Thursday, December 25, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Children Following God's Call
Jason Janz posts an timely article at SharperIron on God's call to children:
I want to challenge my generation to take a different attitude toward their children than the boomer generation did. I’m afraid that we have learned to shelter our kids from all and any pain. We strive to give them the best educations, opportunities in sports, and plenty of entertainment. But what if God wants our kids to go through painful things? Are we quick to jump in at the first sign of discomfort, pushing against what could be God’s molding hand? Better yet, what intentionally uncomfortable positions have we put our children into for the sake of the kingdom of God? The gospel compels us to live for others, not for ourselves. Do you reach out to the poor? Do your kids embrace the Bible teaching that it is more blessed to give than to receive? What are your plans to make Christmas a time of transformation, turning the hearts of your family from receivers to radical givers? Do your kids have a ministry at their local church? If I fear anything for my kids, it is that they finish school with a strong education but with a passionless Christianity.
Kirk Cameron Interviews John MacArthur On The True Gospel
I saw these clips on Thabiti Anyabwile's blog today and had to share them with you. My heart rejoiced over the powerful, humble presentation of the pure Gospel! I hope yours will, too.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Something Else to Cling to
Since every American should own firearms for sport, protection, and the preservation of liberty, I've included this link to recommend the most useful guns.
Hold to the Truth!
Today's dose of Spurgeon at Pyromaniacs is a bold and needed admonition to hold on the truth. We need to saturate our souls with this mindset:
Jesus never gave countenance to the baseborn charity which teaches that it is no injury to a man's nature to believe a lie. Beloved, be firm, be stedfast, be positive. There are certain things which are true; find them out, grapple them to you as with hooks of steel. Buy the truth at any price and sell it at no price.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Chuck Baldwin Speaks On Abortion
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
Understanding the South
When many people think of the South, the mental image they see is a caricature. They see racists, rednecks, trailer park trash, and ignorance. Now, most of us native born Southerners will own up to being rednecks. But we resent in the strongest terms being caricatured as unintelligent. (The rest of you are just jealous of our beautiful, slower way of speaking!) The South is a unique cultural region whose society is an intricate tapestry of education, intellect, faith, progress, resilience, shame, and heartache.
We Southerners are proud of our heritage. We have no need of your pity, your scorn, your condescension, or your moralizing. We are aware of our peculiar history with its great moral stain. But that history is more than just its stain. And history is more than the propaganda of 143 years. Mr. Lincoln’s War changed America forever, and in many ways for the worse. Even the freeing of the blacks was not fully realized until a century after his death. In his war, we lost our unique republic and it was replaced by an ideology of empire. And you cannot blame that on the South.
One of the best articles I’ve read recently about the South is on Newsweek’s website. I offer it for your enjoyment. Read Southern Discomfort by Christopher Dickey.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Rescuing the Federal Budget
There are only two ways to fix the federal budget deficit over the long term: pursue a less agressive foreign policy and reform the major entitlement programs. The Heritage Foundation opens a discussion on the second way, which is where most of our savings could be realized.
View the entire video
View the entire video
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Superficial Christianity
Carnal Christianity is almost synonymous with contemporary Christianity in America. The church's morals are unremarkably different from those of the society at large. Since morals are an outgrowth of spiritual understanding, one cannot but wonder about the authenticity of a Christian whose affections are world-oriented and flesh-oriented to the degree that we see in today's Church. Phil Johnson at Pyromaniacs does us all a great service by posting excerpts from Spurgeon every weekend. This week's article is
Shallow Conversions;Shallow Religion
Shallow Conversions;Shallow Religion
Though I rejoice in sudden conversions, I entertain grave suspicions of those suddenly happy people who seem never to have sorrowed over their sin. I am afraid that those who come by their religion so very lightly often lose it quite as lightly. Saul of Tarsus was converted on a sudden, but no man ever went through a greater horror of darkness than he did before Ananias came to him with the words of comfort.
I like deep ploughing. Top-soil skimming is poor work; the tearing of the soil under surface is greatly needed. After all, the most lasting Christians appear to be those who have seen their inward disease to be very deeply seated and loathsome, and after awhile have been led to see the glory of the healing hand of the Lord Jesus as he stretches it out in the gospel.
I am afraid that in much modern religion there is a want of depth on all points; they neither deeply tremble nor greatly rejoice, they neither much despair nor much believe. Oh, beware of pious veneering! Beware of the religion which consists in putting on a thin slice of godliness over a mass of carnality. We must have thorough going work within; the grace which reaches the core, and affects the innermost spirit is the only grace worth having.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Global Warming? Not So Fast, My Friends
There is no evidence that global warming is a scientific fact, much less that it is man-caused if it exists. A leading scientific organization came out today with a statement that its members have not reached a consensus on the subject.
Change of Heart
Change of Heart
An organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists has reversed its stance on climate change. The American Physical Society now says that many of its members no longer believe global warming is caused by humans.
The Society previously declared: "The evidence is incontrovertible. Global warming is occurring." But the Society now says there is no scientific consensus to support that statement: "There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the intergovernmental panel on climate change conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are likely to be primarily responsible for global warming."
Choosing Leaders
“If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation.” —Samuel Adams
Pickens on the Energy Crisis
Thursday, July 17, 2008
A Path Back To More Constitutional Government
Real conservatives, libertarians, and constitutionalists are at a loss in this presidential election cycle to effect real, positive change. John McCain is the GOP nominee, but he is no conservative. His record as a senator reflects a flagrant disregard for basic constitutional prinicples. Barack Obama is an ideological leftist. But the Democratic nominee benefits from being somewhat charming and from actually having public speaking skills which his major opponent lacks. He is also a largely unknown quantity with the American people. Thus he has an easier time adapting his public positions on policy to suiting whichever portion of the electorate he wishes to appeal to.
Knowing that we will not have a friend in the White House is discouraging. We could even be tempted to give up hope for steering America back to her roots of limited government and individual liberty. There is something we can do, however. We can hold officeholders accountable for their actions. Edwin Viera, Jr. writes in his article Government Is Not The Problem:
In short, “the government” cannot deprive any American of his rights, because only by acting consistently with those rights, precisely as the Constitution guarantees them, do public officials function as “the government” at all. When any public official steps even a single Angstrom Unit outside of the government’s constitutional boundaries, his actions become lawless and unauthorized, and he ceases to act as or for the government, but instead acts against and in defiance of the government.
Of course, the complaint that “the government is denying us our rights” does contain a modicum of practical insight: namely, that many people in public offices today do increasingly disregard and infringe upon Americans’ rights “under color of law.” However, although these misdeeds may be carried out ostensibly in the name of the law, and supposedly through the procedures of the law, they nonetheless remain in violation of the supreme law. Therefore, notwithstanding that the perpetrators may hold public offices, with respect to such aberrant behavior they are not acting as public officials or in the capacity of “the government” at all.
The essential point and fundamental basis for remedial action is that, under America’s political system, oppression is not and can not be the product of a disembodied generality called “the government” that is somehow above the law because it makes, interprets, and enforces the law. Rather, oppression is always the product of identifiable individual wrongdoers in public office, all of whom are themselves wholly subject to law — whether the law of the Constitution, or the higher law of the Declaration of Independence, or the highest “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God” upon which both the Declaration and the Constitution rest. The responsibility for every act of oppression against the American people must be assigned specifically to these individuals, not to the public offices they happen to occupy or to “the government” as an institution.
One solution to the continued usurpations of power by government officials is to prosecute them for their misconduct. Another more practical solution is to vote them out of office. The combination of these two tools, if applied consistently and vigilantly, can steer us back to more constitutional government.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Overview of America
This series of videos was produced by the John Birch Society. JBS has always stood for liberty and conservatism. However, they have been somewhat discredited by accusations of xenophobia (which I have not personally substantiated) and by their tendency to buy in to conspriacy theories (which I observed several years ago when I was more enamored with them).
This series, however, is a good and simple primer of Americanism and our form of government. I think it would be a good starting point for studies in U.S. government for middle schools, high schools, and community colleges. Notice that I said, "a good starting point". It's a good basis for thought and discussion which should expand and refine the themes.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Chuck Baldwin on the Issues
This video summarizes the positions of Chuck Baldwin, the Constitution Party nominee for President. Baldwin is a pastor in Pensacola, FL. Most liberty-minded Christians will feel a kinship to Baldwin and the Constitution Party. But, again, voting for a third party only tends to empower the major party that is less like your own political views.
Bob Barr is the Real Conservative in the Race
Barr is articulate and consistent in his positions. He is the only real conservative who is running in the general election. Unfortunately, his only real impact will be to deliver the presidency to Barack Obama. The bodes ill for court appointments, a fact that should give all liberty-minded Americans pause. A generation of work towards bringing the courts back in line will be lost. And for that we can blame the GOP Congress and President for the last eight years.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 04, 2008
More Than One Way?
On Time magazine’s website (www.time.com, Christians: No One Path to Salvation, June 23, 2008) David van Biema writes: The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life last year surveyed 35,000 Americans, and found that 70% of respondents agreed with the statement "Many religions can lead to eternal life." Even more remarkable was the fact that 57% of Evangelical Christians were willing to accept that theirs might not be the only path to salvation, since most Christians historically have embraced the words of Jesus, in the Gospel of John, that "no one comes to the Father except through me." Even as mainline churches had become more tolerant, the exclusivity of Christianity's path to heaven has long been one of the Evangelicals' fundamental tenets. The new poll suggests a major shift, at least in the pews.
If the Pew survey is representative of the opinions that really exist in the American evangelical church, we are in real trouble as the people of God in this generation. It means that practically, though not officially, we have lost the Gospel as the center of our faith. It also means our churches are filled with professing Christians who are immature in the faith and that not a few of those have never come to saving faith. Paul the apostle says that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and that the Gospel is summed up in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:1 – 4). A majority of evangelicals do not understand that simple, straightforward message or have discounted it.
For most people, knowing and understanding God is primarily an exercise in self-fulfillment or enlightenment. In other words, God is a means of enhancing their lives in a meaningful way. This misses the point of the Gospel entirely. The point of the Gospel is to deal with the problem of sin and reconcile man to his Creator. Many good things happen as a result of overcoming the sin problem. But those good things are ancillary benefits; they are not the purpose of the Gospel.
As Jesus Himself declares, He is the only way to the Father. But many Christians claim to believe that there must be other ways, too. We cannot hold to two contradictory beliefs at the same time. Christ must be true! It is for us to mold our attitudes and beliefs to conform to what He says rather than twisting or abbreviating Him to conform to our beliefs. Believing what Jesus says about being the only way has a consequence. The consequence is evangelism. If we believe that Jesus is the only way, we must get the word out! When the Gospel is central to our faith, we order our lives as a church and as individuals around it.
If the Pew survey is representative of the opinions that really exist in the American evangelical church, we are in real trouble as the people of God in this generation. It means that practically, though not officially, we have lost the Gospel as the center of our faith. It also means our churches are filled with professing Christians who are immature in the faith and that not a few of those have never come to saving faith. Paul the apostle says that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and that the Gospel is summed up in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:1 – 4). A majority of evangelicals do not understand that simple, straightforward message or have discounted it.
For most people, knowing and understanding God is primarily an exercise in self-fulfillment or enlightenment. In other words, God is a means of enhancing their lives in a meaningful way. This misses the point of the Gospel entirely. The point of the Gospel is to deal with the problem of sin and reconcile man to his Creator. Many good things happen as a result of overcoming the sin problem. But those good things are ancillary benefits; they are not the purpose of the Gospel.
As Jesus Himself declares, He is the only way to the Father. But many Christians claim to believe that there must be other ways, too. We cannot hold to two contradictory beliefs at the same time. Christ must be true! It is for us to mold our attitudes and beliefs to conform to what He says rather than twisting or abbreviating Him to conform to our beliefs. Believing what Jesus says about being the only way has a consequence. The consequence is evangelism. If we believe that Jesus is the only way, we must get the word out! When the Gospel is central to our faith, we order our lives as a church and as individuals around it.
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