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What Many Churches And The SPLC Have In Common

http://www.prisonplanet.com/what-many-churches-and-the-splc-have-in-common.html

This is a great article by Chuck Baldwin about how most Christian sheeple followed Hitler instead of standing for moral justice and how the same thing is happening today. Even if you are not religious it still makes a good read.

I stand behind Chuck’s theological reasoning on governmental issues, but I do not necessarily agree on  church doctrinal stuff.

Over-spiritualizing Christianity

A common misperception (one that I held in my early days of independence) is that Christians are to show their dedication to God by becoming super-involved with their church’s activities.

Sunday morning service, weekly prayer meeting, weekly Bible study, worship nights, extra family fun activities, ministry Saturdays, men’s and women’s retreats… the opportunities are nearly limitless, and mostly age and/or gender-segregated. And if your church doesn’t offer it all, you can always show your passion by attending two churches (and I have known at least several people personally who have done this).

Yet over time, as my little family grew and my spiritual beliefs matured a bit (I do not mean I have reached maturity as a Christian, however) I began to recognize a pattern. This over-spiritualizing, over-dedication to the church, and placing the emphasis on the appearance of a spiritual life were leading to the suffering of families.

Families could be falling apart, and as long as they were attending church activities no one thought anything of it. Priorities among believers, especially leaders, like these were getting all messed up, and not only did we see families falling apart, but outsiders were seeing just as steady a flow of churchgoers coming out the door as going in. What was the point? Is this what Jesus is all about, doing spiritual things for the sake of good feelings and appearances?

We certainly don’t have it all figured out. We are just another family seeking to glorify God and enjoy Him. But when we see significant errors it’s hard to ignore them. Our values are now much different than they were.

We value the role God gave us, to be a family who follows the Lord together instead of in age-appropriate classes. We value the opportunity God has given us to glorify Him, simply by doing everything as if we are doing it for Him. We value the personalities He gave us, and seek to develop them as our way of giving thanks, instead of offering up endless prayers over every little decision that needs to be made.

We value worship music played well more than expensive equipment used to make it. We value ministering to people in our daily lives, including voluntary monetary gifts instead of guilt-driven tithing to seeker-sensitive churches. And right up there at the top of the list – we value groups of believers (whether churches or not) who promote strong family relationships and creating homes that exemplify God’s intention for Christian homes.

Personally, seeing these things as worthy of pursuit was a relief for me. There didn’t have to be any lifelong pursuit of my purpose or wondering if I was doing enough spiritual things to please God. Now I can devote myself to worshiping God and ministering to others with and through my marriage, my mothering, my home, and my labor support (or Papa’s workplace). This is who I am, and God is pleased because I want to be the best wife, mother, and doula there is, showing His love to others.

The church is important, but without prioritizing the family, the church cannot be healthy. To be spiritually healthy, we must take a closer look at our personal and family lives, and see what the Bible has to say about following Christ.

In this season of our life, I know that one of our most important spiritual duties is to train up our young children to love and honor God, and while we do this in the home and among family, this year I also want to put emphasis on loving God by serving others outside our family. I expect that as we move along this spiritual journey together I will share more about it with you.

Where are you on your spiritual journey? Do you have a story or thought you would like to share?

a precious confession

Buddy is a believer in Jesus Christ. That is a gift to his parents like no other. For some time now he has been expressing the desire to become a Christian, declaring his trust and love for Jesus, but because we wanted to be sure he was sure, we kept postponing “the prayer”. He was only four, after all.

After he brought up the issue again, the day before his fifth birthday, Papa and I decided it was time to encourage him to repent and accept God’s most amazing gift.

We emphasized to him that because he has faith he has already been saved, that Jesus already did the work on the cross and Buddy can do nothing to earn His mercy and grace. Also, prayer cannot save him ; Jesus saves him.

I read to Buddy from Ephesians 2, and then Papa led our little man to apologize for his sin and thank Jesus for dying on the cross to save him, and now he feels more peaceful knowing he has declared his faith.

Papa and I will now be looking into baptizing him, perhaps ourselves, as we believe baptism is part of declaring your faith in Jesus and following Him.

This is an exciting time for us, but we also want to be sure that what we teach our children and lead them to believe is biblical.

In case you are interested, two books we have found especially useful in teaching the Bible to our kids are The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos, and Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. The first is a perfect mix between making the Bible understandable and yet not watering it down, and the second is a family devotional based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Each takes about two years to work through, but we spend about 20 minutes each morning reading them together and not only are Buddy and Girlie learning from them, but so am I!

God stands for Justice (not tyranny)

Not another one of those God rants, you’re probably moaning. Yes, I’m going to share my opinion once again on another religious issue.

So, turn on Christian talk radio and you are bound to hear the word justice tossed around, without giving it any real meaning. In today’s politically-correct world, you’ll probably hear it in reference to “social justice”, or involuntary charity. Or you may even hear that a Christian is being “just” when they forgive wrongs done to them.

Let’s get this straight. Justice is not about spreading the wealth around, and it’s not about letting bygones be bygones. God is the God of Justice, of assigning merited punishment where it is due, which is why He sent His Son to die on the cross. Malign the word and you are removing significance from the work Christ did on the cross.

While punishment for sin has been paid, consequences still remain. Examples fill the Bible of situations in which God intervened or approved interventions that brought violent justice to wrongdoers and protected the innocent.

And that brings up another issue because, along with redefining the word justice, many Christians have come to believe that “good” Christians are only peace-loving and mild mannered, and that the business of justice should be left to God and government.

Anyway. God used force all the way through the Bible, and nowhere did He say that when justice was needed that we should stand around looking dumb at each other, hoping someone else will do something useful, and then say justice was done. Christians can be so backwards sometimes.

Here is some food for thought:

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, and Samuel and the prophets – who through faith… enforced justice…” ~ Hebrews 11:33

“Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” ~ Matthew 23:23-24

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” ~ Micah 6:8

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” ~ Isaiah 1:17

“He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.” ~ Psalm 33:5

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgement. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” ~ Deuteronomy 16:18-20

God is not a wimp, and He doesn’t want us to be wimps. He expects us to stand up for things that are right and to speak up when things are not right. Stand for justice!

This applies today because we are living in a very interesting time period. Our country, which once stood for freedom and justice, is now becoming tyrannical. Actually, it has been tyrannical for the past 150 years or so. Families are in danger of having their rights taken away by the United Nations, the Feds are putting more and more restrictions on gun ownership, and even the seemingly little things like mandatory vaccinations, the Patriot Act, and giving travelers a choice between killer radiation and sexual molestation; these are but a few of the areas where justice is not being served, and those who do stand up for justice are punished!

We need more people to do what’s right, and that includes Christians. If you are a Citizen of the United States of America, you are obligated by the Constitution to become involved in your government and say no to tyranny. Without the people taking a stand we will lose more and more of our rights, little bit by little bit.

I could go on about how we can stand for justice, because this is an important issue to our family, but I just wanted to point out the crucial piece, that believers in Christ have just as much reason and obligation to stand for justice as any other citizen. The same people who cry over the fact that this country was founded by Christians and yet it has strayed so far, feel they can’t do anything more than vote for a Christian who will enforce their values on others. That is not what justice is about! And we’re talking about our very freedom here! Isn’t that important to you?

It is your moral duty to disobey our tyrranical government

As Christian Americans, we say we believe that freedom is a God-given right, that the founding fathers had it right when they signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, but when the legislation coming out of our federal government becomes more and more tyrannical, we find ourselves facing difficult questions: Do we submit to a tyrannical government? Do we obey our leaders unquestioningly because they are more powerful? Has God ordained those with the biggest guns?

Some, probably most, American Christians believe we are supposed to “render to Cesaer what is Cesaer’s”, giving everything to our government they demand – our money, our guns, our bodies, our freedom, our lives. Is this what Paul meant when he said we should obey the civil government? Are we condemned to a life of obedience to a government that does not have our best interest at heart?

Tonight, Papa and I watched an excellent presentation by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on what Romans 13 really means. To paraphrase him, he states in the video, “Just because our government is more powerful, that does not make it right for them to trample over us, under the assumed authority of God”.

Watch Pastor Chuck Baldwin’s presentation here to learn more about the historical setting of Romans 13, about the Biblical role of civil government, about the level of authority God gave individuals, civil governments, Satan, and that which He retains for Himself.

As a whole, I believe we Christians get stuck in ruts of certain beliefs that we think are biblical, but in reality are adaptations of the truth. Now we are applying these mistaken beliefs in such a way that we are allowing our government to punish us for no wrongdoing, and we think it is our duty to God to submit to them. As Chuck Baldwin also stated, “You know you are no longer free in America when you don’t have the right to be left alone”.

Now, enough of my talking. Go watch the video!

God Provides

God is the Great Provider. The greatest example of His provision is of course when He sacrificed His son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for our sins which spared us from eternal damnation and enabled us to renew our eternal relationship with Him.

On a day-to-day basis God also promised to provide for the material and spiritual needs of those who trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation (Phil 4:10-20). The thing that bothers us is that we live in a culture which believes we are entitled to have all of our wants met, as well as our needs. Today, many people cannot tell the difference between needing a warm home and a luxery four-bedroom, four-bathroom house, or the difference between food for sustenance and a four-course meal three times a day, or the difference between transportation to work and the latest model of their favorite car on loan.

As a culture we have lost sight of reality, and we have become greedy, selfish brats who feel we need the latest whats-it to be comfortable. Now, I have no problem with money or things it can buy! I enjoy shopping just as much as the next person. Yet, Christians who tell us they will remain unaffected by the coming depression because “God will provide” are going to come crashing to their knees when the seemingly sudden lack of work or food prices slap them in the face. God provides, but He doesn’t promise comfort.

While punishing the Israelites for their sinfulness, God allowed them to feel hunger and then provided them with strange food to eat. He let them wander in the desert for fourty years, but He kept their clothes from wearing out all that time. They had to walk, day in and day out, but God kept their feet from swelling on their long journey. Does that sound like provision we ask of God today? Or are we expecting Him to save us from the journey through the desert altogether? Does God owe us that? I should say not!

In Pilippians 4:10-20, Paul shares how God allowed him to experience both need and abundance, hunger and fullness, but in all God provided for him and Paul learned contentment.

God has not promised that you will be spared job loss. He has not promised to keep your house from the bank. He has not even promised that you will be able to afford a car, new clothes, or a good school for your kids.

Yet God provides, and often in unexpected, amazing ways. The Bible teaches us that Christians are never in the grip of blind fortune, chance, fate, or luck. Everything that happens is divinely planned and is an opportunity to trust God, rejoice in His providence, and recognize that it is all for God’s glory and our spiritual and eternal good.

Reading a library book about St. Patrick with Buddy recently, I saw yet another example of God’s providence. After God helped Patrick escape from slavery, Patrick and the people he was with became hungry. They complained to Patrick saying, “if your God is so good, why don’t you pray to Him for food?” So he did, and what happened next? Did they stumble across a tavern or home with people ready to cook them a hot full course dinner? No. God sent a herd of pigs across their path, and that night they feasted on pigs roasted over the fire. Their bellies were full and their strength returned.

Some people after reading this may think we’re not hoping or trusting enough, or we’re just pessimistic. To the contrary, we have great hope and peace, but we’re also realistic. Instead of whining to God that Papa can’t find a job, we are praising Him for all the wonderful little miracles we see Him working in our lives on a regular basis. Here are a few examples:

•  God has been timing everyday events in our lives so that everything fits perfectly together. Last year we were unable to resell the well-maintained truck we bought for an extremely good deal and then family members we had borrowed money from to buy the truck forgave our debt. Now we have a good truck, for free, to pull our camper.
• Another blessing in timing. We have been looking at campers since last fall and “just happened” to find one that would fit our needs that was also within our budget. Just after our tax return came, the snow in our driveway melted enough that we could park the camper where we needed to. The following day ice fell off our roof, blocking the camper in. If the ice had fallen just a day before, it would have prevented us from bring the camper home.

• Our chickens were pooping on the neighbor’s yard so were giving eggs to them to thank them for their patience. A friendship grew, and the neighbor generously offered to give us his truck cap this July because he wouldn’t be needing it anymore. Its design would fit our truck perfectly, but we didn’t expect to get it because we’ll be moving in May. His truck broke down last month and we got it early as a result.

• We haven’t had to use our food storage.
• At this point all our bills are paid.
• I have more clients and I’m teaching more classes than usual.

• Some of our appliances have been breaking down the past month or two (coffee maker, toaster oven, etc.) If it had happened earlier we would have had to spend money to replace them, so the timing is again, a blessing!
• Papa’s ex-boss and his wife stopped in recently. He said he wished he could give Papa his job back, but wanted to help how he could, so they gave us a gas card that will last a while.
• We’ve been wanting to purchase sleeping bags for each member of our family. Papa has been shopping around for good prices and found a clearance at Cabella’s. His dad works close to the nearest outlet and stopped in to pick up five of them for us. He went with a coworker who just happened to notice as they were leaving with the sleeping bags that there was a sticker on one of them which had an even deeper discount. They took the sleeping bags back in and we received a refund for the difference on all of them!

Isn’t God so good?! He provides for our needs just as He promised, and even some of our want, and we are very thankful for all He has done for us, despite the fact He owes us nothing and we could never repay Him. It just goes to show how merciful, gracious, and how great a provider He is.

Tell us! How has God been providing for your family in these troubled times?

Holiday Cheer

Holidays are just around the corner, and Thanksgiving is coming up fast! That means family get togethers, feasting, and the beginning of the Christmas season. We’re getting excited here in the K household, and we’re looking for new and fun ways to remember the reason we celebrate. 

Instead of stringing lights around the trim, Glen came up with the idea of bringing in tree branches to decorate, and they look lovely illuminating our livingroom at night!

What is Thanksgiving? Remembering the pilgrims? Our American heritage? Food? Family? Since I only have young ones right now I want to keep it very simple ~ Let’s praise God for His great goodness, and remember how blessed we are.

Nemo and Daphney and I pulled out the paper, crayons, scizzors, and string, and made “thankful hands” to hang from Papa’s branches. We each thought of three or four things we are especially thankful for (which is so hard to limit to only three or four!), and perhaps we’ll make some more to add later on.

How about making holidays more simple? Less “to-do” and more care? I think our family(s) have been doing pretty well, but I have found that having children provide a special opportunity to really examine the reasons why we do things and how we can make them more meaningful.

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? How do you make holidays meaningful for your family?

Amazing Grace Theology

First off, congratulations to AGA Ambroult of Elemental for being the new winner of The Complete Tightwad Gazette. Lucky for her, the first winner did not respond to my email with an address to send the book to.

In other thoughts, I really wanted to write today about a documentary my husband and I recently watched called Amazing Grace, the history and theology of Calvanism. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I didn’t know much about Calvanism, but a friend of ours really wanted us to watch it, so we did. And honestly, it brought almost everything I’ve ever believed about God and Christianity into question.

Before I get too far into reviewing Amazing Grace, my thoughts would make more sense to you if I gave you a brief description of our spiritual beliefs until this point. Because that isn’t the purpose of this post I’ll make them as brief as possible:

• Glen and I were both raised in Christian families and “accepted Jesus into our hearts” at a young age
• The variations of our upbringing led us to live our lives for God as young adults
• We met and stayed at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in our area for about nine years, but left after our second child was born, in short because we were not hearing anything other than “Jesus loves you just the way you are” and “God wants to pour His grace over all”, and we wanted to be in a church that taught more Biblical, historical truth that addressed sin.
• We began attending the Christian and Missionary Alliance church in our area because we knew several people who went there and heard they had a more theological foundation.
• In the meantime, because we had few defined doctrines that we understood and believed in, we were brought to a place of “all we know is Christ and Him crucified” and began a search to understand the Bible as it was meant to be interpreted.
• After having yet another conversation with the friend who lent us Amazing Grace, Glen decided to listen to his audio Bible again and suddenly realized that the scriptures speaking of election did not refer to God preacknowledging those who would choose Him, but that it meant God chose certain individuals to follow Him. And that, was the crux, the turning point at which we were able to see Amazing Grace and recognize the simple yet powerful truth that God has control over everything.

It would be difficult for me to explain everything they had in the documentary, but I do recommend that you see it for yourself. In the first section they tell you the history of Christianity itself, from Jesus Christ all the way up to today. It is in this section where I learned how the current philisophical doctrines in churches became the norm, and where strong, Biblical theology became “uncool”. Unfortunately, what we have now is a church which largely thinks that it is based in sound doctrine, but is wrongly focused on pleasing unbelievers instead of teaching and reforming the elect, or believers in Jesus Christ.

The second section explains in clear terms exactly what is Calvanist theology. It’s root began when those who believed the “five points of Arminianism” broke off from the standard Christian beliefs. John Calvin then came alone and his followers presented the “five points of Calvanism” to answer the five points of Arminianism. So now, Calvanism is described in five basic points, all of which are clearly based in Biblical truth.

Those five points (adapted from this wikipedia article) are:

• “Total depravity”: The doctrine of total depravity asserts that, people are not by nature inclined to love God with their whole heart, mind, or strength, but rather all are inclined to serve their own interests over those of their neighbor and to reject the rule of God. Thus, all people by their own faculties are morally unable to choose to follow God and be saved because they are unwilling to do so out of the necessity of their own natures.
• “Unconditional election”: The doctrine of unconditional election asserts that God’s choice from eternity of those whom he will bring to himself is not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people. Rather, it is unconditionally grounded in God’s mercy alone.
• “Limited atonement”: The doctrine of limited atonement asserts that Jesus’s substitutionary atonement was definite and certain in its design and accomplishment. This implies that only the sins of the elect were atoned for by Jesus’s death. Calvinists do not believe, however, that the atonement is limited in its value or power (in other words, God could have elected everyone and used it to atone for them all), but rather that the atonement is limited in the sense that it is designed for some and not all.
• “Irresistible grace”: The doctrine of irresistible grace asserts that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined to save (that is, the elect) and, in God’s timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, bringing them to a saving faith. The doctrine holds that every influence of God’s Holy Spirit cannot be resisted, but that the Holy Spirit, “graciously causes the elect sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ.”
• “Perseverance of the saints”: This doctrine asserts that since God is sovereign and his will cannot be frustrated by humans or anything else, those whom God has called into communion with himself will continue in faith until the end. Those who apparently fall away either never had true faith to begin with or will return.

What I found particularly helpful was the presentation of Arminian believes, what they are, and why they are wrong. This was the part that had me thinking, “Holy cow! Almost everything I thought was truth is false!” They explained all the common defenses of choosing to follow Jesus Christ over being chosen to follow Jesus Christ and I knew them well because I had heard them all my life, but when confronted with the scriptures and their original context, I couldn’t help but see that God has sovereign power over everything, including whether I receive grace, or not.

The third and last section was basically about our worldview, and how we are to witness to others knowing they will either come to Christ because they are called, or reject Him because they were not chosen. Again, they present the common defenses of Arminian values, that we are to cast the net wide so that we could potentially bring all of them to Christ. In reality, we are to cast the net wide because we don’t know who has been chosen or not. All must have the opportunity to face the Gospel of Jesus, which is the turning point at which it becomes obvious whether or not they were chosen to be given grace.

One of the things that I had a hard time accepting about Calvanism was fairness (which they address in the film). How could God be cruel enough to choose to save some and abandon the rest? And while the fact that God is God and He can do whatever pleases Him is the foundation of all that is in His Word, the following illustration in the film helped me to see this point in a different light: You walk down the street and see a line of beggers alongside a wall. You choose to give one of them some money to buy dinner, but you do not give money to each one of them. Were you wrong to give to only one person? Was that unfair? Or was it an act of grace, since they were all bound to a night of hunger anyway? In the same way, we are all dead in sin, every single human being, and God chose to save some of us to show His glory. He could have sent us all to hell for our sins and He would be completely just in doing so, but instead, He chose to save, and for that we all owe Him our lives.

“Is THIS the ocean?”

Last Friday my mom took me and the kids to Reid State Park for the afternoon. Sounds simple right? Not quite. See, we intended to spend the afternoon at Popham beach, but after driving a solid two hours to get there we found a ranger at the entrance telling us to keep going because the tides are high and they had to close the beach. I looked back (with my rather car sick stomach) at my three little kids were hungry and itching to get out, and sighed. But thankfully I have learned over the past few years that instead of getting upset over the little hurdles life throws you, taking what you’re given and making it into something better is really the only thing you can do to make life more beautiful.

So we pulled off to the side of the road and had our picnic by a swamp. I felt bad because even though my kids were excited, and it took some convincing to my son that, no, this was not the ocean, part of me wondered if they were honestly disappointed and just hiding it. But even if they were, at least they were learning how to make the most of it. Nemo decided to build a sand castle.

And after spending a half hour or so revitilizing, we jumped back in the car and headed to the next available beach at Reid State Park, another 45 minutes away. And for that, we enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation – the ocean. Yes, Nemo, THIS is the ocean!

Nemo just couldn’t wait to get into the waves. Jumping, splashing, he couldn’t get enough of it and spent most of his time in the water.

But Daphney wasn’t quite so fond of the cold waves and other than her first dip this was about as close as she got to getting her toes wet.

Then Yai-Yai got out her toy cups for the kids to play with and water was lugged up the shore to build a sand castle… or a lady bug, or something.

Daphney especially liked sitting on the beach towel, wrapped up snuggly. I bet someday she’ll be the one tanning on the beach rather than surfing the waves. My pretty princess.

There is something magical about getting away from home and going some place different than usual. Time literally stood still and what seemed like a half hour turned into two hours and we realized we couldn’t stay much longer.

But there’s always a little more time for playing in the water…

And enjoying the view.

Nemo asked me while we were romping in the waves, “why is this here?”. I replied, “because God put it here!” I’m sure scientists could come up with all kinds of explanations as to why we need the ocean, but I think that, right up near the top of the list, is that God put the ocean there so we can admire the greatness and glory of Himself.