A Godly Man At The Helm

Thirty years ago today President Ronald Wilson Reagan was shot by a deranged young man outside of the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington DC. As they walked from the hotel to the presidential limousine John  Hinkley Jr. opened fire. President Reagan was shot in the chest and in the lower right arm, he suffered a punctured lung and heavy internal bleeding. White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head and was left paralyzed and permanently disabled. District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahanty was hit in the back of his neck as he turned to protect Reagan, he fell next to James Brady and eventually recovered from his injuries. Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy covered President Reagan with his own body and took Hinkley's fourth bullet in his abdomen, he too fully recovered from his wounds.

Six bullets fired, four men shot, a nation in shock.

It was later after this episode that the full value of God's gift to this Country was fully revealed. A lesser man would react in a lesser way, making speeches about the horrors of the second amendment, demand the denial of constitutional rights to law abiding civilians, and completely obfuscate the true cause of the shooting (sin and mental illness) Instead President Reagan chose the path that God demands all of us to follow:

"Getting shot hurts. Still my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe it seemed I was getting less and less air. I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But I realized I couldn't ask for God's help while at the same time I felt hatred for that mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn't that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all God's children & therefore equally beloved by him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold." - Ronald Reagan's diary entry concerning the attempted assassination by John Hinkley Jr

Immediately after being shot Reagan, lying on a hospital gurney, fighting for breath, chose to put aside his fear and anger and forgive John Hinkley Jr. How many other presidents could you imagine doing that? How many people at all could you imagine forgiving our assailant as our life blood leaks out? THIS is what God demands of us, not megachurches, not rock bands in front of congregations, not chrome ichthys on our car bumpers, but to forgive those who trespass against us.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. (Matthew 6:14-15)

Random Bits

This world is not my home

Moloch was the ancient Ammonite god whose followers included Phoenicians, Canaanites, and ancient North Africans. Part of the worship of this deity involved child sacrifice where a couple would put their child in a furnace shaped like Moloch and the child was burned as an offering to Moloch. Why do I mention this? Because of this.

The cause of women in command in the military has been set back decades by the childish antics of USAF Academy superintendent LtGen Michelle Johnson. As I've mentioned before she's crushed freedom of religion on campus, but then she turns around and promotes the religion of atheism. AFI 36-2706 states clearly in its first paragraph "It is against Air Force policy for any Airman, military or civilian, to unlawfully discriminate against, harass, intimidate or threaten another Airman on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, reprisal, or genetic information." and as we all know discrimination means to promote one religion over another. In other words, AFI 36-2706, Section 1, Paragraph 1, subparagraph 1 indicates Michelle Johnson is unfit for command. Just the fact that she's got students spying on each other indicates that she's unfamiliar with how the military really works which makes her unfit for the position.

BTW, the Air Force Academy eliminated the words "So help me God" from the cadet's oath of allegiance. No one knows why, the USAF believes that the words just magically disappeared. USAF persecution of Christians is becoming an embarrassment to this nation that was founded on principals of freedom.

I can't blame the USAF entirely, after all, the officers in charge are just aping what they see going on in Washington.

Remember when World Vision was a Christian organization? Apparently they don't. No wait! Maybe they did! Only after being reminded.

Dennis Prager on the worst sin of all: chillul haShem

Just a reminder them that cult leader and professional hate monger Fred Phelps was a Democrat. That didn't seem to get much coverage in the press.

Six dead, twenty one injured in an attack on a Christian church in Mombasa Kenya. Pray for our brothers and sisters who are remaining faithful during this tribulation.

Remember when Jimmy Cater claimed to be a Christian? That was a long time ago.

The list may be expanded but I can 100% agree with the list of Four Kinds Of Churches Worth Leaving

Dangerous Teachings - Part 2

²⁷ My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)

Both Pastor Brimstone and Pastor Lovejoy have used this verse to express the doctrine of Eternal Security, AKA Once Saved Always Saved. I've never had a problem with this verse because for one thing Jesus said it, but I've always felt uncomfortable around the Once Saved Always Saved doctrine. For another thing I read John 10:27-29 like this - in chronological steps:

1. Jesus' sheep hears His voice
2. He knows (acknowledges) them
3. They follow Him
4. He gives eternal life to them 
5. They never perish
6. No one will (or can) snatch them from His hand

Now I know I'm missing a whole lot of steps in there, and please feel free to correct me, and maybe it's my technician/engineering/wrench dragging mind at work here but it looks to me that Eternal Security is the final step of a process rather than step 4 where  much preaching I've heard puts it. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I am, why are there so many passages in the bible demonstrating that salvation is conditional upon continued faith? Hang with me and let's look at this...

"God's Not Dead" Is Surely Alive

Hollywood is in shock (again) that a little independent Christian movie came out of nowhere to debut high on the list of top movies of the weekend. God's Not Dead debuted not just in the Top Ten, but in the Top 5 grossing movies this weekend. Debuting in only 708 theaters nation wide God's Not Dead earned an incredible $8,500,000, an average of $10,897 per theater, and when you look at the averages that puts God's Not Dead in the #3 place behind the Grand Budapest Hotel which averaged $22,039 in only 304 theaters and Divergent which averaged $14,227 in 3,936 theaters. Needless to say Hollywood is a bit shocked.

I'm not even sure the biggest story of the weekend is Divergent seeming to prove it's the first young adult franchise since The Hunger Games to prove profitable, though the "A" CinemaScore certainly has me questioning the intelligence of today's movie going audience once again. Instead it would seem the biggest surprise is God's Not Dead coming out of nowhere with $8.7 million and a fourth place finish. I hadn't even heard of the film until Saturday morning. Goes to show how much I'm paying attention to the faith-based movie market. - Rope of Silicon

When is the last time you were in a movie when the audience spontaneously broke out in applause? Or choked back tears of sorrow and of joy? Then again when was the last time you heard a character in a movie lecture another character that cooking a duck alive was cruel? 

Random Stuff... and Things!

Movies I Will Not See Act 1 - I knew Noah was going to be bad but it's worse than I thought. To begin with just the disclaimer alone was enough to make me cringe:

The film is inspired by the story of Noah. While artistic license has been taken, we believe that this film is true to the essence, values and integrity of a story that is a cornerstone of faith for millions of people worldwide. The biblical story of Noah can be found in the book of Genesis.

Inspired by... artistic license... these are Hollywood buzz words that mean "We made this stuff up" - kind of like the sexed-up dumbed-down historical disaster that was "A Beautiful Mind". How true to the bible is Noah? Not at all admits the director, and he's happy with that, he's proud to say that Noah is the LEAST BIBLICAL film ever made. If you read nothing else this month (except for your bible) please read Pastor Joe Schimmel's review of Noah. You'll save some money to use on a far better cause than seeing Noah. You may also want to read Revelation 22:18-19 and Deuteronomy 4:2

An Idolatrous Image of God

God is love, and His love is why we exist, and I'm grateful for his love every day, but God is so much more than that. Look at it this way, it is very safe to say that I am a patriot. I gave up family, friends, and home to serve my country and it only cost me twenty years of my life, my health, and a substantial portion of my sanity. But I'm a lot more than that, I'm a father, a husband, a model railroader, an amateur photographer, a really bad plumber, an engineer, a writer... all these attributes and more make up what and who I am, and to ignore many of those attributes gives you a false image of who I really am. If you were to judge me, to define my value as a human, by observing only my patriotism then you have a highly skewed image of me and would probably be confused by the fact that I'm employed by a private company rather than marching in parades and saluting the flag 24/7. 

Also if you ever saw me trying to repair a drain you'd probably call a cop. 

When considering people we have to consider the whole person just as when we worship God we must worship all of His divine person, His love, His holiness, and even His anger. I only mention this for two reasons; 1. I was moved by a sermon by John MacArthur about how we diminish God by ignoring almost all of His divine attributes and 2. I have to replace a toilet this weekend.

Yes God is love, but why do so many people concentrate on that one single attribute to the point where all of His other attributes are forgotten or ignored? When we take away all of the other attributes that make up our Creator we diminish His essence to something that He clearly isn't. As Richard Lovelace wrote 

H2's Bible Rules is a Fail of Biblical Proportions

Last night a new show premiered on History 2 channel (formerly History International). The show is called The Bible Rules and is typical of H2 (owned by A&E) pablum. The plan is to explore the different rules that are set forth in the Bible with a panel of experts commenting on the rules. Accompanying the discussion is a series of graphics that have been used over and over by documentary makers until the average Discovery Channel/History Channel viewer can name them by their original jpg filename. I pretty much realized that this was going to be about as biblical as an Assembly Of Gods Heal-A-Thon when I saw the disclaimer at the beginning of the show:

This program explores the interpretation of Bible passages that have been debated for centuries from a variety of scholarly perspectives. 

The very opening words in the very first episode misses the mark so completely that it will be an incredible feat of will power for anyone that understands the Bible to suffer through the whole series:

"What was the ancient world like? The answer may be buried within thousands of rules and commandments in the bible. Some are shocking, some mysterious, all reveal lost details about the world that was. The past is now. We all know about the 10 Commandments but look deeper and there are nearly 2000 rules, laws, and commands in the bible, and all of them are an unexpected portal into understanding the ancient world."

It's So Good To Be Home

Mount Of The Holy Cross, Colorado

I've spent the past 6 weeks in Florida helping out with my folks as they hit a tough patch medically, but they're doing as well as a pair of octogenarians are going to be doing now and I've returned home to my love - my bride who stayed behind to maintain the home QTH and keep the dogs in kibble. While not the most astute handyman I do keep my claw hammer plugged in and my pliers sharpened so I'm ready to rock, and my sweetie has been pretty good at revealing the list of Honey Dos at a slow pace so I'm not completely overwhelmed. 

I like Florida, it's warm and sunny and I get to mow the yard in February (which was a lifetime first for me) and morning prayers down by the lagoon or beach at sunrise was so moving, but whenever I looked to the west something was missing. Something big. Something like a three mile high pile of rock, crowned with all the beauty of God's creative wonder. While in FL folks would ask me where I'm from and I'd answer "1700 miles west and one mile closer to God." 

While I was gone things changed a bit at the First Congregational Church of the Bereans, for one thing the congregation met and elected Pastor Lovejoy as the new permanent Senior Pastor, and I was elected to the board as a trustee. Regardless of the changes it was so good to be among my church family worshiping with them again. 

Galatians Deemed Offensive By The USAF

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Each USAF Academy cadet has a small whiteboard outside of their dorm rooms, the boards are used to leave notes and  messages and are not official in any way, shape, or form other than they are hanging on the wall of the USAF Academy and are meant for personal use. A cadet wrote Galatians 2:20 on his white board which immediately started a firestorm at the Academy. Unverified claims indicate that the exercise of freedom of speech offended some academy cadets but the only person who has gone on record as being offended is Mikey Weinstein director of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, someone who never has nor ever could have served in the military. 

Dangerous Teachings - Part 1

6  I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to at we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6-9)

Paul was pretty upset about false teachers, as well he should be. As hard as it is to believe, there were false teachers spreading false doctrines about Christ shortly after his resurrection. Satan is out to demoralize and confuse God's children, driving a wedge between us and our heavenly Father and many of his tricks are based around lies and half truths. In our first encounter with Satan, Satan employed the tactic of false teaching to drive a wedge between us and God. He told Eve that if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they wouldn't die. There was a kernel of truth to that, they didn't physically die then and there, but they died spiritually, and eventually died physically. 

There's three dangerous false doctrines that have been with us for a long time, each has a kernel of truth, but when examined they're biblically unsound. The first one of these I'm going to explore is the doctrine of Institutional Security. 

Hebrews: Jesus is greater, so hold fast to Him - The Overview Bible Project

While I'm in Florida skipping out on winter and helping my folks a bit in their time of need I have little time to myself for writing. I have a half dozen posts in production but between work and mom & dad I'm lucky to be able to read the blogs I currently read, let alone actually write one of my own.

But I am emerging from the haze of unending errands (and dips in the neighbors pool) to say that I am so blessed to have found the Overview Bible Project, while it's not for everybody, it's right up my alley. Ask Mrs WideAwakeChristian, when I decide I like something, I start digging into the background, history, composition, origination, etc. of what ever I'm interested in. (I've even gone so far as to research the history of roads I like, and guess what - it was actually fascinating! The roads I like turned out to originally be narrow gauge railroads!)

The  Overview Bible Project is a gift from God for the incurable Berean, the more I dig there the more it's becoming a valuable tool in my understanding of God's word. What's more, it makes me want to get in there and read His word more and more. Check out the Overview Bible Project's article on Hebrews and tell me if you disagree. While not an actual bible study tool, the Overview Bible Project can best be described as those introduction pages to each book in the bible done right.

Movie Review: 'Son of God' Is Most Certainly Not The Son of God - Christian Post

From the Abandoned To Christ blog at The Christian Post

Movie Review: 'Son of God' Is Most Certainly Not The Son of God

by Sunny Shell

Today, "Son of God", a new movie produced by Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett opened in theaters across the country. Individual Christians and well-known Christian churches, organizations and even schools are raving about seeing Jesus on the big screen.

Many Christian groups bought out multiple screens at theaters or purchased mass quantities of group tickets for this epic film...or rather, epic fail of the true and biblical story of Jesus, the Son of God.

Last year I was contacted by a media group for The History Channel. They emailed me requesting my help in promoting their upcoming 10-episode miniseries called "The Bible". After reviewing their material, Bible studies based on the series, and clips of every episode, I responded kindly telling them that due to the unbiblical nature of the series, I was unable to help promote it. After watching the entire miniseries I wrote and published my review and I haven't heard from them since.

Prior to entering the theater today, I went in with an open-Bible-mind and open-Spirit-heart. I hoped that this movie was better than the miniseries, but alas, it was not. The majority of this film was simply scenes taken from the heretical and blasphemous miniseries. Please know, I don't take these two terms lightly, and you neither should any professing Christian.

Ronald Reagan VS The Chicken of Kiev

I rarely get into politics in this blog, mostly because I want to remain God centered and if I veered off into politics I'd be moving far, far, far away from God because that's where our leadership is taking us. However, recently situations have come to light that allow us to compare national leaders when faced with similar crisis, to evaluate their words and actions when faced with similar circumstances.

As we all know things have gone to pieces in the Ukraine, the Russian army has invaded and our leadership in the United States is profoundly befuddled. The United States government knows exactly what you emailed to Aunt Clara last week, but they appear to have been taken by surprise that an unapologetic Communist running the largest military in the world attacked a neighboring country the day after President Barack Hussein Obama announced massive, unwarranted cuts in the defense of the nation he was elected to run. So while people die in the streets of the Ukraine Obama's primary response was to say "Any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply stabilizing," Too little, too late, and don't you mean "destabilizing" Mr, President? Sometimes its hard to keep the Holy Spirit's directions in mind as he wrote through Paul's hand;

1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. (Romans 13:1-2)