Lashed to the Gospel?

The Apostle Paul told young Timothy this:

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 ESV)

Its no secret that we are seeing this come to pass in our world today. Look at many of the popular “Christian” books and “Christian” preachers that millions flock to read and hear. They listen to every message and read every book, but they don’t know the truth. They don’t listen to messages or read the books by solid Christian preachers and authors. They have followed after their own passions and have forsaken the truth.

But its not just the flock that have done this. Preachers and authors have too, because its what makes them money. They have followed after the checkbook instead of Christ. And as a result they are leading many down the wrong road and heaping to themselves a stricter judgment.

Today, I read about a preacher that refused such a thing. In his life, God used him to open and start a Seminary. That seminary is still open and training men and women for the Gospel ministry. On his death bed, he called for his successor to come to him. Dr. L. R. Scarborough was to take over Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary upon the passing of Dr. B. H. Carroll. Here is what was said from Dr. Carroll to Dr. Scarborough, “I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to keep it lashed to the old Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

What will you be lashed to? Will you heed the charge to be “lashed to the old Gospel of Jesus Christ”?

A Church Family That Wants to be Together

The Catholic Church is facing a problem that frankly is interesting to not just them, but other non-Catholic Churches too. In many non-Catholic congregations, its not uncommon to read that they have a Spanish service in the afternoon. But it wasn’t until yesterday when CNN.com ran an article that ought to get many churches thinking.

In the article, Emily Probst reports:

“It’s the browning of the Catholic Church in the United States,” says Pedro Moreno Garcia, who until last month led the Hispanic ministry for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Moreno Garcia points to St. Cecilia’s Spanish-dominant Mass schedule as a sign of the times.
“Hispanics are the present and Hispanics are the future of the Catholic Church in the United States,” says Moreno Garcia.
One-third of all Catholics in the United States are now Latinos thanks to immigration and higher fertility rates, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. While St. Cecilia’s parish has relished the growth, elsewhere, the Latino population boom has rocked the pews.”

All that information is important to getting down to what is the interesting part of the article.

The article continues,

“After more than 15 years working for the Catholic Church in majority-Hispanic areas of Texas, Moreno Garcia spent the last year tackling the challenges of a community where Latinos, although growing, are still the minority.
He recalls a few heated phone calls after the archdiocese newspaper, the St. Louis Review, added a page in Spanish. He fights prejudice with thought-provoking questions. “When you go to heaven, and you’re in front of St. Peter, what would you want to have in your hand, your baptismal certificate or your passport?” Moreno Garcia asks”.

Great question and point to people’s hang ups. But yet still that is not what was so interesting to me in this article.

Here is that portion:

One archdiocese parish that is struggling with the Latino influx is Holy Trinity in St. Ann, Missouri, a suburban community with an affordable housing stock that has prompted a population shift in the last decade.
Separate Sunday morning Masses in English and in Spanish at Holy Trinity are creating division among the devout.
“We’re two separate parishes operating under one roof,” says Parish Council President Gina Shocklee.
“I refer to it as Holy Trinity Catholic Church, and then there’s Holy Trinity Hispanic Church,” says council member Jody Tedeschi, who worries the separate Masses promote segregation.
Holy Trinity’s parish council has spent the past year looking for ways to bridge the divide with limited success.
“When I come to Mass at noon, the Anglos leave, and [Latinos] go in and we don’t even say ‘hi’ to each other, not even ‘hi,’” says Garcia. “Sometimes I think there is a wall, but that wall exists only because we don’t have enough faith.”
“I would really like if we could all be together, because we all worship the same God. We are all God’s children,” Garcia says, “but the problem is the language.”
A majority of Latino churchgoers in the United States attend Mass with mostly Latinos in the pew and Spanish-speaking clergy at the pulpit, according to a 2006 Pew Forum survey. Today, 15 percent of priests ordained in the United States are Latinos, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

Do you see it? A church family that wants to be a family, but because of the language barrier they feel like just strangers to each other. I rejoice in the fact that this church is wanting and longing to connect, but my heart breaks for them they can’t.

Thinking about churches that have this same set-up, makes you wonder though, do their people feel the same way? The Catholic Church is smart enough to work and find a solution to this problem. Its actually very imperative that they do, because no one wants to loss people. But what about other churches that are facing the same issue. What steps are they taking? And where might they find their solutions?

Schools are Battle Fields

Today, students and parents in Monroe, New York, are dealing with the shock of possibly being the target of a Columbine type of school shooting. Yesterday, the police department of that town arrested a 15 year-old boy who was playing an April 20 attack upon Monroe-Woodbury High School.

CNN.com reports:

“He was charged as a juvenile and faces two felony counts of criminal possession of a weapon, Monroe Police Chief Dominic Giudice said.”

“There they found four bottles filled with gasoline, a torch, machete, black trench coat, three propane tanks, two computers, items that could be used as fuses and several other electronic devices, according to a Monroe Police Department press release issued Tuesday.
The supplies were found in the garage, Giudice said, but the teen’s parents had been unaware of their son’s intentions until he told police what he had planned to do.
Police also discovered the teen had actively been seeking a military assault-type weapon that could “hold as many rounds as possible.”
The boy told police investigators he had been bullied by fellow students and had been told that he resembled Columbine shooter Eric Harris, the press release said.”

This is truly a disturbing and sad report. Yes, this young man should never have been bullied in school, but also, he should never have wanted to commit such a horrible and chilling crime. The day of April 20, 1999 is still vivid for many. So the thought of such another event is deeply troubling.

The young man that wanted to carry out these actions said that, “he had a lot of hatred toward a lot of the kids who attend that school“.

The police and I am sure all the parents are thankful for those that came forward to report of this young man’s desire.

School today is a battle field for our young people. And its sad that our young people can’t walk to or even be in school without the feeling of being murdered. This young man is in custody today, but unfortunately, many that are affected will have this in their heads for years to come.

No School on Fridays in Hawaii

Why is it that the kids’ education always seems to get the short end of every stick?

The Wall-Street Journal has an article out today about how Hawaii is making cuts to the school year. Hawaii “has created the nation’s shortest school year under a new union contract that closes schools on most Fridays for the remainder of the academic calendar.” Closing school on Friday is not a big deal except for the fact that there is no hint of how they are going to make up for missing that day.

The article states,

“Hawaii’s 171,000 public schools students now find themselves with only 163 instructional days, compared with 180 in most districts in the U.S.”

Hawaii could of thought through a better solution than to have the kids’ education suffer. But this is a clarion to the parents of Hawaii, here is your opportunity to stand up and be counted. Let your voice be heard to those that have made this decision. Also, though, here is your opportunity to be teaching parents. Your children will be home more and now is the time to teach them at home. Go out and get some great books to read. Allow your kids to read about the lives of great heroes of the past, travel into the world of fiction with classics and learn how to be positive citizens in the world. Allow them to explore the world around them through trips, camping, hikes and so many other things.

Parents of Hawaii turn this around for your kids. Their future demands it.

Why Christians Sorrow Differently

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” – I Thessalonians 4:13

With those words the Apostle Paul would seek to comfort the church about those that had dead in Christ. Where they going to miss out on the Rapture since they were not living? Why should Christian “sorrow not, even as others which have not hope“? That is what I preached on Sunday night and what this blog entry is about today!

So why should Christian sorrow differently than the world? I will give you five reasons using First Thessalonians 4:13-17.

1.) The Revelation of Scripture – “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, …” (I Thess. 4:15a) The Bible tells us about death and the afterlife. The Scripture is full of passages when death was the focus and passage where the afterlife is made very clear. Jesus would attend the grave of Lazarus, the deathbed of several and teach on Heaven and Hell.

2.) The Return of Christ – “… even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. …that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. “ (I Thess. 4:14-15). Jesus is coming again. We do not know when, but we do know that He is coming soon. His coming is imminent. Therefore, we must live our lives in accordance to His word. We can take comfort in sorrow, because Jesus is coming back with those that have passed on. He is coming back with them for us that are alive and remain.

3.) The Resurrection of the Christian Dead – “ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:” (I Thess. 4:16) One day, the Lord will come again and call the dead from their graves to join Him in the air. The soul will be united with the body that is in grave asleep. This is the first resurrection that leads to life. There is another resurrection in Scripture that leads to death. Christians that died in Christ will experience this first resurrection. Those that die in their sins will know the second resurrection that leads to eternal separation from God.

4.) The Rapture of the Church – “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (I Thess. 4:17a) The dead has risen and then the living will join them. All of this will take place in a moment, the twinkling of an eye. The Lord has rescued His church from the wrath to come. The Church will be raptured, meaning that God will caught us away unto Himself. The world will suddenly be missing people all over the world.

5.) The Reunion of All the Saints – “… and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (I Thess. 4:17b) “WE”, the dead in Christ and the living, will be reunited in glory. What a wonderful day that will be. We will see Jesus, hear the sound of his voice and know the joys of Heaven. Also, we will see all the saints that we know today and those that we have lost through death. But also, we will see saints that we have only heard of and those that we never knew existed. This is a family reunion that you will actually want to attend.

Five reasons for you to sorrow differently than the world. The World has no hope, but the Christian through Christ has all the hope that we will ever need. Praise God for being One that comforts through the revelation of Scripture, the return of his Son, the resurrection of the Christian dead, the rapture of the Church and the reunion of all the saints.

I hope and pray that you will “sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

The Rev. Ike , dead at age 74

The Reverend. Frederick Eikerenkoetter has died. The Reverend was better known to people as, “the Rev. Ike” and was very popular in the 1970s. But his preaching was very odd and very self-centered instead of what you would except from a preacher.

The New York Times wrote about him in their obituary section today.

““Close your eyes and see green,” Reverend Ike would tell his 5,000 parishioners from a red-carpeted stage at the former Loew’s film palace on 175th Street in Washington Heights, the headquarters of his United Church Science of Living Institute. “Money up to your armpits, a roomful of money and there you are, just tossing around in it like a swimming pool.”

With that, you know what kind of preacher that he was – ““Prosperity Now,” “positive self-image psychology” or just plain “Thinkonomics.””

“The philosophy held that St. Paul was wrong; that the root of all evil is not the love of money, but rather the lack of it. It was a message that challenged traditional Christian messages about finding salvation through love and the intercession of the divine. The way to prosper and be well, Reverend Ike preached, was to forget about pie in the sky by and by and to look instead within oneself for divine power.
“This is the do-it-yourself church,” he proclaimed. “The only savior in this philosophy is God in you.””

His theology on that was WRONG. Paul was never moved, motivated and enslaved to money. He constantly was warning preachers of the Gospel to avoid the snare of having a love for money. Ministry was never about making money, rather it was about the Gospel and Christ.

And another concern here is this: did your salvation and walk with Christ all rest on how big or little your bank account was? If that is the case, than what is the standard by which to judge that.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the many that loved, followed and adored The Reverend. Frederick Eikerenkoetter.

President Obama’s Birth Certificate – Real or Fake?

“Hawaii again declares Obama birth certificate real” - that was a news headline that was all over the news sites this morning. President Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States in November 2008 and he assumed office on January 20, 2009. During the campaign and even now, people are debating the fact that he is “a natural-born citizen”.

“State officials in Hawaii on Monday said they have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.”

Its saddening to see people engage in debate over this silly thing. There are bigger battles to be engaged in that will have a huge impact upon our nation and the world. This silly battle is over. Barack Obama is our President and he is our President through the blessing of the Constitution.

So, its time to work where our conscience will permit and stand strong against policy that violates our conscience. That is our real battle. Therefore, lets pick our fights wisely and fight them with conviction, courage and integrity

The Anglican Communion and Gay Marriage

The ordination of gay ministers and the entire redefinition of marriage within the church is one of the big issues for this generation. And will no doubt be something that is an issue in probably another generation, because too many churches are desiring to push Biblical truth to the side in order to be more culturally relevant.

That is what is happening before us in the Anglican Communion.

Two weeks ago, the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of that Communion, voted literally 2 to 1 in recognition of gay ministers and even trying to create a more Christian wedding ceremony for same-sex couples. As a result, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams made a prediction that there will be “a future “not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication, but plainly as what they are: “two styles of being Anglican” pursuing their mission “with greater integrity and consistency,” even as they work out issues.”

What a sad state! To be a leader and see the people that you led follow down a path of departure from Biblical truth. To be leader and not really confront, deal or even depart from a people that will not be committed to Biblically truth, conviction and integrity. This is a truly sad state. But it’s an issue that is coming to a church near you though.

I want to make a comment about something else in the article before I end.

“Both Archbishop Robert Duncan, of the new Anglican Church in North America, and the Rev. Susan Russell, head of the gay Episcopal group Integrity, say they will keep “being church” (working on evangelism, service and missions) exactly as before, and see when the institution catches up to reality.”

“Catches up”? The church does not NEED to catch up, but rather it’s the other way around. The world and reality is actually just now catching up with the Bible and the church. We are not called to compromise Biblical truth, but to be compassionate in our presentation of that Truth. The presentation is the devotion to Truth through our convictions, the demonstration of Truth through our lives and the declaration of Truth through our integrity. That is our reality! Is it yours?

Article Source: “Restructuring, not schism, ahead for Anglicans”

Test of Faith? Unwise Decision!

A Wisconsin dad is facing prison, because he allowed his daughter to die. In this story, “Wis. father on trial in girl’s faith-healing death“, that is exactly what happened. This father viewed his daughter’s deteriorating health as “a test of his faith”. God is a God that heals, but our God is a God that has given to us the medical field to improve our ability to battle disease and restore us back to health. Mr. Dale Newmann was wrong and is now “charged with second-degree homicide”. The sad reality of this is that this case is not the only one in news right now. An Oregon couple are being convicted of the death of their 15-month old daughter that died. Both couples refused medical help and instead decided to pray.

Both of these couples could be rejoicing and delighting in the life of their children today if they had been wise. This was a test of faith, but faith has never called us to be unwise. Faith never calls us to be disobedient to the commands of Scripture. And faith always seeks out the best for all parties involved. Sad to say, these parents failed and their children paid the price.

God does heal supernaturally, but He also uses the medical field to help in the process. So don’t be unwise – God would not want that.

Will the Real Men Please Stand Up?

Have you ever heard that lying is like building a house? The logic behind this story is as follows: You begin out by laying the foundation by telling the basic lie. Then you build upon that lie by telling another one to cover up the foundational lie. After that you have completed the walling of the house. Well, then you have begun laying the flooring and even started to do some carpet work. Pretty soon the house is fully complete, but with one swift swig of the wrecking ball of truth the house is left in total destruction.

This story really can be given to the idea of rebellion. We understand that in God’s eye, sin is sin. There are no little sins but at the same time, sin does grow and goes through a process. It begins as a thought, then matures into something that is deep and has lasting consequences. For example, Eve was first attacked on the grounds of thinking about the fruit. Then it moved on to desiring the fruit. After that happened the action was taken by Eve to eat. But the consequences of those actions didn’t completely affect the human race until Adam took of the fruit. And as we all know, that lasting consequences was that mankind was separated from God through sin.

As I think about the idea of rebellion, my mind is flooded with the thoughts of men in our churches and the men in the pulpit of those churches. The actions of the men have deep, lasting influence upon the women and children of church. Men will not tell you but they struggle with insecurity in a very big way. We may be in the place that God has called us to, but for some reason or another we will begin to doubt God. We begin to doubt His calling, His presence and most of all His ability to equip us for the task. Then as Satan has been able to get his foothold into our lives, we find ourselves heading down a very steep and slippery slope. Some men are able to stop, but others it’s another story.

That steep and slippery slope comes in all kinds of different forms. For some it is, money. The lust and lure of money pull men from the ministry into a job where there is only temporary satisfaction. For others it is, sex. The sexual drive of men have created some of the most devastating displays of consequences of sin that we have seen. And a little note here is necessary. – the two above forms seem to go hand in hand. Money and sex seem to be like two peas in a pod. In the fall of a Christian minister, money and sex seem to come into play. The money say, “Look at all that I have and can get.” Sex says, “Look at what I can do and get away with .” Money and sex are not bad when used and done in God‘s way, but when both are placed in arenas of no accountability or respect, they will destroy a man, a ministry, a church but also a wife and children.

The very sad thing about all this is that it all starts out with just a simple thought. The thought begins out with doubting the ability to accomplish a task for God. That thought then moves into weakening our spiritual sensitivity to sin. The spiritual sensitivity is replaced with a desire to get as close to sin as possible without getting burned. But then that develops into something that creates a mindset of continually getting closer and closer until finally you give in. You give in over and over and over without getting caught. The feeling of possibly getting caught becomes an addiction and even arrogance on the part of the individual that says that I am above all this and I can’t get caught. But than the day of reckoning occurs and left in the pathway of the wrenching ball of truth is a broken man, ministry, church, but also a family!

Men of our churches and the men that are pastors, please don’t go down the steep, slippery slope. Our children are crying out for men that need you. They need a real man in their life that will not be given over to the power of money and the addiction of sex. They need real men that will show them how to control money and not allow money to control them. They need real men that will be sexually pure with one woman that is their wife and not be sexually promiscuous with every woman that bats her eye lashes at him.

Have these men left our churches? I don’t believe so. I believe that God has them out there. So men its time to step up to the plate and knock it out of the park. Its our time to raise up and be counted. We are the men called unto integrity, righteousness and holiness.

But we can’t do it alone. This is a call to true brotherhood. What do you say, brother – Are you ready to turn our backs on rebellion and turn our faces to righteousness? Will you join me?