Sliding Into The Abyss

⁴ For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, ⁶ and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6)

Nothing exemplifies the horrific apostasy described in Hebrews 6:6 in the words "fallen away" like Katy Perry's public display of Satan worship performance at the Grammy Awards. On further review, I was right the first time; it was a public display of Satan worship. Katy's performance of "Dark Horse" (a truly uninspired monotonous monotone three minute waste of time that melodically falls somewhere between chanting and grunting) packed every possible satanic symbol you could imagine on to the TV screens of the world thanks to CBS. 

Her performance started with Katy inside a crystal ball on a dark stage decorated with bare twisted trees, rock out cropping and horned demons. In the back ground a sinister voice is heard: “She casts spells from crystal balls. Invoking spirits. She put me in a trance.” After that the ball is raised and Katy is freed, wearing a skimpy costume emblazoned with a glow-in-the-dark red cross of the Knights Templar. It's all down hill from there. 

OT Tuesday: Daniel and the 70 weeks

It's been years since the destruction of Jerusalem, and Daniel did a little research when Darius took over Babylon. Danial discovered that Jeremiah recorded that God promised the desolation of Jerusalem would only last 70 years. Those 70 years were drawing to a close and Danial was wondering how God would restore Jerusalem. God has revealed to Daniel the future of world empires that have yet to be dreamed about, but Jerusalem and her temple lay in ruins and the population of Judah was still captive in Babylon, Daniel wants to know about his hometown. 

So in Daniel 9:3 he began to pray, he fasted and wore sack cloth and ashes and began his prayer with confessing the sins of Israel to God. Daniel's confession of sin is in Daniel 9:4-15, he finishes his prayer begging God to restore Jerusalem, the temple, and His people as promised to Jeremiah. As Daniel prayed the angel Gabriel came to him again while he was praying and said “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding." and told Daniel that when Daniel started his prayers God commanded him to go to Daniel and explain God's plan for Israel. And with that Gabriel gave Daniel a vision that has been discussed, reviewed, studied, argued over, and prayed over ever since. 

Choose Wisely

I Can Never Go Home Again

A friend of mine is finally getting married! I'm so happy for her, and it looks like the Lord finally led her to true love. I'd love to be there to celebrate with her and her new husband but there's a bunch of things keeping me away - my folks are in poor health and I'm spending as much of my free time with them as our budget allows, and other than budgetary matters travel is not a fun thing for me. I've been all over the world and to be honest, most of it was against my will. For me the joy of traveling ends somewhere a little west of Independence Pass which is about a 3 hour drive from here. 

There's one other thing keeping me away from her wedding: It's in New York. And as everyone now knows as a Pro-life, Pro-marriage, Pro-constitution Christian I'm no longer allowed in New York State. 

"Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right to life, pro-assault weapons, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York because that’s not who New Yorkers are." - NY Governor Andrew Cuomo

41st Anniversary of Roe V. Wade

Some facts about abortion that abortion proponents probably would be happier if you didn't know:

Of the 57,045,175 abortions performed in the United States since 1973 statistically 4,500,00 were to save the life of the mother (8%), 57,000 were due to rape (1%) and 20,000 (<0.5%) were due to incest. In other words he number one reason given to make abortion legal covers less than 10% of abortions performed. (Source)

The number one reason given for having an abortion is "The timing is wrong" (Source)

60% of women who have an abortion afterwards suffer from suicidal ideation and half of them actually attempt suicide. Other post-abortion psychological disorders include alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia nervosa) sexual dysfunction, and child neglect or abuse. (Source) 

A new study in China found a link between abortion and breast cancer. The study published in the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Causes and Control, found a 44 percent increased breast cancer risk after an abortion. It also found that the risk grew significantly with subsequent abortions – a 76 percent increase after two abortions, 89 percent after three. - (Source) (Source) A follow up study in India published in the Indian Journal of Cancer confirms that women who have abortion are 636% more likely to have breast cancer than women who carry their babies to term. (Source)

Go Bronco!

I usually spend Superbowl Sunday watching the Puppy Bowl, I mean - what else does Red White and Blue blooded Buffalo Bills fan have to watch on Superbowl Sunday (and to be honest, this years Puppy Bowl has an awesome looking starting lineup.) And even though I now live in the Denver area, Broncos Fever hasn't really touched me. 

I'm still a bit upset with the Broncos for letting Tim Tebow go, and to be honest I've always thought that hunter safety orange is a color for green-horns who enter the woods for a couple of hours a year and not for a football team. But maybe I should get on the band wagon just a little bit. Not the Bronco bandwagon so much as the Peyton Manning bandwagon. In a state that just made it legal to stone yourself in to a blind stupor, Peyton Manning performs a service to God and the youth of Colorado just by being Peyton Manning. 

Fix Your Eyes

Cultural Relevance - Why It's Best Avoided

rel·e·vance n.

1. Pertinence to the matter at hand.
2. The ability (as of an information retrieval system) to retrieve material that satisfies the needs of the user 

For some reason many churches spend mountains of time and energy trying to be relevant, unfortunately they are exhausting themselves trying to be culturally relevant rather than theologically relevant. You've heard many a pastor make a reference to something that is happening in today's world, a catch phrase, a reference to a popular TV show, something to bring into focus to today's church goer a point that was made 2000 years ago. And if that's really all it is - a passing reference - that's not a problem.

Device Review: Roku

Tired of searching though 500 channels and finding nothing in the way of uplifting entertainment or serious Christian discussion? it's a complaint most of us have, but my bride found a way to get around all of that. A few months ago my darling brought home a new toy, and to our delight it's been a boon to a cold, blustery winter. Believe it or not the world has a device that connects to your TV and can actually aid in your walk with Christ. 

The device is called a Roku and for those of you looking to cut the cable and dump the dish this is what you've been waiting for. The Roku is a shockingly small box that connects to your high speed internet connection and plugs into your TV, it then takes streaming television programming from the internet and pumps it into your TV. The best part about the Roku is that the Christian entertainment and content that you wished were on your cable or dish feed is there on the Roku, much of it free of charge. First let's talk hardware: 

Drinking From The Cup of Demons 4

To be completely honest I wrote Drinking From The Cup of Demons parts 1, 2, and 3 as an introduction to part 4. Having grown up in the company of alcoholics I have little respect for people who use marijuana as a recreational drug, and their insistence that marijuana is not addicting makes their efforts to throw their paychecks away on a never ending high that much sadder to me. At least an addict is physically addicted and doesn't have much choice in the matter.

While standing on a rocky outcropping on Pewabic Mountain overlooking the grandeur of God's creation, namely the beautiful and rugged Clear Creek Canyon, I can only wonder why someone would ever want mentally incapacitate themselves and miss this beauty our Creator made just for us. It truly pains me to think that with this beauty in the world that people would rather trade this for a short term buzz and long term brain damage. Then I stumbled across some things on the internet that made me realize that John MacArthur was so correct when he said 

"Ephesians 6:11 says we are to "stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Satan is God's enemy; therefore he is our enemy. The only way he can attack God is through us. And we can be sure he will seek us out and attack us with his schemes." - John MacArthur

And one of the most insidious schemes is in full view on the internet. Satan hates Jesus, and Satan is using the feel-good, get high at all costs, hide behind rare medical uses, culture of worshiping marijuana to insult, degrade, and humiliate our Lord and Savior in the most horrific manner... 

Drinking From The Cup of Demons 3

So far we've seen that marijuana has some good, in some cases excellent, medical uses, but outside of those few instances and making rope, the only purpose marijuana has is to put yourself into a stoned stupor. We've pointed out that the argument that marijuana is good for you because it's natural is silly at because anthrax is natural too, then again so is asbestos, arsenic, and mercury. (If natural equals healthy why not just roll a 'fattie' from poison oak leaves and light that up? Maybe hemlock cookies and brownies too?) We've also mentioned that unlike wine and cigars, marijuana is not enjoyed for it's flavor but exclusively for its intoxicating abilities. We've also discussed how drug use is addressed in the Bible, how it's condemned in the Bible, and how intoxication drives a wedge between you and God. And finally we discussed how addictive substances take control of you away from God and hand it over to a foreign substance, and that since marijuana is supposedly not an addictive substance, every time you stone yourself into a stupor with marijuana it's a conscious, willingful act of rebellion against God.

Now for the scary stuff, the assault on the Church...

Drinking From The Cup of Demons 2

Last time we talked about the fact that outside of medical use the only reason people use marijuana is to put themselves into a stupor. You will never hear people say "I prefer the complex flavor profile of Maui Wowee over Yuma Ditchweed, Yuma is one dimensional, while the heady aroma, full body, and lingering finish of Maui makes it a perfect accompaniment to a good cup of dark roast coffee." The after-toke appraisal will be more monosyllabic; "Dude..." or if the user is generous and shares "Ear..." Basically hemp makes excellent rope but horrible dinner conversation, unless endless giggling is an intellectual pursuit in your house.

In the Bible we are also told many times that we are to remain alert, sober, basically not to put ourselves into a stupor but be ready for action

Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:13)

But what about drugs - are drugs mentioned in the bible? Yes they are, and in a way you'd never expect it unless you were a Greek scholar or your pastor (who should have studied Greek) pointed it out to you:

¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: (sexual) immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions (heresies), ²¹ envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

Drinking From The Cup of Demons 1

A fellow I knew in a different church than the one I am a member of now told me on several occasions that since he was saved he could do anything he wanted without fear of losing his salvation. I figured that since he was the drummer in the worship band he knew what he was talking about. This was one of his explanations of why he would illegally score some marijuana and get stoned out of his gourd every night (his other explanation being "hey, I'm a drummer.")  

At this point in my walk with Jesus I hadn't learned enough of our Masters word to realize that if Mr. Drummer was truly saved he wouldn't want to get so stoned he could barely find his bag of Doritos and watch Japanese cartoons all night long every single night. And the fact that he wasn't the only man in this church that was saying "I'm saved, I can do what ever I want" was a whole lot disconcerting to me although I didn't know why at the time.

21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we? 23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. (1 Corinthians 10:21-23)

The Slippery Slope of Righteous Anger

I've seen behavior in the Christian church that I would never have expected to see in a local bar. Shouting, screaming, name calling, verbal assault, verbal attack, however I was told "It's ok, because it's Righteous Anger."

I've actually seen a person in a position of power in a church stand up before the congregation and make an accusation against a member of the congregation, by name, shrieking at the top of their lungs, in the middle of a peace making conference. This person then went on to argue with the leader of the peace conference over a point of scripture. This conference leader who was now under verbal barrage was actually invited to the church by the exact same person who was now harassing him. The angry attacker soon stormed then out of the church never to return. Thus endeth the peace conference. The victims are doing fine and the attacker is in a new church and is telling members of that church that his actions were good and proper, maybe even biblical, "because it was Righteous Anger" an excuse he's used in the past.

Yes, there is such a thing as righteous anger, and no, this example wasn't even close to being righteous. The angry person just used the term "righteous anger" as an excuse to justify their actions. How many people have you seen explode in anger and later claim it to be righteous anger? I say this because righteous anger isn't an excuse to get angry in all except certain reasons, and from what I've been able to determine it's something best reserved for God and is not really for us.