Giving Christ His Place

From AW Tozer:

Christianity at large and the Church generally speaking, are afflicted with a dread, lingering illness that shows itself daily in the apathy and spiritual paralysis of its members.

How can it be otherwise when twentieth-century Christians refuse to acknowledge the sharp moral antithesis that God Himself has set between the Church, as the Body of Christ, and this present world with its own human systems?

The differences between the churchly world and the followers of the Lamb are so basic that they can never be reconciled or negotiated. God has never promised His believing people that they would become a popular majority in this earthly scene.

I wonder how many believers would join me in a clear-cut manifesto to our times? I want it to be a declaration of our intentions to restore Christ to the place that is rightfully His in our family situations and in the fellowship of the churches that bear His name.

Are we willing to demonstrate the standards of godliness and biblical holiness as a rebuke to this wicked and perverse generation?

Too many modern churches believe that they can reach the world by becoming more like it. This might initially attract a few curious seekers, usually for misdirected reasons such as their quest for increased prosperity, better health, worry free living, or other goals stemming from promises contained within the "tickle the ear" messages coming from the church. The vast majority of unbelievers however, will generally reject church members attempting to assimilate into the world. Their most common reaction will be to rightly accuse the member of being a hypocrite. "See, I knew you didn't really believe all that Christian morals, ethics and stuff". If the unsaved can't see any difference between us and them, what incentive do they have to join us?

The church cannot transform the world if we are too busy assimilating into it. It is only when the church bends the knee and confesses Jesus as Lord to the glory of the Father (Php 2:10-11), and remains faithful to the Biblical teachings that the unbeliever will see something worth responding to. Returning to Pastor Tozer, he offers this prayer:

Lord, though the Church and the world often collide, I pray that each member of the Body of Christ will be so full of integrity that many unsaved people in the world will be pointed to Jesus Christ.

Memorial Day 2012

This year's Memorial Day has been particularly special to our family. About six weeks ago, our son Justin arrived safely from his second deployment to the war zone in Afghanistan, and made it back home yesterday for a month-long stay. He arrived just as the big celebration was beginning. We actually combined three events for this get-together, our 35th wedding anniversary, our son Jeff's graduation from SMU, and Justin's homecoming.

While we have been extremely blessed at this time, we must never forget the families of those who have not been as fortunate. The picture at right was taken from the marine memorial service last month honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and for all of us. Let us also not forget our wounded warriors who will carry this reminder for the rest of their lives. I would like to encourage everyone who knows a family that has lost a loved one in our defense, please let them know how much you appreciate it.

In honor of all who have sacrificed their very lives for our freedoms, see our Memorial Day Tribute 2012 page on our main website. God Bless our brave troops.

Happy Mother's Day 2012

My mother went home to Jesus over a decade ago, but I still often thank God for being raised by such a godly woman. History is filled with the stories of the saints that God has raised up to do great things. Almost without exception, behind each one is the prayers of a godly mother. A mother leaves us many lessons, long after she's gone. Never underestimate the power of a godly mother.

The well-known evangelist, Billy Sunday once said, "There is more power in a mother's hand than in a king's scepter."

Billy Sunday's famous sermon on Motherhood can be read on our main website.

So, for all the mothers, we say "Thank you, Happy Mother's Day, and God bless".

National Day of Prayer 2012

Tomorrow, millions will observe the 61st Anniversary of the National Day of Prayer, participating in thousands of organized events in which citizens will unite in prayer for America and its leadership. This year’s theme is “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Ps 33:12). For more information, including how to find an event in your area, visit the National Day of Prayer website.

This year's Honorary Chairman is Dr David Jeremiah, founder of Turning Point Ministries and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Cajon (San Diego area), California. Dr Jeremiah has written the event's official prayer:

Heavenly Father, every good gift and perfect gift comes from You. You are a faithful God and Your mercy endures forever. You have promised to bless the nation that trusts in You. Our currency proclaims “In God We Trust,” but in our culture we are far from You. In the words of the prophet Daniel, “We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.”

We come before You once more, seeking Your forgiveness and mercy. You, O God, are our only hope… Hear our prayer and, for Your honor’s sake, shine Your face upon this nation. Give our leaders the desire to seek Your wisdom and the courage to follow Your guidance… and watch over the men and women of our armed forces as they sacrifice for the cause of freedom.

We give You thanks for all You have done for us, and we earnestly pray that You will help us become, once again, a nation whose God is the Lord.

In the name of Your Son, and our Savior, we pray this prayer. Amen

With the majority of our political leaders either indifferent or outright hostile toward the true creator God and Christianity, our country needs our prayers more than ever. Please join us in praying for our nation; not only tomorrow, but every day of the year.

Who Christened the Titanic?

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. One of the best articles regarding the event is written by Dr Jerry Newcombe entitled Who Christened the Titanic?. The short answer appears to be that the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, a British shipping company commonly called White Star Line did not believe in the custom. There have been many accounts (with a few conflicts) on exactly what happened that day, but Dr Newcombe's central purpose is to draw some very good parallels between its voyage and the current spiritual direction of modern day America. One of the best evidences we have for the article's truthfulness and effectiveness is that the usual pundits on the left have labeled the writing as anything from "scare tactics" to "hate speech". Here are a few excerpts:

The steamship [Titanic] was 885 feet long, and it was more than ten stories tall. As of that time, it had been described as "the largest moving man-made object in the world" and a "floating palace." On its maiden voyage this huge steamship was going from Southampton, England to New York City when it collided with an iceberg about 400 miles from Newfoundland and sank within three hours. There were 2,207 people on board, and 1,500 perished.

Daniel Allen Butler wrote a book I highly recommend, entitled Unsinkable. In the Preface, he wrote, “No other disaster in history could have been more easily avoided or was more inevitable… a once-in-a-lifetime combination of weather and sea conditions came together to make the iceberg nearly invisible to the ship’s lookouts.”

The Greeks had their ancient plays where the flawed hero ended up in tragedy because of his hubris---his arrogance. And when you look at many of the facts surrounding the sinking of the Titanic, you find multiple examples of pride, in the worst sense of the word. The Titanic is indeed a reminder of that ancient principle from Solomon the Wise: Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. One error compounded on another… but each was predicated on the assumption that the ship was unsinkable.

Before the voyage, one woman, a Mrs Albert Caldwell, watched “a group of deck hands carrying luggage aboard the Titanic. Impulsively, she stopped one of the men and asked him, ‘Is this ship really nonsinkable?’ ‘Yes, lady,’ he replied, ‘God Himself couldn’t sink this ship.’” (Butler, Unsinkable, p. 39).

Author Doug Phillips [president of the Christian Boys' and Men's Titanic Society, an organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Titanic] writes this about the Titanic: "She was the floating embodiment of the new age of scientific optimism, and the international symbol of the century that would finally realize Utopia… Many perceived the ship to be a modern incarnation of the Tower of Babel. The sinking represented God's unwillingness to allow man to build any edifice of invincibility or to seek salvation through technology."

It was supposedly unsinkable… but there are some things that should have been done:

1. They should have made sure they had binoculars (which they called lookout glasses). There were binoculars on board, but they had been stashed away by someone before the voyage.
2. They should have gone through the drills. The standard procedure was to have the crew and passengers practice getting to the lifeboats.
3. They should have had far more lifeboats, one space for each passenger.
4. They should have at least slowed down or even stopped after the warnings. They were going at the fastest speed of the voyage at the time (22 1/2 knots). The captain was trying to make the trip in record time.
5. They should have heeded the six wireless messages from different ships warning them about the ice-fields. The last one… at 11PM came from a nearby ship: “Say, old man, we are surrounded by ice and stopped.” To that message, the Titanic’s radio operator responded, “Shut up! Shut up! I am busy…”

Butler writes about the actual tragic hitting of the iceberg. “Up in the crow’s nest it looked as if the ship would never turn in time. Bracing themselves for the shock of a head-on collision… as the berg brushed past, large chunks of ice thudded onto the foredeck and into the well deck… Over the noise of the falling ice it seemed to the two lookouts that they could hear a faint, metallic ripping sound.” It only took ten seconds of colliding with the iceberg to impart fatal damage to the ship, costing 1,500 lives.

America at present reminds me of the Titanic, chugging away in a major ice-field, with major moral icebergs ahead (if we haven’t already collided with them). Some of these moral icebergs include same-sex marriage, abortion, pornography, family breakdown, expelling God from the public arena by using a faulty view of church and state separation. May God have mercy on us before it’s too late.

The Bishop of Winchester said: “The Titanic, name and thing, will stand for a monument and warning to human presumption.”

Who was it that christened the Titanic? No one. It was never christened. It didn’t need to be. After all, it was unsinkable.

Blogger Comment Issues

Once again, I’ve been busy designing electrical facilities for some shipping port expansions in the New England area (yes I have a “real job”, contrary to what many of my co-workers might say). Things are once again getting back to normal, so I’m looking forward to posting again.

During my absence, we were notified that many readers were experiencing difficulty while viewing certain pages and leaving comments on others. After some research, we determined that the two issues were inter-related, tracing both back to a recent Blogger update that was producing similar symptoms on many other blogs. This upgrade added Blogger support of threaded commenting, which allows a reader the option of leaving a general comment about the article, or responding to another comment on the thread.

Unfortunately, the upgrade contained a few bugs, so pages containing previous comments appeared as a completely blank white page. Pages without comments could be viewed, but readers were prevented from adding comments. As a temporary fix, we changed our comment settings about six weeks ago from embedded (threaded) to a pop-up window.

We have now been notified that the issue has been fixed, so we’ve re-enabled the threaded comments feature for all pages. We’ve spot-tested several pages using the latest versions of IE, Firefox, and Chrome and encountered no problems. Still, if anyone has any future problems with commenting (or any other technical issues), please don’t hesitate to let us know. Thanks again for your support and feedback.

ObamaCare Death Panels Coming in 2014

Buried deep within the over 2800 pages and 425,000 words that comprise the ObamaCare law, we find a provision for creating an Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The IPAB creates an unelected board of 15 politically appointed "experts" whose primary objective is to "cut healthcare costs" from Medicare. Since by all credible estimates (including the Congressional Budget Office), ObamaCare will greatly increase healthcare costs, the panel's only means of cost control will be the rationing and denial of proven medical treatments to otherwise qualifying patients.

Thus, the decision on who lives and who dies is left in the hands of these 15 bureaucrats. Incredibly, there's very little that can be done to challenge this board if ObamaCare is not repealed. Establishment of the IPAB is a massive expansion of government control and a gross violation of the Separation of Powers. The panel's rulings are not subject to review by the courts and can only be overridden by a super-majority of congress, an extremely difficult task.

BHO's comrades in the media, such as the New York Times, and the liberal blogosphere continue to deny the existence of this death panel (or paint their opponents as being paranoid and/or of spreading falsehoods), hoping that most people will believe their coverup rather than reading this portion of the healthcare bill for themselves. The good news is that even many liberals that favor killing innocent babies are drawing the line in opposing the killing of seniors (seniors have the right to vote). Yet, we still have an uphill battle, so we urge all our readers to contact their senators and representatives to voice concern and disapproval on this pro-life issue.

For more information, see Truth in Action Ministries - The “Death Panel” Buried Deep Inside the Health Care Law, and The Weekly Standard - The Real Mediscare.

Sanctity of Life Month 2012

As we welcome in the New Year, we also mark January as the National Sanctity of Life Month, a month set aside each year to raise our awareness of the value of life. We can hardly think of a better way to begin the year than by attempting to save the lives of as many innocent babies as possible. In addition, tomorrow, January 22 is National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (SOHLS), a special day to focus on the fundamental right to life as recognized by our nation's Founding Fathers.

President Ronald Reagan established SOHLS in 1983 by proclamation at the request of the Christian Action Council Education and Ministries Fund (now Care Net). The day is held annually on the Sunday that falls closest to January 22, the day on which the US Supreme Court issued the Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton decisions. This year, it falls on the exact 39th anniversary of the 1973 decisions.

Since 1983, the SOHLS proclamation has been issued by Presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush. Not surprisingly, Bill Clinton and BH Obama declined to issue this proclamation. Rather than issuing the proclamation recognizing the right to life, Obama chose instead to celebrate this year's National Sanctity of Life Month by ordering all private health insurance companies to offer no cost (no copay or deductible) coverage for contraceptives, including those that destroy life after conception. As reported by the Family Research Council,

Today the Obama Administration issued a statement re-iterating the "contraceptive mandate" requiring all insurance providers cover the full range of FDA-approved drugs and devices would remain intact. This mandate, issued in August, includes drugs that work after conception to destroy life rather than prevent it. The statement included a postponement of one year for religious groups that do not already carry contraceptives and additionally would not be exempted under last year's narrow definition of "religious employer."

The mandate not only violates such existing conscience protections on abortion such as the Hyde/Weldon Amendment (in so far as Plan B and Ella are covered), but also violates the principles of the Church Amendments which protects conscience rights for those who object to contraceptives and other services on moral or religious grounds. Additionally, the U.S. government already funds domestic family planning at a level of $1.9 billion annually.

Tom McClusky of FRC Action had the following to say:

"This HHS delay does nothing to change the anti-religious, anti-conscience, and anti-life contraceptive mandate, rather it only postpones its implementation until after the presidential election. Despite the fact that certain drugs and devices approved by the FDA can work after conception to destroy a newly developed baby, the Obama Administration mandate still forces all insurance plans to carry these drugs and devices even if employers are morally opposed.

"This does nothing to expand conscience protections it merely punts compliance for most religious employers with conscience objections until after the election. It does nothing to modify or expand the very narrow exemption for churches to include the thousands of religious organizations who don't qualify, it only delays their pending obedience for 1 year.

"The new rule also mandates that these groups with a one-year reprieve in the mean time will be forced to tell their employees where to obtain contraceptives. This completely violates the conscience rights of many Americans. As we approach the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade tomorrow may all voters who respect life take note of the Obama Administration's ardent policies against life and religious liberty and vote accordingly in November."

Although we should work to end abortion throughout the year, we're asking all our readers to make a special effort this month to pray for and support the many excellent pro-life organizations working to preserve the lives of these vulnerable babies who are made in the image of God.

End of 2011 Toons

Here's some year-ending cartoons.

These toons have been archived at End-year 2011 Toon Review. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas and Troop Salute

We'd like to wish all our readers a very Merry CHRISTmas. We'd also like to share this great tribute to our brave troops, both past and present. This excellent Christmas light show includes the anthems of the various branches of our military.