There's now an official website for defending traditional marriage in Minnesota! It's Minnesota for Marriage -- www.minnesotaformarriage.org -- and it's designed to help you and other pro-family leaders get the Defense Of Marriage Amendment (DOMA) through the State Legislature and to the people of Minnesota for a vote. DOMA has been introduced again this year and it has plenty of support to pass. But we're going to need the same help and influence that pro-family folks like you offered last year.
That's what Minnesota for Marriageis all about! It gives you the tools and resources to educate and influence your loved ones, neighbors, church family - and your state lawmakers - about the importance of defending the traditional institution of marriage: One man and one woman for life!
Log on to Minnesota for Marriage and click through the news and resource links. Then check in regularly to stay current on what's happening to defend marriage in Minnesota. That includes updates on the crucial Day of Prayer and Fasting for Marriage on March 16th, and our April 20thMinnesota for Marriage rally at the State Capitol.
While you're at it sign up for the informative Minnesota for Marriage Action Alerts so you'll get immediate updates on news and needed action to help insure passage of DOMA!
Thanks for checking out Minnesota for Marriage, the official website for all Minnesota DOMA efforts. And thanks for your crucial partnership to defend traditional marriage.
John Helmberger
Minnesota Family Council
If your computer has problems connecting, visit our homepage: http://www.mfc.org
WOULD YOU HELP STRENGTHEN AND EXPAND THE DEFENSE OF YOUR FAMILY'S BELIEFS AND VALUES? Please mail your donation or use your credit card at our secure web site: http://www.mfc.org/giving/. Thank you for partnering with us to defend your values!
Chuck always makes me think.
I must say I regularly disagree with Chuck Baldwin, but I deeply respect the man so I must post him.
Here is a very thought provoking commentary.
Forget Political Labels: They Mean Nothing By Chuck Baldwin March 4, 2005
Conservative. Liberal. Moderate. Political labels are thrown around constantly in an attempt to define a person's ideology. The problem is, political labels are absolutely meaningless today. Absolutely meaningless!
The reality of the situation is, neither conservatives nor liberals differ on many salient issues. The major beef between them has much more to do with who wields power and very little to do with ideology. Both conservatives and liberals merely use ideology as a ruse to dupe various constituencies. There is very little disagreement on policy.
posted by @ 02:17 PM CST [more..] [Karma: 0 (+/-)]
To Fellowship or Not To Fellowship
I was made aware of an interesting discussion as to weather to have that brief moment of fellowship in the middle of a worship service or not.
I find it very disturbing that so many of our churches are so cold. Where is the love? Why don't we love one another? I would think it would be very exciting to see again those that we dearly loved and it would be even more exciting to see a new person or family worship the Lord Jesus Christ beside you.
INTRODUCTION 1. Besides John 3:16 no portion of Bible has been preached as many times as seven last seven words of Jesus on cross. Year after year pulpits of all denomination expound them. ● And as often as they’re preached, Christians never tire of hearing them again. ● With wonder we listen as Jesus speaks profound words in the face of great suffering ● Jesus continues to teach not on shores of Galilee but from cross of affliction
2. We are also drawn to these seven words because of their message. The entire corpus of Christian teaching is encompassed by Jesus’ statements from the cross. ● Dr. Bodey, The very heart of Christian faith are contained in these Seven words ● If all we had were these seven words, we could discover essence of Christianity. ● From the cross we have a mother-lode of gospel truth to mine.
3. Last week we consider the 1st statement Jesus made after being crucified. In Luke 23:34 Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing” … For those who put him to death, Jesus asked God to forgive. ● Rome, Pilate, leaders, soldiers, you and I were there & participated in Jesus’ death ● But Jesus prayed God wipe out there transgressions done in ignorance. ● Christians are living proof that the father answered His son’s prayer.
posted by @ 06:50 AM CST [more..] [Karma: -6 (+/-)]
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Are Christians really Christians?
In an article today discussing the findings of a recent Barna Group poll, there were some pretty startling results. Only 30% of the "Born Again" Christian parents replied that they thought it was important that their children would grow up as believers in Jesus Christ.
What are some conclusions we can take from this? 1. The poll was totally out of line and not indicative of the true situation. (Doubtful) 2. Parents care, but education and making money is more important. (I know this one is going to get me in trouble but I will say it anyway.) 3. Many of those that call themselves Christians are really not Christian at all.
There, I said it. I laid out my real thoughts. I have thought for a long time that only about 20 to 30 percent of professing Christians are really Christians.
What do I base these thoughts on? I look at the fruit of people lives. No I am not judging their eternal condition, that is God's job, but I am perceiving the reality of the situation. - Many professing Christians live in fear. - Many professing Christians live with no joy in their lives. - Many professing Christians are running after all of pleasures of this world.
While it is true all Christians sin and on a regular basis, if you are a Christian, the "Fruits of the Spirit" will be showing up in your life.
So, maybe this is a wakeup call for the Church. Or maybe it is just an opportunity to blast me.
James Lesson 8: Faith Tested by Responding to the Will of God (4:13-17)
James:Tests of a Living Faith Faith Tested by Responding to the Will of God (4:13-17)
Steve Budd
Section Summary The genuiness of a person’s faith is characterized by doing the will of God “from the heart”. A constant disregard for or disinterest in God’s will is a mark of the presence of pride and an unredeemed soul.
Outline
I. It is foolish to ignore God’s will (13-14)
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
James describes those who ignore God in their plans. They choose their own time (today or tomorrow), their own place (such and such a city), the duration of their stay (spend a year there), their enterprise (engage in business), and their goal (make a profit). These were most likely Jewish businessmen who were practical atheists, living as though God did not exist. James reminds such people of two things: 1. We don’t know the future. 2. Life is short.
On September 11, 2001, I was reminded of a verse in Ecclesiastes that describes the uncertainty and brevity of life. That verse, coincidentally, is Ecclesiastes 9:11; “I have seen something else under the sun: That the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance overtake them all.”
posted by @ 06:58 AM CST [more..] [Karma: 0 (+/-)]
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Republic or Democracy?
In most political conversations that I am in, I always run into confusion as to what type of Government we actually have. Walter E. Williams does a great job of clearing that up in his commentary here.
posted @ 07:00 AM CST [link] [Karma: -1 (+/-)]
Deport 'em all
Why would we allow a festering boil of hate to remain in the United States? If people are not from here and they hate us, please go home. If they do not go home on their own, use the power of government to Deport 'em all.
We need to stop being wimps. We need to stand up against the ACLU and those of their ilk. If we do not fight, we will be destroyed from within.
Catholics and Evangelicals: Similarities: Christ
We are moving along to the fourth part of our series Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences. In this section we will discuss another area of agreement, the doctrine of Christ. The basic concept is that Jesus is fully man while at the same time truly and fully God.
Definition of the doctrine of Christ By the name of the religion, Christianity, you can tell that Christ is the central focus of faith and doctrine. There are two main parts to the study of Christ. The first is, who is he, and the second is, what he did. We will only be covering the first part of the doctrine here in this section.
Generally speaking if you get the doctrine of Christ correct even though you may have some error or sin in some other areas of the doctrine you will stay within the realm of orthodoxy in terms of your Christian thinking.
Christ in the Old Testament A few years ago I was involved in a Bible study with a group of men. We were in a time of transition trying to decide what to study next. Just then God sent us a new member to our group. This new member was a very wise old Pastor that just so happened to have expertise in this area or study. Remember in the Bible after the resurrection, Jesus was with two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. He saw that they did not understand what had happened and he thought that they were pretty dim witted. Then Jesus opened up Scripture to them “then beginning with Moses and all the profits, he interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the Scriptures“. This old pastor did the exact same thing with us, showing us Christ in the Old Testament. It was like the scales fell off my eyes. Christ is all over the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament we often see Christ in a way that is anticipating his coming and anticipating what He is going to do for us in salvation.
Sometimes it takes some clarification in the New Testament to understand what was meant in the Old Testament. The New Testament is the realization of what was said in the Old Testament.
Historically, Christ has had the three main titles, Profit, Priest and King all three of these ideas come out of the Old Testament
Christ in the New Testament It is impossible to miss the personal Christ in the New Testament, yet the New Testament Christ is totally based on the historical figure and the Old Testament prophecy.
Two Natures of Christ The Deity of Christ: The doctrine of the deity of Christ is fundamental to the Christian church from the beginning and is basic to Christian theology. It is what divided followers of Jesus from other Jews of that day.
Within four hundred years after the apostles had died there had already been several challenges to orthodox Christian teaching. The first four councils defined and clarify the teaching of the church (see part one of our series for more details on the councils). Catholic dogma concerning the divinity of Christ agrees with orthodox Protestants: “Jesus Christ is the true God and true Son of God”. He is God and man. He is God of the same substance as the Father and a man born in time as the same substance as his mother.
The Humanity of Christ Jesus taking humanity on himself is another central doctrine of orthodox Christianity. The incarnation: becoming flesh Jesus had a real human body, and he had a human nature and he was raised to heaven in a body. When Jesus became a man, he did not cease being God. Jesus became man in order to redeem men..
The council of Nicene produced the Nicene Creed that rejected two false notions about Christ. 1) That Jesus was only a man. 2) That Jesus is was a spirit wandering the earth.
Virgin birth: “Christ, Son of God was born by external generation but of one parent, the blessed virgin Mary“ It is a miracle we cannot understand.
Union of Two Natures: Being Christ was born of Mary; therefore he is a descendant of Adam. He has his humanity. “He is our brother”. Also, Christ is one person and the two natures are united, joined to each other in one person. The Church states that these two natures were combined at conception. Christ with his two natures is affected by the Trinity and vice versa.
Resurrection of Christ On the third day Christ rose from the dead. This is a bodily resurrection from the dead. Christ’s resurrected body was a glorified body. He was not limited to the space and time. Christ’s body and soul ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the father.
Titles of Christ We had already mentioned three names for Christ, Profit, Priest and King. There are other names used for Jesus. Messiah, Son of God, son of Man, Lord and Savior.
Conclusion The council of Chalcedon sums it up nicely.
Following therefore the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same one is being (homoousios) with the Father as to the divinity and one in being with us as to the humanity, like unto us in an things but sin (cf. Heb. 4:15). The same was begotten from the Father before the ages as to the divinity and in the later days for us and our salvation was born as to His humanity from Mary the Virgin Mother of God.
That concludes our study on the doctrine of Who is Christ.
If you have not gotten the book yet and you still want to participate in the conversation, it is not too late. Order your book today!
Next time we will be moving on to the second part of the doctrine of Christ, what is did for us, Salvation .
Newspapers
Just a little fun for this morning.... Enjoy
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times. They like their statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country - if they could find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country and did a far superior job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who is running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on ! the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country but need the baseball scores.
10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country ... or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority feminist atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy provided, of course, that they are not Republicans.
11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.
posted @ 08:32 AM CST [link] [Karma: 7 (+/-)]
Monday, February 28, 2005
Good news from IRAQ
Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?
Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or colleges and 4 research centers?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have 5- 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a navel infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 bell jet rangers?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent televised debate recently?
posted by @ 07:49 PM CST [more..] [Karma: 1 (+/-)]
THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS: VOICE FROM THE CROSS
A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with my pastor Warren Coe about some thoughts I had been having about items to post on this blog. I had been thinking that God was telling me to discuss some issues of the importance of Jesus' Crucifixion.
INTRO 1. Premier Nazi-hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, tells about being yanked out of work detail & sent to a darkened hospital room in a WWII concentration camp ● Lying on a bed was a badly wounded soldier w/gauze covering entire face. ● Dying man told of joining Hitler’s youth movement & fighting on Russian front ● He told how his SS unit herded Jews into building that was set on fire.
2. He started to tell of a child, a young boy w/black hair; dark eyes but his voice gave way. Now he reached out hand to Simon & begged his forgiveness. ● Not hard to stand in each man’s shoes. Everyone has a past they regret ● Everyone has been hurt by someone else who may request that we forgive them. ● How can I be forgiven for what I did? How can I forgive person who hurt?
3. In 23rd chapter of Luke we discover the power of forgiveness; how we can experience God’s forgiveness and, in turn, forgive those who’ve wounded us. ● Author of text is Luke. His purpose for writing is stated Luke1:3,4, That you may know the Truth of Jesus ● Postmodernist gurus say truth is unknowable/subjective. Luke is concerned with facts ● Our faith rests on the substantial & unshakeable foundation of God’s truth.
4. Luke records one of the last Jesus’ words spoken on the cross. He reports what eye witnesses saw/heard when Jesus said, Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they do… ● Today we begin a sermon series titled The Voice Form the Cross, Dr. R. Bodey ● Seven times Jesus spoke from cross. Beside John 3:16 more sermons have been preached on these seven phrases. ● But in those seven phrases we discover the heart of our Christian faith.
posted by @ 11:02 AM CST [more..] [Karma: -3 (+/-)]
What's the big deal with the Cross...
The Last Seven Words of Christ while on the Cross
A few weeks ago I was having a discussion with my pastor Warren Coe about some thoughts I had been having about items to post on this blog. I had been thinking that God was telling me to discuss some issues reguarding the importance of Jesus' Crucifixion.
I asked Warren the question, "Can you help me describe what is the big deal with the Cross"? Meaning how can we describe it to both Christians and non-Christians alike in a way that we all can understand it.
In my layman's mind, I know it is a huge deal, but I don't have a full-orbed understanding of all of its implications.
Well, it just so happened that Warren was going to be starting a series on the "Cross of Christ" called "The Voice From The Cross" taken from a book by Richard Bodey. This series was going to be focusing on the last seven words of Christ while on the cross.
So, I bugged Warren and he has given me permission to post his series here. I'm hoping I can convince him to become a regular contributor. You can email him to help me convince him.
Starting today, I will be posting his current series "Voice From The Cross". We would greatly appreciate your feedback.
And the winner is... 'The Incredibles'
I was so happy to see that a great fast paced family movie won an Oscar. 'The Incredibles' is fast paced fun family adventure tracking the trials of a super hero family.
Scorsese on the Oscars
Martin Scorsese seems very disappointed for not winning an Oscar again. But he seems to fear both the right and the left for censoring him and other filmmakers.
