Cause I mean, everyone wants to talk about the Corona/Chinese virus right? You got political tools that want to make it “political”, Christian tools who want to make it about “end of the world” and of course the conspiracy tools with their “theories”. You know what is few and far between? Common sense, not only that but common sense with a biblical perspective. I don’t need to rehash what is going on in the news I.E Nba shutting down, venues, churches shutting their doors, heck just go to your local grocery store and you’ll find toilet paper gone, bottles of water gone, and anyone and everyone has an opinion.. most based on fear.

Now before I give my “opinion”(I will use that term loosely) I feel like I need to give some perspective on myself. First of all, I am going to try to make this blog short, one because it is really just me venting, two because I am exhausted. My hemoglobin is 4.8(normal is 13) in short I am severally anemic, along with my Kidney problems…makes for days filled with laying around, unfortunately watching this chaos and panic on tv. I give these details about myself, for the simple reason that you can understand that I have pre-existing health issues, so technically I am at risk for this “virus”…

However, my reaction to what is going on in the world right now isn’t FEAR of a virus, its disgust with humanity. Which, from a Christian perspective I should be disgusted with human nature and the world, so I am really on the right track. I am not saying the virus is fake or isn’t real…what I am going to say is a Christians response should not be like the worlds, hence the reason I quoted Romans 12:2 at the beginning. I don’t have a death wish, nor do I want to get sick, and I certainly am not one of those “Christians” who believe because I have faith that I won't get sick, you know the word of faith Christians, the ones with healing rooms and believe they can heal by the power of their “faith” ironically those people are closing their “healing rooms” because of the virus, pretty hypocritical isn’t?

None the less, running to the store and buying all the toilet paper and water you can and hiding in your house in fear of a virus is not the Christian response either. Again, I say that and I am one actually at risk for getting the virus, statistically the virus kills people over 50 and people with health issues. I don’t believe, more importantly it’s not biblical, to go horde all the toilet paper and water you can, or worse go and horde all the toilet paper and water you can and try to upcharge people for it. That is what the world is doing, most people are panicking over something that will only affect them for a couple weeks tops…like the common flu, if they got it and just stayed at home they would get over it like any other flu. Yet, because of media hype and fear those people are stockpiling toilet paper, water, hand sanitizer and flocking to the hospitals trying to get tested when they have minor symptoms. This is exactly why this “pandemic” is causing people to die, it's not the virus itself, it’s the fact that we have a “pandemic of idiots” that are panicking and making it harder for the people that actually need help to get help!

We should be worried about those with health issues and the elderly with this virus, but instead, people are proving what the bible says, which is that human nature is bad! The world will tell you that we(meaning human nature) are basically good, well look around people…do you see people acting “basically good”? NO…people are acting selfish, immature, and idiotic. Now some of you may say…”BUT BUT! We are in a crisis! We are in an epidemic! Of course, people act a little crazy” Well…guess what? Your true self is shown in a crisis, your true self is shown when everything is going wrong, not when everything is going right. How is it the right biblical response to horde grocery items that elderly people need? Or that other people need but now can’t get because you only care about yourself? How is it a right biblical response to horde grocery items only to upcharge and make a profit on such items because nobody can get them now? How is it a right biblical response out of complete fear and panic to bum rush the hospitals trying to get tested for a virus when you have very minor symptoms? I don’t care what anyone says…SELFISHNESS is never the biblical approach one should have, neither is FEAR unless of course, it’s the FEAR of GOD.

My prayers go out to the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions, they need to be cared for and protected, and yet because of fear and panic they are getting the short straw, they are the ones who are in the end going to suffer because of your SELFISHNESS.

The World Is a Thorn- Part 1

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The World Is a Thorn- Part 1

The Bible often mentions the word “World” and it can be referring to different things. It can simply mean “World” as in; Land, country, earth or nations. Or it can mean worldliness/spirit of the age. Obviously when Jesus says;

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

“Therefore the world hates you” here Christ is using the term “World” to mean spirit of the age. We know as Christians we are called to not be of “The World”, meaning we don’t get our identity, we don’t get our morals and understanding of what is true from what is culturally acceptable or culturally  not acceptable. We are shaped and defined by God and His word, which never changes. Because we submit ourselves to the authority of scripture over human logic and emotional whims we are going to be at odds with the culture I.E the world. The bible constantly affirms that we will be at odds with the majority, and most of us understand this, though it is hard to accept, because we don’t want to feel like an outcast, we want to be socially accepted and apart of the world/culture. So as a believer it becomes easy to adopt worldly standards and let the culture shape our world view, rather than letting scripture shape our world view, because if we let the bible shape our world view than the current culture will hate you just as Jesus said.

It is easy when the Spirit of the age or current culture happens to embrace biblical standards to live out our faith and proclaim Christ, but what happens when it doesn’t? The culture changes like the seasons, and what is right or wrong is based on human standards, not moral accountability to God. This can become frustrating, disheartening, overwhelming, even though we are warned that we are not of this world, even when we have scripture that confirms this is what it is going to be like. It is so easy to disengage from the world, to shut off, become bitter letting our differences cause us to become hateful. It causes us to build up our walls to become isolationists, and instead of showing what makes us different by our love we show what makes us different by our separation and judgment.

Do not get the wrong idea, we are suppose to stand firm on Gods word, and defend it at all cost, and we are suppose to be very different from the world, we are not to adopt their standards to be more acceptable by any means. However, if we let the bitterness of the way the world is divide to the point we stop living our Christian duty to serve, to the point where we isolate ourselves to only be with people that agree with us, Oh… than we have in the end let the world shape us, we have let the world deflate us, we have let it corrupt us, we have let the world rob us of hope of our Christian duty to be a witness. How are we a witness of light if we let the darkness over take us? Do not be fooled, Satan will get you off course by any means he can, and if he cant make you love the world and adopt its standards than he will make you become so bitter and full of anger that you start to loose your heart for the lost. This is exactly how you find out if you have become bitter… do you have a care and concern for the people who are of the world? Those who are so lost and deceived and far from God? Or do you look at them with anger, pride, and hate

Just begging for the wrath of God to come, that Jesus would return quickly because you can’t stand the decay and state of the world.

I know, that sounds ridiculous, who would think like that? But if we are honest with each other…haven’t a lot of us become like that? Its hard not to, when what we stand for has been so trampled over, when we feel so alone with our ideals and we see such moral decay. We can’t loose heart, no matter what, we can’t loose our identity as Christians, we can’t loose our heart to serve and our purpose of being a witness to the world, because if we become hateful and full of bitterness than we are no different than the world itself.

Why do you think Jesus said;

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Do you think He said that so He can prepare us to hate back? Or do you think He said it so we are prepared for the response the world would have towards us? Obviously it is the latter and the reason for this is so that we do not become bitter, so that we do not loose hope In the response of the world to the gospel, for it is the natural response, and if it wasn’t for the grace of God we would still be responding as the world does. Jesus, before He makes the statement that the world will hate you, tells the disciples to love one another, that there is no greater love than to lay ones life down for his friends. We are called to live a life of sacrifice, a life of servitude, not just to those who agree, but to those who we don’t. I think of the martyrs who lived their faith in the opposition of it, the world hated them but they didn’t try to be accepted by the world, nor did they become bitter to the world and stop preaching the gospel because they were faced with opposition…they lived their faith to death.

This world is disheartening, to see how the culture is shaping our Christian faith, to see how some are letting it shape their faith…drives us to righteous anger, and in some aspects it should. To see what American Christianity has become is disgusting, and we need to speak against it, we need to stand against it and not be defined by it. The state of this world should break our hearts, to see what is accepted should cause us to be ashamed. What we can’t let it do is drive us to bitterness, The world is definitely a thorn and we can’t be shaped by it….but don’t let it cause you to loose hope, do not let it cause you to not pray, do not let it cause you to not weep for the lost and do not let it stop you from serving at all costs.

It is so easy to lose hope, to become bitter, when what is in our face is opposition, when we see the state of this country and those who are running politically, when we see movements of racism (BLM), or movements of ridiculousness (Transgender rights) when we see heresy from those claiming to be Christians. We cannot lose hope, lose faith, do not let the world build in you a fearful bitter heart or you will ironically become what you’re suppose to be set apart from.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 1 John 2:15

Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher,

which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. 2 Timothy 1:8-12

Voting- Humility Lost

*Again I must open with a warning, I am going to write about politics, and I am going to do it based on what should be guiding our thought life and what should be guiding our actions…Gods word. I did so 4 years ago here and really nothing has changed.

“Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, 

Who have upheld His justice.

Seek righteousness, seek humility.” -Zephaniah 2:3

Humility lost

Your word O Lord be ever present, in thought, in deed to the very depths of me.

You shall not give your glory to another, and it is You who have called us to righteousness. Holy because You are holy. 

Forgive us of pride, for it is pride that keeps us out of truth and out of righteousness. To You be the glory alone, and let us be humbled in Your sight.

Politics and religion, two dirty words nobody likes to bring up in conversation because they are opinionated subjects. Here is the thing though, I am a very black and white person, I am a person that doesn't normally speak or write for the sake of an “opinion” I speak/write in truth. Truth is not something that is relative, truth is not an opinion it is either true or it isn’t, and I get that statement is hard to understand in this generation of “What is true for you, is not necessarily true for someone else” but honestly..I don't care what you think…I care about what the truth is.

Let me get some things out of the way right off the bat: 

1. I am not Mr. Political activist, I don’t claim to have all the answers, or to know all the ins and outs of how the political system works.
2. I am not a conspiracy theorist and I don’t think the world is going to end depending on who you vote for. 
3. I am not a loyal Republican or Democrat
4. I am not Mr. Patriotic wave a flag and put the country above biblical standards.
5. I don’t believe this nation is a Christian nation(it hasn’t been in a long time)

I am just your regular common sense view point who loves God and is committed to actually living like it. I looked back at what I wrote on this blog 4 years ago, and I just couldn’t believe how things have become even worse. Where is our humility? I speak to you Christian, where is your humility? I get the world is crazy, and I get the world has its ideals and they are contrary to ours, but why have so many bible believing people become so much like the world? I am appalled at how many believers have rallied behind Donald Trump…

“Woe to the rebellious children,” Says the LORD, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of my Spirit,” Isaiah 30:5

For all those that hold to the belief that the founding fathers of this country were sincere believers and founded this nation based on Christian principles…what would they think of Trump? MORE importantly what does Your savior think? What does God think? If you actually want Trump to be president of this country you have to do these three things;

1. You have to ignore biblical standards for leadership
2. You have to take God completely out of Politics
3. You have to ignore his lack of humility 

Many people, believers included, think the first 2 points don’t matter anyways. Who cares about biblical standards for leadership, and politics has nothing to do with God…right? I mean we are not voting for a pastor.

I have heard that statement “We are not voting for a pastor” more times than I can count this year. They are certainly right though, we are not voting for a pastor, we are voting for somebody who has the freaking authority to lead our country!! By that statement, you are saying that God doesn’t matter…that somebody who holds the power of leading a country doesn’t need God to do it. Isn’t it ironic, Christians will tell everyone that God is needed, that we need to hold to His word for guidance and direction in every aspect of life…but just not the political aspect? God isn’t needed or welcomed there is HE? 

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying the leader of our country has to be the perfect christian, because there is no such thing. What I am saying, is we shouldn’t throw God out of politics, we shouldn’t treat them like separate issues, because if we honestly believe and claim to follow God, than that means we do that in every aspect of life….in marriage, in friendships, in how we speak, how we act, how we serve, how we do work, and how we lead. If God is our top priority our devotion, that would mean the principles and standards He sets would be something we adore and seek after. We have the privilege to be able to vote for our leader, other Christians do not have that choice, and while generally speaking you are not going to agree with everything a candidate believes or stands behind and you are not going to always have the choice of voting for a believer. We should be seeking Godly character traits, or at the very least a leader with humility and honesty, someone who puts others above themselves, that is the mark of a true leader.

So while we are not voting for a pastor, we are voting for someone who is leading our country, and we should seek to vote without throwing God out of politics like He doesn’t belong.

The Christians that are voting for Trump, will vote for him because they will ignore his lack of humility, and they will ignore his lack of God. They will make the excuse its voting for the lesser of two evils…

I covered the myth that is “Voting for the lesser of two evils” 4 years ago, again what does God think of evil? Does He consider lesser of evils? Evil is evil any way you slice it, that statement is a statement of fear too. For far too long people have ridden that train to the ground, the fear that you must vote R to keep D out of office or visa versa. 

Why have we become a country without humility? Believers are to be the example of this, we are called to show that we have ultimate reliance upon GOD.

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 23:12

If we don’t live according to His word in every aspect of our life, then what are we even living for? What is our purpose? 

Our life is supposed to be transformed and renewed in Christ, How can one who holds to Christ support Donald Trump? I am not even speaking upon his lack of belief in God, I am speaking about his total character is the complete opposite of what we are called to be, how can you support that? Now, you may be asking yourself; “Why am I just ragging on Trump”..because he has the evangelical vote…and I see more Christian support for him than I do Hillary. So back to the “Christian chosen one”…

Christ tells us in John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” And we are suppose to judge the fruit, identify false hood by their fruit Matthew 7:16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” 

This is directly at those who would say “You cant judge Donald Trump” first of all, you are making a judgement about him in voting for him, and second I can judge him, in fact infant-Christian…we are called to judge by the fruit. Donald Trump claims to be a believer and will flat out lie about it and that doesn’t bother any of you, why? because he’s a good business man? he's a freaking con artist….a snake oil salesman who will say whatever you want to hear. It would be fine if Donald Trump were honest about his belief in God, and had a little humility, just a freaking ounce of humility and ability to lead. However, not only is he not a believer he is a flat out liar about it. He claims to be Christian, and yet has never asked forgiveness from God because he doesn't need to. Yeah, that is who I want to lead my country..a person who thinks He is not accountable to God for ANYTHING he does.

Those who vote Donald Trump again either reject the need for God in politics, don't care about biblical standards for leadership or are completely naive. I guess Paul Washer was right about Christianity in America…it is not Gospel hardened it is gospel ignorant.  We completely throw God out of this country, don’t care if our leadership is accountable to Him, and we wonder why this country is totally backwards and is lacking in humility. 

Trump is not the answer for this countries ills, Repentance and GOD is the answer, Trump is not going to fix this country, if elected he will be the punishment of this country that it deserves. Trump is mentally disturbed and self centered, to the point that I honestly believe he has a narcissistic disorder. I understand the popularity of Trump, amongst the worldly, I don’t understand it for the Godly.  

I know God is in control, I believe in Divine Providence; God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things. 

I will honor who ever receives the position, because Gods word says I have to, but I wont vote for Trump nor will I vote for Hillary, because I can not do so in good conscience ….because neither of them are fit to run this country, and neither stand by principles that I respect.

We need humility as believers, we need to humble ourselves before GOD, we need to submit our worries, our stresses, our fears, our vote to HIM. God is our ultimate authority not man. I will be voting third party again, and there are plenty of options. Voting third party is not a wasted vote, and it is a vote that goes against both parties because both parties are corrupt…

I am not  for someone who should be in Prison(Hillary) and I am not for someone who should be in a mental institution(Trump).

Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote … he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.
Samuel Adams

When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. 

Proverbs 29:2

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 

2 Chronicles 7:14