Tonight’s Podcast: Justice Sunday II

I’ve got coverage you won’t get from the media with a complete wrap-up of Justice Sunday II:

Part One
Part Two

Part Three
Part Four

Part Five

One thing I forgot to mention was that Congressional Candidate Norm Semanko showed up at Justice Sunday in Boise at CCV. I don’t live in his district, but I’m impressed that he showed up. My heart leaning is towards Robert Vasquez, Semanko has impressed me but not only showing up but also sending me a personal letter in regards to the letter I wrote on Stem Cell research, so we’ll have to see how things go.

Without Respect

From Worldnetdaily, we get a somewhat misleading story entitled, “Shots Fired” indicating that it occurred near the President’s ranch in Crawford. You click on the story and we see its a neighbor fed up with the antics of anti-war protestors firing into. So, its not that huge of a deal.

The story of this guy, Larry Mattlege is interesting, though. The guy’s tired and I can’t blame him. Here’s what the story has to say:

“I got a right to fire up in the air,” Mattlage said. “I am getting ready for dove season and you all are messing up my dove huntin’, so if you all could please leave and go somewhere else, this whole community would be behind you.”

He elaborates further:

When they first came out here, I was sympathetic to their cause, right. They as American citizens have a right to march to protest. It is like this – it’s like having company, if you have your brother-in-law at your house for five days, wouldn’t it start stinking after a while. You are ready for him to go home, aren’t you? Five weeks of this is too much. We live here. It’s our community. Apparently we have no respect over here and we have no respect over here. Somebody has got to get together and clear it out…We got a battle of the porta-potties. You all got started out going to the bathroom in a five-gallon bucket. Then they moved one porta-potty in here. No we got two porta-potties. And now we have three and if this keeps up, it will be all the way down the road. And they’ve got more porta-potties over there (pointing at the Bush ranch). The only one winning here is the one cleaning the porta-potties.

There you have it, after five weeks these people deserve their community back and hopefully people starting on the pro-Bush side of this will go and try to get people to agree to go home. At this point, Ms. Sheehan made her point and the people of Crawford should be able to get their lives back. That’s all Mr. Mattlege is asking after all these weeks and I don’t think its unreasonable.

From The Its About Time Category…

From the Wichita Eagle, we have this news:

The Rev. George Kevorkian, assistant to the bishops at Englewood headquarters, said Antiochian delegates took the action because of the council’s “very noticeable shift toward a political agenda” — for instance, involvement with secular organizations that take liberal stands on abortion.

The Rev. Thomas Zain, dean of the Brooklyn, N.Y., cathedral, said the Orthodox were also upset that the Rev. Robert Edgar, the National Council’s general secretary, withdrew endorsement of a joint statement with the National Association of Evangelicals defining marriage as “the holy union of one man and one woman.”

As indicated by the headline, what took them so long? The National Council of Churches has for a long time been an advocate of liberalism as a first priority that’s why they inserted themselves into the Elian Gonzalez matter on the side of Fidel Castro. The organization has been a beacon of liberalism for 30 years now.

We may see more breaks before this is over. The Antiochians leaving are going to make it harder for a lot of the more traditional groups to remain. I’ve seen Archbishop Demitrios of the Greek Orthodox at the National Pro-Life march. How long is he going to last, the same thing about a lot of the Orthodox Churches. This could be the start of something bigger. We can only hope.

Democrats Need to Deceive Public

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch we have quite an interesting story about a survey done by the Democracy Project showing Republicans are weak on some issues, but what this group found was stunning in regards to the Democrats:

But in a withering assessment of their own party, the Democratic pollsters who put out the study raised doubts about whether Democrats can cash in on GOP problems.

“As powerful as concern over these issues is, the introduction of cultural themes – specifically gay marriage, abortion and the importance of the traditional family unit and the role of religion in public life – quickly renders them almost irrelevant in terms of electoral politics on the national level,” the authors wrote.

The report notes that Democrats running in next year’s mid-term elections begin at a disadvantage with voters in rural areas and “red” states – states captured by the GOP in the presidential election.

“The real problem for Democrats is that their elected officials, and by extension their entire party, are perceived as directionless and divided, standing for nothing other than their own enrichment,” the Democratic authors wrote.

The report carries weight because of its high-profile authors. The Democracy Corps’ principals are Stanley Greenberg, James Carville and Robert Shrum, top strategists for Democratic presidential candidates in recent years.

Directionless, divided, standing for nothing, great assessment of the Democratic Party today. Or as Macbeth would say, “Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” John White does have a solution:

White offered this advice to Democrats: “They have to convey to married people with families, to rural voters and to red state voters that they do, in fact, share their values.”

Let me translate that for you guys, you have to LIE. You don’t share our values. The thing that Christian pro-life Americans value are not the things the Democratic party values. The Democrats like to do this song and dance thing where they say they they share our values but do nothing about it.

Democrats tell us they want to make abortion rare but will oppose any regulation on abortion. Governor Katherine Sebellius (D-Ks) vetoed legislation that would have required abortion facilities to be licensed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, following an incident were a totally disgusting situation was unconvered in that state. Democrats could stop opposing parental notification and consent and informed consent, propositions supported by 80+% of the American people.

If they don’t want to pass a Constitutional Amendment on Same Sex marriage, they could get together with the Republicans and take the issue off the plate of the federal courts. Then some people might conclude that Democrats shared traditional cultural values.

The Democrats are going to SAY things that sound good, but they’re not going to change their policy. As long as they’re the party that says, “We support abortion on demand without restriction throughout the entirety of pregnancy and we will do nothing to protect tradional marriage,” people aren’t going to buy it. People know who the Democrats are and that’s why they’re losing.

House Churches Are Not Panacea

Jim Rutz, Worldnetdaily’s newest columnist is making the case for a revolution in the Western church world. Rutz advocates “Open Christianity” with no “buildings, paid clergy, or sermons” meeting in homes, offices, and restaurants.

Rutz believes that joining an Open Church can be “a giant step up to a whole new level of life.” He promises an exciting “new Christianity” where people can realize their full potential away from the restraints of a hierarchal church.

Clearly Rutz strikes a nerve. Too many Christians are mere pew potatoes, doing little in the body of Christ. Churches are often more focused on education than ability, faith, and the call of the Holy Spirit in ministry. In addition, denominations are often hung up on the most minute points of doctrine and thus find themselves totally divided. Yet, are house churches a cure all? Having spent years in house churches including more than a year running one, I can answer that question.

Flawed

Its got some advantages for those who love to sing to the Lord, but couldn’t win a Grammy. Being in an intimate surrounding, you’re going to free to worship God, to sing a variety of songs. Everyone can share and teach. I’ve been in some House Church services that have gone from 1:30 in the afternoon to 6:00 in the evening.

Did it totally transform my life? No. Did it change the communities around the Fellowship? No. Did it do more than the same people could have in a traditional church setting with a building? No.

What type of problems do house churches have? Here are a few I and others I know who’ve worshiped in and have dealt with:

1) Cliques: A Pastor who moved out to the area I lived in wanted to go and visit a house church. The people would not even give him the location and times of their meetings.

2) False doctrine: False doctrine is a huge problem in the normal church world. Its even bigger in a world of open ministry. As some message are totally off the wall. I’ve heard sermons preached on the Mason Conspiracy, of government satellites about to obliterate Christians before Thanksgiving, etc.

3) Minor Points become the main thing: I’ve been in fellowships where the focus is on one thing and one thing alone and sadly that’s not Jesus Christ. It’s a particular doctrine like the chosen day of rest and worship, the exactly correct way to say the name of the Lord, the End Times, etc. that becomes of more prominence and importance than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

4) Everybody wants it their way. A lot of Americans are frustrated with their pastors. If only things were done their way. Take about four or five people thinking like that, put them in a group and watch the fun begin. A friend of mine whose spent years ministering in jails used to run services out of his house but the constant battle for control ended that. He explained there were “too many chiefs, not enough Indians.”

Obviously, there were other minor annoyances. Having people over to your house every week and the need to keep said house immaculate lest people judge the hostess unfairly is a huge pressure.

Judge With Mercy

Am I saying you should never start/join/become involved in a house church? No. If this is where you’re being led by the Holy Spirit, then by all means go. However, just like traditional churches, house churches will succeed or fail based on their membership.

Of course, some people will point out that some of the examples I’ve given violate principles taught by Rutz and other house-church advocates, but I have news for them: people are not going to follow the advice of any book word for word. If you don’t believe me, ask God Almighty about the strict adherence to the Bible.

Sadly, we must fact the fact that so many Christians live in a state of spiritual lethargy and do little for the Kingdom of God for one reason-they don’t want to. In many cases, the very people attracted to the House church movement are those who need it the least, who are already participating fully in the life of their church.

Submission to God’s word, love for one another, and outreach in the community are keys to having a strong church. There’s no magic organization, formula, prayer, or chant that will bring you to some point of spiritual success.

There’s a Price to Pay

Generally I post a sermon over at my Cyberian Mission. I figure I might as well blog it as well.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest it may happen, after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all who behold it begin to mock him, saying, `This man began to build and was not able to finish.-Luke 14:28-30

There’s a price to pay. There’s nothing that comes without cost except fliers for things people want you to buy. The question is to be make the right choices and choose the right prices to pay.

Today, wherever in the world you find yourself, you’re faced with choices and these choices will determine how your life turns. These choices affect your finances, health, your family, and eternity. Today, its time to count the costs.

One could spend hours going over the bad financial decisions people make. Some will choose to live far beyond their means, but they pay the price later on with bankruptcy as they see all the things they loved so much ripped away or we’ll find themselves struggling to survive in their retirement because while living high they didn’t save anything for their future.

There’s a price to being a young and large male driving a 1982 Mazda GLC and then upgrading to an 1987 Caravel. A friend once remarked that she felt sorry for my car whenever I got into it. In the long-term not having to worry about a big car payment helped me be able to get a house. I still don’t have a nice car, but that’s a price I pay.

Some people choose to smoke, use drugs, or drink to excess and there’s a momentary pleasure in these things that those of us who don’t indulge miss out on, but there’s a price to pay down the road with health problems down the road.

Some of us, myself included struggle to avoid overeating and have taken too much liberty with our food habits. Of course, later in life, we’ll face doctors giving us very strict regimented diets to continue to keep breathing.

The decision to take time for family and the conflicting desire to provide for them is a struggle many parents face. How many parents have spent themselves for their children only to find that they don’t know them?

You can have the World and enjoy sin and autonomy from Christ, but there’s a price: your eternal soul forever separated from God and all that is truly good in this universe.

You can follow Christ into the New Jerusalem but there’s a price to pay. It means the forsaking of the pleasures of sin for a season, to take up your cross and daily follow Christ. It may mean in some places the cruel mocking of others, and in some lands, it means imprisonment or even death. We may see these days come ourselves as the demand that the Gospel conform itself to the image of our modern culture and that which is politically incorrect be disregarded.

These are the choices you face and I’d urge you to think about them. We don’t think enough, with some of these decisions we just drift along. “Well, all my friends are doing it, so that’s what I’ll do.” “This seems right at the time.” So we just go ahead without a plan. What do you value? What matters?

Your decisions should reflect those values. There’s one thing you must know is that you can’t have it all. That’s where much of the tension comes from in this world, people think, “I can go ahead and drive a nice car, have all the things I want when I want them and then retire well, work constantly, have a great family life, be a Christian but engage in whatever sin I want.”

Thus people have contradictory goals and get upset when nothing seems to go well. Its because we want to have our cake and eat it, too. We want things that are totally incompatible and never balance things out in favor of the things that we value most.

Today is a day for choosing. Count the costs and decide what your life’s going to be. But at the end of the day, don’t blame society, don’t blame God for what your life becomes or where it leads. Your own choices will determine that.

If you determine to follow Christ, He’ll lead you in the right paths and take your hand so you know the way to go for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He’ll walk with you and you won’t have to make this journey of choices on your own. Call out to Him and he’ll hear you.