Christian Faith in America

Written by Samuel Lawrence

The television show, “The X-Files” (1993-2002) had a catchphrase that said “The Truth IS Out There.”  Well, thanks to the Internet, the truth is not only out there, you can actually have it delivered to your desktop, laptop, and even your cell phone.

The current hot topic in Washington DC is the pending Government takeover of America’s healthcare, including public funding of abortions, hefty taxes on the middle class, forced coverage with fines for those not covered, and many other massive regulations, government intrusion into privacy, and the inevitable rationing of care that comes with every single socialized healthcare plan currently on the planet.

Our President promised his “sheeple” who got him elected “hope and change” but what they really got was “bait and switch.”  Here is a video by one of his faithful who are now realizing, too late, the ugly truth about the man from Chicago and his arm twisting henchmen.

Evidently, the “end justifies the means” to the current regime heading the Executive and Legislative branches of our Federal government.  It is astonishing to hear Nancy Pelosi defend and explain her twisted “moral” justification for abortion, which is nothing but pure Secular Humanism, nothing more, nothing less. Watch the video and decide for yourself.

To further demonstrate that this Liberal bunch of Socialists will do anything to push their agenda down the throats of America, listen to both the President and Speaker Nancy Pelosi lie through their teeth regarding public funding for abortions in the current Senate Healthcare bill that the President is STRONGLY urging the House to vote for.  Notice the smirk on both their faces as they talk down to the masses from their lofty “bully pulpits.”

(Many thanks to Cory Truax for the above video link.)

Obama’s message of “Hope and Change” has devolved into “Bait and Switch.”  The only hope America has for any meaningful change in the November 2010 election.  I hope and pray that the Lord will have mercy upon America, but this “power grabbing,” “freedom stealing” administration has more the appearance of divine judgement on a nation which has turned its back on the Lord, than just your average bunch of Liberals gone wild.

The Lord blesses nations and brings curses and loss of freedom to those who reject Him. The Bible says in Psalm 33:10-12 that

“The LORD foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.”

Consider Deuteronomy 30:1-7 in which the Lord speaks to the Children of Israel (His Chosen people) through Moses:

“I have told you everything the Lord your God will do for you, and I’ve also told you the curses he will put on you if you reject him. He will scatter you in faraway countries, but when you realize that he is punishing you, return to him with all your heart and soul and start obeying the commands I have given to you today. Then he will stop punishing you and treat you with kindness. He may have scattered you to the farthest countries on earth, but he will bring you back to the land that had belonged to your ancestors and make you even more successful and powerful than they ever were. You and your descendants are stubborn, but the Lord will make you willing to obey him and love him with all your heart and soul, and you will enjoy a long life. Then the Lord your God will remove the curses from you and put them on those enemies who hate and attack you.”

If the Lord God of Heaven promises this judgement to his chosen people, His elect, what more can a heathen and reprobate nation, overwhelmingly consumed with debauchery, hedonism and humanism, expect? Until America returns to the moral Judeo-Christian teachings she was founded upon, and repent from the chronic sin consuming her, we cannot expect the blessings of God, nor the liberty and freedom we once had, that made us great.

(1) “John Adams, had this principle in mind when he wrote, ‘Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.‘   Likewise, William Penn noted, ‘If we will not be governed by God, then we must be governed by tyrants.’ Yet, the nation ceased being a moral people. It ceased recognizing God. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Constitution, which allowed for a tremendous amount of liberty and granted few powers to the government, is now essentially a relic.”

I believe what we are witnessing  is this: we are now reaping the harvest of decades of sin.  America… Bless God!

(1) Quoted from cgg.org

By Dr. Tony Beam

I am blessed with many vivid memories of my childhood. I remember the first time I looked through a pair of binoculars. It was a cheap, pop-up pair that my dad bought me at what used to be called the Ice Capades, which was an older version of the traveling ice-skating programs we see today. I was fascinated that just by looking through the lens it appeared that I could reach out and touch the skaters. I literally spent hours gazing through those binoculars until my dad would make me put them away for a while.

Another memory is not so pleasant. I remember I hated being sent to my room for misbehaving. My parents called it “being grounded”.  It meant I couldn’t leave my room until they were convinced I had learned my lesson.

In the late 60’s we didn’t have T.V., computers, cell phones, video games, or any of the other “in room” entertainment devices of today. So, being grounded meant staying put with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

When I read Acts 1:6-11, I see the beginnings of the early church being tempted toward being grounded or gazing. Verse 6 says, “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, (the risen Christ) Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” That is a grounded question asked by disciples with a grounded mindset. It has been forty days since Jesus rose from the grave. He spent His time appearing to His followers, speaking to them about the glories of a kingdom that would reside in each one of them once the Holy Spirit came.

But here they are thinking in physical rather than spiritual terms. They were seeking what amounted to a political solution to their plight. They wanted Jesus to remove the iron boot of Roman rule and establish an earthly kingdom where He would rule on the throne of David and restore the glory of Solomon. They longed for the good old days when Israel had conquered its neighbors and the whole world came to Jerusalem to pay homage and to seek wisdom from Solomon.

Many in the church today have the same grounded mentality. They spend much time talking about and longing for the good old days when the church was the center of the community and ministers were considered to be wise community leaders. The church had a tremendous amount of influence from Hollywood to Hoboken. People lined up on Sunday to go to church as the whole town shut down in honor of the Lord’s Day. During the week, people lined up to see Charlton Heston bring Moses and Ben Hur to life on the silver screen. Movies with titles like, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Robe, and Quo Vadis won hearts in the theaters and Oscars at the Academy Awards. It was a time when the Gospel was, as Paul told Timothy, “in season.”

But now the Church is no longer the most powerful influence in the community. Ministers are often suspect and Hollywood has turned organized religion into the “the devil with the blue dress on.” What are we to do? If we sit in our pews and long for the good old days we will be a grounded church. We will lose what little influence we have left in the world. We must follow the advice of a t-shirt I saw last week. Its message was as simple as it was profound. It said, “The Church has left the building.”

If the 21st century church is going to transform the culture we have to leave the building. We must go where the people are, build a bridge of fellowship, and demonstrate the love of Christ even as we gently warn that to reject His love is to eventually feel His wrath.
Later in Acts 1, the disciples are caught gazing up into the sky where they saw Jesus ascend. Verse 10 says, “And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?” The disciples had been given their instructions. They were to go to Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. It was not a time for gazing, being spellbound by the glorious sight of Jesus. It was time for action. It was time to go to the place where the power from Heaven would be poured out in abundant supply. Verse 8 carries the promise, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, ad in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” As I heard one old country preacher say, “They needed to go to the spout where the glory comes out!”  Gazing into heaven can be a good thing if we make sure it doesn’t become the only thing.

There was nothing wrong with me being fascinated with the binoculars to the point of wanting to spend some of my time gazing. The problem arose when gazing was all I wanted to do. There is nothing wrong with a church that gazes longingly into heaven, falling before a holy God, asking as Moses asked to see just “a glimpse of His glory.” But it is easy to give in to the temptation to do nothing but gaze. We lose our touch with the people God has called us to reach if we become so enraptured by His glory we forget to reflect His glory to the world.

While believers should always be informed about the issues facing our society in the political arena and we should be good citizens by voting according to the standards of God’s Word, we must never trust in a political solution for our spiritual condition. While we should revere the past we should see it as a signpost and not a hitching post. The 21st Century Church must be found neither grounded nor gazing but rather greatly empowered by the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the call to be His witnesses “even to the remotest part of the earth.”

You can hear Dr. Beam live on Christian Talk 660 weekday mornings from 7:00-9:00 AM (EST) as he is the host of Christian Worldview Today. You can also listen to recorded broadcasts in the Christian Worldview Today Archive.

Dr. Tony Beam is Vice-President for Student Services and the Director of the Christian Worldview Center at North Greenville College in Tigerville, South Carolina, Dr. Tony Beam received his Master of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and his Doctor of Ministry from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.  When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and start to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.  They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar.  He shook the jar lightly.   The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.  He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.  The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor, as the laughter subsided, ’I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.  The golf balls are the important things – God, Family, Children, Health, Friends, and favorite passions.  Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else —  The small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued,
‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

So…

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play with your children.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.

‘Take care of the golf balls first — the things that really matter.
Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled.
‘I’m glad ! You asked’.

It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.’

In the song posted below, Matthew 6:33 is the first stanza. Matthew 4:4 is the second one. and the last one is Matthew 7:7.  These verses highlight the priority we should set as followers of  Christ.

Recently I received an email with the subject line “Michael Richards from Seinfeld.” Part of the email is quoted below:

Michael Richards, better known as Kramer from TVs Seinfeld does make a good point. This is excerpted from his defense speech in court, where he found himself after making racial comments in his comedy act. He made some very interesting points.

There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, Indian Americans etc., and then there are just plain old Americans. You can pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me ‘White boy,’ “Gringo’, ‘Roundeye’, ‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’ ‘Whitey,’ ‘Ofay’, ‘Charlie’, ‘Caveman’… and that will be generally accepted, that’s considered “OK”…

Conversely, however, when I call you: “Nigger, Spic, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, Jap, or Chink” you are outraged, you call me a racist, and modern society joins in the chorus behind you. You say that whites commit most violence against you… so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live? You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. There are organizations like Yom Hashoah and La Raza. You have Mauled Al-Nabi. You even have Kwanzaa. If we say “Merry Christmas” it is now considered offensive.

You have the NAACP. You have BET…. If we had WET (“White Entertainment Television”), that would surely be labeled racist… If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists. If we had White History Month, we’d be racists. If we had any organization for only whites designed to ‘advance’ OUR lives, we’d be racists. There is a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce…. and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce which welcomes all people. A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.

There are over sixty openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US, yet if there were ‘White colleges’, that would surely be racist, and Lawsuits would follow! If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships… You know we’d be called racists. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. Yet if we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists, and the Press would echo that, and the politicians would give speeches against us.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it. You even band together under the banner “People of Color,” but when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, rape us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or Latino drug dealer, criminals clearly posing a threat to society, you call him a racist, and he is prosecuted for doing his job, for protecting us.

I am proud of my heritage…. But you call me a racist for saying that. Think about it! Why is it that only whites can be accused of being racists?

I can sense the frustration of this email author, whether it was Michael Richards or someone else.  However, as Christians, we should look for the Biblical World View.  The fact is this, if one believes Scripture, everyone descends from one race… Adam’s.  Also, we can all be traced back to Noah and his wife.  So, for Christians, race is not genetic, it is cultural.  It is man-made.  Racism is not new, it is as old as Cain and Abel, and provides evidence of our fallen sin-nature.  It has its roots in jealousy, selfishness, and pride.

To get God’s perspective, consider Jesus Christ’s attitude toward prejudice.  In the time of Christ, Jews and Samaritans were cultural racists toward one another. It was not acceptable for them to mingle, much like blacks and whites in America before the Civil Rights movement. The Parable of the Good Samaritan, found in the Gospel of Luke 10:30-37, provides some insight. Jesus, of Jewish heritage, cast the villains in the story as Jews and the hero as Samaritan. What makes that story interesting is the context. Verses 25-29 provide the context of the story:

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

It was there that Jesus told the “Parable of the Good Samaritan.”  He boldly proclaimed that we are all neighbors and should love and care for one another… regardless of our cultural differences.  This is one way we show forth the love of God in us.  It is sad and unfortunate this truth has not permeated our churches in America.  Too many churches and denominations still cling to the cultural racism that has divided us for far too long.

“Do Your Best” is the motto of Cub Scouts.  It is a good motto for all to follow.  Take a moment to read this little story.  As the new year begins, let’s reflect on what kind of house we have built and see if we need to remodel in 2010.

The Carpenter’s Story

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by.

The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “My gift to you.”

What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

And so it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, re-acting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best efforts.  Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. 

If we had realized, we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter, and your life is your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely!  It is the only life you will ever build.  Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.

The plaque on the wall says, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.”

-Author Uknown

This is the so true, isn’t it?

Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past. Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.