tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658599056809322302024-02-19T01:01:49.780-06:00SanctiFusionWelcome!
Enjoy!
Be Sanctifused!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.comBlogger125125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-21315021662902798422016-06-27T11:38:00.000-05:002016-06-27T11:37:44.428-05:00Giveaway: IM-Magic Partition Resizer Pro Giveaway Special Download FREE<span>Today, iVoicesoft and IM-Magic give you a HOT gift for the HOT summer, IM-Magic Partition Resizer Pro Special Giveaway.</span><br /><br /><span>This giveaway is unlimited nimber of download. But please download and use the code before the end of July, and the activated software would stay valid lifetime.</span><br /><br /><span>IM-Magic Partition Resizer Pro is a advanced disk space management software for PC.</span><br /> <div class="separator"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRk7VBNS23B2_Sc0DGTBIw8NNQk9inHKZ8z0kY7SnIhpPzzCdoGtPGioVuBd1EGzJoFpQ8MMxBFEQ7vU35HiyBSAoiLXxorZT8zQeX86FwNEUAUuemAd59JoiKvK0cSxpwD2gBKLaZ2o/s1600/resize-partition.png" width="486" height="400" /></div><b>Find below to learn main Features of IM-Magic Partition Resizer Pro edition</b><br /> <ul> <li>If you want to expand Windows boot volume, download IM-Magic Partition Resizer Pro to extend system partition when it's running out of space by redistributing other free space to the c drive. It also works on Windows 10/8/7/Vista/xp. </li> <li>By this magic software, your PC will be 100% safe when resizing or moving partition fences<b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>even when there were bad blocks on your disk or power surge.</b> </li> <li>It saves time and money for you to maintain disk drives by maximizing the disk spaces to make sure every byte of the drive performs the best. Then you don't have to place another big order on computer hard disks for the running out of space alter nor pay the bill from computer Service Company to fix it. </li> <li>It works with all Windows PC plantforms, 2TB drive compatible, Windows 32&64 bits supported and also works with all brands of hard disks </li> </ul> <div>Get it FREE, until July at HERE<b>: <a href="http://www.resize-c.com/offer/giveaway-ivoicesoft-resize.html">http://www.resize-c.com/offer/giveaway-ivoicesoft-resize.html</a></b></div> <div><br /></div> <div><br /></div> <div style="text-align: center; clear: both" class="separator"><a href="http://www.resize-c.com/offer/giveaway-ivoicesoft-resize.html"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqh-5Kvwl_weSZ8VD5IXFPi0286vth8IHVWxjWc2CJAO8mxbXHcmVuv1WjM3oqRYNEvT9zC7LczgOzKf8bdzpOvzK6-8syKSX52JOs7r9fpt_g-VyuJH64wGyNAVmx03OCC56IezjD2Wo/s1600/2016-06-24_100921.png" width="571" height="266" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: center; clear: both" class="separator"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: left; clear: both" class="separator"><i>Note: Please use the code before the end of July, and the activated software would stay valid lifetime. If you missing this Giveaway, please find the best dicount from<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://coupons.ivoicesoft.com/c50683-5-im-magic-resizer-professional-edition+free-upgrade">IM-Magic Partition Resizer Pro Coupon page</a></i></div> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-29964355751982986982016-04-11T20:02:00.001-05:002016-04-11T20:02:08.004-05:00Voice Changer Software Diamond 9.0 quickly exceeds 150,000 downloads<p><em> </em></p> <p><em>Since the release of Voice Changer Software Diamond 9.0 in October, 2015, Audio4fun has reached its download target sooner than expected; and that’s not all.</em></p> <p><a href="http://www.ivoicesoft.com/voice-changer-software-diamond-80/">Voice Changer Software Diamond</a>, developed by Audio4fun, is the advanced audio/voice morphing and processing software solution that provides users with real-time voice changing abilities as well as assists them with professional audio editing. The new Voice Changer Software Diamond 9.0 was officially released last October and quickly achieved 150,000 downloads within 5 months. </p> <p><em>"Voice Changer Software Diamond 9.0 welcomed its 150,000th user last Saturday and it was a great encouragement to our team. We are very pleased to know that we apparently are going in the right direction. Our latest release of the software reflects the efforts of much planning and design improvements,"</em> said Chris R.F - head of Quality Administrator at Audio4fun.</p> <p>In version 9.0, the main feature Voice Morpher, which allows users to change their voices’ characteristics, was built around a software re-organization. The new Voice Morpher contains not only 3 fundamental Voice Attributes (Pitch-Timbre-Formant Pitch), but also 2 essential modules, Voice Beautifying and Advanced Settings. This new organization assures the users that their input voice/audio will be well processed and enhanced in every aspect to produce the most natural quality outputs. </p> <p>Chris also revealed, “We also collected 71% positive votes from people who downloaded and tested Voice Changer Software Diamond 9.0. That says a lot about the initial acceptance of the changes, however; we must try more and more until we obtain 100% customer satisfaction. There remain some challenging technical problems that need to be solved in the future.”</p> <p>Voice Changer Software Diamond 9.0’s strong first impressions and success at reaching its targeted release goals concludes a smooth start for a promising year for Audio4fun. Users interested in trying this new version can easily find a download link at <a href="https://secure.avangate.com/affiliate.php?ACCOUNT=AVSOFTCO&AFFILIATE=56629&PATH=http://www.audio4fun.com/download.php?product=vcsdiamond&type=exe&aff_avangate_id=56629&aff_plimus_id=1084610">http://www.audio4fun.com/download.php?product=vcsdiamond&type=exe&aff_avangate_id=56629&aff_plimus_id=1084610</a></p> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.audio4fun.com/promotion.htm?aff_avangate_id=56629&aff_plimus_id=1084610"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfxI2QxoeMzrjrZK_eiPdRKqC1boLAzVJ1vfHYKpsJNJGhemqkZCUViqxPO7I5_llrACH-VfGhpWWVonIZrbBLcjGRR1XuhlGNMDV-xuI-30BTP9_Ywr2M6fMIKY2WGxKHFkL7Z4Of27g/s1600/whatnew%255B1%255D-728005.gif"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfxI2QxoeMzrjrZK_eiPdRKqC1boLAzVJ1vfHYKpsJNJGhemqkZCUViqxPO7I5_llrACH-VfGhpWWVonIZrbBLcjGRR1XuhlGNMDV-xuI-30BTP9_Ywr2M6fMIKY2WGxKHFkL7Z4Of27g/s320/whatnew%255B1%255D-728005.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_6272468714258308786" /></a></a></p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-3936339618052472192012-09-04T08:59:00.002-05:002012-09-04T18:17:36.902-05:00Discovery: Not All Religion is Rosy. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt8alyicqSAh6DPlg_f1VmoBbADDkZ3RCKtbWZ_nCKqoj3AyM2JvcYnf2QGhE_eJiBmZAHY2U1ARK25yzvsaJ_p87Q8wzySoeOZexyIEs3yWPTPnHL_kKZUGM-WYe9ZaNOVbUj4IieOB0/s1600/darkwolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt8alyicqSAh6DPlg_f1VmoBbADDkZ3RCKtbWZ_nCKqoj3AyM2JvcYnf2QGhE_eJiBmZAHY2U1ARK25yzvsaJ_p87Q8wzySoeOZexyIEs3yWPTPnHL_kKZUGM-WYe9ZaNOVbUj4IieOB0/s320/darkwolf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="western" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.08in;">
I was stoned – and fighting weakly, as it seemed that a gang of
demons were struggling to gain full control of my mind! I had eaten
some “magic mushrooms” that night with the intent of connecting
with my animal “spirit guide.” Would it be a hawk or an eagle?
What hidden wisdom would I discover? After eating the mushrooms, I
had followed my impulses and driven out to a swamp out in the
county, and taken a walk through the boggy woods. As I walked, the
drug began taking a stronger hold, and so would the “animal
spirit” sensation. Not a soaring hawk, or any other romantic
notion, but I began to feel like a skulking wolf on the prowl. It
was as if some other personality were settling in around my own
like fog onto a smoking candle! Leaving the swamp, I began to drive
back to town. Somebody I recognized was out hitchhiking, and I
pulled over to give him a ride. As soon as I did, this strange
personality started to close in on me. Under my seat was a long
butcher's knife from my food service job, and I was getting this
strong, other-worldly, urge to kill this man for food! </div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.08in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="western" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.08in;">
Looking back, it is still frightening to think of how that might
have ended, with the sheriff's office trying to figure how a car
had left the road with the grisly remains of a full-on knife fight in the front
seat. Looking back, at the time, I saw that man a day or two later.
I didn't tell him what had been going on with me, but he said that
he had been aware of a really evil presence in my car that night. I
had devolved into an odd kind of scavenger, always on the lookout
for the next thrill, and all the time seeing myself as one of the
“religious” kind of beatnik as I read the books that were
popular on the religious scene of the day –books on meditation,
Chinese philosophy, and, until the swamp incident, something that
was being sold as a Native American spirituality. “Organic”
psychedelics, mystical music, occultic mysteries, and dangers like
death and prison all combined to form what I felt was my
“religion.”
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-70584604073598738492012-08-29T18:02:00.000-05:002015-02-14T11:59:47.097-06:00X-Formation: The Beginning! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikyrNkIdynlM_S2tkFog6mqg2R9TlgpKEHJESr2MESVXdwDO7uFR02OVy8cnkbccthSSJ7NrSOqAhGw_sVZdO5cYLCefctoqN0kMF-yX-fFKPzYrhyrE08c81kghKG30bSfOfH97bUC58/s1600/pantokrator-serbian-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikyrNkIdynlM_S2tkFog6mqg2R9TlgpKEHJESr2MESVXdwDO7uFR02OVy8cnkbccthSSJ7NrSOqAhGw_sVZdO5cYLCefctoqN0kMF-yX-fFKPzYrhyrE08c81kghKG30bSfOfH97bUC58/s320/pantokrator-serbian-5.jpg" height="320" width="218" /></a></div>
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<div align="LEFT" class="western" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 0.08in;">
My trial title, <i>X-Formation,</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
is a bit of a puzzle. We know “X” from school as the unknown
factor,. What we are talking about forming, we really don't know. In
fact, St. Paul said, “We do not know what we shall be, but we know
that, when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is.” While most of us read that verse as if it is about seeing
Christ up close in the next life, isn't the Christian life here and
now about seeing him more clearly, day by day? I used to work in
electronics, and some of the common words we saw on diagrams were
xfmr and xstr, for transformer and transistor. “Trans,” meaning,
“across,” was printed as “x.” Again, the Bible calls for
each of us to, “be transformed, by the renewing of our minds.” It
is that transformation that allows us to know God's will (in that
same verse), and, knowing it, to be able to pray, and receive,
according to his will. So, this book could have been named, </span><i>How
to Know the Will of God, How to Get Your Prayers Answered, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">
or even, </span><i> You, Too, Can Predict the Future! </i><span style="font-style: normal;">
I prefer </span><i>X-Formation. </i><span style="font-style: normal;">Finally,
the X stands for the Greek letter, “</span><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>Ch</u></span><span style="font-style: normal;">i,”
which sounds closer to “key” in our language. We see it as
shorthand for “Christ” in “X-mas,” and the Person of Christ
is “key” in this, key formation of Christ in us. St. Paul, again,
wrote, “Little children, for whom I labor and travail until Christ
be formed in you..” And isn't “Christ in you, the hope of Glory,”
and, as St. Peter wrote of, “being made partakers of the divine
nature...” God's goal for each of our lives?</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-11396127543175492842010-04-24T15:10:00.000-05:002010-04-24T15:12:58.129-05:00<a href="cid:part1.02030306.08040407@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="false">Mexico News on Facebook! </a><br> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-24565470484941066672010-02-06T22:40:00.003-06:002011-03-08T20:41:32.791-06:00A New Parable!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDuhmkJKHyiOxVPYpBZlYsS2xf_1l0TWKfsa2SB3mGazzVMKlDunOEZhsOU3bvxxwrNhIeSz8PTW5iqEk2K1If4V2glncgViWYRWYnmYAAEe2lY2J38qF9NUfv_QKtQ4yXmkgJ77CEhA/s1600-h/wheat+in+hand.jpg" imageanchor="1" linkindex="339" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTDuhmkJKHyiOxVPYpBZlYsS2xf_1l0TWKfsa2SB3mGazzVMKlDunOEZhsOU3bvxxwrNhIeSz8PTW5iqEk2K1If4V2glncgViWYRWYnmYAAEe2lY2J38qF9NUfv_QKtQ4yXmkgJ77CEhA/s320/wheat+in+hand.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A Sower went out to sow," and as he cast the seed, a wind picked up the holy seed and, while some fell and grew where it was cast, much more was spread on the wind and landed far and wide. Some fell on open ground, some in forests and thickets, and some among tares. As they grew, they came to share one and all in the same semblance, being all of one kind. Each plant grew from seed in the Sower's bag, itself having come from the Sower's own crib and field. Now, as time passed, fences, and even walls, went up, that the plants could not see beyond. They lost touch with their brothers and sisters far away, or even near by, if there were walls blocking the way. They remembered the Sower, and they knew whose plants they were, but since they were not in a great wheat field as intended, they tended to be only conscious of the Sower but not of their fellow stalks. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As you might expect, the Sower was wise and diligent. Each seed that had come of his hand was just as important to him as any of the others, whether it were growing in the choice field or a forest far away. So wherever the stalks were growing, the Sower would be watching, and making sure they were fed and watered. His helpers were watching all this, and asked why he didn't transplant the stalks back to the home field, and why not weed out the tares, the false wheat, from around the good seed. The seed was scattered, he told them, so that it would produce a better harvest. And the tares were harmful, yes, but they also provided competition to cause the good stalks to grow straighter. He would sort out the tares in good time. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Harvest time came, and the Sower sent out his helpers to bring in the stalks. They harvested the home field, and they went out and brought in all the wheat from the faraway fields and thickets as well. As they were gathered all into the barn, some of the stalks began to complain, that foreign grain was being brought into their barn, and that these "outsiders" were not of "their" lineage. The Sower stood by, quietly listening. When there was a loud enough outcry, with all the stalks of such opinion were voicing their complaint, he directed his helpers, "Go and remove those tares from among my wheat, and take care to burn them thoroughly, lest any of that bitter seed remain!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
This story occurred to me as I was thinking about the way the fellowship among Christians, and the effectiveness of Christ's Church, has been splintered since the Roman bishop decided to "excommunicate" the entire Eastern 4/5 of the Church, and then another Roman bishop, and a Swiss priest, a few hundred years later started the trend of everybody excommunicating everybody. The Eastern churches seem to have held it together better than most, in terms of keeping things on a "fellowship" level more than a military-style, "allegiance" scheme, but how does Jesus see it? How many times does the Bible tell us to build bureaucracies, or judge the Faith according to class membership? He said to follow Him, and to love one another, to receive His Spirit, and bear witness of His Resurrection and Lordship. Anything else? </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-161716377315323672009-10-31T12:28:00.004-05:002011-03-08T20:41:32.793-06:00Church Tribalism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8jxk15KViWmCxv73z4oFFm8qUOGWNBEb_9Lmxe-7fhmpDXl0wFWPfDathax6MFfI5aFQFJ3ZegakwdqYTil_HMOi-2ILXnEnGkM3gliyyh1iSpef8QKI34NdwLWDTWdbAF9E1Pkxu7rw/s1600-h/Tribal+Kenya_wide-horizontal.jpg" imageanchor="1" linkindex="15" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8jxk15KViWmCxv73z4oFFm8qUOGWNBEb_9Lmxe-7fhmpDXl0wFWPfDathax6MFfI5aFQFJ3ZegakwdqYTil_HMOi-2ILXnEnGkM3gliyyh1iSpef8QKI34NdwLWDTWdbAF9E1Pkxu7rw/s400/Tribal+Kenya_wide-horizontal.jpg" /></a></div>We were surely all shocked at the news of the brutality that swept<br />
Rwanda, and, more recently, Kenya. No doubt this bolstered the prejudices of people who had been brought up under Darwinism to see the African people as in some way less-evolved and more volatile. Groups ranging from the Mau-mau of the Kenyan revolt to the Black Muslim/Nation of Islam have profited from Mr. Darwin's opinions on this. To look closer, though, we have to notice that the skin color does not make a person more or less human, whether that means reflecting God's image or whether it means marring that image to near obscurity. After all - the first "race riots" in the US were whites in New York City protesting the threat of blacks being freed en masse, and a black slave on temporary contract in Boston wrote his Southern master complaining of being treated like an Irishman! In the West, many of the Native tribes called themselves by names which translated simply as "people," "human beings," or, "family." Simple and noble in one way, but what would that imply about an outsider?<br />
<br />
We have seen, in the US, violence and discrimination against people for all kinds of other"-ness, which can all fit under the greater heading of, "tribalism." A recent visit to Ontario, Canada, where they pride themselves for their lack of prejudice, revealed that they do "reserve the right" to hate "idiots." If a cause can be found to classify someone as an idiot, then that is not discrimination, I was told. So there is not a code against black people, but Haitians, Jamaicans, etc., are marginalised as "idiots" because of some excuse gleaned from an editorialising Press. Americans, I was told, are all idiots because "they" all voted for George Bush, "and Bush is an idiot" according to their own, unquestioned, Accepted Wisdom. If this is from the people most widely hailed as being free of prejudice, we're all in a heap of trouble. There is something in the human animal that demands a "lower class" to despise, or we somehow feel incomplete!<br />
<br />
Is the Church exempt? What does "all things are new" really mean here, or is there a problem with the "in Christ" part of that promise? Does being baptised, received, confirmed, having prayed the prayer," "received the Spirit," or being "wholly sanctified" make us immune to such nonsense? Is there anyone we exclude from our own "tribes" of Accepted Human Beings?<br />
<br />
Of course, there are Spiritual Formation issues- We want to make sure that a pastor has a godly lifestyle like we want our surgeon or air pilot to be reasonably sober, and it would be nice to know who is watching our children, but do we use circumstances which may be beyond a person's control to keep them away from our fellowship, and from sharing in the grace of God? In the last count, do we only love the ones we choose? Has the Church become like the proverbial Dog in the Manger who has no real use for the straw he sleeps on, but chases off the hungry ox to protect his own comfort? If we fail to welcome someone, or somehow keep them away from the eternal life Christ died to give to us all, then are we better, or worse, than the frenzied Rwandans who denied their neighbors earthly life?<br />
<br />
We can leave this where it is, and most readers will close the page thinking of all the ways that other people need to read this. Is that so? Today in America, millions of black churchgoers are in need of a studied theological message in their sermons, and millions of white churchgoers will leave church this Sunday with their hearts no more touched in the service than if they had been watching "Mr. Rogers" re-runs. Cross that line, and do not expect a call from the pastor the next week. (At least there's not the likelihood of a midnight visit from the deacons!) How about the man who tells the pastor, "I so adored the service?" What about a single dad? How many members are actively working to care for those in need during the week? Do we think that the "Sheep and the Goats" is just a parable Jesus forgot to explain? Wouldn't the little dog rather go rest in his Master's lap than wear himself out snarling at the Master's other creatures?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-64318985593765384502009-10-13T23:44:00.001-05:002011-03-08T20:41:32.796-06:00Atomic Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQNX4s5nT_Sa6TLOPUU7P3S2xcmSHUhUnBtpcbN_JugQYQFxHPz9Ck9jSGzxZW3E07WGIlbQSmyxUh93VKW8eaW1ddfDy2G4-_fP2SA8xv0HkPqUeSA4hy3mRcXv2DWDmja21QIhLEybE/s1600-h/atomic_bomb_dominic_truckee.jpg" imageanchor="1" linkindex="18" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQNX4s5nT_Sa6TLOPUU7P3S2xcmSHUhUnBtpcbN_JugQYQFxHPz9Ck9jSGzxZW3E07WGIlbQSmyxUh93VKW8eaW1ddfDy2G4-_fP2SA8xv0HkPqUeSA4hy3mRcXv2DWDmja21QIhLEybE/s320/atomic_bomb_dominic_truckee.jpg" /></a></div>For a change in pace, there is an issue that has been “in the news” now for over 500, maybe a thousand years or so. What, and where, exactly, is the Church? At one time it was seen as a cooperative fellowship of Christian gatherings and communities. Then there came a trend of which bishop, province, or diocese had higher status for solving questions as they arose, and next there was a split between the Western churches “under” Rome and those in the East. About this time the bishop (pope) of Rome sent Norman English king Henry II to invade Ireland (where the Church was closely aligned with the Eastern churches) to make “good, Roman, Catholics of them.” This conflict is still in the news today!<br />
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Another five hundred years, and the Pope is excluding Martin Luther for holding to a doctrine which had been part of the Church's dogma for twelve centuries, and Zwingli in Switzerland was declaring war on the Roman Church in the name of Renaissance humanism and Swiss patriotism. Soon there was bloody war from city to city throughout Europe, and when the smoke finally cleared there were three distinct parties, and no distinct winners. <br />
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The Protestant Calvinists held ground in the Netherlands and established a seminary there under none other than John Calvin's son in law, Teodor Beza. When a Ph.D. Professor at that school examined a fine point of Beza's speculative theology (whether God had caused the Fall, yet somehow without causing sin) that professor, and all who thought it was a good question were jailed, tried in absentia, and banished from the city at the loss of homes, property, jobs, and friendships. Fortunately, only one of them died.<br />
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Next, England's Henry VIII decided to make use of the diminishing power of the Papacy by declaring the English Church independent from Rome's influence. Over the next three hundred years the English Church would produce a string of godly divines who would devote themselves to rediscovering the core faith of the Church and, in the process, move the English Christianity significantly closer to the Eastern tradition. This did not, however, bring any reconciliation with the Irish, who remained loyal to Rome (and resentful of English hegemony) though their religion was still rather closer to their earlier Celtic Faith than to the Roman.<br />
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At this time another force was at work in England: The proud independence of Swiss Calvinism was gaining a following which would produce more wars. The “Glorious Revolution” led to the senseless slaughter of whole villages in Ireland in the name of “establishing the Kingdom of God,” In time the English Crown was back on the throne and the Church of England was able to maintain control over the more deliberately, “Protestant” factions. Dissenters, generally “dissenting” over matters of prepared liturgy, the material used in building the altar/communion table (and which words were used), what the clergy wore, and how music was used in services. Many left the country over these questions, and many crossed over to North America to be free of interference with their beliefs (as they called it, their “opinions.”) <br />
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Predictably, as this kind of Protestantism was being spread, beliefs and opinions became paramount in defining fellowship, and any difference of opinion was likely to spawn yet another division. Fast-forward this scene a few hundred more years, and we see not only a confusing array of “denominations” of Christianity, but subsets, breakaways, and “independent works” continually spawned off of each of them. Not that the break in fellowship is the whole picture: At every “birthing of a new movement” each party redefines what it believes in terms of its opposition to the other side of whatever the issue du jour happened to be, and rejects their what they understand the opposing party's position had been on the issue. Of the whole of Christian doctrine “once delivered to the saints,” each successive generation receives a smaller portion. Whereas the early Church spent its energy spreading the Gospel through their towns and across the world, the main order of business today is to redefine the Gospel, and the Church's energy is largely spent in a constant restructuring operation.<br />
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All this forces us to beg for answers: what is the Gospel? What is the Church? What, for Heaven's sake, is a Christian, and how does one recognise them? There are answers, to be sure. Not necessarily easy ones, though...<br />
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Obviously, I have my own “opinions” about these things, but for the moment, what are yours?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-12983412486497344462009-10-04T23:01:00.001-05:002009-10-04T23:04:23.480-05:00Remarried, and Ordained?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDBd2p-OVrfyc9VkHQ4H0vWRft-dMgv5uVdGlqUdbVWzSUTPF5DxRDcc70PewjWNvUTuwj-MIOB0acQn4wJR8X5BxkG2mLu7Phhj0x9vEVxg5pa89c2Rxrg6bKGhrKbyNNv36Vb-4lPY/s1600-h/north_dakota_abandoned_farmhouse.jpg" imageanchor="1" linkindex="14" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGDBd2p-OVrfyc9VkHQ4H0vWRft-dMgv5uVdGlqUdbVWzSUTPF5DxRDcc70PewjWNvUTuwj-MIOB0acQn4wJR8X5BxkG2mLu7Phhj0x9vEVxg5pa89c2Rxrg6bKGhrKbyNNv36Vb-4lPY/s320/north_dakota_abandoned_farmhouse.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
</div>"..The Husband of One Wife" An odd phrase, to our ears today. One husband to one wife, one wife to one husband, isn't that the way it works? But the New Testament requires a candidate for Church office be that kind of husband. What does this mean?<br />
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In modern churches it is common for that phrase to mean that if a man has been divorced, or remarried, he is disqualified because he is either no longer the husband of the wife from whom he is divorced, or if remarried, then he is still actually the husband of two wives. Alimony could be a factor in this, but it is not. What is the source of this thinking?<br />
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During the monastic movement of the Middle Ages there was a strong trend toward a formalised sacramentalism. What this means is that, for instance, while being baptised is a sign of one's having come to faith in Christ, “Formalism” would say that the sacrament of baptism causes the conversion. With this kind of thinking, reading a passage in which Jesus says, “What God has joined, let no man put asunder,” gives the idea that the marriage bond, that is, every marriage, is something mystically created by the will of God and is therefore more sacred to God than the lives of the people in that bond, and that it is impossible for that bond to be violated. One way of looking at it would be to suppose that at a wedding ceremony, after the vows (the covenant) have been repeated and witnessed before God and the Church and community, and the priest, rabbi, or minister says, “I now pronounce you man and wife. What God has joined, let no man put asunder,” that the second sentence anulls the vows and makes his own pronouncement the grounds for the marriage. It no longer matters that they have vowed to love, honor, cherish, and be faithful to one another. Those are the conditions of the agreement, but the sacramental statement has just made the marriage unconditional. If unconditional, then in effect each partner is allowed, even licensed, to break all the vows, to break, disgrace, and endanger one another, all the time their misdeeds having no effect on the “marriage.” After all- Marriage is a “sacrament.” The Bible says so, doesn't it?<br />
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To offer an answer to this, we have to consider two things. First, we need to see that a sacrement, as an “outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace,” is an indication. It is not in itself the cause of anything. But how do we have the idea that Marriage is sacramental? We read in 1st Corinthians thp at the marriage relationship is a “musterion,” a puzzle or a revelation, which reflects the relationship between Christ and the Church. While the Greek New Testament called it, “musterion,” the Latin which the monks in Europe would use translated it as “sacramentum.” This was a fair translation in the 4th century when Jerome used it, but words do change their meaning over time, as reflected in the way in which the word shifted over the next 800 years from what could indicate a grace given to being the grace itself. In other words, God taught Paul that he could use the love between a husband and wife as an example (musterion) of Jesus' love for the Church, and about a thousand years later that became the ground for so many mystically-minded celibate men to presume a kind of “sacramental” aura over each individual marriage which had nothing substantial to do with any marriage in particular. But did Jesus say that marriages could not be broken?<br />
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If that had been the case, then Jesus, Whom Christians know and experience as the Word, Incarnate, was contradicting himself. He had given instructions, through Moses, that a marriage could be terminated, for the sake of the wronged party, as a means of protection and for the continuation of the nation (“Be fruitful and multiply.”), and in His Sermon, He had said that, “not one jot or tittle (of the Law) will pass away until all things have been fulfilled.” Divorce, which was instituted in the Law as a “way of escape (2nd Corin. 5:17),” guaranteed the right to remarry, thus declaring the former covenant null, void, and unenforceable. The (former) husband of the first wife was free from that bond and could go on to build a family with another wife, with no disgrace, but rather with the support of the community. In his second marriage, he would still be, “the husband of one wife.” But what about the Corinthians, and the Church today?<br />
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The Greek culture had developed, according to Philo, largely from the Jewish wisdom brought there by the Diaspora from Babylon, or possibly from the Samaritan dispersion. Their understanding of divorce, then, was similar to Moses'. For someone to remain single was unnatural. Such a one was not upholding their civic duty to provide children for the next generation and might be taking an unhealthy interest in other's mates. Why would someone want to remain single, anyway? If someone were divorced, it was in order to have the right to remarry at some point, and probably with little delay. What was Paul's response?<br />
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In 1st Corin. 7 Paul was responding to a letter which had proposed that a celibate life was a good thing (v. 1). Indeed, he said, “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. (v. 2)” While he does spend some discussion in this chapter on the practical advantages of celibacy he then goes back (vv. 25- 28) to point out that, for betrothed or divorced, marriage is yet an acceptable choice. How should we understand this today?<br />
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In short, today we have a church culture which, because of a mistake by celibate mystics some 1,000 years back, puts divorced people in an undefined category somewhere between regular fellowship and irredeemable. Though they may have divorced as a last-ditch effort to save their lives or the lives of their children, they, being divorced, cannot be a regular part of the fellowship and, on the other hand, must surely never remarry! No Scripture supports this approach, though many reprove it. To make matters worse, if a candidate for ministry has a divorce in his past, and especially a remarriage, this same superstitious misreading of Scripture bars him from doing what God has called him to do, and so bars the Church from hearing the messenger God has sent. In a culture in which nearly everyone is affected in some way by divorce, the preacher most qualified to minister to such is the one preacher denied the opportunity to do so. It is hard to imagine the pain this kind of policy creates and prolongs; it is hard to imagine the number of called and qualified pastors whose ministries are cut short and destroyed; it is hard to imagine the number of people who are denied Gospel ministry; but most of all it is hard to imagine how God is glorified through such a confused sense of “obedience.”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-50796039815763342622009-09-26T22:22:00.002-05:002009-09-26T22:22:36.334-05:00The "Christian Minority?"<div mce_style="margin-bottom: 0in;" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In Western society the Church is in the minority. In even the “Bible Belt” only a minority of the population is actually in church on a given Sunday, or is even nominally active in a church. This much is known and noticed. Yet there is enough of a minority that it should have a significant influence- far more than it does, especially in terms of real evangelism. What is the problem?<br />
</div><div mce_style="margin-bottom: 0in;" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In actual fact, the “active” Church is far smaller than what is recognised. We start with recognising that 80% of the work, as in any organisation, is done by 20% of the membership, but then let's look at that membership.<br />
</div><div mce_style="margin-bottom: 0in;" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">In any given church today, between 55% and 80% or more of the congregation is women. Church traditions vary from one group to another, but it is safe to say that of the roles most directly linked to the ministry of the church, most of them are closed to women's participation. Without getting close to approaching the Women's Ordination question, we do well to ask of the Lord had the same policies when He chose women to announce His Resurrection to the men and defended a woman's right to sit at His feet to learn theology. There were men and women receiving the Spirit in the Upper Room, Philip's four daughters preached (one may preach (proclaim) without prophesying, but prophesy without preaching?), and it was not uncommon for Paul to recognise female “co-labourers” in his epistles.<br />
</div><div mce_style="margin-bottom: 0in;" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Due to factors better discussed elsewhere, the Church has over a 60% divorce rate to a 50% rate outside. In many churches, divorce is seen as a permanent disqualification for service in the Church, except maybe something behind the scenes like knitting or taking a turn cooking for the men's breakfast. This, of course, is seldom a problem since once a person does divorce they generally become an unwelcome stranger to their best friends, and are gone within a month. This is a majority of the Church's adults, lost to their churches. Very often, these are people who have risked all they had to save their marriages, and possibly survived the break-up only at the very highest cost, only to see their best friends all to ready to believe any bad thing heard or imagined against them. Not only does this cost the churches some good people, but the ones who stay are poisoned by the violence they have done to their hurting brothers and sisters.<br />
</div><div mce_style="margin-bottom: 0in;" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So, then, before examining the increasing marginalisation of seniors and the all-too common practice of giving the “prominent” members full reign in church matters, and before bemoaning that the noble 20% are carrying the load, we have already reduced the number eligible for much else but parking cars down to 20%. If only 20% are allowed to serve, and the 80/20 rule applies, that means that the churches are presuming to carry on with the talents not of 20%, but of closer to 4% at best. And that 4% can't even claim any great dedication, since they've reduced themselves to such an “elite” group by running off all those who wish they could serve. Now if we take that 4%, and divide out the ones holding to an authentic Christian faith in the face of so many innovations, and find what part of that group is not affected by a sense of prejudice and elitism in their having “attained” that status, we might be close to identifying the actual, living, Church.<br />
</div><div mce_style="margin-bottom: 0in;" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Faithful Reader, if you've read this far, please take this as it is intended: Not to build a spiral of ill-feelings, but to encourage, exhort, beg everyone to examine ourselves in light of the revealed truth and love of God, and apply ourselves to be “part of the solution,” regardless the cost. The Gospel went out to the known world, at first, with no more than what meets at your church on a Sunday. That was with all the technology of a scribe's brushes and the back of a strong mule. Once the Christians are right with God, once we've turned from our own prides and prejudices, and been transformed and anointed for the work we can finish the job, but not before. The time to repent, to learn, and to act is now.<br />
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-20319541451555490262009-09-14T11:56:00.002-05:002009-09-15T11:22:15.217-05:00But Should the Divorced Remarry?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLqIGrbr_s_ulJ_G6gv-5-KG7wdy78KdpyaQTFFReKsohj4H0hOE85Pd3onxysFLCz9MtW3FEr0R-lMKm3Ze_j8sTI6VHCtH2oItODbv3fJiTuHqr9bisdcKo94NX49-txKaiZiicYIxo/s1600-h/ziggy+diary.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 291px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLqIGrbr_s_ulJ_G6gv-5-KG7wdy78KdpyaQTFFReKsohj4H0hOE85Pd3onxysFLCz9MtW3FEr0R-lMKm3Ze_j8sTI6VHCtH2oItODbv3fJiTuHqr9bisdcKo94NX49-txKaiZiicYIxo/s320/ziggy+diary.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381369531437099298" border="0" /></a><br />We looked earlier at the fact that God provided for the first divorce documents under the Law, and that the purpose of that document was to show that the marriage covenant had been broken beyond repair, and that the bearers were each free to make their own living arrangements. Remarriage was not only allowed, but presumed, based on Genesis' “It is not good for man to be alone,” and, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Without some particularly good reason, their not remarrying would have been a sin against God and against their nation.<br /><br />Even into the days of Jesus and St. Paul, marriage was the normal state for adults in society, Jewish and Greek as well. When Jesus spoke of divorcing and remarrying, or marrying one who is divorced, the conversation He was speaking to points to it being about people who were divorcing one in order to marry the next in line. This, of course, is abuse and hypocrisy, and Jesus never had a lot of sympathy for either one.<br /><br />As Paul was carrying out his teaching ministry, developing the Hebrew Bible teachings and Jesus' words to address the lives of the growing Gentile churches, he provided a third witness to this. The church in Corinth had been dealing with teachings from their own pagan backgrounds. Some of the key issues they were facing dealt with the family and sexual integrity, and since his time and culture are more akin to our own we will look at the way in which he answered their questions.<br /><br />In I Corinthians chap. 7 we can read that they asked him about what seems to be a motto from the ascetic religions of that day: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” He agreed, to a point, but said it is better for every man to have his own wife, and every woman her own husband, and went on to emphasise that within the marriage each one's sexuality is dedicated to the other. In this he was merely confirming what had been part of the marriage covenant (wedding vows) since Moses, and is yet today.<br /><br />He did point out that he was not commanding that all be married or not, but that marriage is the more practical state for most Christians “to avoid fornication.” To borrow from another passage, he warned Timothy to “flee youthful passions” and, as we recognise that not only the young have passions, he was then saying it is better to live with someone for whom we can be passionate than to be facing them alone. <br /><br />But what about divorced people? Modern “wisdom” tells us, “They've had their chance. They blew it, so too bad!” God, however, Who created marriage in the first place, knows that every person and every marriage is different, each married person has a different spouse, with every one coming from a fallen background, is Himself a God of grace. We recognise that grace in other areas, but do we make our marriage ethic a holdover from an age of public stonings? Paul goes on to say,<br /><br />I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. (verses 26-28, ESV)<br /><br />Having earlier framed the question of whether to marry in practical terms of freedom from sexual desire, he now counsels for contentment. Some had been persuaded to divorce their unbelieving spouses, in a picture akin to Nehemiah's in the Old Testament. Paul advised against this. For those already divorced, he advised not to be seeking out a wife, but then quickly assured them that if they did marry, male or female, they had not sinned. They would not enjoy the kind of freedom Paul had, they would have “trouble in the flesh,” but marriage did not / does not separate us from God. In fact, the way in which he lumps the widowed, divorced, and betrothed together indicates that the modern taboo against remarriage did not exist in his day. Paul dealt with what today is the one sin for which people are driven out of churches and pulpits as a mere fact of life, and not more a matter of blame or discipline at all!<br /><br />But should the divorced remarry?<br /><br />As a moral issue, we see that the main point is to avoid immorality, not protect one's status. But we do find a paradox that even shows up today in secular counseling: “Are you loosed? Seek not...” vs. “But if you do, ..you have not sinned.” The first prerequisite for marriage, and especially remarriage, is contentment. Subsequent marriages have an awful reputation, and it may be from this one thing. No matter how harsh and abusive the wrecked marriage was, the person is accustomed to having a mate, and to seeing themselves as part of a married “social unit.” The harsh shock of freedom often drives people back into “more of the same.” Before thinking about remarriage, then, it may take some years for a person to establish a healthy knowledge of themselves (and of God!),. It is important to be at home in the single state before assuming we will be more content should we remarry?<br /><br />Some years ago I was looking into settling in Canada. One of the first things I noticed was that if somebody were working in a trade for which the government saw a need for talent, that person was welcome as long as they kept working in that field and kept buying work permits. In practice, no secure status, and not far from slavery. If, however, that person had a few hundred-thousand to invest with the government, that person was welcome just as long as the money stayed in Ottawa. In the same way, the best marriage, or remarriage, is going to be one entered with established capital rather than the intent to work at building some. “Have salt in yourself,” Jesus says, “and be at peace with one another!”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-31056386416112881682009-09-09T20:48:00.002-05:002009-09-09T21:23:00.432-05:00May the Divorced Remarry?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9yG01U6sMyuT9Dqhjji7PbD7UIV5wU4Ist0uwL1FmOwG3AYa8K9Bp9O5GyWBzq-KOyoQsxafFZgAipHU2aE3NGD7TVRlRcQmWdxrvfXuEAFbeL7yu_mUAr9SedxoBpnhgbR7DEyyzR1Y/s1600-h/divorce+trauma3.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 103px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9yG01U6sMyuT9Dqhjji7PbD7UIV5wU4Ist0uwL1FmOwG3AYa8K9Bp9O5GyWBzq-KOyoQsxafFZgAipHU2aE3NGD7TVRlRcQmWdxrvfXuEAFbeL7yu_mUAr9SedxoBpnhgbR7DEyyzR1Y/s320/divorce+trauma3.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379655561136628050" border="0" /></a>This question has plagued people now for centuries. The consensus in many “Bible-believing churches (should this be redundant?)” is that Jesus said it was an absolute no-no because God has decreed that every marriage is forever, end of discussion. But is this the case?<br /><br />Before going farther, there is no intent here to encourage anyone to take the marriage vows any less seriously. “Til death do us part” still means the same thing and, as many of us know, divorce can be even worse than death for those so-affected. If you are married, then unless your life is in real danger, that is, if at all possible, make it work, please! Many go running out that “back door” only to find themselves slammed through the brick wall on the other side of the doorway.<br /><br />If Jesus said that divorce is a sin, and that those divorced must stay single, then we have an interpretation problem. In the Sermon on the Mount He had said that He would not be changing “one jot or one tittle” of the Law of Moses, but to fulfill it. As a body, it is “fulfilled” when every figure and prediction has come to pass. At present count, the 2/3 which covers the Second Coming and the Kingdom Age is yet to happen. The Law, then, including the parts in which God gave the statutes for divorce as well as the parts for honoring parents, respecting others' property, and loving God with our all, are still in effect.<br /><br />“Giving divorce?” Yes, before the Giving of the Law divorce did not exist. A man had all rights in the marriage, including to expect a deserted wife to wait for him indefinitely in case he wanted to come back in a few years and sell her and her children on the auction block. God, through Moses, changed this for His people. “For the hardness of your hearts it was given” Jesus said. To protect the injured party from continued neglect, abuse, or infidelity the Law al lowed a clean break, with a certificate to show that person was free to remarry or, as Moses wrote it, “free to go where she will.” Marriage, even remarriage, was the norm because of God's command to “be fruitful and multiply” and the male-driven economy which made it nigh-to-impossible for a woman to strike out on her own. This would have been the exception, not the rule.<br /><br />If we but recognise that Jesus is, Himself, the Word, the Logos, of God, then we see that for Him to change course with any detail of the Law would be for Him to contradict Himself as the Law-Giver. It was not His purpose to outlaw divorce, or any other detail of the Law. As much as it can hurt, and yes it can be about like an amputation, if the amputation takes years to complete and the anesthetic is in short supply. But like an amputation it is not done for cosmetic purposes unless one is either incredibly dense or psychotic, but to save a life. In like manner, for the Church to marginalise the divorced would be like a handicapped parking spot being open for all but amputees.<br /><br />Is this the whole story? Not by a long shot. There is more- We have yet to touch on Jesus actual words on the subject, or the implications in the Church for leadership, or the charge given to modern pastors and leaders for dealing with the situation as it stands. But this is a good spot to stop for questions. What's yours?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-25446499429120907602009-09-06T20:51:00.003-05:002009-09-08T01:49:34.094-05:00A Divorcé's Request<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-269" title="divorce def" src="http://sanctifusion.wordpress.com/files/2009/09/divorce-def.jpeg" alt="divorce def" height="84" width="126" /><br />My friend,<br /><br />Please accept this letter in response to your questions. Although I'm sure they were meant well, many people do not realise that divorce is rated as possibly the one most painful event a human being is apt to endure. The death of a loved one is hard; the death of a spouse can be much harder than most; divorce, to at least half of the people who go through it, mixes the sense of loss experienced in bereavement with the combined sense of betrayal and moral failure even in those who did nothing to cause the divorce, who were possibly blindsided by a sudden revelation that their life mate had developed “other interests” and had launched a vicious attack on their “dearly beloved” to provide a smoke screen for their sin. All kinds of such scenarios happen every day, so to ask someone for details about his or her divorce circumstances, though possibly motivated by a sense of religious obligation, is no less callous than presuming to rip someone's heart scars open to “better understand” the nature of their injury. In fact, the religious angle tends to make the pain all the worse, because the victim feels some obligation “for fellowship's sake” to submit to such probing at least long enough to allow a good grip on the scar in question. I honestly think that to probe in such a way is much more painful even than to ask a woman, with no warning, to describe to all present all the details surrounding a past abortion.<br /><br />On the religious part of the question, there is a long-accepted belief that it is a sin to divorce. Nowhere does the Bible support this. Malachi describes a man who is abusing and neglecting his wife, while still married to her, and calls his behavior, or attitude, “putting away,” which God does hate. In Exodus we read that divorce is authorised (even) in the case of a slave woman who is not treated with the full entitlements of a wife, so we can easily expect that a wife had such rights if they were spelled out as applying to the slave as well. Before the Exodus there was no such thing as divorce. Men had the right of property over their wives, even to beat, neglect, or starve them. Today, too often, men are the property of their wives in much the same way. Jesus said, “for the hardness of your hearts it was given.” God, not Moses, gave the ordinance as a relief against the hardheartedness of an abusive, neglectful, or adulterous spouse. The point of the divorce was not to “authorise” a lifelong separation, but so there could be remarriage, as it is spelled out in the Law, both in Exodus and Deuteronomy, so to impose a rule against that in the church is to go against what God's mercy has provided. Readings of Jesus' words which seem to be to the contrary overlook the historical / cultural context in which He was speaking, and the fact that, if He had said what many believe, He would have been going back on His promise not to change “one jot or one tittle” of the Law.<br /><br />If you have any more questions, I will be glad to email you a paper I have done on a pastoral approach to the problem. I would prefer not to be interrogated on this matter: not that I have anything to “hide” but, at the same time, I would prefer not to be dealing with a combination of the divorce trauma and that of being categorised and “lovingly” interrogated as someone somehow unworthy of the grace of God at the drop of a hat.<br /><br />Thank you for your kind consideration.<br /><br />In Jesus,<br /><br />RobertAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-5146067644286083832009-07-20T12:48:00.003-05:002009-07-20T13:01:06.139-05:00"Hollow Men," Hollow Society?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitH2WTACDyc6UXejkUc6W8ZxSsalBuNnU2gOJVnf1xHi8QjHjVZP4sMp1LM62rUeT1SFzJoUz8xRRUEMJ1s9hxqlVQGYc7eLFZt1LabbXZcj2oqq_OYa25loywoeKItbh3lFMO9Kc-pcU/s1600-h/Hollow_Men_by_owenfreeman.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitH2WTACDyc6UXejkUc6W8ZxSsalBuNnU2gOJVnf1xHi8QjHjVZP4sMp1LM62rUeT1SFzJoUz8xRRUEMJ1s9hxqlVQGYc7eLFZt1LabbXZcj2oqq_OYa25loywoeKItbh3lFMO9Kc-pcU/s320/Hollow_Men_by_owenfreeman.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360603403354115362" border="0" /></a>Eliot's “Hollow Men” closes,<br /><br />“This is the way the world ends,<br />Not with a bang but a whimper.”<br /><br />Seeing the trends today, with the “Progressives” having their way in Church and in Government while people who know better stand and stare. If previous generations had seen such abuses there would have been blood in the streets, or at least the key players in these coups would have been locked out of the game rather permanently. Everyone sees, but nobody notices. Everyone knows, but nobody cares. Eliot's poem was called, “The Hollow Men.” Calls us to a later work, an essay by C.S. Lewis, “Men Without Chests,” in which he pointed out the current trend in education to rob schoolchildren of the ability or desire to feel, to give any credibility to their hearts, to their for any sense of beauty beyond what can be measured and dissected in a sterile laboratory.<br /><br />Now, a generation later, we see all the things we hold dear, or would hold dear if we could hold dear, stripped away from our paralyzed grasp as we stand by and say, “Oh, what a shame,” or rationalise it away as “one more sign of the Last Days!” We have been seeing such signs since the birth of the Church. Diocletian's persecutions were seen as a fulfillment. So was the great darkness that covered the Earth in the mid-6th Century. Also the great plagues, the Saracen invasions, the Reformation wars in Europe, the great World War, the European Union, and the coming world currency. All these are warnings: signs that Christ is indeed coming back. If we sit back and watch for it, then how are we not like the “slothful and wicked servant” in the parable whom his master cast into the outer darkness for knowing his master was coming, and yet did not prepare?<br /><br />We must- not can, might, could or should consider- we must go in by where we got out. We must rediscover the things we are lacking, the things of the heart. It is not enough to agitate and militate over issues, threats, or even atrocities. Attempts to do this, even over the past five hundred years, have all in the end only made things worse. Anger has its uses, and they are all short-term. So with pride, and even loyalties to family, tribe, or nation. What fuels and supports these emotions is just the ethos we are now lacking, not only as Easterners or Westerners, Americans, Bosnians, Chileans, or Deutschlanders. And it is the ethos we must reclaim.<br /><br />A young lady, very dear to me, was born with a severe disability which left her with real damage to parts of her brain. People would “compensate” by telling her how clever she was. As a result, she was crippled farther by believing what she was told, but still could not add or subtract. Once she accepted that the polite noises did not define her reality she was better equipped to deal with life as she was best able. I grew up in the USA, and have seen in the US a certain trend in education. Reports from other countries, in Canada, Europe, and Asia show the same thing. Knowledge levels are falling, but “self-esteem,” based in group identity, is skyrocketing. “You're so smart” has replaced “Good job!” in the students' experience.<br /><br />As with self-assessment, so with assessment of the world around them. Literature, which forms a vast part of the students' understanding of the world outside the classroom, is carefully selected to support an ideology. The 20th century writers tend to have histories either as fighting for the communists in the Spanish “Civil War,” or Communist or Workers' Party credentials. Poetry is largely from the Romantics and Transcendentalists, and if a Christian writer is included it is generally to provide fodder for “critical thinking” exercises, that is, seeing the world through the blinders provided. Music or art appreciation, or history generally, is either limited to the past fifty years or presented as mere dates and names, with not a glance at motivations, effects, or personalities involved: at what has developed our world and world-view!<br /><br />What I call for, what we so desperately need in the “free world” or the world at-large, is not easy, or all that simple. It may not even be possible, but it is worth every effort. It is revolutionary in the deepest sense of the word. I will not even try to describe the conditions our grandchildren will face without these measures, because the particulars are not nearly as important as simply seeing the trends and acting accordingly. We must, by all means,<br /><br />I. Begin by committing our lives to God, in Christ, for His guidance in all things.<br /><br />1.Search out the “sources” of what life in Christ entails. The earlier the better.<br />2.Begin to live what we discover.<br /><br />II. Search out the literature left out of the textbooks. Surely Milton and Danté weren't the only poets to believe in Christ! Are pride of place and resentment of the rich really the driving themes of human existence? Or is the “raw material” of the human person so much more “authentic” than what that person can make of him/her self?<br /><br />III. Learn History! Not just, “Who did what to who and when,” but “Why?” So many millions of lives have been lost simply from people not knowing the issues behind the conflicts they have been drawn into; so many are enemies today from not knowing the others' backgrounds.<br /><br />1.Learn about art: What made the Dutch Masters depict reality as they did? Why were the old icons painted in such a way? How did the different schools and trends relate to the thinking of their day?<br /><br />2.Learn philosophy: How did the prevailing beliefs- the various trends of humanism, nominalism, existentialism- influence the art, literature, politics, of that day? Were those philosophies ultimately based on sound bases or prejudice?<br /><br />IV. In all things, think critically! Not based on the latest, politically correct, trends of thinking, but from the truths we are learning as we continue in Step I. Not just asking how we as members of our “modern” society should see things, but how would these things square with the revealed truths of Christianity? With the Person of Christ Himself, Who is Truth?<br /><br />V. Finally, make all these things not merely individual pursuits, or allow them to become mere hobbies or side interests, but all parts of one main pursuit: and not as individuals, but involving as many people as possible, and going as very far as possible. And in all things, calling out to God for His forgiveness, His cleansing and renewing of our minds, and His guidance!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-21793692693566556792009-07-11T15:00:00.004-05:002009-07-13T16:22:50.875-05:00Eternal Security in the 21st Century<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcXnqjUh4Xh8jyTnH3SjRFDdAvqXgNWc2czPlvs-DuK0ul9qUvuFB48-LF4OpDYWC5VuphyphenhyphenD6XOCic9oCHgQ9zWvZWG63jN04CHYidtK1RvwMsO9CfPZlA1AWQCK48qB9ieS98JCW9M08/s1600-h/eternal+security+card.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcXnqjUh4Xh8jyTnH3SjRFDdAvqXgNWc2czPlvs-DuK0ul9qUvuFB48-LF4OpDYWC5VuphyphenhyphenD6XOCic9oCHgQ9zWvZWG63jN04CHYidtK1RvwMsO9CfPZlA1AWQCK48qB9ieS98JCW9M08/s320/eternal+security+card.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357301446382775570" border="0" /></a><br />"..nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God."</div><p style="text-align: justify;">Just to say, for any who might wonder, I do believe in eternal security. Scripture is full of promises that God will never cast out his faithful children or change His mind about His salvation. "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" cannot be any firmer either in the English, or in the Greek from which it is taken. Psalm 23 ends with the promise, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life..." and begins with "The Lord is my shepherd."</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br />What causes problems with some people, though, is not eternal security, but eternal presumption. Eternal presumption claims the Lord as his shepherd, but insists on shepherding himself. When he hears the Lord calling, "Follow Me" he imagines he also hears, "..and you can take the lead," or, "wherever <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> want to go." We preach that Christianity is a relationship, but do we then exclude Jesus from the picture? We say that Christianity is a party, but is it Jesus' party we're going to, or do we somehow throw a party in His honor, but leave Him off the guest list?<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Here in America, the polls tell us that 85% of the people are Christians, most of these claiming a "born-again" experience. Jesus gave us a parable, in which the Word of God was eagerly received, and imparted life and promise, but from it not being allowed to take root and assume its rightful place as a plant growing in the soil, the life and the promise died away. The ground where it had been planted then became dried and hardened, covered with obnoxious weeds. Consistent with that picture of God's Word being like a seed, Paul writes, "..if anyone be in Christ, ..all things are made new." The Christianity of that 85% has so little effect on their own lives that militant atheism and a "rights" agenda aimed at turning the world into a homosexual "paradise" (both representing a scant minority in the US, have them cowed to even mention the name of Christ in public. Like the withered seed, they have no power, no confidence or joy, their lives do not make a difference because their lives, for the greater part do not differ from the "norm" of the non- Christian "minority."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">King David, in Ps. 19, speaks of two kinds of sin that can affect our lives. First, there are "errors" and "secret faults." In the Law, these sins, when discovered, could be atoned by some kind of sacrifice as a kind of "personal housekeeping" to keep things right with God. Also, there were the "presumptuous sins." Presuming on God's mercy and "niceness," violating God's commands and principles regardless. Even in the New Testament there is no blank-check guarantee that this can be forgiven. In Hebrews we read, "They that sinned knowingly under Moses' law received no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking-for of wrath and fiery indignation." and, "How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."<br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Is it all hopeless? Not necessarily, but as the Spirit continues in that passage, it is on us to remember the goodness of the Lord, call on Him, and commit our lives to being His people, on His terms, rather than presuming that He is ours, on ours. </p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-11020656926274839042009-07-04T12:55:00.003-05:002009-07-07T10:29:40.130-05:00Remember "Freedom?"<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjysE_OjL-1behORYZq2MxzvtLLrWbkoqQ2MBCqhC0YDRWV2kKOgG0aorMudLG4j9iD61ZDDRscNUMwFPolS1jEBN49D-LyJ8yFGD5Tj4Hhmbz5vmtI7qdO3hLgPRDe0pBD1NCXqMljync/s1600-h/patriotic-desktop02-640.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjysE_OjL-1behORYZq2MxzvtLLrWbkoqQ2MBCqhC0YDRWV2kKOgG0aorMudLG4j9iD61ZDDRscNUMwFPolS1jEBN49D-LyJ8yFGD5Tj4Hhmbz5vmtI7qdO3hLgPRDe0pBD1NCXqMljync/s320/patriotic-desktop02-640.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354668990888937522" border="0" /></a>Today's the 4th. Happy 4th, to all Americans! This day commemorates the children of English and European settlers binding together to form a new nation. Lately, though, that seems to be about all we know about it. Our schools spend precious little time on that era, and what time is taken is put to memorising dates and names the students know nothing else about, making the very study of history repulsive to them. If we understood the story behind the “story” we are fed, we would have a far greater appreciation both for the price paid for our freedoms in this country and the relationship of the American Experiment to the rest of the world.<br /><br />From what I”ve gathered of the readers who have come to this small site in the past two and half years, it seems that the average person is probably a lot smarter and better-educated than me. Instead, then, of launching into one more Internet history lesson, there are some questions that need to be answered if we are going to be able to preserve the heritage that was begun some 233 years ago today.<br /><br />Was this land first settled to establish a political system, an economic system, or to establish God's kingdom throughout the world?<br /><br />We know that the majority of our Founding Fathers claimed an evangelical faith in Christ. What of the spearheads of the independence movement?<br /><br />What is there to learn from a closer look at our country's early conflicts that might help us see our development as a nation among the nations more clearly?<br /><br />What was the relationship between the populist / socialist movements in Europe in the mid-18th century and the developments here during that time?<br /><br />How did FDR “save” the US economy, and social structure, by increasing taxes (decreasing the money supply) and spending the money of throwaway projects which forced men to leave their wives and children for extended periods, producing a fatherless generation?<br /><br />How is it that what we call Patriotism we learned in a school system developed by self-proclaimed Socialists?<br /><br />Is there a link between public-school “socialisation” and Socialism?<br /><br />Could any of this be a factor in the so-called “Change” we are now witnessing?<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-78494620904258264712009-06-01T16:38:00.003-05:002009-06-01T22:32:27.638-05:00The Economics of Murder<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUM8254abAXaCFkdHCIp5Z9XlRIvz2RSsHPSJFKnxfbzvo2HsgVGrm3aw0vIP7TkdOKYwV3iJruPD7HHh6MdpQNHqxWOudI6F90Ttx1TuFsCja6dP_PZLMlV4Ez3N3Wn3iYDhCF6D_p2Q/s1600-h/deaths_head.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUM8254abAXaCFkdHCIp5Z9XlRIvz2RSsHPSJFKnxfbzvo2HsgVGrm3aw0vIP7TkdOKYwV3iJruPD7HHh6MdpQNHqxWOudI6F90Ttx1TuFsCja6dP_PZLMlV4Ez3N3Wn3iYDhCF6D_p2Q/s320/deaths_head.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342483539164962306" border="0" /></a><br />A murder in Kansas has the attention of all the news media today. However many innocents have died in Sudan or Congo, how many Christians have been imprisoned, tortured, murdered in countries throughout the world, none of that is newsworthy. Neither, apparently, is the growing toll of abortions in this country. One man, one of a handful who openly aborted even babies at the point of birth, and who used the bloody gains of his butchery to bankroll his own filthy agenda in the halls of Government, has himself been killed. Do two wrongs make a right? Or could there have been a better solution? Doubtless this fellow Tiller (Was he yet a doctor, or was his license to practice as an MD actually pulled as I vaguely recall?) At any rate, the "abortion provider" awaits his Judgment while Public Opinion suffers a new wave of opinion engineering as the Media trade on the the shock value of his death to create a martyr.</div><p style="text-align: justify;">What will come of this? Will his death reduce the number of abortions, or are there too many more dogs in smock coats ready to lap the filth he left behind? Will it cut off the funding to his favorite Governor, or with her new appointment would he have actually have been more of a liability than an asset? Interestingly, the police seem intent on finding ties to pro-life groups instead of simply looking for what ties there may be.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">For you and me- Will we content ourselves cluck our tongues over the terrible situation (pick one!) as we go about our daily business of generating tax dollars, or do we bother ourselves to pray, fast, and examine our own hearts & lives that the Lord will still have mercy on this country, that we as a country may turn from our corporate individualism, petty selfishness, and our growing thirst for the perverse, and commit to the right thinking, right loving, and right living that He wants to restore in our lives?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">A wise priest said recently that if a politician has no respect for the life of the most innocent and helpless among us, why should we expect them to protect the rest of us? And "it's the economy, stupid?" Righteousness establishes a nation, but sin will only, always, destroy it. No politician, but only God can do anything to save us.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-84348799423870503422009-05-24T10:00:00.002-05:002009-05-24T10:16:23.589-05:00The End of America?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytwrTYk3f40t3fXDc3FBb9nhJJojPHcUxGuUlIzcBKa89nsvr-DbMqWGeEIPIErJ1DbCRB7PD0bl0sWdwZ1obIsQ7z_uaGn9zT3V-z97AFpJvdEA_Jwfb7b3Avp7cY47b4wXO1k1auFs/s1600-h/Wiley+Miller+Judgment+Day.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytwrTYk3f40t3fXDc3FBb9nhJJojPHcUxGuUlIzcBKa89nsvr-DbMqWGeEIPIErJ1DbCRB7PD0bl0sWdwZ1obIsQ7z_uaGn9zT3V-z97AFpJvdEA_Jwfb7b3Avp7cY47b4wXO1k1auFs/s320/Wiley+Miller+Judgment+Day.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339409448557855586" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Okay, so you're a Christian. Odds are if you're reading this you're an American, where 85% claim to be "saved." There just doesn't seem to be a lot of agreement on what we're supposed to be saved from, or saved for, how we came to be saved, or why. But we're saved. You can bet on it.</div><p style="text-align: justify;">So a Christian society endorses pornography, abortion, drunkenness, adultery, divorce-for-convenience, euthanasia, and all kinds of sexual immorality in degrees unparalleled since the fall of Rome, and brags about its "liberty." It even sits idly by as its leaders enact a new law giving pedophiles protected status that in the same stroke they denied their returning war veterans. Yet we indignantly wonder that other countries, despite lavish "foreign aid," don't love us unquestioningly. Do we even imagine that the fragrance of our religion doesn't utterly<br />gag the Almighty? Yet we're so sure we're all destined for eternal glory. We're Christians, after all! Well, let's not bet the farm on it. Or our old bug collection for that matter.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">God had His witness in Sodom. "Righteous Lot" lived among the people as God's representative, but his desire to do business compromised his life, and he nearly died in their judgment. His wife did not even survive. Nineveh was, if anything, worse even than Sodom, but one unwilling prophet appeared on the scene to proclaim, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed!" Nineveh turned to God, and He held off His judgment.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Is there hope for this country? Will the US survive? Every lesson from history seems to scream to the negative. America has in the past been a savior to the other nations, pouring military and humanitarian aid into many nations to defeat dictators, to fight hunger, to help in education.<br />Lately this is being more and more off set by our role as the UN's pet bulldog in areas like the Balkans and the Mid-East. The humanitarian aid often "misses" areas that are in the worst need, and the education is more about self-worship and greed than anything useful or even honest. We think of Sodom as being some city-wide, full-time, romp, but the descriptions we see in the Bible could as well be about any city in this country. Where are the prophets? For over sixty years our recognised "prophets" have been clucking their tongues like an indulgent grandmother about, "not having God's best" when the Spirit would have them issue a call to repent from the sins that are destroying this nation, and each life in it, from the inside out.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">These "prophets" tell us that a revival will come when God "sovereignly" decides to send one, so we sit calmly in our sinking boats, refusing to either bail or row, and assure ourselves that we are in God's will. God's will is not for the churches in America to founder and sink. He has given us everything we need to not only stay afloat but to rescue those drowning all around us, but we adjust our deck chairs and religiously mutter, "But that is God's job!" The Church is not preaching repentance, is not preaching righteousness, but is telling those drowning all around them that such things are only invisible legal fictions in the courts of Heaven. Can this nation survive if no preachers are even calling it to receive the life God has been trying to offer it? Can this nation turn to God if it truly believes that such a turn is only a matter of putting the right face on things? Nineveh heard their prophet, turned, and lived. Sodom compromised their prophet, and corrupted his message. Is there hope for America, or is this encroaching "secularisation" merely the darkness approaching as God withdraws His light?</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The answer is up to us. "Ask, and you will receive, seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened." By His grace we are able. Let us not let it slip!</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-54653750919301075662009-05-09T15:24:00.003-05:002009-05-11T23:46:06.984-05:00So What About Liturgy?<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVijphSEL1mzd444BQbaUUAnGxLuwLgOcHkhCcoRPK4N3rkRzQGjGkszYtvfR2Ot1IMLY394oqqb02x6Dbx4oMgpIPkY2XtMwMNid69oCc7XEeuQ70etM-6D9nguLCtyr7u3dfvR6GU0/s1600-h/Fraction.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVijphSEL1mzd444BQbaUUAnGxLuwLgOcHkhCcoRPK4N3rkRzQGjGkszYtvfR2Ot1IMLY394oqqb02x6Dbx4oMgpIPkY2XtMwMNid69oCc7XEeuQ70etM-6D9nguLCtyr7u3dfvR6GU0/s320/Fraction.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333925240866466690" border="0" /></a><br />Large parts of the Church today are effected by the anti-liturgical movement which seems to date back about five hundred years ago. The main fruit of that vine seems to have been that more and more parts of the Christian Faith have been labeled as "extraneous" or "non-essential," often with the cynical eye of a 1930's SS officer looking for "useless eaters." As the author of this movement1 left behind a wide path of bloodshed and upheaval, and apparently no testimony of ever having surrendered to the Prince of Peace, we do have a fair reason to re-examine his legacy.<br /><br />Liturgy, of course, merely means "work of the people," and is no more from the start but a way to involve the congregation in worship. But, first, it is said that Liturgy is "of man," or even "Catholic" in origin, and so not to be tolerated. Leaving the latter charge for later, we must ask how repeated prayers and creeds are more peculiarly "human" than unplanned prayers, or sermons, hymns, or church architecture. For that matter, what makes humanity or a human response to God bad, when it was to redeem humanity that Christ died? Second, We hear that Liturgy is "peripheral:" that preaching of the Word is what counts. Yes, the proclamation of the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ, is the key focus. For just that reason we have a liturgy which continues that proclamation from the early days of the Church. When we lose the Liturgy or, even worse, re-write it to suit modern agendas, the Church loses her memory<br />of her own past and becomes a prisoner of the immediate present, much like an amnesiac or an Alzheimer's victim. Such a picture put far too great a strain on the pastors to not only guide the Church into the future but to continually remind her that she does, in fact, exist in the present, having at least some sense of having been around earlier than last week.<br /><br />Speaking, now, of catholicity: It is only by regaining her past, her memory, that the Church can come to realise that if she is Christian, then she is Christian together with all others who honestly love her Lord. Political movements within her history, the growth and concomitant corruption of Roman influence in the West, the various Reformation and counter-revival movements, are features in the landscape, but the road through it all is God's unfailing love for His saints. This is the message that defines the Church as one body, that makes and keeps her truly catholic.<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-53296168446830115052009-03-28T18:58:00.003-05:002009-03-28T21:00:53.953-05:00Recipe for Revival: Living the Life<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF2nG1JYwAnjRtM0mEzprDi6tza-4th_U2hB1inOVVpuBf77aqKdAvlXAeOowUUeWQXUSSjBaSfSZBmDKQqFPQ3n5bHjgsxx_xdkKk7JI4SbxPpkBqohq1I5rwPRtL8El8uF1l0kZJWAA/s1600-h/These+Rocks+Rock.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF2nG1JYwAnjRtM0mEzprDi6tza-4th_U2hB1inOVVpuBf77aqKdAvlXAeOowUUeWQXUSSjBaSfSZBmDKQqFPQ3n5bHjgsxx_xdkKk7JI4SbxPpkBqohq1I5rwPRtL8El8uF1l0kZJWAA/s320/These+Rocks+Rock.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318395564555754242" border="0" /></a>An anonymous visitor reminds me that it's one thing to talk about why we need to go on to know the Lord, and not merely presume our eternal future on a past moment. Where it gets really sticky is when we ask what we should, or can, do with that information. The whole Bible covers a time frame, not including predictions, of at least 4,000 years, up until about 1900+ years ago. Daily life has stayed about the same all through the Biblical stretch, and really until the past hundred fifty years, when the Rugged Individualist became the model for our society. What's all this about? The Old Testament is written for a people who lived together, sharing the same covenant, as a nation, with God. God's flock. The New Testament was written for a people who gathered together, sharing the same covenant, as a Body, with God. Again, God's flock. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice.” The Church today is a scattered flock with a lot more in common with rock goats than sheep of His pasture, showing up maybe once a week for a twenty-minute “feeding,” and then off we go to our own favorite rocks.<br /><br />How do we grow? How do we live a Christian life like the Bible talks about? What means has God given us so we can? Let's look back to the New Testament, to the second chapter of Acts, verse 40 & following.<br /><blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br />The first key here is simply that the people who were joined to the Church saw that there was something very wrong with the world they had been part of, and they didn't want to share its fate. This was about like a fish in the lake realising it is wet. The Holy Spirit was involved in this!<br /><blockquote><br />And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul,<br /></blockquote><br />As a result of continually learning about Jesus, getting to know each other and seeing God's work in each other's lives, and in communing together with the Lord in the Holy Communion and in prayer, their lives were marked with the awe of God's presence,<br /><blockquote><br />and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.</blockquote><br /><br />Miracles became commonplace, and the most notable miracle was that the Believers loved each other “as more worthy than themselves” so that they could not bear to see a brother or a sister suffer need. Investments were sold off to make sure the poor were cared for. Christ's Body was of more value to them than their own possessions!<blockquote><br /><br />And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.</blockquote><br /><br />Worship became a way of life. God's joy so filled them that people were glad to see them coming, and the Church was growing, not just by a dozen or so on Membership Sunday, but continually, day by day.<br /><br />The First Church had a number of things going for it that we need to take hold of.<br /><br />1.They saw that “going with the flow” of the world around them was not a healthy choice.<br />2.They identified with the people of God.<br />3.They allowed the Holy Spirit to implant His Truth in their hearts through Gospel teaching.<br />4.They allowed the Holy Spirit to join their hearts to others whom He had placed alongside them.<br />5.They allowed the Holy Spirit to renew their souls with the sacraments.<br />6.They allowed the Holy Spirit to live through their spirits in prayer.<br />7.They allowed the Holy Spirit to have His way in every aspect of their lives, not “just the church stuff.”<br /><br />We notice also that a major part of the picture was that they continued on in the worship at the Temple, so breaking off from our current churches to “start a new work” is not necessarily a good idea. But what can we do to make the change from being a gaggle of stray goats who show up on the odd Sunday, provided the “feeding” is short, sweet, and convenient, to a flock- no, a Body- who knows God's love, and lives it, with each other, as a daily way of life? If the Jerusalem Church allowed Jesus so be their joy, and they enjoyed the new life He gave them to the point that thousands were being saved and added to their number, and we are clinging to our comforts and conveniences and seeing our own children leaving the Faith at a rate of over 80% with virtually nobody being “added to the Church,” just what price are we paying for those “conveniences?”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-51435934072539536162009-03-17T15:37:00.003-05:002009-03-18T21:22:18.579-05:00The Great Evangelical Conundrum!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-_YT2B9m3qbt20zYceesFjVJofKFokGOrMbUl7h61JG9drhyphenhyphenF8GsVI7by6VMwLdYjBKh3QuWWFGN4XEh8_CSR1iN-hmsPrF0ojAbZ9KXUuVm42npq3bbVlpTmKEOBsMU4tBlu6Zws3zE/s1600-h/salvation.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-_YT2B9m3qbt20zYceesFjVJofKFokGOrMbUl7h61JG9drhyphenhyphenF8GsVI7by6VMwLdYjBKh3QuWWFGN4XEh8_CSR1iN-hmsPrF0ojAbZ9KXUuVm42npq3bbVlpTmKEOBsMU4tBlu6Zws3zE/s320/salvation.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314262489143941090" border="0" /></a><br />I have been asked this on more than one occasion, “Do you believe that you can lose your salvation?” and how I answered would determine whether that person would continue in a conversation with me or visit my church. Since I do enjoy a good conversation with people (and, indeed, what is a relationship but a good conversation?), and I do like people to visit my church, this works out to be a pretty good question to be able to answer.<br /><br />What I believe, now, has to come first from what the Lord has brought me, thus far, to understand from my walk with Him as His Spirit teaches me through His Word, and through godly reflection on what I, and we as His people, find there. But to understand the question, if we look at it closely, we realise that to lose something we first have to own it, which means taking responsibility for it. So if we can lose it we have to be responsible for it in the first place. The person asking me this must be assuming that the outcome of “our” salvation is up to us in calling it ours to start with. Does the Bible say that it is ours, as something we own?<br /><br />A quick search of the King James gives us seven references that either God is our salvation, or that He is the God of our salvation. One, Eph. 1:13, speaks of the gospel of our salvation, and another, Rom. 13:11, tells us our salvation is nearer than when we believed. However, when we look up “eternal life,” we find thirty references, generally in the context of a future expectation with none that say it is a present possession except for John 17:3, that, “This is eternal life, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.” So, then, that one key relationship is the factor, not that we “have” salvation, but that we have a reason to hope for it.<br /><br />What it is, then, to “know” God, becomes the second most important question we can ever ask. Is it merely a passing acquaintance? I have met a few successful authors and musicians in the past years, but if I started dropping their names to get access to big parties, or boasting of their friendship while making an ass of myself, they would have every right to call me to court for abusing their names. I really doubt if Christ came to earth to go through all the abuse He did just so “Christians” could continue to abuse His Name. He came that we might know Him, and He put the key to our eternal future in that relationship. We could, at this point, go into a deep and technical study into the meaning of this word, “know1” but the wiser idea might be to ask that one, more important, question, “Do I know Him?” Do we find the answer by mining Scripture for a proof text that can excuse us from building a real relationship, or do we go the safer, and far more rewarding, route and make it our life's quest to really and truly know Him as intimately, personally, and openly, as He will in His own grace, allow? Do we bury our earthly lives in a rag, or do we truly embark on the adventure of all eternity?<br /><br />Jesus said, “He that loves his life (in this world) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel's, the same will find it.”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-16328896249961437522009-02-25T23:40:00.002-06:002009-03-11T19:27:32.530-05:00The Church is Going Down.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyMSLkJttCAxcxa5S0vZiwbk2XZt1OBmjifbQM9xcPthQYULOm-dxcXj0YiIHE-2hKPPk-qJv12jiDbYmxekBDdmOS17rWqd2qk-wI8hyphenhyphen_YfbvAyNJhPKUUtMpqFPm3xFvdoJt5ytCKLE/s1600-h/style+and+substance.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 125px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyMSLkJttCAxcxa5S0vZiwbk2XZt1OBmjifbQM9xcPthQYULOm-dxcXj0YiIHE-2hKPPk-qJv12jiDbYmxekBDdmOS17rWqd2qk-wI8hyphenhyphen_YfbvAyNJhPKUUtMpqFPm3xFvdoJt5ytCKLE/s400/style+and+substance.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306978658487261250" border="0" /></a><br />What's next?<br />Christianity in America is going down:<br />All Protestant churches, even the Southern Baptist Convention, are shrinking<br />Congress is getting serious about investigating fraudulent preachers with deep collection baskets.<br />Christian Broadcasting has become so dependent on “teaching ministries” that few stations show any depth or integrity in their message.<br />The present regime is committed to a “pluralism” that welcomes all “faiths” but excludes Christianity at every turn.<br />The arrest and torture of Christians overseas is of no concern to the US State Dept.<br />The most sacred “right” in America is no longer the right to worship God, but to abort children.<br /><br />The Church can no longer expect the slightest support or protection of any kind from the Government,<br />The Government can no longer expect the slightest support or protection from God.<br />What does this mean?<br /><br />1.The money base behind the spread of the shallow, warped, and altogether pagan message which has been set forth as Christianity is shrinking.<br />2.The Government support (tax-free status, etc.) is apt to shrink or disappear.<br />3.The volume of the pseudo-faith message is likely to diminish.<br />4.This means a larger percent of Christian proclamation will come from people who have a real experience from which to speak, with God's glory and the hearer's salvation in view rather than the preacher's glory and the hearer's silver.<br />5.With Christianity less “cool” the message is likely to return from the present, living-room niceties to a re-examination of the real content of the real Gospel. <br /><br />The Church is going down. Down where we belong. On our knees, where our strength was, all along.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-9205990023279064192009-02-07T14:36:00.003-06:002009-02-09T18:37:07.371-06:00Faith or Reason?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosFuvD9_dWTfLEwCtQq-x6Yw6oj_GbIMRw-VCIb4cpmyRP1l8dZ1LJJ9JGTyq-tFxAIypTkghxXuw29zLbdLv6iRgOlyJr_7CswRdRI2krCxxyNRLes-5zjCCgc1lvsIDgeT2gBLkr1I/s1600-h/lastsupperhb3.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 286px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosFuvD9_dWTfLEwCtQq-x6Yw6oj_GbIMRw-VCIb4cpmyRP1l8dZ1LJJ9JGTyq-tFxAIypTkghxXuw29zLbdLv6iRgOlyJr_7CswRdRI2krCxxyNRLes-5zjCCgc1lvsIDgeT2gBLkr1I/s400/lastsupperhb3.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300157901506564466" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Holy Mysteries<br /><br />Understanding, or Right Thinking?<br />Today we want to understand- <br />to lay it out, to break it down, to plot it all out with constants and variables.<br />Our faith is Humanism. It's all about us!<br /><br />Right thinking- We know<br />there is that there is, beyond knowing:<br />Where did time come from? Where will it go?<br />If all matter come from energy, then what is its source?<br />And who harnessed it?<br /><br />“God is love.” Thinking about it brings wisdom,<br />Thinking to understand it brings sorrow.<br /><br />Jesus said, “This is my body, ..this is my blood.”<br />He died once, for all, but yet he said, “This is.”<br />Not emblems, not symbols, but he didn't say,<br />“As often as you do, you kill me,” but “you remember.”<br /><br />Can we understand this? Do we need to?<br />Right believing, right remembering, needs Right Thinking.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-64960798405212029862009-02-06T15:40:00.005-06:002009-02-06T15:54:16.003-06:00What's the Difference?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjinvW50Enkw9SDc8Eh_kAHfc1So6yugNmmYYOuDRoQrZQMaJ72t1d_IT0SKmRNo-KwPFa_1ASC69bom47sJm4qOM75ormfveA9J0SPwuxG4CAE1LfQJmYYCMPzxYnh986b9S5imRwbo2w/s1600-h/unknown+baby.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjinvW50Enkw9SDc8Eh_kAHfc1So6yugNmmYYOuDRoQrZQMaJ72t1d_IT0SKmRNo-KwPFa_1ASC69bom47sJm4qOM75ormfveA9J0SPwuxG4CAE1LfQJmYYCMPzxYnh986b9S5imRwbo2w/s400/unknown+baby.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299804367059385074" border="0" /></a>In the 1930's German Protestants backed the government's “fight against the spiritual and political influence of the Jewish race,” and into the 40's were broadly quiet about the death camps. Word from the Vatican was that “the greatest charity is not to make problems for the Church.”<br /><br />In America, fifty million children's lives have been destroyed, not to mention the lives of the women so deceived or hardened to be lured into complicity in the murder. A few Christians, occasionally, hold up signs on the street for a few hours. What's the difference?<br /><br />If the fetus is a human baby (and not a fish, pig, or monkey like Modern Science once imagined), then how is deliberately causing its intentional death not murder? Regardless of the “opinion” of some political appointees, how can the cold-blooded, methodical murder of a harmless, helpless baby be justifiable? If such a murder is not justifiable (How can it be?), then what limit can there be on the justifiable actions to prevent it? We have American “doctors” beating the Son of Sam's career total in a single day, or the Boston Strangler's in a week! What's the difference?<br /><br />Timothy Longman, writing about a similar travesty in Rwanda, said, "It is very difficult to understand how those who worship a man on a cross could help to drive the bloody nails themselves. But the record is clear: When religion is infected by racism, ideology or extreme nationalism, it can become a carrier of hatred instead of conscience. And when churches are concerned mainly for their institutional self-preservation, they often end up neck-deep in compromise or paralyzed by cowardice."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-765859905680932230.post-27994239861788607202009-02-03T20:38:00.003-06:002009-02-04T19:49:13.897-06:00The Perfect Life<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfcQNOrvNwl7GPtNC_L8P1FrC2P7knqGkadII5vfeNSSQzpRq1569rCnusDwfRv_a6M1XNFNWp3ocmHdQMvZonldxRryoUA1CTcL6gyHZOecU7dNJ_7jsnEWb1OUH8iMXmMvvfWf9A16w/s1600-h/tire+swing.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 600px; height: 349px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfcQNOrvNwl7GPtNC_L8P1FrC2P7knqGkadII5vfeNSSQzpRq1569rCnusDwfRv_a6M1XNFNWp3ocmHdQMvZonldxRryoUA1CTcL6gyHZOecU7dNJ_7jsnEWb1OUH8iMXmMvvfWf9A16w/s400/tire+swing.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298769152613906930" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"> Psalm: Psalm 147:1-11<br />Old Testament: Isaiah 40:21-31<br />Gospel: Mark 1:29-39<br />Epistle: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23 27<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> Gospel theme: up & doing.<br /><ul><li> The touch of Jesus, and a sick woman is up & doing. Not sitting around attracting attention for having been touched and healed by the Master, as great as this was, but demonstrating His having touched her by doing for others..</li><li>The touch of the Father, as Jesus met with Him in prayer, and Jesus was up & doing, eager to reach the cities and remote villages, preaching, healing, and delivering all who came to Him.<br /></li></ul><br />OT theme:<br /><ul><li> God, of infinite power & majesty- the Ultimate, the Creator, Redeemer, & Judge,</li><li> Is our Sustainer, giving strength to the weak, understanding to the simple, life to the dying,</li><li> That we may soar in His strength, pressing on in power, and in patience!</li><li> And what is it that God is calling us to do in that strength, that power, and that endurance?</li></ul><br />Epistle theme:<br />Paul says,<br /><ul><li> I preach because I must preach! (This echoes Jesus in His own first public sermon, Isa. 61:1, opened in Lk. 4:18. Is this not the same testimony as the Church even today?)</li><li> If I preach willingly, then God rewards me. If not, then I still must preach!</li><li> My greatest reward, he is saying, is to give myself freely for the sake of those I am seeking to reach, for that is what Jesus did, and does, for us, and in following Him, He is transforming me from the inside (and the outside will surely show it!), to be like Him, and becoming like Him I want to give myself away for the work of the Gospel, for the souls of lost, for the building up of the Body of Christ.</li><li> So, what is it that God is wanting to do in our lives? What is He calling us to do, as we would grow up into Him? Salvation is not an armchair event. We don't sit around and watch God grow us up. A body-builder doesn't make his gains watching the late shows. It is God, the Bible says, Who is working in us to desire, and to carry out, those things which please Him, so Paul said: our lives flowing into His, His Spirit transforming ours. In a letter to the one strongest and holiest church in his care, Paul writes,</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;">Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.</span><br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02215557199259127287noreply@blogger.com0