The Mantra... I mean Prayer of Jabez

"Do you want to be extravagantly blessed by God? Are you ready to reach for the extraordinary? To ask God for the abundant blessings He longs to give you? Join Bruce Wilkinson to discover how the remarkable prayer of a little-known Bible hero can release God's favor, power, and protection. You'll see how one daily prayer can help you leave the past behind - and break through to the life you were meant to live." - From the back cover of The Prayer of Jabez

"Do you want to be a kipper for God? Are you ready for the most profound sort of immaturity? Just chant the Jabez mantra, and God will make you into something like a little canned fish, vacuum sealed from temptation and ready to be eaten without satisfying anybody. Soon you too will feel an adrenaline rush that you can call the Holy Spirit and use it to justify any fool thing you want to say. It's, it's, it's like Harry Potter for modern Evangelicals!" - From the back cover of the Mantra of Jabez

Well, by now you should know more or less how I feel about such things as The Prayer of Jabez. But I just wanted to recommend this little parody of the prayer to you. =)

The Mantra of Jabez is by Douglas M. Jones, senior editor of Credenda/Agenda magazine. The book is part of the "Upturned Table Parody Series" from Canon Press in Moscow, Idaho. The full title of the book is...

The Mantra of Jabez: Break on Through to the Other Side

As opposed to Bruce Wilkinson's The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life.

I really want to encourage anyone who has read the Prayer of Jabez and thought it the most wonderful thing to consider just how important it is to grow in the Christian Faith and to move on to maturity in Christ.

I was able to hear Bruce Wilkinson preach, back in the summer of 2000 before this whole thing blew into what it is today. He preached about his new book and what the prayer meant to him. He talked about how he had used it for well over 20 years and that it had changed him and given him many opportunities to witness and minister.

Basically he was telling us to amend the prayer of Jabez in the Bible to pertain to asking God to increase our borders of ministry so that we can be more open to sharing our faith with others. Back in those days when I heard Wilkinson preach I was a different person and not as critical or thoughtful as I am today. Some may say that I've changed for the worse, but I don't think so. The shallowness and cheap grace that I have grown up with in the realm of modern day Evangelicalism is something I will never return to, Lord willing. And I hope that I may be used of God all the days of my life to encourage others to do the same in seeking to know Christ more fully and deeper than they ever thought possible.

My point is this... Do you really think that all your personal ministry, as a Christian, is missing is this prayer of Jabez? Do you really think that Jesus missed the boat when He taught His disciples how to pray? I don't think so! But The Prayer of Jabez would have you think that, based upon some man's mystical experience, you can say this prayer each day and God will undoubtedly bless your life. But if you don't pray this prayer, well, I'm afraid you'll just have to settle for a lesser life in the Christian community. Shucks!

I would like to end this entry with the preface for both books. Enjoy comparing and I hope your offense is not too great!

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The preface to The Prayer of Jabez:

"Dear Reader,

I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief - only one sentence with four parts - and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God.

This petition has radically changed what I expect from God and what I experience every day by His power. In fact, thousands of believers who are applying its truth are seeing miracles happen on a regular basis.

Will you join me for a personal exploration of Jabez?

I hope you will!

Bruce H. Wilkinson"

The Preface to The Mantra of Jabez:

"Dear Newbie,

I want to teach you how to chant a daring mantra that, unlike burdensome traditional prayers, God always has to answer. It is brief, which is really nifty for modern evangelical attention spans - only one sentence with four parts. You can even shorten it more if you remove all the consonants. Just hum the vowels. It's tucked away in a silly part of the Bible, but I believe it contains an automatic formula for favor with God.

This mantra has radically changed what I expect from God and what I experience every day by His power. In fact, thousands of believers who are humming it are seeing wonderfully short-term things happen on a regular basis. Many of them are even touching fewer and fewer material things!

Will you join me for a personal exploration of the mantra of Jabez? Anyone can hop on. It doesn't demand anything of you, just mouthing some words."

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As you can see above, this parody expresses why I dislike The Prayer of Jabez so much. At the end of the parody there is an explanation of why the author chose to write such a harsh thing and I would like you all to take a moment and read it...

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"The Upturned Table Parody Series

The "upturned table" in our series name points back to Christ's anger with the merchants in the temple. Our parody series isn't as concerned with money in the Temple as it is with what modern Evangelicals spend on abject silliness. Now you can't say that sort of thing or publish parodies without someone pointing out that you're no genius yourself. And we don't claim to be. First, we see out parodies as sermons to ourselves before anyone else. For we too are responsible for the lame state of popular Evangelicalism today, even those of us who are from more classical Protestant backgrounds. We, too, exhibit some of the targets of our own barbs. Second, we also don't claim to sit aloof, all clean and wise, looking down on others' silliness. We are a part of the Evangelical community ourselves. These are our bothers who write these things; they represent us too. We have no doubts about their sincerity and good hearted goals and wonderful characters, but we all must do light-years better.

The first response from many who love the books we aim to skewer is to be "wounded" and "offended," but that is the tiresome refuge of every little god who thinks blasphemy restrictions apply to him (oooh, notice the evil gender violation there). We all need to grow up and take the heat. But what about all those for whom these "precious" books have meant so much? One answer is that medieval folks could say the same thing about their relics. Relics made people feel warm and fuzzy too, but they were evidence of sickness.

Christian reality is a rich and fascinating blend of truth, beauty, and goodness. It is an exuberant love of life and light and celebration. Even with some of the glorious heights of Christian culture reached in prior eras, the Church still hasn't truly begun to plumb the magnificence of the Triune God. We're only scratching the surface, all the while non-Christian visions are perennially addicted to death. In order to mature, Evangelicals need to move beyond the bumper sticker shallowness of the past four decades and long for the true wisdom. Parodying our silliness is one small nudge in that direction. To whom much is given, much is expected."

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It is my hope that you will take these things to heart and seek to know the one, true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent!

Scripture Alone - "sola Scriptura!"

Do you really believe that the Bible (defined as the Old and New Testament Scripture only) is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the church? Or is it simply inerrant and infallible, but not really sufficient for Christian life?

Well, let me quote a declaration (the Cambridge Declaration to be exact) so that we may understand what Scripture Alone is all about...

"We reaffirm the inerrant Scripture to be the sole source of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience. The Bible alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the standard by which all Christian behavior must be measured. We deny that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience, that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of revelation."

Biblical Foundation: 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21; note also the implications of Matthew 22:29-32; Luke 24:27; Acts 20:29-32, 26:22-23

In the above noted passage of Matthew we see that Jesus says God spoke to them through what they read (the Scriptures). In Luke, Christ shows them in all the Scriptures what all the Prophets and Moses said concerning Him. In Acts Paul commits them to the Word of God. And again in Acts, Paul says he is simply restating what the Prophets and Moses foretold (in the Scriptures) would happen.

This is paramount to understanding orthodox Christianity and, more over, understanding anything about God with any certainty. If we do not believe this great doctrine then how can any of us know Jesus Christ or trust Him for who He really is? If we don't believe this, then who was Jesus? Was He an enlightened man after the likeness of Buddha? Was He simply the prophet of Islam? Or maybe He was just a swell teacher... oh wait... we actually have to read historical documents and believe they are true in order to know anything about Him, more over, to even know he existed or taught anything at all! =) Thus my obvious sarcasm.

So, then we must ask what our Authority is... As stated above, the Bible is the sole Authority for orthodox Christianity and fully infallible and inerrant in the original documents. Thus, if we believe this truth, we should have no problem relying on God to preserve His Word for us in reliable copies made throughout history by Godly men seeking to have God's Word (as we have Bibles in our houses) and help other people know God's Word by spreading the Scriptures around as much and as far into the world as they can.

Do you know that the New Testament is the most historically attested book from antiquity? And that the Old Testament is the second most historically attested? That simply means that the Bible is the book with the most manuscripts (compared to any other book in antiquity), from many different areas in the world, that all line up with each other and show hardly any variance in the copies that still exist today. We actually have (though few) papyri of a portion of John's Gospel from the second century, AD, that contains the same text found in the other manuscript copies that contain the full text of the New Testament!

And with a Church that was brutally persecuted the first 300 years of its existence, it didn't actually have the time or resources to track down or keep up with all the copies that were made of the New Testament. Therefore the idea that the Bible has been changed over the early Christian years will never hold up because there were so many New Testament documents passed around in the known world the first three hundred years that, with no central controlling authority (like Islam), the Church would never have been able to obtain all the copies of the New Testament books, let alone make any amendments to the documents without many copies being left out or hidden from being changed. Besides, we have no evidence throughout early Church history that such a thing took place!

Do you really think that the teaching of the Bible has ever been popular with the non-Christian world?! Look at the first 300 years... the world governments persecuted and killed Christians for their teachings. Even now it's still hated today in most of popular culture. People by default don't like the doctrines of hell, grace and Jesus Christ. (Note, the 'christians' who don't subscribe to all those doctrines are not Christians and they hate God) Christianity is not a religion that has ever been popular with the majority of the world, so why would we ever conclude that the Church "tried to change," or "actually did change," the Bible (into what it 'currently' teaches - Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and eternal life) when people (as a whole or majority), throughout history, have never wanted to follow what it teaches anyway? They still don't! And therefore the only way they can place doubt on Christianity is to cast doubt on its Authority, because they don't like what it says and teaches, just like those who persecuted Christianity the first 300 years! Books like the Da Vinci Code only tell us in the end that all roads lead to heaven and that you can worship what ever gods you want. Do you think that a polytheistic culture like the Roman Empire would care about such RELATIVE teachings that, note this, they already had?! I don't think so...

Christianity is the only world religion that teaches man can do nothing to change Himself or even work with God to change Himself. But instead, God alone gets to choose who goes to heaven and man has no right to say anything about it! (John 6 & Romans 9) For God "has mercy on whom He has mercy" and God "hardens whom He hardens." What other world religion teaches such a thing? What other world religion teaches that man is dead in trespasses and sins and cannot resurrect himself to life? (Ephesians 2) What other world religion teaches that faith and repentance is granted to the people of God (Ephesian 2:8-9 & 2 Timothy 2:25) in which they can THEN freely love God and praise Him for saving them from hell and giving them eternal life according to His good pleasure? What other world religion actually doesn't teach that man has to perform something to merit heaven? I have yet to find one and don't actually see one existing anytime soon.

True Christianity doesn't make sense to people (1 Corinthians 1:22-23) and that is why it's such a deficient argument to think that the Bible has been changed over the years when it still teaches what I have just stated above. Haven't you seen that people always want to change things, or ignore them, so that they can be more affluent or more accepted? If the Bible has actually been changed over the years then why wasn't it changed into something more universal like the rest of the world religions?

The Dark Age should tell us enough that the Bible was never changed because it was the Roman Catholic church that kept people from reading it (the common people didn't know Latin, only the priests knew it) because that church wanted to stay in power and simply wanted people to think they could buy their way into heaven and merit God's grace by doing something or following some procedure to earn their way into heaven.

Lastly, the fact that Scripture has not been changed over the years leads us to believe that either the writers were liars or actually telling the truth. But if they were liars, then why did Christianity flourish in the face of persecution? It wouldn't unless they had sufficient testimony that Jesus Christ died and 3 days later rose from the grave! The Bible is that testimony and record of historical facts including what Christ and His Apostles taught and did in the first century, AD.

It should be trusted as such and accepted as God's revelation to mankind about Himself and what He has done, is doing, and will do in the midst of mankind - namely saving His people whom He loved before the foundation of the world and bringing the greatest Glory unto Himself by creating the best of all worlds in which to do so.

People just don't like that, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God by which to save them and bring them into all truth! Amen!

Ah, The Tablet...

Well, for anyone who might like to know, I'm currently writing this Blog entry from my Tablet PC on a wireless Internet connection at my local church. =) The technology that is available these days is just too cool and I am so glad that my graduation gift for college, combined with my birthday present, was a tablet PC.

It is my hope that I can edit my web site and Blog all I want from anyplace that has a wireless Internet connection from here on out. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to keep my web site updated on a weekly/daily basis. But that might just be a little too much wishful thinking. ;-)

Either way, the world is changing and one day soon I'm going to be able to get my wireless connection anywhere I'm driving/riding in a car. Until then, I'll just have to settle for a local business like Panera Bread or Krystal or some nice coffee shop (or my church) to provide me with a place to sit, a drink to drink, and a web to surf or use to my benefit.

Why Did the Tsunami Happen?

Romans 1:18-19 says, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them."

From this clear passage we know exactly how to understand the natural disasters of this earth and why such destruction and death occur in the world. For since the Fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden the earth has been under the curse of death. Destruction and terror from the natural forces in the earth have plagued men for millennia and will not stop until that great and awful day of the Lord when the earth shall have been burned by fire and the elements melted, by which this world will pass away and the new earth will be reborn by the Word of God.

What then shall we say until these things be? To answer this question I will quote the Lord Jesus to help us readily reply to the dead world what tsunamis and earthquakes and hurricanes and the like mean to them and what they should do in response to such devastation:

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Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:1-5, NASB)

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Until the earth is reborn and the eternal state is realized we must continue to preach the Gospel command, "Repent and believe the good news!" The good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners! The good news that by faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ we may draw near unto God and receive the adoption as sons and the Justification that only comes from God! The good news that through repentance and obedience we may become more like Christ as the Spirit of God transforms us in the sanctification He alone provides!

Do you think that all those who were killed in the tsunami of 2004 were any worse culprits than those who survived in the rest of the world? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish! Therefore be zealous and repent, reform, and lay hold of the Salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory!

This is the message that the church should proclaim with humbleness and kindness to all who are unbelieving and dead in their trespasses and sin. According to His mercy and grace He will call to Himself His people whom He foreknew. "The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful - for He cannot deny Himself." (2 Tim. 2:11-13, ESV)

God is faithful and true and all who oppose Him will endure His wrath for ever and ever. So let us who trust the Triune God for our salvation proclaim the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ that has the power to save all the Father has given to the Son before the foundation of the world. And may the Spirit of God quicken to life by the miracle of regeneration all whom God pleases to save according to the eternal counsel of His will.

There is no greater being than God and there is no other Lord but Christ. It is my hope that the Church of Jesus Christ will tell the pure Gospel of the Redeemer who is strong and holy; not watered down by the philosophizing of men and the corruption of false teachers - which is the spirit of anti-Christ.

God is good and God is love and God is spirit. Therefore we must worship Him in spirit and in truth. His revelation, the Old and New Testament, is what defines our reality and unless we seek God through it we will always fall short of Christ and His glory. I leave you with this thought:

Jesus said to him, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; No one comes to the Father but through me." (John 14:6, NASB)

What Is Your Focus?

Christian's these days don't seem to make much of their salvation. They don't seem to have a focus on the proper thing, namely the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They don't seem to realize that the supremacy of Christ is suppose to be their ultimate priority and focus in every breath they take. Daily, we go about our lives wondering what exactly the next buzz will be that will allow us to enjoy the season. We are all-too-often seeking our own sensational pleasure instead of being satisfied in and pleased with the God who has saved us. He alone is who we are to live for and anything less than that is sinful and unholy. Anyone who thinks that they will be saved from this fallen world without holiness has not learned from the Father. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." (Hebrews 12:14, KJV)

But you may then ask why does the Christian "world" (at large today) not seek to be holy and find their fulfillment in Christ and His greatness? Well, the answer is simple... we don't know God as we should know Him. We have not sought Him where He can be found.

But then you may ask "where can He be found?" The answer is simple once again... we can find Him in His revelation of Himself, namely His spoken word - the Old and New Testament. The Bible must forever be the Church's sole infallible rule of faith for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) If it does not hold that position then anyone who claims the name of Christ will never know Him as they should and some may even find out on the Day of Judgment that they never knew Him at all, but even more so, that Christ never knew them. He will say to them, "Depart from me, you who work iniquity, for I never knew you." (Matthew 7:23)

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Hebrews 3 - NASB

Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house -- whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

"Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,

And saw My works for forty years.

Therefore I was angry with this generation,

And said, 'They always go astray in their heart,

And they did not know My ways';

As I swore in My wrath,

'They shall not enter My rest.'"

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, while it is said,

"Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me."

For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

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Now, understand the thrust of this entire passage with all its richness and power... We know that all who hold fast their confidence and hope in Christ to the end of their mortal life have already been made partakers of Christ. But to any who fall away, they prove themselves to have never been partakers of Christ to begin with. Their 'enlightenment' was nothing more than a winsome show that inevitably results in greater punishment being delivered to them on the Day of Judgment. This is why we are to encourage one another and fellowship with one another, unless we should find that one of us is not really part of Christ and His people.

It is the failure of so many churches to encourage one another and confront each other when their brother or sister is fulfilling the desires of the flesh. Yet, all-too-often, it is us who is also listening to the sin that is in us and not able to help our brother or sister because of the "plank" in our own eye.

Therefore, we must seek this day to seek Christ through His revelation - the Bible - in order that we may remove the plank from our own eye and exhort one another toward Godliness that we may be holy and blameless on the Day of Judgment, knowing that we have been made partakers of Christ and His Kingdom!

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A Prayer from The Valley of Vision

Continual Repentance

"O GOD OF GRACE,

Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,

and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul,

clothing me with a bridegroom's robe,

decking me with jewels of holiness.

But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;

my best prayers are stained with sin;

my penitential tears are so much impurity;

my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin;

my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.

I need to repent of my repentance;

I need my tears to be washed;

I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,

no loom to weave my own righteousness;

I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,

and by grace am always receiving change of raiment,

for thou dost always justify the ungodly;

I am always going into the far country,

and always returning home as a prodigal,

always saying , Father, forgive me,

and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.

Every morning let me wear it,

every evening return in it,

go out to the day's work in it,

be married in it,

be wound in death in it,

stand before the great white throne in it,

enter heaven in it shining as the sun.

Grant me never to lose sight ofthe exceeding sinfulness of sin,

the exceeding righteousness of salvation,

the exceeding glory of Christ,

the exceeding beauty of holiness,

the exceeding wonder of grace."

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"Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20-21 NASB)

The Bible says Michael Harvey is a Fool

Psalm 14:1 says, "The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good." (ESV)

Psalm 53:1 says, "The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good." (ESV)

The Net Bible translates Psalm 14:1-3 in this way:

"Fools say to themselves, “There is no God.” They sin and commit evil deeds; none of them does what is right. The Lord looks down from heaven at the human race, to see if there is anyone who is wise and seeks God. Everyone rejects God; they are all morally corrupt. None of them does what is right, not even one!"

I will direct you to this Fox News report on a city council meeting in Tampa, Florida, that granted permission to atheists to speak during the invocation after they 'scolded' the city council for praying to "invisible men in the sky."

Let me start by saying that everyone of us are born into this world with a specific nature. And that nature is best seen in the titles of "Children of Wrath," "Sons of Disobedience," and the Biblically implicit title of "Children of Satan." Now these titles apply to all of us when we are born into the world with a sinful nature. This nature is something that pervades all of us and it is that nature that none of us can overcome left to ourselves.

It is the prominent thing for people these days to say that we can choose or reject God apart from the new birth, namely regeneration. Pop Christianity says that we must first choose God and then when we ask him into our hearts we are born again as a result of that acceptance. But the true teaching of the eternal covenant only involves God acting in accordance with His own nature and man receiving that which is against his own nature. Let us read it in several passages...

Jeremiah 31:31-34 says, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

Ezekiel 11:19-20 says, "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God."

Ezekiel 36:25-28 says, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God."

Notice in the above passages that God is the one doing everything and nothing is required of God's people to which the covenant is applied. In fact God clearly shows us in Ezekiel 36 that if it were not for Him putting a new spirit and heart in us, we could not obey His rules or walk in His statutes. This one thing is clear: Man cannot and will not be saved apart from being born again by the Holy Spirit of God through the working of regeneration and applying to us, against our sinful wills, the eternal Covenant of Grace.

This is echoed by Jesus in John 3:3 and Peter in 1 Peter 1:3-5 where it is clear that in order for us to gain Heaven or Change our ways we must first be born again!

To address one last issue... Pop Christianity doesn't seem to realize one crucial thing. That just as I claim that we cannot do anything against our natural born natures, God Himself cannot do anything against His nature. This is by no means a 'bad' limitation to say that God cannot do something with regard to His omnipotence, but instead it is the truest understanding of reality and how mankind and God exists. Pop Christianity will rightly agree with me that God cannot do something against His nature in terms of.. "God cannot sin." "God cannot lie." Virtually all of Christianity will agree on that, but so many of us are so quick to say that we, merely finite humans, can somehow choose something other than rejecting God in full. It is our nature to hate Him and to reject Him! So, how is it that we can present the truth of the Gospel in the form of an option? How can we say, "You have to decide what to do with Jesus!" when we should be asking, "What will Jesus do with you?"

Instead we should do as Christ and the Apostles did when they evangelized and present the Gospel and the universal command that follows it. "Repent, and believe the good news!" "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved!" The Gospel is a command, not an option! The way we know we are in Christ and born again is because we believe and repent. Not the other way around. This is so integral to evangelism and the Gospel that it is no wonder there are so many false professions and so many nonbelievers in the church today. May God work it in you to see the truth of His word as He has done in me.

So, in establishing the Biblical teaching of the new birth that Pop Christianity so flippantly throws around as the ultimate result of people "asking Jesus into their hearts" as if Jesus were a beggar unable to accomplish what He set out to do in justifying the ungodly, I would now like to address in brief the article that sparked this blog.

We all need to be prepared to deal with this atheistic and secular uprising that is trying to ruin this nation and sensor the open expression of our Christian Faith. This is where everyone of us who can vote needs to be prepared to vote in the upcoming Presidential election or keep their mouths shut if they don't vote in the election. We who are citizens of this country have been given the right to choose our officials and every Christian who believes in the God of the Old and New Testaments should act upon their right to vote and choose the candidate that best exemplifies the teaching of the Bible.

If we do not vote then atheists like Michael Harvey may end up getting their way in this nation and we will, possibly, once again find ourselves in the midst of full persecution. Think of it this way... What happens when those who are Children of Satan gain the majority in a country and elect who ever they desire... I'm almost certain that if secular fundamentalism and postmodernity come to their fullness in this country and are able to make the decisions then persecution will begin in this country that has never seen a national persecution of Christians so far in its existence. May God show us mercy and may reformation begin again in the churches of America so that this nation might once again worship the Triune God! Amen.

The Beginning

Well, this is the first post for the Blog using blogger.com and hopefully it will not be the last. I'm looking forward to using this new software and seeing just how easy it is to post and keep the Blog updated - compared to the old ways. I will try to have a post up later tonight on a recent issue, but until then... stay tuned. =)