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Democrats and God

The Democratic Party’s flip-flop and the resulting anger and confusion about whether or not to put reference to God into their platform, highlighted the great weakness in our political system. The Yes and No vote is reminiscent of another vote that was taken 2,000 years ago, which resulted in the one-man steering committee washing his hands of the whole process.

This is what happens when a nation abandons the Bible as its moral guide. It has no rudder in the stormy sea of human opinion, so it is driven by whatever wind blows the hardest. When the Bible is abandoned, the question is asked, “Is killing a child in the womb morally okay?” The answer comes from those who yell the loudest. The same applies with homosexuality and other moral issues. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government…” That becomes a weakness and not strength, when the Bible is left out of the equation.

The Scriptures are “a lamp to our feet and a light to out path.” When they are ignored we are left in moral darkness and we will soon forget the truth of the words “God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!” Thomas Jefferson said "The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Constitution." I propose a small amendment to his words. They should read, "The greatest danger to American freedom is a government that ignores the Scriptures and treats the Constitution as though it was the Word of God."

This fiasco should also remind us of Lincoln’s, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.”

Hospitals Kill Two Million in Ten Years

An atheist once asked me "Ray, if my kid gets sick should I take him to the doctors? Or would that be interfering with the work of your God in his life?"

Should a Christian use medicine, or should we simply trust God to heal us when we are sick? The Bible has the answer. It was the wisdom of Solomon (in Proverbs 17:22) that said that a merry heart does good "like a medicine". So it’s not just a merry heart that does good. Medicines also do us good.

Here’s what Sue and I would do when our kids were young and became sick. We would pray for them, and take them to the doctor if it was more than a minor complaint. If the doctor saw fit to put him in the hospital, we would pray even more--that God would give wisdom to the doctors, because hospitals have become very dangerous places.

You may not realize it, but around 40,000 people die on roads in the United States each year. However, a massive 200,000 people die in hospitals because of medical mistakes and infections. That means that in ten years two million people die while in the care of our medical professionals. That’s frightening and that fact should make us want to pray.

One way to keep out of hospitals is to control our appetite. Listen to the somewhat cutting verse from Proverbs 23:2 about that appetite we so often have to fight: “And put a knife to your throat.” If you are a man or woman given to appetite, you must learn to cultivate the virtue of self-control. There are many serious complications and terrible diseases that result in an untimely death, that come with obesity.

An incredible 58 million Americans are overweight, while 40 million are obese, and three million morbidly obese. You pastor and friends may not feel comfortable telling you that you are killing yourself with your knife and fork, but I can. Think of it--40 million Americans are obese! No wonder our health care system is staggering under the weight of that overload.

I have to tell you that I am not overweight, but I do have a monster of an appetite within me that wants me to be overweight. That monster wants control, and I have to daily beat him into submission. His name is “Adam,” (that is, my sinful nature) and he not only wants control of my mouth, but also my eyes, ears, tongue and my mind. If I give in to him, the Bible says that the result will be death. So I have no choice. I have to fight with everything I have.

By the way, obesity is not always caused genetically, as some maintain. Neither is it a disease (although some medical conditions and certain foods may cause weight gain). When the Americans liberated those who were in concentration camps in 1945, they found that there were no obese people. They were all skinny. Obesity is almost always caused by self-indulgence--by eating too much food or by eating the wrong food. A good rule to live by for healthy living, is: "If God created it (vegetables, fruit, etc.), eat it. If man has messed with it, read the label, carefully."

So here’s some practical advice. Serve your meal up on a small plate. It will look like more. Then leave something on the plate and put it in the refrigerator for later. Drink hot drinks where the monster roars and wants to be feed. That can often help, and make sure you read your Bible daily. It’s God’s instruction book on how to live this life, and how to get to the next. Don’t ignore it.

Photo by: Norbert Kaiser

Get Here, Now! Mr. President

Most people pray. Sadly, much of our praying is a little selfish. We pray to get something or someone, to win a game or to get health or wealth. Many end up disillusioned. They don’t get what they want. There are a few who simply pray that God would appear, or do some miracles before they will even believe in His existence. They want some sort of “sign,” then they will believe.

But I wonder what you would think of the mentality of someone who said "Some time ago I emailed the White House and told the President that he needed to be at my house last Friday, with a gift for me. He didn’t show up, so I believe that he doesn’t exist." I’m sure you would think that that person was either naive or mentally challenged.

If you have ever prayed for something and felt that your prayer didn't get past the ceiling, you are probably right. Just as there is a certain procedure that you must go through to have an audience with the President, so there is certain procedure that you must go through to have an audience with God, or you want get one. You have His promise on that.

Here’s some information that may help you. The first thing to understand is that we are enemies of God, and that His wrath abides on us until we come to faith in Jesus. John 3:36 says “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” We are rebels. So the odds of getting an audience are greatly stacked against us.

The Bible even tells us that our sins have made a separation between us and God, so that He will not hear us. You can read that in Isaiah 59. The Scriptures tell us that He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So it would be wise to stop clicking our fingers and expecting God to come running like some sort of divine butler. It doesn’t work that way.

Listen to James 4:3-4): “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” So, if you want an audience with God, you need to become a friend of God, and you can do that by surrendering to His will. Once you have His smile, then you have His ear, so to speak. And to get His smile you and I must humble ourselves, repent, and trust the Savior--and that will give you direct access so that, as the Bible says, “you can come boldly before the Throne of Grace.”

Then make sure you understand that God always answers prayer. That way you will never be disappointed. Sometimes He says "Yes" and grants our desires. Sometimes He says "No" and doesn’t. Other times He makes us wait so that we learn to exercise faith and patience.

Most people don’t understand that there are at least two types of the will of God. There’s His permissive will, where He will allow things to happen to the Christian. These may not seem to be beneficial for us--trials, tribulations and persecution, but God promises to work these things out for our good, in the light of eternity.

Then there is the perfect will of God, and you can read all about that in His Word--the Bible. 

Photo by: U.S. Department of Defense

Jeff The Heckler

Yesterday at Huntington Beach:

Darwin's Gift to Humanity

My name is insomnia, I keep you from sleep
I want to make you miserable; I want to make you weep
If you get away from me, I have a good friend
His name is Night-terrors and he will get you in the end

To wake up with the sweats with darting wide eyes
Panting and shaking with deep painful sighs
I also have friends called Sickness and Pain
Who's job is to kill you or injure or maim

They have small annoyances, like itches and aches
They want you to suffer and will do what it takes
There’s deafness and blindness and fears from within
That drive to the false refuge of whiskey and gin

There are pains in the neck and pains in the back
There are pains in head and pains that attack
The liver, the kidneys, the lungs and the heart
There are pains in the bladder that strike like a dart

There’s heartburn and acid that comes from the gut
And earache and toothache and pains from a cut
There's asthma, arthritis and a whole lot more
Terrifying diseases to put you at death’s dark door

There are ailments with names that are real hard to say
That are attacking and maiming thousands each day
There’s frightening cancers that eat at the brain
And others so painful they will drive you insane

So what hope can you give me if the fittest survive
The hopelessness of evolution can’t keep me alive
It’s unscientific, and was dreamed up by man
Who runs from his Creator whenever he can

We live in a world that has fallen from God
And when we feel these pains we should give a wise nod
And believe the Scriptures despite what men say
Who will stand before God and believe on that Day

They will get what they deserve, they loved lying and lust
And despised the cross and repentance and trust
They will wish that we warned them that God meant what He said
But swallowed the lie, when men are dead, they're dead

If you’re not born again, please listen to me
God offers eternal life, and it's completely free
Don’t ignore the warnings of life’s pains anymore
Because this place is Heaven compared to what's in store

I'm speaking the truth and deep down you know it
Life is most precious; make sure you don’t blow it
God so loved the world, He gave Jesus His Son
You don't need religion because the sufferings been done

So go save the whales and look after the trees
Lay off the salt and don't eat too much cheese
Eat plenty of fiber and die healthy and well
But die in your sins, and you will end up in Hell.

Photo by: Patche99z

Knuckle-dragging Narrow-minded Creationists (part 2)

(read part 1 here)

But you are not alone if you believe in God. Many of our greatest scientists believed in the existence of a Creator: Galileo, Newton, Nicholas Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Michael Faraday, Louis Pasteur and Kepler, just to name a few. Einstein rightly said, "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind." He also said, "In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views."

The incredible harmony in creation proves beyond a doubt to any thinking mind that there is a Creator. Listen to what the Bible says about atheists and the existence of God: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…” That’s from Romans 1:20.

But God doesn’t want you to just believe in His existence. He wants you to obey Him. When I understood that I had violated God’s Law (the Ten Commandments), and 2,000 years ago Jesus paid my fine in His precious life's blood, I found that upon my repentance and faith in the Savior God would legally commute my death sentence. My case was dismissed through the mercy of the Judge.

On the Day of Judgment the moral Law cannot condemn me, because my crimes against God no longer exist. They have been blotted out by the grace of God. I have everlasting life. My fine was paid; and my case dismissed. Is yours?

Knuckle-dragging Narrow-minded Creationists (part 1)

Atheists want to keep creationism out of public schools. They see themselves as the intellectual saviors of the poor dumb college and university students, who don’t have the ability to think for themselves. These creationism censors are the book burners, who do what they do “for the good of society” --their godless society. And they do what they do in the name of “reason” and "science," when their atheistic belief is (in reality) completely unreasonable and absolutely unscientific.

If you think atheism is scientific and reasonable, let me ask you some questions. Do you believe that nothing created everything? If you do, that's not only unscientific, it's unreasonable. This is because your "nothing" isn’t “nothing” at all. It is something because it had the amazing ability to create everything. Perhaps you have changed your mind, and after hearing that you think that you then believe that something created everything, although you are not sure what that something was?

Keeping in mind that the most intelligent of human beings can’t create a grain of sand from nothing--do you think that that "something" that made everything was intelligent? It obviously is; and if you do believe the something that made the flowers, the birds, the trees, the human eye, and the sun, the moon and the stars was intelligent, you then believe that there was an intelligent designer. You believe in “intelligent design.” Congratulations; you have just become an unscientific knuckle-dragger in the narrow-minded eyes of our learning institutions that embrace Darwinism.

Continued tomorrow...