PCPrays

Russell Moore talks a little bit on how eager Christians are to try to change our culture with out the Gospel.  It’s a great read.

…Our Lord Jesus faced this test when Satan took him to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth, and their glory. Satan did not mind surrendering his authority to Jesus. He didn’t mind a universe without pornography or Islam or abortion or nuclear weaponry. Satan did not mind Judeo-Christian values. He wasn’t worried about “revival” or “getting back to God.” What he opposes was the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected for the sins of the world.

and

It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sigh, I’m starting to like way to many baptist…  And while we are on the topic of purifying America, the Resurgence has a post where they warn that “Jesus’ greatest enemy was a purity movement….  The problem was that they thought they were the obedient ones.”  Sadly many of our churches fall into this category today.  We are more concerned with social change then we are changing the hearts of sinners, starting with our selves.  At least I know that I still have a lot of room to grow in grace and truth.

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This is a good sermon.  It was preached in South Africa and so he talks about South Africa but I think it’s just as true for us (in America) as it is for them or anyone else.

He makes 3 main points

And some other points that he made that are

• You can never get a godly nation from law.  Only the gospel can change the hearts
• Prayer for the president is of first importance.
• Preserved for higher things.
• You will give an account to God on how you lived and lead.tood out for me

You know it’s sad that so many Christians in America don’t pray for President Obama and don’t have a submissive attitude towards him.  I know Christians who publicly belittle the president and the sad part is that these people are the ones who would claim to love America the most.  Paul never said “Pray for Rome” no he said “Pray for the king”.  As Christians we are not called to love our country and hate our president.  No we are called to respect (ie, be submissive) and pray for our president and to be a foreigner in the country.

Happy 5th of July everyone, Marci did good last night.  We did not have to many fireworks around the house but we did have a few.  Gabbie was kinda freaked out but she was quit for most of it and Marci did not wake up.  So it was good.

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In Matthew 6:24 Jesus says

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and money”

Jesus starts with a basis truth and then applies it to a specific example.  So yes, in context this verse deals with serving money.  However that does not take away from the basic truth that Jesus starts with.  That is that “No one can serve two masters”.  You cannot serve God and country and more then you can serve God and money for either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

How I wish that we could hear preaching on this.  But because our hearts refuse to throw out all of our idols we sing “God bless America” during worship.  Christians used to be killed for refusing to say “caesar is lord” now we proudly say the pledge of allegiance during worship.

Anyways, guess I’m going t0 be worshiping with Dave’s church this weekend.  I’m sure the grandparents will love to have Marci  :)

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

1st Amendment

The U.S. Constitution

The first thing that I would like to say is that America is a Republic not a Democracy.  This means that we are governed by the law not by the desire of the people.  The highest law that we have in America is the constitution and so all other laws, rules, and regulations must be in harmony with the constitution.

How the argument for homosexual marriage should go

Marriage is a religious observation.  The 1st Amendment to the constitution clearly establishes the freedom of religion.  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.  And so I would say that the government does not have the right to choose who can and can not be married.

Why this argument will not work

The “left” (who are the people generally for homosexual marriage) have been telling us for years that the 1st amendment does not mean what it clearly says but rather means that religion can not interfere with any government activity (ie. Schools).  So for the left to use this argument would be for them to confess that they have been misusing the 1st amendment to keep religion out of the government for the past few decades.  And I don’t think that they are going to do that.

Why this is bad for the church

Now I have been thinking about this and I think that no matter how the homosexual marriage thing turns out it will be bad for the church.  Think about this, Christians are leading the way for laws that would give the government power to withhold people from a religious ceremony.  And do we really think it’s a big step that once we give the government the right to define religious ceremonies, that they will not say who can and can not be baptized or circumcised or ordained as a priest/minister of God’s Word?  I am afraid that by giving the government the rights over one religious ceremony we are giving them the rights to all of them.

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So Nyssa and my self are going to have a deficit this year.  Yep we are going to spend more then we make, how much you ask?  It’s not too bad, just $100,000.  So given that I asked if we could find anywhere to cut our budget so that way it will be less then $100,000.  Guess what, we did!  Is that great or what, we found a total of 0.006% (If your wondering that’s $6.00) that we can cut out!  So now we will only have a deficit of $99,994.  Woot!

Okay, I’m not talking about my self or Nyssa but about the amount that our government managed to cut from their budget.  President Obama ordered his cabinet secretaries to find $100 million in the budget to cut.  They found $102 million.  Sounds good, but $102 million is only 0.006 of this year’s deficit.  Mr. Obama did this to “Show that he, too, was serious about belt-tightening.”

If Nyssa and my self were going to over spend this year by $100,000 and told you that we were going to tighten our belts and cut $6.00 I don’t think you would be too amazed at our sacrifice…

I used $100,000 because it’s a number that I can understand.  A 2 trillion deficit (and even $102 million) is to big for me to see and so I asked “what if it was my house and it was from a total of $100,000?”

Linky

To me the worst part of all of this is the following line…

By increasing the number of soldiers traveling on each airplane chartered for rest-and-relaxation leave, the Army will save $18 million in the next few months.

Expenses for our soldiers should be the one of the last things to be cut.  Not the first.  To be honest if everything in the budget was cut except for money spent on our soldiers and their families, I would be okay with that.

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