The Priorities of the Left

David Burge says it all:

New York State Advocates Murder

Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior, please forgive us for
not stopping this nightmare.

There is no denying it, the New York State assembly has succombed to the forces of Satan advocating the slaughter of innocent babies just hours from birth. 

The New York State Assembly voted a resounding 94-49 Wednesday to approve a bill that would allow third trimester abortions using procedures such as a shot of poison to the baby's heart by medical professionals who won't necessarily be doctors. 

The bill, AB 6221, sponsored by New York Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, would change existing New York State law, which currently allows for abortion in the third trimester only when the mother’s life is in danger, to allow abortion on-demand throughout all nine months. AB 6221 has no interest in the life and wellbeing of the infant just moments away from birth, it is solely intent on stripping away any protections the smallest members of our human family have. 

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 
pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

A “Molotov Cocktail” was thrown at pro-life activists praying outside of an Austin Planned Parenthood abortion facility. The so called "Pro Choice" crowd is becoming more "Anti Life" every day.

The “Christian” Left supports killing the happiest people in the world. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if they came up with the 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Inconvenienced.

I AM NOT calling Barack Hussein Obama antisemitic, I'll let his own actions do that for me. it's not hard to see his hatred for Israel which borders on the maniacal, even treasonous. (Yes, I said treason, and yes, we are in a state of war against terrorist nations.)

Jealous of all those folks grooving to Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar but you can't because you don't understand how to get your heresy on? Is that's what's troubling you bunkie? Well! Have no fear because the Messed Up Church blog has a dummies guide to putting False Doctrine in your life!

Speaking of False Doctrine, you're going to have to find another way to get a warm, fuzzy, incredibly unscriptural description of heaven because LifeWay has pulled all heaven tourism books off their shelves. You'll just have to get your unscriptural, heretical, apostate, nonsense the old fashion way.

Tim Tebow is still a winner.

Freedom of speech does not apply to Christians in the UK.

Benny Hinn claims to be a faith healer, so why doesn't he just self medicate?

I've probably learned more about eschatology by reading False Christ: Will the Antichrist Claim to Be the Jewish Messiah? by Chris White than any other single source (outside of the bible). His reasoning is sound, solidly biblical, and well researched. I can't wait to read Mystery Babylon – When Jerusalem Embraces The Antichrist. Chris brings into question many popular eschatological theories (such as Mystery Babylon = the Roman Catholic Church or the Antichrist will be a Muslim leader) by reminding us and proving scripturally 'it's all about Israel'.

In the same vein, I've also learned more about my Christian faith (and my former Papist faith) by reading Preparing for Eternity by Mike Gendron. It's a well written, factual, and scriptural comparison of the teachings of God as related in His word, the bible, and the traditions of the Catholic church which are quite often in conflict. Mike's assertions are not made up, each point he makes is exquisitely referenced in the Bible and the Roman Catholic Church's own catechism. There is no error, falsehood, or deception here, it's simply the word of God and how it's been distorted by man's tradition. And for many the truth is hard to take.

5 Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution - Tim Challies

5 Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution - Tim Challies
March 24, 2015

(Tim Challies is a husband to Aileen and a father to three children aged 9 to 15 and serves as pastor at Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario (a long swim but a short drive from my home town in western New York) He is a a book reviewer for WORLD magazine and co-founder of Cruciform Press and has written three books; The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment (Crossway, 2007) Sexual Detox: A Guide For Guys Who Are Sick of Porn (Cruciform Press, 2010) The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion (Zondervan, 2011))

When I was growing up and still living with my parents, my family supported ministries based in the USSR, and on our fridge we had a big poster covered in photographs of Russian pastors who were imprisoned or endangered because of their faith. Every night in our devotions we would pray for one of them, that God would bless and protect him. Meanwhile we lived in middle-class suburbia in Toronto. We freely told our neighbors about Jesus, we went to church twice each Sunday, we read the Bible openly, and even went to Christian schools. It did not seem fair that we had it so easy.

And we still have it easy. It is still remarkably easy to be a Christian here in North America. We have never faced systemic persecution. We have laws that protect our freedom to worship and our freedom to believe what we believe.

That’s not to say, though, that we never suffer. We still do face scorn and mockery, and especially so as the culture around us proceeds farther and deeper into paganism. Though the burdens we bear are light compared to what some others have had to carry, they are burdens nonetheless. I was recently studying 1 Peter 4 and found 5 reasons that we can and should rejoice even now when we are persecuted, or even in that day when we face much greater persecution.

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a
pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Religion of Cash update - Mr. Pope says he misses pizza and won't be in office long. How can you live in Rome miss a good pizza? I had a great pizza just off St. Peters square in 1978, did all the restaurants close in my absence? The popes ability to live in one of the greatest food cities on Earth and not be able to get a good pizza must be one of those Catholic Mysteries I hear so much about.

Religion of Apostasy update. The Presbyterian Church USA  has turned themselves over to their degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

Blood Moon Warning: The 3rd blood moon in 2 years occurs on April 4th and the easily swayed are tuning up to howl at the moon. I have even seen articles proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that all this blood moon stuff proves that  Jesus is returning on March 31, 2015 which is fortuitous for me because I have a doctors appointment on April 1 and I don't want to go. Chris White, who speaks with love and smarts, puts this whole blood moon hysteria in perspective here. It's well worth the watch.

Religion of Peace update: Bombs planted in a Christian church and a Catholic church in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed 10 people and wounded more than 55 during Sunday services. Meanwhile ISIS set off a string of suicide bombs in mosques in Yemen killing 137 and injuring 345 more people

A peek inside the mind of ISIS, The goal of ISIS from the very beginning has been to ethnically cleanse their land, and eventually the world, of Christians. They give their intended victims three choices: 1. Islam; 2. The Covenant of the Dhimma 3. If they decline that, then there is nothing left but the sword.

That sound you hear is me, smacking my head against the wall.

Mr. Pope update: The church is the HOUSE of Jesus? The term church comes from the Greek word ekklesia which means “a called-out assembly or congregation.” A church is not a building, but the church often meets inside a building, especially in colder climates. Ephesians 1:22-23 accurately tells us exactly what the church is - it's described as Jesus' body, not his house.

Religion of Love update, American pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned since Sept. 26, 2012, under harsh conditions in Iran because of his Christian faith, cannot attend his son's birthday in Boise, Idaho. Instead, Abedini wrote a letter offering his son the "gift of salvation."

God's love guides a young woman who was confronted with one of Satan's greatest lies: "Two years ago today I was sitting in an abortion clinic thinking not having Vaida [her daughter] was best for me"

A Christian Navy Chaplin has been fired for acting like a Christian Navy Chaplin.

Religion Of Obama update, the people of Israel recently and wisely told Barack Hussein Obama to mind his own business. Embarrassed whining from 1600 Pennsylvania ensues.

I'm not sure what's more shocking, ISIS' plans, or the fact that a main stream media outlet printed a story outlining ISIS' plans.

Mike Norris, son of actor Chuck Norris, on making films that glorify God and why the church is dying.

Little-Faith and Great-heart

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)

The fatherhood of God is common to all his children. Ah! little-faith, you have often said, “Oh that I had the courage of Great-heart, that I could wield his sword and be as valiant as he! But, alas, I stumble at every straw, and a shadow makes me afraid.” 

List thee, Little-faith. Great-heart is God’s child, and you are God’s child too; and Great-heart is not one whit more God’s child than you are. Peter and Paul, the highly- favoured apostles, were of the family of the Most High; and so are you also; the weak Christian is as much a child of God as the strong one.

“This cov'nant stands secure,
Though earth’s old pillars bow;
The strong, the feeble, and the weak,
Are one in Jesus now.”

All the names are in the same family register. One may have more grace than another, but God our heavenly Father has the same tender heart towards all. One may do more mighty works, and may bring more glory to his Father, but he whose name is the least in the kingdom of heaven is as much the child of God as he who stands among the King’s mighty men. Let this cheer and comfort us, when we draw near to God and say, “Our Father.”

Yet, while we are comforted by knowing this, let us not rest contented with weak faith, but ask,

like the Apostles, to have it increased. However feeble our faith may be, if it be real faith in Christ,

we shall reach heaven at last, but we shall not honour our Master much on our pilgrimage, neither

shall we abound in joy and peace. If then you would live to Christ’s glory, and be happy in his

service, seek to be filled with the spirit of adoption more and more completely, till perfect love

shall cast out fear.

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1858

Ecumenical Monday - The Most Disturbing Thing I've Ever Read

I believe I have mentioned before, I'm inspired by good and bad teachers, meaning I'm uninspired by so-so teachers. I'm highly inspired by good teachers because they inspire me to dig deeper and find out more about the subject matter at hand so I can go back and discuss the subject matter with them on a higher level. Lars Brownworth is one, Pastor Paratus is very much another. But the I'm also inspired by really bad teachers because they inspire me to dig deeper and find out more about the subject matter at hand so I can go back and discuss the subject matter with them on a higher (louder) level. Rob Bell is one, Eugene Peterson is another.

Let's now talk about John O'Brien. John was born on January 20th in 1893 in Peoria, Illinois. He attended St. Patrick School, the Spalding Institute, Holy Cross College (Worcester, MA), and St. Viator's College (Bourbonnais, Il). He was ordained a Catholic priest on June 18, 1916 and served as chaplain for the Catholic students at the University of Illinois and earned a Ph.D. in psychology there. In 1938 he published a book about Catholicism called The Faith of Millions which became a best seller (200,000 copies by 1945), was reprinted in 27 editions, and was translated into 10 languages.

John never actually entered the "real world" instead chose to remain cloistered in academia, he remained at the University of Illinois for twenty-two years. In 1939 he spent a year at Oxford University, then for the rest of his life he taught and wrote at the University of Notre Dame. In his free time he became a Catholic evangelist, not preaching the joys of serving the Lord, but the joys of kowtowing to the Catholic church. John's seminal work is "The Faith of Millions" and is a study in unrepentant blasphemy, heresy, and historical inaccuracy. 

100,000 Page Views. An Arbitrary Goal Reached!

I started this blog on November 21, 2012 and so far have posted 432 individual posts starting it with the words Wide Awake Christians Unite! I don't think anyone has united over anything yet, Christians or otherwise but my quest is still the same:

There's so much I need to know, there is so much to learn, but deep down I feel that there is so little time left for us. And as I look around I see so many people around me spiritually asleep, in both meanings that Paul used the word sleep: spiritually unaware, and spiritually dead. It's like an asomatous version of the poppy field scene from The Wizard of Oz. But now, thanks to Jesus, I'm awake. Still a bit groggy but I'm overjoyed to know that I'm walking with God, and not just sleepwalking.

One hundred thousand  thirty two (100.032) page views later and I am still overjoyed and soooo blessed with the love of Jesus who adopted me (Mark 3:34) So much has happened in my life, a new house, a grand daughter on the way, a new pastor to lead the flock. I even became a trustee at our little church of Bereans. A trustee is like a deacon in any other church, and a deacon is like an elder in any other church (We may straighten that out soon, it's a church constitution thing) One thing I learned is to never miss a meeting in a congregational church! What I'm going to do here is geek out and share the numbers blogger gives me to ponder over:

Random Bits

This World Is Not My Home... No Way.

Religion of Self update - the ironically named Dignity USA, a Catholic gay "rights" group, has invited verbal child molester and unapologetic advocate of state sponsored genocide Dan Savage to be the key note speaker at their 2015 convention. What more proof do you need that Paul was right?

Religion of Peace update - Middle Eastern kidnappers and murderers in the name of Allah, ISIS, have accepted a pledge of loyalty from African kidnappers and murders in the name of Allah, Boko Haram. The allied groups celebrated their allegiance by publicly announcing that they intend to slaughter Jews and Christians.

Religion of Mikey update - Self styled Archbishop of the the very inaccurately named Military Religions Freedom Foundation, Mikey Weinstein has been handed a setback at Warner Robbins AFB where Mikey was able to get the phrase "Have a blessed day" outlawed. Once the ban went viral, clear thinking Americans rose up and the USAF changed it's mind on the ban. Personally I'm going to have to call "shenanigans" on Mikey's claim that some USAF members were so horrifically  offended by the word "Blessed" that they had to go running to Mr. Mikey. The USAF has a program once called "Social Actions" that you can use to file complaints about anything from sexual harassment and racial discrimination to the lack of your favorite condiment at the chow hall in complete anonymity. The fact that someone went scurrying to Mikey rather than Social Actions makes me believe that it was either an acolyte of Mikey, or Mikey himself writing that letter.

Tune To Jesus

When an orchestra gets together to belt out a few tunes the first they they do is tune. Tuning the orchestra is a time honored tradition and a very important part of a successful concert. 

Off stage the lead oboist tunes his/her oboe with a tuning fork or electronic device, then joins the orchestra. At the command of the Concertmaster the lead oboist plays a single note: A above middle C. For us geeky folks that translates to 440 MHz and the note is also called A-440. While she plays this note the horns and woodwinds tune to her A. When they are finished the Concertmaster directs her to play A again, this time the cellos and string basses tune their A strings to it, then tune their other three strings. A third time A is played by the lead oboist and the violins and violas tune their A strings to the oboe's A. 

Notice at no time does the members of the orchestra tune to each other, or another section, each individual musician tunes to the lead oboe because that one oboe is playing what the Concertmaster requires "A" to be. This is important because technically 443 MHz can be considered A in the musical word, as can 445 MHz and 438 MHz. But for the concert orchestra only 440 MHz will do. 

Be As Shrewd As A Snake

Tim Challies recently wrote a very good blog entry entitled 6 Reasons Why Sexual Predators Target Churches. His article is very good, a must read for all Christians. The thing is, we need to keep in mind that it's not just sexual predators that target churches, it's also con men and hucksters of all makes and models.  

We don't like to admit it, but we've all seen it, the church is constantly under attack not just in overt ways but covert ways as well. We've seen the false teachers overtly perverting the word of God, we've seen the bookstores taking Christians' hard earned money for tomes of sugarcoated blasphemy. But we've also seen things like pedophiles preying on our children, and people preying on our older saints for their money.

As Tim pointed out, the reason we are being attacked is simple: Christians tend to be naïve. We tend to be kind hearted We want to think the best of people. We don't want to be "judgmental". I've seen it in action: we want to do the right thing, to do what Jesus would want us to do, to give to those that appear to be in need. 

We as Christians hang out with other Christians so we tend to think that most people think like we do. This is not an unusual thing, I know people here in Colorado that live for marijuana, they can't imagine spending a day sober, and they think that everyone else in the state is like them because the majority of the people they associate with are perpetually stoned too. These folks refuse to believe they are in the minority, as do heavy drinkers and folks with other proclivities that are done with peers, but that's the way the mind God gave us works. 

However Jesus warned us about these attacks and told us how to deal with them

Random Bits

Does the Obama administration think that homosexuals are in competition with Christianity or open warfare? Chai Feldblum, a high level Obama administration official, has recently said "Gays win; Christians lose." and  "I'm having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win." A responsible administration would be announcing the resignation of anyone that said something like that, so don't expect to see Chai Feldblum hitting the unemployment lines for years to come.

For those of you that don't know Chai - here's more information.

I don't know what's more interesting: A reality TV personality that truly understands the actual truth of Matthew 7:1 or the fact that Charisma News actually published it

I like this story, it gives me hope for some people in my life. (PLEASE ignore the lame headline, the Blaze is getting pretty bad at that kind of thing.) I like this story too, we now have to start working on that whole liberal thing.

I just plain like this.

I mentioned earlier that Mr. Pope came out of the closet as a "Glow Warm" and tends to do his Jesuit Judo on the governments of the world. However it looks like God has some bad news for Mr. Pope.

Just in case you didn't know, when I call Islam the "Religion of Peace" I'm being sarcastic.

If the reports of countries being overrun, beheaded Christians, journalists and social workers, captured pilots being burned alive, Christians captured and murdered, and  hundreds of captive women forced into sex slavery and gays being publicly executed kind of freaks you out, you are suffering from Islamophobia. Now all this stuff is true, but according to the Center for America Progress it's not and your mental condition comes from "an echo chamber of the religious right, conservative media, grassroots organizations, and politicians who sought to introduce a fringe perspective on American Muslims into the public discourse."

A terrorist in the Religion of Peace finds that the love of Jesus is more powerful than Islmaist inspired hate and learned to love what he thought was his enemy: Israel.

Meanwhile back in America where everything is normal - while Hillary was using private email to conduct government business she warned her employees not to use private email to conduct government business. No wait! It gets better! Under her reign our ambassador to Kenya used private email and had a commercial internet connection installed in the embassy bathroom so he could avoid using a US Government network to conduct US Government business. I just mention this because for me it brought the apparent conflict between Romans 13:1 and Acts 5:29 to mind.

The world now fully aware of Netanyahu's speech before the US Congress. Even Saudi Arabia approved the appropriateness and the content of Netanyahu's speech. The only people that didn't like it was Iran, and of course our short sighted junior varsity "US leadership"

A Christian woman wears a hijab for lent so she can feel like an outsider.

The House of Driscoll has been sold at a tidy profit.

I'm surprised I didn't see this coming when Mr. Pope started handing out indulgences for likes on facebook.

Color Me Unsurprised Department - most atheist assertions tend to evaporate when placed under scrutiny.

Don't expect to see this on the mainstream media evening news, not unless it's under the headline "Christians Attempt to Damage Pro Choice Activist's Car With Their Bodies"

The Biblical End Of America

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

Never in the history of the United States has a sitting president so blatantly alienated our allies while openly giving aid and comfort to our enemies as Barack Hussein Obama has done in six years of occupation of the oval office. When not playing golf Barack Hussein Obama has gone out of his way to insult and alienate our greatest allies Great Britain and France, in fact it's getting hard to find an ally of the United States he hasn't attempted to insult and humiliate. Of course if you approach an Obama supporter and question them on his childish behavior their response is always the same.

In intentional complete and total disregard to years of friendship and alliance the Obama administration turned its back on Israel plunging the United states into damnation in the Lords judgement;

Ash Wednesday

Another ash Wednesday has come and gone and once again my forehead remains ash free. As a child growing up in the RCC Ash Wednesday meant more that just the start of lent, to us it meant a half day off from school! We would hop on the "parochial bus" and be carted off to the local RCC building of our parents choice where the priest would hold mass and apply the ashes to our foreheads. We were told that the ashes were from burnt palm branches left over from last Palm Sunday, but we in our 6th grade wisdom knew it was mostly ashes from Monsignor Logal's White Owl cigars. (If that were actually true Monsignor Logal could probably keep the entire Buffalo Diocese supplied in enough ash to make Ash Wednesday a monthly occurrence)

Of course we weren't totally sure of why we were carrying around a blob of ashes on our foreheads other than "it's the beginning of lent", we didn't have Sunday School, and what religious education we did receive was indoctrination in the Catholic catechism, which unless you're an overexcited theology student was a slow method of torture for meat eating 12 year olds. As for bible education - there was none. 

Flash forward a few decades and several prayerful readings of the Bible later and I'm now a member of a biblically centered Christian church, and we don't do ashes, fasting before communion, or fish frys. I really miss western New York fish frys. But why do we not do Ashes and fasting during lent? (Then again we also don't do a Bacchanalia on the Tuesday before lent either) I mean, we are much more biblically oriented than the RCC by a very long shot, so why not the ashes... and sackcloth?

Glorified