TheWhistleHut

Crude and lewd, churches who pervert (literally) the Gospel

2009-04-15T11:19:00.007-05:00

Some pastors and churches seem to have a problem with language and lewdness these days, here is a good message from a mister Phil Johnson, addressing the perversion and degrading of the Gospel by some pastors/churches/ministries today.

Do I really need a sex sermon? On just a personal note, I find all these sex sermons to be degrading to women, they are being made to feel like they are supposed to do these things, regardless of how they feel, because they are better wives and Christians for it. I don't know, when I hear a pastors advice to single men who struggle with lust to "get a wife and look at her all you want", I find that to be insulting to women and as a single man, frankly not the way I would want my wife to feel. The Bible gives us a very beautiful portrait of the love of a husband and wife in the Song of Solomon, sadly some have tried to pervert this book into a sex manual. It is the type of love I would want to have, a deep emotional love, rooted in Christ that exemplifies all the wonders of marriage without being reduced to something sleazy and insulting. These sex ~~sermons~~ motivational speeches make me so angry because of what it is really telling men and women, all under the guise of Biblical mandate, and only makes the world mock the name of God and Jesus Christ even more.

(John MacArthur wrote a wonderful article on the perversion of the Song of Solomon http://www.shepherdsfellowship.org/pulpit/Posts.aspx?ID=4168)

Note: It is an hour long, too long for some people, listening to some of it or breaking it into parts is probably the easier thing if you are short on time. But well worth it.

Time to dust off the feather pen...

2009-02-26T15:12:00.010-06:00

Wow, it has been quite awhile since I did one of these. The poetic juices were just pumping so I went with it. I hope this goes as well as my other one did, we shall see...

The winters rage, the summers roar, yet I still stand and did not fall.
My back is strong, my arms thick, my semblance is set above all.
A radiant tapestry has been laid before my eyes, a generation come and gone.
Days of peace and days of war, bitter reality and fragile truth; I have seen, yet all are done.
Music never escapes my ears, dawn until evening, the permeating symphony fills the sky with glee.
Wonderful array of colors, like paint on an empty canvas, the Artist's masterpiece we see.
Oceans of green is where I dwell, the mountains my home, dripped with the silent cries of the wind.
The mother birds nest, to the minuscule ants platoon, the bounty of nature set before my kind.

I am the sentinel of the forest, crown of the earth, a jewel to all who can find.
As the flowers wilt, and the leaves fall, even time must come to an end.
Shall I recede forgotten? No... Truly no...

Now, the goal of every reader of art is to interpret their own meaning from it, or to try and understand what the artist is attempting to say.

*disclaimer* This poem is property of this blog and the author, please, if you use this poem give credit where credit is due. It's not cool to steal.

Calamity and hope

2009-02-16T14:28:00.007-06:00

No doubt it is apparent to all these times are tough. The economy is the issue of the day, and the ruling fear of many minds, our thoughts and fears typically revolve around out job, our house, or family, our portfolio, gas prices, inflation, and so on and so on... We worry about economic matters because they are what we consider to sustain us, we use money for everything, that is how life works. Money is what makes the world go round, I disagree. Christ will sustain those who seek it.

The writing on wall, God wrote it awhile back, no one wanted to read it. The economy is not going to get better, tomorrow the stimulus bill will be signed into law and anyone who thinks that that will fix this economic situation is fooling themselves! Terrible times will be upon us, God is issuing the alarm; some may ponder how much He will let us endure, I cannot say. What I do know is this, that in our weakness He is made stronger; Elijah was fed by ravens (1st Kings 17:1-6) and water was supplied to him while on the run from Jezebel. God raised His Son from the dead, created the all within the universe in 7 days and preserved a nation non-existent for 1900 years only to bring them into existence once more. You don't think He can take care of our needs when we are hungry, naked, or thirsty?

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Matthew 6:25

It is easy to worry or be anxious, but really how can we? I cannot fully comprehend how we have a God who measures the universe with the span of His hand (Isaiah 40:12), yet I am inclined to worry about my little problems within in the social sphere I call "reality"? Just human nature. Our God is gracious and is a sufficient supplier of our essentials. Ignoring the clamoring of the atheists, suffering and calamity can be used for blessing, while not easy to understand, The Lord can and does use it to bring ultimate good.

The book of Job gives an insight into the issue of God and suffering, Job who was a righteous man beyond that of all other men on earth in that present day, but God allowed Satan to destroy his life in such a way, truly no man can lay claim to have suffered the worst. He lost his flock, his possessions were taken, learned his children died, had horrible sores all over his body, his wife advised him to curse God an die, and his friends were all accusing him of doing evil and were tormenting him to confess his sin. Even that extreme of suffering had a purpose in the end, it was to glorify God's name and His goodness, and he restored everything to Job two fold; here is something interesting to think about, this was done preceding the old covenant, how much more will He bless us under the new?!

Even in the midst of life, death and troubles of life, we have our hope in the work of Jesus Christ; why should we despair like the world? Even under the possibility of death. we have the hope of entering the Father's kingdom and being in His presence for all eternity, where there is no longer sadness or suffering. We have hope in all things!

Now to the churches.

When the trials come knocking at your congregations door, how will you act? I recently heard a sermon from John Piper, discussing this future we may have when Christians show up on Sunday, weeping because they have no food in their cupboards at home. Are not those who have much, too share with those who have none? As he put it "are you a church or a club?"

"But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" 1st John 3:17

In doing so we are a light to this dark world, we could be given a chance to glisten. While the world may have every man for himself, we can come together and supply everyone's needs accordingly; to distribute from those who have much to those who have little is not the governments job, this should be the church's! We should act as though we are a family, for is that not what redeemed in Christ are? A body composed of different parts, functioning in various ways to the benefit of the body as a whole? God blesses some with riches to the benefit of the poor, this does not mean one should be made poorer so another can be richer, but if someone in your congregation is starving for food, while you have a stockpile of food at home, what would Christ do?

The Bible has told us how we should respond to calamities, and how a church should react and respond to those suffering within their own doors. I know this post may seem odd to some, and fanciful thinking to others; but I am coming from the Bible on this one (regarding the times we live in). God has been warning people to be ready for the impending situation about to occur, many economists say we have less than a year before our economy collapses, just go to the grocery store, you cannot say nothing is happening. Please people, God is warning those who are listening to be ready, at first I thought that such a thing could never happen in America, but He is showing differently. Godly men and secularists are all saying the same thing, now is not the time to plug our ears and go on enjoying our little bubble, we need to be aware of the time and start leaning on Christ all the more. Because without Him, there is no hope.

I do not know how much longer He will let His church (as a whole world) endure, but this I know, He is going to be coming real soon, let us be in prayer that we will be worthy to join Him in the clouds when he comes for us!

"Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." Luke 21:36

video below:

Side note, this is a good site to look up Bible verses quickly and easily. Really beneficial to this blog.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/

Here is also the clip of John Piper I mentioned previously.

Is Christianity really oppressive?

2009-02-11T10:47:00.004-06:00

People object to Christianity on so many baseless grounds, the popular one being how it violates peoples rights, or is oppressive to people (woman in particular). It typically involves the opponent building a straw man, painting that as Christians and tearing it down, after words patting themselves on the backs for "taking on" the Bible.

Typically what you find are these three historical objections:

1: The Crusades and the Inquisition
2: The laws of old Israel
3: The Witch Hunts

What we must understand about the Crusades is they were authorized by the Pope and the Catholic church, they were many true believers who objected to this, but they were silenced by the Holy Roman empire. The Inquisition was, again, authorized by the Pope, against Protestants who were viewed as heretics in the eyes of the "Church", more Christians were killed than Muslims and Jewish nomads than history often portrays, in fact the total body count of the whole Inquisition itself is not that high considering some of the other tragedies through out history during that time and after. Most people assume the Catholic church and the Protestant church are the same, that is not true, so I cannot be held responsible for the actions of the Pope. If you desire to debate the issue, at least go to the correct people.

Progressive Revelation. That is the term used to describe God's unveiling of truth in the Bible. It started in Genesis and ended in Revelation, in between we see God set laws for the people of Israel under the old covenant, up until the new covenant that Jesus set with His appearing on Earth and dying for God' glory and our redemption. Those laws were to keep Israel pure, that they could be an example to the lawless nations around them; we now live in the age of grace and God saves men through Christs propitiation on the cross, those laws are no longer necessary, they were never meant to save men, but to condemn them so they could see the need of a Savior.

Lastly, the witch hunts. Sadly, this was an actual event were several people were killed and labeled as witches out some of the early Puritans superstition; but does that mean that all of Christianity is commanded to do the same? No. We are commanded though that if their is a believer who engages in an obvious sin, without any repentance or desire to do so, to not keep company with such:

"But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner--not even to eat with such a person. For what [have] I [to do] with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore 'put away from yourselves the evil person.'" 1st Corinthians 5:11-13

As mentioned before, women's rights is something the anti-Bible group tries to throw at us "Oh they are oppressive to women, they teach for a wife to submit to her husband. How patriarchal blah blah blah..." Consider this:

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were the first two to uncover Jesus' empty tomb (Matt. 28:1-8), God gave them the message to deliver the disciples. In Israel at the time, a woman's testimony was not allowed in court because they did not value a woman's word. Yet, Christ had the very first message of His resurrection delivered to two women, and appeared to them first!

"And as they [Mary Magdalene and the other Mary] went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, 'Rejoice!' So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him." Matthew 28:9

Jesus spoke to the woman at the well (John 4), it was a cultural taboo for any man to talk to a woman in public, even if it be his wife. Hence the disciples reactions when they returned to Him:

"And at this [point] His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, 'Why are You talking with her?'" John 4:27

Jesus' ministry was surrounded by women, one can see an example of this in Luke 8:1-3

"Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities--Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance."

Why would anyone who wanted to make a new religion record Jesus as having a ministry that had women in it, who were viewed as less than acceptable? His entire ministry was comprised of reaching, teaching, healing and befriending those who were considered the worst. One of His own disciples was a tax collector, who were hated back than, still are except they are called the IRS.

IF Christianity is so oppressive as others say, why don't we take a look at what some other religions teach about human rights.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,490884,00.html

India Family Beheaded in Apprent Revenge for Forbidden Wedding

The bodies of a poverty-ridden Indian man and eight members of his family were found shot, beheaded and floating in a river after an alleged revenge killing for his having married a wealthy woman, Reuters reported.

Police from Bihar, in eastern India, said they have charged 15 people, most of whom are from the bride's family, with the murders.

The killings took place over the weekend after 21-year-old Ratan Mandal eloped with 18-year-old Kanchan Kumari, fearing their families would not approve if they did not keep the wedding a secret.

"The girl's family invited the boy's family for a meeting on the pretext of settling the dispute, but killed all eight and beheaded them," Raghunath Prasad Singh, a senior police officer from Bhagalpur, told Reuters.

Bhagalpur is well known for revenge and honor killings when men and women dare to marry outside their caste, Reuters reported.

Last time I checked, Christ never told us to do such unto people. I cannot seem to recall the Bible verse that says "Kill those who will not submit to me." Islam would also teach that a woman is no more than reproductive property, they also teach women do not go to their "paradise", even though there are 71-72 virgins for every martyr? Honor killings are a common practice and anyone who converts from Islam do not get "freedom of religion", they get a sword to their head! Hinduism's chaste system is so brutal and so all encompassing that there is no hope for anyone in a lower class, they are taught that they did something bad in a past life and deserve what they have now. No "pursuit of happiness" here; nope you live and poverty and your descending generations will. Orthodox Judaism still holds to those old laws, while not as extreme as the Muslim or Hindu's view, in some cases is still being practiced without the true love and hypocrisy that Christ condemned their fathers for.

Now, the Bible does say that a woman is not to be a pastor, a teacher is different, but not a pastor. Rules on marriage are only that two believers are too be married and not to be unequally yokes with an unbeliever, so they do not destroy our faith. Also that a wife is to submit to a husband, but before the men get to happy they are ALSO supposed to submit to their wife and to Christ. In fact, I would not even consider marriage if it was not absolutely apparent that it was to be based on Christ, anything else is doomed to failure and being without true joy. There are other debatable issues out there that others debate like long hair, rock and roll, tattoos, etc... But those might fall into the category of our Christian liberty:

"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." 1st Corinthians 6:12

Back on topic. We are to guide them into salvation, faith and repentance; but never death. He never asked for jihad, in fact he told us quite the opposite, WE will be the ones killed, thinking it is a service to God! Christ liberated us from that old covenant, put us under a new and greater one so that no one can ever claim superiority in any way to any man or woman. Not by color, gender, physical status, economic status, positions of power, etc... All we need is a humble heart, recognizing our sin, and turning to Christ as our only hope for salvation. Than we are grafted in and are put in the family of God.

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" Galations 3:28

A sincere apology to everyone

2009-02-06T11:25:00.006-06:00

This post isn’t as much a post as it is a letter of an apology, since this blog has been public, the apology should be as well.

To everyone who has read this I am deeply sorry, have been unaware how I have been coming across to people. My zeal to talk about the things I have been passionate made me lose sight of the heart of all proper exhortation Christian love.

I was more zealous for conviction, than actually exhorting the body of Christ; my intention was never to come across as being judgmental or self-righteous, but I realize I have done just that. They (my posts) were never meant to be forced as truth or be presented as a salvation issue; my personal conviction is just that, mine. The way I went about it presenting my posts was in serious error; I am sorry. Jesus Christ has shown me how I have come across to people, and how I have acted, even though my intentions have somewhat been well, how I still ended up sinning by doing it more for zeal than love. No one will answer to me for their life on earth, as I will not answer to anyone else.

“Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand.” Romans 14:4 nkjv

Worst of all, I was not being a good representative of Christ, for this my heart aches the most. I focused so much on what was wrong and bad, what you shouldn’t be doing, without ever giving hope, the Gospel which is forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who repent and believe. I know I have unintentionally done things to isolate others from me and have been hypocritical in my actions. I claimed to love, bet set up an impossible bar that I would not even desire myself to be held too. All I can say to anyone is I am sorry, not sorry for the content of what I said or typed, but the heart and motive I had in doing so, being more worried about sacrifice than obedience, I acted outside of Christian love and am deeply sorry to anyone that may have felt hurt.

I am human who still is sinful; it is only by the grace of God through His Son that I am even saved. God convicted me yesterday of my motives in serving Him and broke me last night, but I want to let everyone know how sorry I am and let everyone know that Jesus Christ is joy and love, His mercy is beyond all knowledge and comprehension, His love knows no bounds and His blessings to those who believe are without bounds. He lifts up the broken hearted, He is a father to the fatherless, a comforter to those who mourn, the Bread of Life and Spring of Life to those who hunger and thirst, the freedom to those who are in bondage, a light to those in darkness, the strength of those who are weak, faithful to the faithless, joy to the broken hearted and the exalter of the truly humble. That is my God, holy and just, set apart from all creation, rich in mercies and love, yet just and the judge of all sin; he is the infinite One, who sent His only Son to die for all mankind, for His glory and our salvation, he gave us the Bible and His Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth, growing us in holiness and justifying us from our sins. He is the hope, He is the truth, He is our savior Jesus Christ. Let Him receive all the glory forever and ever. Amen!

My heart pains for the iniquity that I have committed in losing sight of what the word “exhortation” even means; it is no wonder that they are the loneliest of all, no one wants to be in the presence of one who is so critical all the time, acting as if there is no joy, which in itself is a blasphemy against God. Who commands us to be joyful, it is just so hard to balance between having Jesus Christ first, but at the same time not becoming self-righteous and forgetting the body of Christ we are supposed to attend to.

Please, forgive me for making things serious, It would be better for me to be quiet and save myself wrath than to speak out and be wrong, putting myself in a place of judgment. Again, I just say I am so sorry to everyone. I want to repent and learn to better serve Christ from this experience than just wallowing in a "Ooh poor me" mentality and thus become prideful and negate any good work of God out of this.

Exhortation:

1. The act or an instance of exhorting.
2. A speech or discourse that encourages, incites, or earnestly advises.

“So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 2:19

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.” – 1st Corinthians 13:1

“Love suffers long [and] is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether [there are] prophecies, they will fail; whether [there are] tongues, they will cease; whether [there is] knowledge, it will vanish away.” 1st Corinthians 13:4-8

“Let all [that] you [do] be done with love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14

“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.’” 1st Peter 4:8

“Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Romans 2:1

Life

2009-01-20T16:33:00.004-06:00

I have not written a post in over a month, wow! I think that is the longest duration of absence I have gone without an entry. To be honest though I have been suffering from a "blogger's block" of sorts, so I want to try something different here...

It should start with one waking up in the morning praising God for being alive another day, counting the blessing that you didn't awake in Hell today. That's how it should start... What you find though as you awake is the war the same as you left it, you went to bed with the stench of war and you arise to the same. Satan greets you in the morning to see whether he can get your first thoughts off of God; "it's a monday," "I need to run an errand this day," "will my circumstances ever get better?" While God is left in the back of the mind for more trivial and lowly things. We should awake screaming the holiness of His name and His Son's, instead I find my days entering into the same war I fought today, and the day before that, and the day before that...

The Bible only furthers to convict me of this helpless state I am in, forcing me to realize that this war can never be won by me, nor can it by any man. Giving me the hope though that Jesus Christ has, is and will win this war; it is my job to endure through His strength, using that spiritual armor He has given me, always in prayer for endurance and patience. Sanctified and justified, I desire to grow in holiness, but every time I move closer the beast comes closer to try and pull me further, I have screamed out and cried before God for mercy and deliverance, praying that I might truly repent of my sins and never return to them. When you starve the beast of the food of the flesh, it fights harder and stronger to get back what was his; but Christ dwells in the temple now where NO ONE or NOTHING else can dwell! My failures, though, are greater than my victories; bent and broken I cry out to God in shambles while wondering why Christ even wastes His time on such as I. In those moments, Christ removes more and more of my pride, instills fear to truly repent, but is gracious and shows that the problem is me! I have been trying to do it, I was trying to fix it, when all the time Christ had and was the answer all along!

Who has told me a christians walk will give me my best life now? How can one even DARE say such a thing to me when my brothers left and right and being slaughtered over this world, in India, in Saudi Arabia, in Indonesia, in Iraq, in Iran, in Sudan, in Egypt, and everywhere else... While "Western persecution" that of demonic heresies that threaten one's spiritual life and being shut out from society. One who says such a thing is not only wrong but spits upon the very words of Jesus Christ who promised us nothing BUT persecution, trials, temptations, struggles and executions; but gives us the joy of His strength to the furtherance of His glory and His Kingdom. Everything else tramples upon the spiritual joy of His promise and replaces with a man-made, lukewarm, "promise" that does nothing but reassure someone of false ideal while keeping the individual on a path of unbelief and damnation. What happens when the individual faces trials? When the promises they were promised do not happen, " I was promised prosperity and riches, where is my best life now? God, you need to uphold YOUR end of the deal!" How insolent we are! God gave us the one thing most precious to Him to save mankind for His glory, and we dare shake our fists and take up a case against God for lying?! Let God be true and every man a liar!

As time goes on I am ever more in agreement with Paul and God Almighty on how wretched and disgusting I am. Every thing that may be perceived as good in my life is still filled with sin; Paul never expressed this dichotomy better than when saying:

Romans 7:18-20 nkjv

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. "

We are not to use our grace as an excuse to continue sinning, for to do so is in error and false understanding of Christ. It gives us a glimpse though that a christian walk is not salvation through perfection, or what we do to make God save us, or what salvation plus works. It is salvation in spite of this conflict, in spite of how wretched we are, he still offers it to all men by grace, through repentance and correct faith. We can never achieve it ourselves, God has given to us for free, but it is free BECAUSE of what Christ did, outside of Him there is no other hope. HE is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE! Facts about Christ won't save you, church won't save you, reading the Bible and prayer does not save you, Christ the person saves you. One hundred percent God and one hundred percent God.

For awhile I was in the same boat, I was unrepentant of many sins I had in my life; sure I was all sorry after I did them, but I never really tried to turn away from them, nor did I really despise them. I knew facts about God, but never really had a full relationship with God; it does not mean I am perfect now, I never will be. If you are in the same boat, if you say you are a christian, but have continual sin in your life; PLEASE repent and put it away! Now is not the time to put this stuff off, I cannot save anyone, that is the Holy Spirit's job, but I can say "hey, according to God's Word, you are not truly saved." And, if you are not even a christian, please, consider that your soul is at stake, and you will stand before a Judge far holier and far more just than any courtroom on Earth. According to God's standards (the Ten Commandments) we are guilty and damned to an eternity in Hell with Satan and his angels; we are sinners before a Holy God and we without Christ we will stand before Him as rebels and criminals, rebellion and murder will be our hands! You must be born again to be saved, you must die to your old self and put on a new one; humble yourselves and He will lift you up, and pride will negate the potential work of God in your lives, take this advice from someone who has struggled (God is still working out the pride within me) with pride, it MUST die! All in all, it is up to the Holy Spirit to convict each men, I just pray you do not harden your heart against Him...

To Christ be the glory for ever and ever. Amen!

Mumbai, India under siege!!! no longer live

2008-11-26T23:44:00.052-06:00

This has been taken from my Facebook a few hours ago, I am now updating everything on my blog. You can watch it live here: http://www.livenewscameras.com/ look for the Phoenix Fox 1 channel on page 3; some of this is taken from the news, so it is all subject to change and error. These are raw reports, not gospel truth; I shall update them as they come.

I am watching the live feed right now.

So far this is what has happened: 6 car bombs have gone off, 2 hotels are under siege by terrorists; 89 people are dead, 100+ wounded. Right now there are currently 100+ people being held captive at the Taj and Trident hotel in Mumbai, India; american citizens (along side british, australian, indian and others) have been among the wounded or killed. Please pray for every one there. :'(

This is India's 9/11...

Terrorists have lobbed grenades out the windows below, the Taj's roof is on fire, a gunman can be seen out the window firing below. Indian military officials have rolled into the Taj, the fire team is attempting rescues. The Indian government is also speculating that the terrorists came by boat to the hotels.

*UPDATE:
100+ are dead, 240+ are wounded, count still rising; the Taj hotel has lightened up some, but the Trident hotel is now having local military ramp up to move in.

The heroes out of this are the local police who have sacrificed their lives trying to protect people, and some of our citizens from these terrorists. Especially in the case of ATS Chief Hemant Karkare who gave his life in a fight with some terrorists in the hotel, trying to save some hostages. Heroes are not only born in America...

Schools and colleges in India are shut down, as well as the Indian stock market. Reports of terrorists detonating grenades on the floors upstairs at the Trident. Also, government confirms terrorists came by boat.

Terrorists are possibly lurking on the roof of the Taj, police and military are setting up positions around hotel. Snipers are also up on nearby building. Reports that terrorists are targeting foreigners with British or American passports, also accounts of people being pulled from restaurant below.

*UPDATE:
"India Military Intelligence have identified the terrorists now as Pakistani Terrorists Lakurestha group not deccan mujahideen as originally thought." According to an unverified source, waiting for further update.

Police on the ground speculate there are possibly up to 50 terrorists still inside the Taj hotel, an 8 kg RDX bomb was also defused outside the hotel. Some terrorists also fled away in a stolen military Jeep; 5-6 Israeli citizens are being held in the Trident hotel. Indian Commandos are now moving into the Trident hotel, they are telling the media to not show much coverage of their operations, because the terrorists have been monitoring their movements via TV. A Canadian consulate member is present at the site of the Trident site, making me wonder if there are Canadian citizens inside?

*STATS UPDATE

9 terrorists killed

9 foreigners killed

101 killed

187 injured (reduced from the 240 earlier speculated)

11 police officers killed along side three high ranking officers

18 police officers are injured

2 navy officers were shot, one critically injured, one just injured

5-7 terrorist inside the Taj hotel

3-9 terrorists inside the Trident hotel

*UPDATE

Attempts are being made to rescue the Israeli citizens underway at the Trident; Nsg cinfirms RDX was used in the Vile Parle bombing, a bag of cash was found near the Taj hotel. The world Cricket tour has been called of in India. There was also a bomb defused near Vidhan Bhawan.

*Update

One commando dead at the Oberoi hotel (Trident.) Terrorists holed up in Nariman House and the Taj; England sports officials confirm the English Cricket tour is cancelled.

It is quite right now... Officials are now at the Taj, tons of activity, ambulances are showing up. Commandos emerging from Taj. News reports that 200 NSG are on the ground currently.

*UPDATE

Large number of bodies reported from Taj. :(

British envoy is now speaking, flew down from Delhi. He says 7 British citizens are injured, he basically states that Britain is in support with India, is appaled by the acts of the terrorists and that the Taj is sealed off. Has no info on British hostages.

Curfew in effect for 2 towns; some hostages have come out safely. :)

A CEO and CEO-elect have been rescued, missed the name of them; Singapore airlines still has flight to Mumbai? O_o

Still hundreds of hostages held by terrorists.

They keep showing photos of the terrorists, they look possesed...

The Prime Minister has called for an emergency meeting, possibility of an international conspiracy. O.O

Operations by commandos still under way at the Trident and Taj. Bodies are comin out, so the statistics will be changing. :(

Do not know when I will end this, maybe in the next couple of hours, I want some sleep so that way I wanted to get up and

Sources confirm the government IS trying to negotiate with some of the terrorists to surrender.

*UPDATE

10-12 terrorists inside the Trident

100+ people could be hostage inside the Trident

5 Israeli citizens were originally believed to be held hostage; however, the police have stated that "many Israelis among hostages." Police also believe there are a number of Indian hostages.

The Trident hotel has now become the new major front.

They are also saying this is looking more and more like an international conspiracy, with many foreign influences involved in this attack...

40-50 hostages still in Taj.

Several major Indian protection agencies have participated in this campaign, I do not know all of them, a few are the NSG, RAF, ATS, local police, military, and couple others.

New gunfire heard at the Trident.

Firing also in the Taj lobby.

Reports that the Cama Hospital and Metro Cinema were attacked.

Reports that 2 members of Parliament are trapped inside the Taj.

2 bodies of women found at the Taj. :'(

Some hostages escaped from the Taj hotel.

Official further clarify that terrorists arrived by boat to the gateway of India.

Terrorists have taken a small Jewish neighborhood house hostage.

They are trying to rescue Jewish hostages from the Nariman house.

Still no word on the earlier rumour that Indian intelligence identified the terrorists as part of the Pakistani terrorist group, Lakurestha.

2 young girl, 2 eldery women bodies found near the Nariman house; one terrorist has been gunned down.

6 terrorists likely inside Nariman house; terrorists running out of ammo. Shots are being fired.

A lot of Jewish hostages, among the other foreign and native hostages.

Government says they will not negotiate, unspecified sources say they are.

Hostages are being moved floor to floor by the terrorists.

*UPDATE

6 bodies have been taken out of the Taj hotel till now.

Ok I am officially done for tonight, tomorrow I will know what has happened. Night.

LCG

2008-10-30T20:27:00.001-05:00

Josh Mcdowell wrote a book titled "The Last Christian Generation," and was about what it is titled the last Christian generation, he wrote about the trends within the youth and how if nothing changes the next generation would be ther last one. Thing is, this was written in the 90's! So that means is that us, the ones who are around 14-24 are in fact the generation he was referring to; looking at a majority of statistics over the past several years shows exactly the moral decline that was forewarned by many theologians and honest social observers. Next week is the election and each one promises change for this country, but the real "change" we need does not come from men, the real change we need is for many of my fellow peers to go back to the ideals of our fathers and repent of our sins and embrace the rightful King of Heaven, Jesus Christ. Teenagers, now more than ever, are more lost than ever; 2nd Timothy 3:1-5 says:

"BUT know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!" What I never knew of this passage of Scripture is that this actually refers to the church! Many of these things I can see within my culture that this permeates within the youth, and I can even see it within myself, I find myself relating to what Paul said, "The things I want to do are the things I do not do, and the things I do not want to do are the things I do do." This scripture gives me comfort that even Paul could relate to our feelings, granted it is no excuse to live in sin, but it helps me to feel not so alone. Better yet, Jesus can relate to our temptations, he never sinned but he knows our pain. Still, many within the youth refuse to follow him, they refuse to leave their sins and would rather trust in booze, sex, drugs, music, entertainment, celebreties, politicians, false religion and themselves. It never ceases to amaze me at the confidence these people have that they are good!

What is worst of all though is Christian teens, the youth groups' in this country are more of a liability than a benefit, many professing teens know less of their Bibles than even those within the secular culture. When the Bible, the Holy Word of God, is reduced and replaced by trivial means of entertainment or "relative," topical teaching is disheartening. The churches in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and even Europe are so hungry for their Bibles and real teaching; they are killed or persecuted and denied the right to read a Bible, yet within this country we (by we I am still reffering to teens) somehow think the Bible is now irrelevant and should be replaced with fancy videos and/or flashy magazines, it is absurd! I am so angry that people DIE over in India for proclaiming the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, but here we are too afraid to rise up and defend the Bible or even live it. Paul claimed to be the chief sinner, but I am right behind him if not there, I am no more guilty before God than anyone else is, I see the evil within my own heart; still, Christ saved my and cleansed my heart and gave me a new nature, does not mean the old one tries to return, but everday is a travel to get farther and farther away from that old nature and closer and closer to serving Christ. I posted a video a while back from an evangelist/missionary named Paul Washer, he was invited to speak at a conference for Christian youth, what he said was not some thing easy and not something that would be popular, instead told the truth that many teens were not willing to look at. He said that many within our youth groups are going to Hell, and are no more closer to God than the world; he said he knew that what he said meant he would never be invited back, but wanted to warn these kids to come out from the world, be different and stand up for the true teaching of Christ. I think we are all guilty of this, I am trying to change this, it comes in strides but the time is coming when we will all have to give it up I just pray more teens will realize this. What we really need is theology, most seeker-sensative, emergent pastors will say that theology doesn't matter all you need to know is Jesus loves you and wants to bless you; the propitiation of Christ doesn't matter, salvation by grace doesn't matter, repentance doesn't matter, understanding Jesus humanity and divinty doesn't matter, Jesus being the only way doesn't matter, etc... Trust me, this stuff has been said, but we are always told that teens could not possibly understand this nor would it impact them. Oh please! Like all the movies, all the skits, all the music, all the books, ALL of this wishy-washy, entertainment rubbish has done anymore to further the kingdom than solid theology and the Word of God has! And don't TELL ME teens are incapable of learning this, because I happen to be a teen who does care about theology, and know some others. But in the vast picture of things we are an increasing minority, but still, we do not need more entertainment we need more of the Bible. No more fancy wrapped cotton candy, give us the Bread.

Tiny note, I apologize for my grammar over the past year, I know it is bad and I need to learn edit. I am just lazy when it comes to typing. :D

Skits and salvation

2008-10-14T13:20:00.002-05:00

Okay, I know people are going to hate me for this, but I am going to show you a video and give you my take on it. Ok so here is the video.

Ok, so the message of the skit was obviously about a girl following Jesus, she walks away from Him, enticed by the world, gets trashed and Jesus comes and saves her. Pretty straight forward, but before I go on does anyone see a problem? The issue with the skit is not entirely the message, because Christ came and died for all mankind TO save us because we are wretched and he is willing that no man should perish, that is not the issue. The issue is the fact we need a skit and an attitude in Christendom. I do not know whether this was at a church or a theater, these days they are about the same; but what is troubling to me is the attitude that the Bible no longer has a sufficient relevancy to this world. Even though 2nd Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that:

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

When I have gone through all the tribulations in my or my families life, never once did I find comfort out of the vacuous entertainment of people trying to portray a scriptural proof through a play, though at the moment it may strike an emotional chord of circumstantial similarity with the audience. Yet, it does not have a lasting impact that when the hard times come one says, "Ah! I know what to do! I remember the play I once viewed awhile back, the expression on the actors face and the interpretation of the scriptural truth gives me comfort." No, when we face our trials we lean on Scripture as the daily supplier of our needs and comfort; anything trying to represent a truth, only receives that truth from Scripture itself. More of these things, though, are meant for the world; like somehow a 10 minute skit can bring one to the knowledge of repentance and faith without ever supplying a Scripture is just insane! When did media become somehow more effective than the Bible? Last I recall, the Bible has been influential to all of society for the past 2000 years and has been in the hands of many countless changing generations, yet somehow NOW it is irrelevant and we need to make it more "hip" or "cool."

Plus I take issue with the fact that during this skit they played Lifehouse, yes they are professing Christians and yes I even happen to like their music. But they are not Christian artists and are still a secular band, just like I do not think we should be playing secular music in our churches I do not agree with this the same. That, however; is a pettier issue.

The main issue is the mentality of Christians that we NEED hip, catchy music in order to get the world to come to us; we NEED skits and plays in order to feed people with truth; we NEED television programs and books, ipod styled display screens and more "relevant" messages to attract the mass. It is called seeker sensitive, and what it fails to do is supply the church with the spiritual food we need, and it is focusing the church to much on the world and not enough of Christ. There is a part in which we are called to be ye separate ( 2nd Cor 6:17,) what all that entails is still a mystery to me, but when we can go into a church and see no difference between the personal lives of the members that attend than that of the unsaved, we have a problem. When the youth groups are so focused on the music, entertainment and the mediocrity of life, (not giving place to the things of God) that the statistics of Christian teen sex is essentially the same as the world; we as a church as a whole better heed the warnings to the churches in Revelation. Christians will struggle and fail as long as they are on this planet, but falling into a pool and fighting to get out, and falling in and swimming around are two separate things; let us all work out our salvation (Phillipans 2:12) for the time is coming when we will give an account for our talons and we do not want to run the risk of finding out that we invested far little than we could have.

Christianity no longer viable in America?

2008-09-29T12:18:00.001-05:00

Ever since the announcement of Sarah Palin as John Mccain’s running mate, people who may not be Christian or Conservative have started frothing at the mouth at the thought of another “looney Christian” in the high office. This leads me to wonder, when Christianity became the only religion not covered under “freedom of religion?” After all, does not the First Amendment apply as much to Jesus as it does Muhammad? Or Buddha? Or as much as the Atheistic belief of no God? The other thing you will hear is separation of church and state, never mind the fact that this phrase comes from a letter from Jefferson to the early Baptists about not letting a set DENOMINATION (which was called “religion” back then) have supreme jurisdiction above all others.

You know how things are getting with our media when Whoopi Goldberg biggest fear of Palin is having another fundamentalist Christian in the White House, even before Whoopi we had Rosie O’Donell on a daily basis comparing Christian fundamentalists Islamic terrorists; do not even get me started on Joy! Of course, than we have Matt Damon, who seems to think that if you believe in creationism you are somehow incapable of breathing, never mind the fact that if Damon did his job outside of Hollywood he would be slapped with the label “Schizophrenic” and be put in a big, white mansion faster than he could say “Bourne 4”; goes to show you what kind of a job HE has! Probably the worst of them all, Bill Maher; with his seething hatred for anything named God, I am surprised he does not go to bed in “I hate religion” pajamas. That is Hollywood/media for you, telling us what we should, believe regardless of the fact that a monkey could do their job.

It is not just the media, it is our politicians too. Just look at the Democratic party, when was the last time they EVER wanted to help us? They want to impose Pro-Choice policies on us, force us to deny what the Bible says on homo-sexuality, deny us our freedom of speech, and take down all of the Christian resources in this country. The Republicans treat us like political pawns, claiming to have the same values as we do than getting into office and doing the things we put them into office to stop! Bush has been a great president and will always be the best president since Reagan; I REFUSE to let the media brainwash me to believe that he is a lame duck or bad president. They are trying to rewrite history, just like they are doing with Americas Christian roots; even closer to the real event times. It is BECAUSE of Bush’s faith that they hate him so much, and because he is a Christian that is why they want to keep them out now. For the last 60 years, all that our government has done is try to silence us, by getting rid of prayer in the schools, by banning the teaching of creationism for a 100% scientifically broken hypothesis, attempting to label religious conviction as a “hate crime,” bullying churches into submission with the IRS, trying to oust Judeo-Christian objects from all public areas, etc…

Lastly, Americans hearts are changing; you can see it all over the place. Men and Women spewing hateful thing about us or about God/Jesus, or the Church; becoming violent and angry against truth and following lies. When more Americans are turning to other false religions or false Christianity, it is hard to tell what will happen to the church in America? All I know is Christ is returning soon and we will no longer be this worlds punching bag, but for everyone who gets left behind will face judgment of the likes never been seen before and never again. I pray they will change their hearts and not face it, but sadly hearts are growing colder. :(

John 15:19-22
"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”

Two emergent leaders

2008-09-15T16:01:00.004-05:00

So, if you are not familiar with the emergent church, let me give you a little synopsis. They are a false claim-to-be branch of the church that believes that the way Christianity has been "done" if you will is all wrong. They also believe that the theological foundations of salvation and Jesus Christ are wrong or false; they also are post-modernist in their views of the veracity of His Word.

Here is a video of one of the leaders in the movement; his name is Doug Pagitt, author of the book "A Christianity Worth Believing." We can only assume that the book gets much better than, but since we do not want to let our minds ponder any longer let us here from the man himself.

Mmmmm, wow, you can almost hear the snakes slithering in that one. First of all Mr. Pagitt, I do not know when you suddenly believed that God lost his sovereignty, but according to Revelation 1:8, Jesus calls himself the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End. It takes a God (which mine is) who is able to see time as a whole and possesses the quality of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience (which mine does) to be sovereign over all. I am sorry that you feel that God is nowhere to be found or that He does not fit the world any longer, but if you would have read the Scriptures he has clearly stated that He will never “leave us nor forsake us”. Matthew 28:20, along with laying out the Great Commission also gives us a very clear example of the fact that He is still with us, “’teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” If you need even more proof God is still with us just read Psalm 139, it is all about how man cannot get outside of God’s reach.

What I comes down to is this, he believes that the Bible and the church are no longer relevant to the society we live in, and somehow God has misrepresented by the church for the past 2000 years. Which is funny since (for the most part) the God the church has been teaching is the Biblical one, then again I doubt this man has sat down and read the Bible lately.

I cannot forget granddaddy of them all Brian Mclaren, who does not think the church is good enough any longer.

O_O

Are you serious? When did “evangelicalism” become captive to the “religious right”? Last I checked people voted on what they BELIEVED, not what they were man handled into supporting. What do you mean “More and more of us are looking for new ways to live and practice our faith”? Seriously, I do not know if you have read Colossians 3, it instructs us pretty clearly on how we should and should not act. I do not need a “new way to practice my faith, I need to know what GOD says about how I should live and act, and you only get that through reading that leather bound book turned fancy, dust ridden coaster of yours called Bible.

Also, in the little video clip, Mr. Mclaren asked two questions:

1: What are the biggest problems destroying the world, what are the biggest global crisis?
2: What do the life and teachings of Jesus Christ have to say about these global crisis?

Let me answer these two questions for you.

What is the biggest problem destroying the world? SIN!!! It is sin, look Christ commands us to take care of the poor, and he does command us to help those stricken by tragedy. But if you help those who are facing these things but neglect to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and teach the repentance and remission of sins that is strictly taught in Luke 24:47. Than they are still going to go to hell and that is one of the CRUELIST things you can do to a person, to help their physical needs but never address the real life threatening issues; Jesus said we would always have the poor among us, so as much we may try, there will always be poor people in this world, what we need to give them is everlasting riches and not stuff that will fade away in the fire.

Two: What do the life and teachings of Jesus Christ have to say about these global crisis? (Sin)

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes to the Father except through me.” John 8:24 says “Therefore I said to you [speaking to the Pharisees] that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Also in 1st Peter 1:18-21

“Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

Ending this, Galatians 1:6-10 says, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

The Bible has been valid for every time in the world since its birth, from the Old Testament era, to the New Testament era, to the Dark Ages, to the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to the 1700’s and 1800’s, up until even now. It has been this generation that has felt the need to make Christianity more relevant, instead of asking God what to do we rely on what men say and what we think instead of relying on Scripture…

My generation

2008-09-08T11:07:00.001-05:00

Well, for the better part of yesterday I spent my time watching the protesters of the Republican National Convention, let me tell you, the media HAS NOT given any of us the "full" story of what these supposed "anarchists" really were. Most of these "anarchist" were radical Homosexuals, and they may have explained that most of the protesters were peaceful, but that is erroneous and absurd, I saw the countless videos. Yes there were some that were peaceful, but most all were radical, maybe they were not smashing windows, they were still radical; however, I do not seem to recall any crazy so-called Christians going up to the DNC and throwing fetuses at the delegates there, yet Christians who had protest permits were arrested for no reason what so ever. Than, just seeing ALL the comments on Youtube about the Republicans (particularly Bush) and their views on Christianity just is evidence of this societies decay. All the TV shows, all the music, all the games, all the media, this society has strayed from the foundation of Christ that our fathers laid and paid for; America has made mistakes, but has never blatantly told God to "blank off" like this society has, in particular my generation. The First Amendment was not created so people can be vulgar, violent, perverted, and anti-american; it is just my public school friends who like to be "little revolutionists,' and fight for a cause, even if they do not know what for.

Here is a majority of my generation as a whole, not all because there still is many who have not bowed their knee to this world and have kept with Christ. It is just my job to keep myself in that place.:

There is no sense of patriotism in them, all they care about is whether the government is going to pay them; and force people like my parents to pay taxes for college, even if the products of their taxes are a bunch of ignorant, raging, neo-hippies. There is no morality, if you want to see my generation, just look at Youtube and Myspace; look at the perversion and decrepit behavior on these sites, just take it all in and you have my generation. They cannot tell you what they believe because they believe nothing, they take a post-modern view of the world and tell you that we cannot definitively say that God exists, Jesus dies for mans sins (an almost non-existent word today,) or that the Bible is the inspired word of God, even though they absolutely know this. They only care for themselves and are nothing like the generations of old, who sacrificed their very lives for things they believed in, but God forbid if we ever lost Myspace, you would have thought the world ended. I am disgusted and terrified if this generation ever had to step up to the plate and take over this country, because the next generation will be even worse, woe unto America...

Praise be to God in Heaven that He will remove His faithful followers from this Earth before the last chapter in human history unfolds, so I do not worry. Yet, I still must speak out against these sins, and church's that do not seem to see sin as a 'relevant' enough issue any longer need to take a look at the culture. It is BECAUSE of the "church" that most men have rejected Christ, for we were called to "be ye separate from the world" and to live in a way that is holy and upright before God and men, so that way we can be a good witness in words and deed. Yet when in a megachurch 67% can believe that Jesus is not the only way unto salvation, you know the church has been corrupted; I fear that the Sunday after the rapture, the choirs will be singing, the pews will be filled and there will be many churches across this nation giving sermons that day...

Electricity and Politics!

2008-09-02T18:51:00.000-05:00

I will tell all of you people out there, I was intrigued by this election, but was not really energized to support John McCain; however, after the stunning Vice-Presidential unveiling on Friday, that has dramatically changed. Since it has been revealed that Governor Sarah Palin of the state of Alaska was announced to be his (John McCain) running mate, I was so excited and completely did a 180 in my support for John McCain. Granted, after the Saddleback forum, I started to warm up to the idea of supporting the Republican ticket after I actually heard his stances on issues, both political and private, as well as listening to his testimony. I still wanted to withhold my judgment until after his VP was announced, I was afraid it would be someone like Lieberman or Ridge, I desired to see a true blue Conservative on his ticket, to show me that he cares about my positions and my vote. He did just that; Sarah Palin is that true blue conservative I was waiting for, not only does she say she is pro-life she has lived it.

The opposition though is still getting over their hangovers and political vertigo, and are now lobbing dirty smear tactics against her family, which in essence proves two things:

1: No matter how much the Democrats scream of Republicans being racist and/or sexist, the liberal’s will tell you they champion equal race and gender rights, but if you so much and oppose their policies, they will tear you apart viciously, regardless of whether you are an African-American conservative or a Female conservative. All you have to do is go back and look at the treatment of Clarence Thomas to see this double-standard on race, and now we have Gov. Palin, which serves as a testament to the double-standard of ALL of the Feminist organizations out there that claim rights for women, but fail to tell you that ONLY women who do what they say, and believe what they believe are entitled to rights.

2: They are afraid of her, afraid of how she can energize the many bases within the Conservative party and beyond. So they throw out that she is inexperienced, which is quite bewildering since Obama has less executive experience than Palin, yet he is the head of the ticket? So after that they attack her family, when they see that the conservatives still will rally behind her and inform the media that “Families are of limits,” then they have to morph again to suit the new cannon brought out to launch their dirty smear tactics. All of this frantic pit-pattering just seems to show the Democrats incompetence and fear, she has only been on the scene for 5 days and already she is being battered; when was the last time Biden’s family was under the microscope? Out of the entire time Obama has been campaigning, has the likes of CNN or MSNBC even ONCE discussed Jeremiah Wright, or William Ayers? No! I mean, if we are going to start this tradition with Palin, why not look at Biden (since he is Obama's VP after all)? Surely we can find SOMETHING his lobbyist son has been involved with being a dreaded lobbyist and all, but you know what I do not care. His family is his private business as much as Palin’s family is hers and this is just the vivid smoking gun evidence of this liberal double-standard.

The media is going after Palin and trying to damage her in someway, I find it disgusting and personally foolish; because this can all backfire. If we are going to discuss all of her personal and private associations, it can QUICKLY turn around and lead to a discussion on all of Obama’s contacts and relationships. So it might be a wise idea to try and put to rest these (some rumoured) family issues, for they are trivial smear tactics that have NOTHING to do with her potential leadership or qualifications as Vice-President.

Other than that I am really excited, where I did not plan on pulling that lever this November I finally find myself able to support a candidate. So I am now registered to vote and this election, McCain just won himself one more supporter and vote.

One funny note though, it seems that when I bring up my potential voting (now official) most people always excited for me to get o the ballot box. I think because of my age, they must think I am voting for Obama. :D

Anyways, I found that kind of hilarious. :\

Gold, Compasses, and Brainwashing?!?

2008-08-26T14:01:00.000-05:00

So the Olympics in Beijing are now over with, we will not see them again until London in 2012, of course I am proud of all of our great athletes, from Michael Phelps and his amazing achievement in succeeding to obtain 8 gold medals, Nastia Liukin and Shaun Johnson in the Woman's Gymnastics, as well as to both the womans and mens beach volleyball team who both won in their divisions and made phenomenal achievements themselves; lastly to all of our other athletes who may have won gold (or silver and bronze) or may have not won anything at all, every little bit has been appreciated and their country is proud of their efforts in the sport which they competed in. As proud as I may be though, I pray that all of those that do not realize this truth realize it soon, that no matter how many gold medals you win, no matter how many records you break, what does it profit a man/woman if they become the greatest of all time, yet lose their soul. Can you trade it all for life, does it impress God? No, it does not; only the blood of Christ, through repentance and following after Him, can you obtain something more valuable than every medal in the world!

Alright, now onto my main subject; have you (speaking to Christians here) noticed anything odd during the Olympics? Did you get a sense of "I do not know what is up, but I have a funny feeling that all this Fung Shei stuff is not right somehow..." If so congratulations that is the Holy Spirit, because throughout the course of the past two weeks there was an onslaught of hidden meanings and subtle presenting of a worldview that frankly, many pass most of it off as being (in the case of Fung Shei) just a really neat idea to try at home. Here is what Fung Shei is, it is a Chinese religious practice that is believed to incorporate the earth and the heavens to bring you positive Qi (Chi) by following the guides (little compass thingys) you arrange objects so the flow of Qi is positive. Doesn't sound like just another Martha Stewart design tip, does it? During the opening ceremony the were also bringing up (the commentators talking about the philosophy of China, which is a fancy word for religion, even if it is not presented so) environmentalism and using the eastern pantheistic beliefs in the four fold elements, (water, wind, earth, fire) tying it to our western pantheism (environmentalism.) So that in its own right has been a theme as well here is environmentalism; we also have our commercials from Visa and Coca-Cola, where we have Morgan Friedman narrating an a quick little synopsis on an athlete while at the end wrapping it up with the phrase "go world," or the one where he is talking about how "we all come together for a few shining moments," basically presenting the audience with a one world society message, almost every commercial has been littered with this one world message. Even at the closing ceremony on NBC, one of the hosts sat there and said, [paraphrasing a tad] "You know, if it can be like this for two weeks, why not three? Why not a month? Three months? If only the world was like this..." I think the end is a little off on what was originally said, but the sentiment and message was the same even if the wording is not; the longing for a utopia, the longing for peace, and with the way Obama is being regarded the longing for a leader to lead us all into a time of peace and prosperity. People need to start reading their Bibles because we are getting extremely close to the Tribulation, as was prophesied in Revelation and Daniel; Christians need to start getting prepared for the Rapture, we all want our spiritual bags to be packed, and all of our sins and stuff in place before He takes us away. Lastly, as fun as the Olympics, as fun as rooting for you team country is; there are many athletes and citizens of China there that have never repented of their sins and turned to Christ for forgiveness of sins and ever lasting life, and the danger of this all is pride. We all have pride, we all struggle with it, but especially at these type of events when the whole world is praising you, it may be hard for you to look up when all your doing is looking down (not in snobbery, but in an observation of your fans.) Even if they are not filled with pride, there are many other sins and we need them all to be washed away by the blood of Christ, only through Him does salvation come and all we can do (as Christians) is pray for this world, pray that as many as are willing will come to Him, and that many of the false converts will truly be converted and receive salvation and repentance...

That is the only hope for the world, nothing else can deliver it and nothing else can take it's place.

Well this is not good...

2008-06-26T09:51:00.000-05:00

I was reading something on a Christian bulletin board about a recent poll of professing evangelical Americans, here is the poll results they took and the questions:

57% of Evangelicals said that there is more than one way to God.
70% of American Christians of all denominations shared this view.
68% there is more than one way to interpret the Bible

Another interesting statistic is that 90% of Americans call themselves Christians, yet only about 40% believe the Bible is 100% accurate. Something does not add up?

The real problem is that it looks like there are a lot of people claiming to be Christians, but not a lot of real Christians. This is sad when considering that the places with the largest churches in the world are like China and Africa; but the American church is almost non-existent. That is frightening! All we as believers can do is pray for God to change the hearts of people and that He can prepare people for His soon return.

Poem time!

2008-06-23T12:57:00.000-05:00

Well I have decided to do another poem, this one is more of a story of a man writing a letter to his lover, as he is dying from being lost, he holds out hope that though he is away from the woman he loves that somehow he will be reunited with her in the future, even though he is dying. It is more of a romantic/tragic kind of poem, so I hope it flows well and you all enjoy.

Also, from now on any poem posted on here is property of me, the blog author, if you see this poem on ANY other site, they are not designated to do so unless they request permission to do so or give credit to the author.

The love of Boregard

I am lost and alone, was awash at sea;
but now have found land to rest my wet feet.
My love lies beyond the horizon, on a land I cannot recall
I hope that she waits, one day for my return.
I bid her farewell, took to the seas as a foolish man
three years ago to the day, under the golden sun.

I have wandered the cities and have seen many sites,
but none are quite as lovely as that of my dear love.
Though I cannot remember her face, her presence ever lost,
her love is the one thing my heart never forgot.
Though I may be tempted to move on and leave, find another one
I cannot deny the true feelings I once held, for that of my love.

She said not to go, yet I hesitated not and proceeded ahead,
it was a mistake to which I will forever pay with dry tears.
"Stay here with me, the weather is no good, stay here on this land."
The words echo in my mind and heart as though she were here.
Alas, I made may mistake and have reaped what I have sowed,
instead of listening to reason, I pray she shalt forgive.

Though I have encountered many hardships and suffer great pain,
the thought of the embrace of my lover, soothes my heart.
I have no ship, no food in my satchel, and no money at hand;
my prayer is still that Providence will reunite me with her.
But as I write this letter, I pray you listen well to the words of a dying man,
if you ever see her, or hear of her name, tell her of the love of her Boregard.

A really cool ministry! (Its run by surfers.) ^_^

2008-06-18T13:08:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, wassup? I do not know if any of you have ever heard of this ministry before, but after today you will. It is called Walking On Water, this is a ministry run by many different Christians as well as Christian surfers like CJ Hobgood, Damien Hobgood, Bethany Hamilton, etc... These guys started out as just a indie Christian movie company, but have bloomed into a full blown ministry that does youth outreaches, surf camps, movies and all kinds of neat projects. They are also affiliated with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, which is the main church of the Calvary chain. ^_^

It is always nice to see a good ministry affiliated with my church, so yeah this is a really cool ministry that you all simply should check out some time. Here is the link to the site.

Walking On Water

Here is the testimony of one of the surfers who are affiliated with the ministry. (I think?) Anyways, this is still a good testimonial.

I want to surf so bad. :(

True beauty.

2008-06-14T21:31:00.000-05:00

I really feel bad for most of the women these days, as a guy I really do. I got done reading a couple of articles over the past week or so, the first story was about these little 8 year olds who were dressed up in really inappropriate clothing for 8 year olds and on top of that they had seductive poses. 8 YEARS OLD!!! I mean where were the parents? And why did they allow their little kids to pose for these childrens clothing ads in such a way? The next article was this nazi-nutritionist who was sitting here saying that fat people were killing the environment, and called people like the former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks obese and essentially said that sticks were overweight in her description of fit. Whats even worse is guys are getting the same message too! They buy into that if you do not have a six-pack you are not a man, or if you do not have a cool car, sharp clothing, and do not have the looks of a celebrity that somehow no girl will ever like you. If not that, guys fall into the stereotype of what a woman should look like to be considered beautiful; and it all comes from our media. From celebrities who have to pay thousands of dollars and pounds of makeup to look the way they do, and go under the knife all the time and have so much plastic in them it would make Barbie and Ken cringe.

I must admit though, I had fallen under the same line of thinking about women and my own self, I thought that unless I had some exotic looking woman with flowing black hair that I would not be satisfied with any girl. Or as myself goes I was insecure and vain, insecure that I thought that unless I had a hot car, money, good clothing and a good looking girlfriend somehow I was less of a guy. Vain, that I became SOO focused on what I looked like, so focused on my hair, clothing and body that I cared more about the outside than the inside. I have come to realize though that even though I do not have a girlfriend that does not make me any less of a person, I would rather have a good friendship with a girl and that blossom into something than to immediately start out as boyfriend/girlfriend and not be friends at all. I think many people have as much of a distorted view of dating as they do beauty. Back on topic, so many people need to stop taking their cues from Hollywood on what a girl should and should not look like and start reading their Bibles, because it says that God is not impressed with looks, when God was looking for a king to replace Saul, He instructed Samuel to visit Jesse's house and he (Samuel) went through all of these big, strong, handsome young men. God wanted none of them, because He said that He looks at the heart and is not impressed by appearances. With that he chose a young boy named David, who was the youngest of all his brothers, and he grew to become one of the greatest monarchs in all of history. The same could be said for beauty, sure it is a cliche "it's the inside that counts," but people really believe it is only the outside that matters. There have been examples of girls in my life who may have looked gorgeous, may have had fancy clothes and may have acted nice at first; but in reality they are what the Bible describes as seductresses, who's only need in a guy is to satisfy their flesh. Than there are ladies who may (by the worlds standards) not look like the other girls do, maybe they have faults in certain areas of their life; but inside there is a light that is there that separates them from those girls and makes them far more beautiful than they ever could be. It is called Christ. Though they may physically look pretty, on the inside the are as ugly as a corpse; but even though a lady may not look like a model or the cultures idea of pretty, on the inside they permeate a beauty far beyond the comprehension of the world. When someone is truly seeking after Christ and has a genuine heart for Him, even when you may not think you are beautiful, in Christ's eyes you are beyond that of a diamond; not to mention, if you are serving Him and seek Him on that special someone. He will supply the right person in your life to best complement you in your walk with Him and someone who will love you forever regardless of the stereotypes set by this world; true beauty goes beyond physical, true beauty comes from Christ. When you have a genuine, repentant heart that seeks to serve Him, you are beautiful. I just want every girl who may read this who may has thoughts about themselves and compare themselves to the women on the tv ads, the magazine covers, the actresses and all the rest; I want you to know from a fellow teen guy, what true beauty is. True beauty is Christ, and the love He puts in your heart when you are truly saved and born again; God has someone for everyone, seek Him for it, do not judge based on appearances but allow Him to guide you and lead your heart. Do not always follow that fuzzy feeling inside or your emotions or your thoughts, the world has done this and when they get married and that fuzzy feeling is gone and that pretty girl you married starts to not look so good anymore, they up and leave. True love that puts Christ first will never fail, yeah you will fight, but you will always recompense and be able to come together and forgive.

I hope this helps any girls out there reading this. It truly is the inside that counts, the outside does matter to an extent, but not as much as most people place on it.

A powerful message. [WARNING: EXTREME CONVICTION ALERT!]

2008-06-11T23:48:00.000-05:00

I will warn you all right now, if you guys watch these two videos. It will not be easy, I was trembling as I heard this teacher teach this sermon. His name is Paul Washer, and he gave this sermon to a youth event of 5000 kids; and this is really hard stuff to swallow and it really convicts the heart. PLEASE, just listen to this, if you are really serious about following Christ this IS a message we as fellow young believers need to here.

It is a 6 part series, but I could only find four. Just let God speak to you through this message and if you watch it all and feel convicted, please, go to God as I have done and pray for a true salvation of repentance; realizing how wretched we are before Him and how only through His blood and by doing His will are we saved. Than, make strides to get rid of things of the world that are weighing you down, and grow and continue to serve for Him.

Please watch all of these, (or as many as you can at a time, for they are somewhat long. Or try spreading them out, that works too.) it could mean your soul.

This is my mission, because I have felt that in my life I was one of those people that if I would have died would have heard the words "Depart from me," and it is still the most terrifying words I can ever imagine in existence. I am so concerned (scared even) about my fellow peers in my youth group because I see these statistics, I see their lives and sometimes some of these kids look no different than the world. And as a friend and fellow teen I want to make sure that as many as are willing to listen to me I want to show the greatest love I can by being harsh sometimes, being "old," being strict in some areas; because I have learned the hard way in my life why I need to be different. I want to encourage every friend (family too) I have to make sure that they are saved and are not prancing around calling themselves Christians when their lives do not set them apart as such. So as I continue to walk and balance myself on this narrow road, I want to help everyone I truly love to help them down this road as much as humanly possible.

For the greatest way for me to show my love to someone, is to speak out when they are wrong, or when they are putting themselves in danger. Because if I did not love, I would not say anything, but because I do, I say something.

Character matters/How being a Christian teen is harder than anything else...

2008-06-09T19:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I was thinking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit earlier and was looking at some of my old friends through different internet social sites and was taking a look at their character. And since they have called themselves Christians in the past, I was interested to see where they are a; let me just say it is anything BUT about Christ, in fact they do not even believe in him. Than there are other friends I have had that also say they are Christians and for all purposes do say the right things, but do not necessarily lead a life that show it. Than I have had friends who say they are Christians, who truly within my heart I know are saved; but all of this can be determined by one thing. Character.

Character is the way you act when your parents are not around, your pastor or some other authority figure is not around, but it is how you act when you are with friends and by yourself. It is how you treat people when no one is looking, it is how you value your relationship with Christ, how seriously you take it and how much it influences you; how you act, think, move, breathe, live and ultimately are. I have found the best way to indicate this is by being alone with that person, or looking them up online, believe it or not you can determine a lot about somebody you know by visiting their blogs/Myspace pages. Good character ultimately comes from God, through the Holy Spirit, yes people that do not believe in God may have "good character," but God tells us in his Word that, "No man is Righteous, no not one," and that our good deeds are like "filthy rags." Real character though comes from one's spiritual maturity, it is those fruit from the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.

If we truly love others, we will not put ourselves first our always take a narcissistic or egotistical attitude and think it is always about us, because it's not, it is about Christ. Joy, that even when we are in trouble, we can always rejoice in our salvation; peace, that even if we are faced with death, we can always know where we are going. Patience, to be able to wait on God and not rush him to do something or carelessly act on our own; kindness, which is the attitude of caring for the lost and hungry. Goodness, that we would always try to do what is good, even when everyone else says it is not good; Faithfulness, that we always put our trust in God and never walk away from the Truth because of false doctrine and false Christianity. Gentleness to always be slow to anger and not be quick to become offended when Christ tries to teach us and convict us through many lessons; and self-control, the big one that I know many people (including myself) lack, to be able to resist temptation and resist things that would turn our eyes away from Christ. If you allow the Holy Spirit to move in your life and plant the seeds for these fruit, you will become wiser than any rocket scientist, for as Solomon said, "the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord." So learn to fear Him, that even when you are by yourself, thinking to yourself or doing stuff by yourself, you are never alone. He is always watching over us, and sees both the good and bad. I have had to learn these lessons the hard way, unfortunately I had made it difficult for both my parents and God to teach me anything because I was so resistant and was so into my own thing that I did not learn; so my lessons were learned through punishment and personal pain and loss.

So if you are out there, maybe you want to know more about Christ, but feel that you have to be some theologian able to quote the entire Bible forward and back in order to serve him. Well maybe you are called, maybe not; what Christ DOES want is a heart that WANTS to serve Him, he wants us to grow as Christians. Not to sit their and enjoy our life and say to ourselves, "yeah I have time to do that, so I will do that later. For now I will watch TV, go to see the latest movie, listen to my new CD, play my new game; my Bible is always there, it can wait." This is the wrong heart to have, unfortunately for a few years in my life that was my heart to a t, over the past year I have REALLY started to take my life and relationship with Christ seriously, I started to listen to different sermons on my own, read different sound books on my own, and started to read my Bible for myself and increased my prayer life. Let me tell you all, it really has helped me as a person, It says in the Scriptures to "seek and ye shall find," and "draw near to God and he shall draw near to you."

"Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say 'I have no pleasure in them.'" Ecclesiastes 12:1

This is so important for myself, my family and friends of mine to remember; we need to learn to serve Christ NOW! Not later, not next month, not when it is more convenient for us but now. Because, as Christians, if we are not striving to grow, but continue to be stuck in our complacency that enveloped me for so long. The Bible says in Revelation that we are like the church of Laodicea, that was neither hot nor cold, and Jesus said that he will; according to Scripture vomit us up because we are disgusting to him. Because we would take no sides, but stayed in the middle in the "comfy corner," and Jesus said that if you are not for Him you are against Him. It is one or the other, you cannot stay in the middle forever, eventually you will take sides. Unfortunately, most Christian teens are deciding they would rather be cold; only 4% of the teens out their who call themselves Christians are truly saved, in Britain it is 2%; if that does not scare you for your Christian friends and not make you think "whoa, wait a minute, what is going on? Where am I at?" Than you really should, it is BECAUSE of that statistic that I made a pro-active change in my life, and I hope it will do the same for anyone browsing around jumping blog to blog just reading stuff, please if you are not saved, or think you are but are not living as you should be. Please, repent of your sins and turn around your life and start serving Christ, He did so much for us on that cross, the only logical thing is to devote your life to the one who saved you through His blood; and if you think your saved, but may not live like you should, please pray to God honestly and intently and seek for the Holy Spirit to come and change your heart, because even if you may be honestly trying to serve Christ, If your lifestyle is spiritually risky, you may be on the path of danger. Just pray to Jesus and ask Him where your heart is and if you need to change or get rid of some stuff in your life; also be in Gods Word, when we pray that is our way of communicating with God, when we read the Bible, that is His way of responding to us, so please just seek Him on this.

Everytime I go to a Christian concert, go to different youth groups, or do different things where I am interacting with different Christian teens. I always wonder that if Jesus came back at that moment, how many of my fellow peers would be gone? I would hope it would be everyone, but as of lately I have been doing a lot of research on stuff and have found so many Christian teens in this country embracing so many bad teachings and so many false Christianities that I have become so concerned and so saddened for them. Originally, this blog was a way for me to share my own personal stuff, and it still is, but lately God has been really moving me to start sharing my own personal testimony and some of the things He has shown me as a kind of "micro-ministry," and so that is what I am doing right now. I hope to be a good influence to my friends and family, because I love them all so much I want to see them grow and mature, and If I can help with that I will; It is also a good way for me to look back and remember where God has taken me, so It serves a journal like purpose as well.

So my friends/family, please do not take offense to anything I write, I am only trying to serve Christ and share bits and pieces of my story. I do not want anybody to feel intimidated or think that I am somehow better than everyone else, I am not, I just want to show that if you seek Christ, you can find wisdom. I struggled with pornography for 4 1/2 years before Christ delivered me from it, [so do not think I am some holy rolling teen that has not struggled, I have had my walk to get to the place where I am now in Christ, it has been shed with much spiritual pain, agony and blood.] and it is a fight everyday to keep myself from allowing this sin to overtake me and pervert me once more. It is difficult though when everywhere you turn it is nothing but sex and skin, praise be to Christ that he has the strength to carry me when I have none and he CAN deliver anyone from anything if they repent and cry out to him. So people, please, do not be a statistic, turn to Christ and serve him, it is time we start acting different from the world and start serving Him. Jesus is coming again VERY soon, and there will be a whole lot of false christians left behind when he comes, so let us work to not be one of those but to work for eternity; the time is very short and we need to realize that... If we really care about the lost and the falsely converted like we say we do, than let us try and reach out to them with the time we have, for the cruelest thing we can do as human beings is to know the way to Heaven, and not share it with someone who is looking for it.

It boils down to this: Repent of your sins, serve Christ, live for Him, and share Him with everyone you can (of course as Christ brings the opportunity,) even professing Christians. You do this, you are living for Him and you will earn your rewards in Heaven; trust me, I have a feeling those rewards are SOOOO much better than any dumb video game I can play. ^_^

"Christian" music you say? (WARNING: SEMI-LONG READ)

2008-06-08T16:37:00.000-05:00

Well this may be a bit of sad news to any fans of this band (such as myself,) in a recent interview with Billboard magazine, the "Christian" artist Anberlin recently denied Jesus and the whole premise of [their] "Christian" music. In the words of Freddie Mercury "bum bum bum bum, another one bites the dust."

There is a growing hazard in the Christian youth area; one to which I have started to look at seriously and not turn a blind eye to, the issue has to do with "Christian" music. As of lately God has been really convicting me and has been putting numerous things in my path to try and get my attention, so finally I stopped ignoring it and prayed to God on what he was wanting to show me. So, after much thought and prayer I finally got the memo (the transition from God to me was the hardest part,) and that is the increasing threat that is posed from musicians, claiming to be serving Christ, who are really in it for their own gain; or people, for more nefarious purposes, who are in it to lead Christian teens away from Jesus. Now, this is not going to be one of those "Rock N Roll is from the devil" type things, but to sit back and ignore the obvious danger in the medium that calls itself Christian music, would be dangerous and wrong to do. I love music, I love it A LOT! So for me to sit here and type this and evaluate my own choices is hard to do, but it is better to live without certain artists than to possibly be led astray. This has been spurred by the many stories I keep hearing from within the Christian music industry, which the name "industry" alone tells you what is happening, Christian music should be a ministry to use our talents to serve God, not to make money and have fame. Anyways, moving on, there is an increasing number of "Christian" artists sitting here going on tours, making CD's, and doing all the Christian things one thinks they must do; but then in a few years they sit here and DENY JESUS!!! Which, Jesus said, "If you deny me before men, I will before my Father in Heaven." That leaves us as teens who actually seek Jesus to wonder, if these people are denying Jesus, but are making "Christian" music, isn't something wrong here? You cannot serve two masters, you cannot deny Jesus and sit here and serve him, you cannot, that is an oxymoron, remember what we have been learning in church my friends. ;)

The problem is even bigger than just one artist though, it is a whole generation of musicians, and it is time for us Christian teens to stand up and learn to pray for a gift of the Spirit called discernment. Because, Satan owns the mainstream music industry, that is so plainly obvious; so if he is a roaring lion, seeking to devour us as the Bible says. And if he REALLY has his eyes on us (as he does,) he will use the most influential medium he can to lead people astray, and his winning ticket is music. There are SOOO many "Christian" artists out there, we have become like the world, when the music becomes more important than the message there is a problem. When I see fellow peers of mine in the past, who will sit here and diss older artists because they view them as old and outdated; yes they may not be your cup of tea, and no one is saying you HAVE to listen to that only. You know what though, there is a real problem if you CAN'T listen to any of it though, if worship really is just that; if you cannot separate music from worship than maybe we need to re-evaluate our hearts. It is said that Satan and his minions come as ministers of light, can we not expect the same for musicians? Since Satan has ruled the arts for so long, he knows how to work them, but they do not belong to him; God owns the arts and he owns music. I just have a real issue when I read a secular review on a "Christian" artist, that reads, "the great thing about this band is that they are not preachy or anything, they do not where their faith on their sleeves. You have to really dig into their music to find Jesus." That is terrifying! That means that it is not affecting the world, and when they see it and see no difference, why should we be so careless?

Now I do realize something else that others that make similar accusations may not take into consideration, and that is that it is not sinful to try and use a talent for God. If you like Rock N, Roll, Hip-Hop, Country, etc... And want to honestly want to share Christ with your talents, than He will bless you; but when the music or the artist becomes more important than the message of Christ, there is a problem. Sometimes, even though an artist may be serving Christ, it is the fans that will distort this line; they would place the artist over Jesus, which is called idolatry, it can happen to anyone with anything, even placing Christianity over Christ himself! So it is a two-fold issue with many Satanic variables, and I am not saying that Christian music is evil or that rock n roll is evil, I am simply talking about the motives of the artists today. Anybody who knows me, knows I am not saying this to condemn anyone or am trying to make myself better, because I am probably the one struggling with this the most right now BECAUSE I love music so much. So if even I can realize this, I know that those teens who I know who are much smarter than I will be able to do better; and as I said, I am warning people out of love and care for my friends and family, and fellow believers who may read this. In some sense, I am also writing this to me! So please, do not take this personally and do not think I am saying Christian music is evil; all I am saying is before you pick up the next hot "Christian" artist's CD, do some research and see If they believe the right things. If not, you may put yourself at risk, Satan is too crafty and is so focused on us, we CANNOT make a mistake and ruin our lives falling into his snares. Trust me, this also applies to Christians who may listen to questionable secular music. That issue however; is for a different time and place, the result is the same though, discernment.

So, if you are done reading this, you are feeling one of three ways offended, convicted or nothing at all. If you are offended, ask yourself why? Pray to God and see if it may be something in your own life that you do not want to see, or maybe I completely fumbled my point, in which case constructive criticism is helpful. If you are convicted in even the least of ways, be happy! You would not feel convicted if you did not care about the things of Christ, so it is a good sign, but let that conviction prompt you too action, even if it may be just one artist at a time, at least you are attempting to change. If you are the latter this can be either good or bad. It may be good, because maybe you already know this and are better off than I in making the necessary cuts in your life. Or in the case of the bad, you do not care whether or not there is any danger and that is the worst attitude one can have, one to which maybe you need to recheck your walk with Christ and see if you need a spiritual heart transplant.

So, I hope I said this right, and I hope you guys have learned from it. I will be having to make A LOT of changes in my life, I have been lax on some secular and not-so-Christian music I have been listening to. So I will be the first in trying to make these changes, it will be hard, but If I cannot give up my "Christian" music to God, is it worth listening too in the first place?

Anyways, I will be waiting for those lovely responses to come in... >_>

An old face has returned...

2008-06-06T15:13:00.000-05:00

Yep everyone I have returned from the inner depths of illness and ailments (basically I have been feeling cruddy,) so If you thought I was abducted by an extraterrestrial race of zombie kittens that say "tEh NoObZ" and "Your Base Belong To Us." Than you would be sadly mistaken.

Nope, I have been feeling pretty crumby the past week or so, I have been feeling run down and tired. Praise God though I am feeling better and have a little bit more energy, so I can now post something. Since it has been a long time since I updated it. Yes, to an avid blogger such as myself, In blogger time it HAS been a long time; so I plan on fixing by posting this. Really though, the main reason for posting was to announce some possible changes to the blog layout, depending on how much Google will let me edit the blogs CSS, will depend upon how much I customize. So for now, if you come in and see it in shambles, know that your PC is not screwing up, I am just doing some testing. When this will be done or when I actually get started on it is unkown right now, but it is in the works.

So stay tuned... ;)

Also, I would like to congratulate Barack Obama on his parties nomination, I do not agree with him AT ALL on his politics and do not believe that he is necessarily the best choice to lead this country. Regardless of that, I am proud we live in a day in this country where an African American can run for office and not be looked down upon because of the color of ones skin; so for that I am happy and recognize his historic achievement. Policy wise though, I disagree with him; I will still pray that God's will will be done regardless of who is elected next president. For God is always in control, even during the bad times with those who do not recognize him or who reject him.

It is just like in the prayer Jesus taught us all to pray.

"Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven"

Another poem...

2008-05-26T21:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I seemed to have gotten a really good response from the poem that was created. So I figured I would try another one with another easy to understand message. This one does not rhyme like the last one; but is a poem none the less.

How happy are you, oh men of great riches!
Your needs are met and your wants even more so,
for the world itself is in your hands.
Is their anything you do not have?

How happy are you, oh men of great riches!
To which even kings themselves bow to you,
for the astonishment of the wealth you obtain.
For every thing seems to have a price.

How happy are you, oh men of great riches!
For wisdom of the ages are bestowned upon you,
you know more than even the wisest of men!
Is their nothing hidden from your sight?

How happy are you, oh men of great riches!
When the sorrow creeps into the inner caverns,
lay holds to your heart, and health and robs you of life.
For how can one pay that with no allegiance?

How happy are you, oh men of great riches!
Did the god you serve treat you as well as you did it?
Was all the wealth able to buy the love you desired?
Will anyone remember you, can your money buy a legacy?

How happy are you oh, men of great riches!
When life is eclipsed with death and you stand before God,
to only find how poor you really were, and how pitiful life was.
For can you buy salvation, other than through Christs blood?

How unhappy are you, oh men of great riches!
For the poor are now rich, and the rich now poor.
Suffering from the seeds of their desires, and the choices of heart.
For is not knowing the Savior the greatest wealth of all...?

I think it is pretty easy to understand this one, just remember. "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

It is not because God hates rich people, it is because typically rich people hate God. They would rather serve and worship their wealth and not the one from where it comes.

Feeling poetic...

2008-05-22T19:06:00.000-05:00

I happen to be feeling poetic today, so I will share some of the stuff Shakespeare has taught me. Here we go...

A gentle breeze, blows noon day;
a wide blue sky and the trees that stay.
Reminders of the lovers heart,
for which there is no end or start.
Golden leaves fills thine eyes,
to wither there be none but cries.
The light that shines is thy beauty and love,
never greater revealed than the dove.
To which you and I find forgiveness of sin,
That is where our love begins...

O_O!

Wow! I had no idea It would come out that well... Anyways, anyone who wants to can try and figure out what it means.

Mines within the narrow road...

2008-05-19T20:17:00.000-05:00

Well, anybody who knows me knows that I always keep up to date on current events and different things within the church and the world. I also happen to listen to a lot of different Christian apologetical programs; I have been listening to them and have found an influx of false doctrines and heresy being promoted by the CHURCH! Many youth groups, Sunday schools and mainline churches are adopting false teachings that are putting Christians is in spiritual harms way. Granted, I of course am focused more on my youth group peers, not because I care less for the adults or for the little kids, but because I am a teen and these are my peers. Many of my (Christian) peers, sadly, are either turning away from Christ, not having a true conversion to Christ, or are being made ineffective by the many doctrines coming from false teachers and misguided Christians. I want to make sure that my family and friends, as well as myself, are informed on some of these teachings. This is something that needs to be addressed and it is my duty as a fellow believer and as a friend, or relative to make sure they know what to watch out for. Granted, I cannot list every single thing out there under the sun, but I will list some that are the most troubling to me.

So let us start off with the first one, the first teaching that is becoming incredibly popular with teens and kids is Christian Wicca, [Note: Wicca is essentially witchcraft with a little bit different packaging and a name] many Christian teens are embracing this heretical teaching of this fusion between Wicca and Christianity. People into this will practice casting spells, contacting spirits and will change verses in the bible or will take them out of context to fit there "medley." Now the Bible explicitly says that you ARE NOT to practice divination or sorcery, by morphing God to your image you are effectively committing blasphemy and are contradicting the Bible, which is his manual for our lives. Also, in the New Testament, it says that sorcerers will not inherit the Kingdom of God; and since witchcraft is prohibited by God (and he never changes) you are going against him by saying that somehow he is wrong. In truth though, you are wrong, this whole teaching is wrong, it goes contrary to his word.

Another note of concern deals with Christian musicians, at a large Wiccan summit in 2007, the leader of the summit said that, "We have many implants in the Christian music industry who are win your kids over to them over time." This is frightening! Not surprising though, if a Christian family tries to keep their kids away from many of the worldly influences he has to get into their home somehow. That door, as it seems to be, is through Christian music and television; so we have to still be discerning of what is in our lives. We cannot blindly accept something just because it says "christian" on the label, because for what you think is a bottle of spiritual water, may in fact be a bottle of spiritual poison.

Next up is Liberal Christianity, now this embraces many different false theologies, so I will try to break them down.

1: Eco-Justice/Environmental Theology - This of course deals with Environmentalism, which is actually called Pantheism, it is the worship of the Earth (creation) over God (creator.) This can go hand-and-hand with the Wicca heresy and can also link to others, going back to the Bible, it says that the earth will NEVER die; even after the Tribulation it will not die, it will be transformed one day, but not destroyed. On the more scientific side of it, as much as people want to claim this as a problem man can fix and that man is the problem, both are wrong. According to science, the biggest contributor to supposed "global warming" is THE SUN! Second would be volacanos and earthquakes. Next, man cannot fix the problem, if there is a warming, it is in preparation for the Tribulation; in Revalation it records of the plants, and waters drying up during that period, and that it would get so hot, mens skin would burn.

We are supposed to be good stewards of the earth and all of its creation, but, we are not supposed to care more about the creation than the creator or helping man. The planet is in God's hands, he will take care of it, not man.

2: Counter-Biblical positions - This is not meant to be political or anything, I am simply coming from a Biblical point of view, and this issue is deals with the rest of Liberal Christianity which is the rejection of sin and the embracing of homosexuality and abortion. There happen to be some pastors out there that actually teach that man is essentially good and that sin is not that big a deal! I do not think I have to go into this one much, if man is essentially good than there is no need for Jesus' death on the cross, If, as the Bible says, we are creatures that are wretched before God, polluted with sin that the only way to him is through repentance, accepting his Sons' death, and start living according to His words; it thus plainly implies we are SINFUL! Nuff said.

The other side of this is the acceptance of Homosexuality as being fine with God, when in fact it is not, he says in both the Old Testament and New that he finds this seen as an abomination [Note: This is not the only sin that is detestable to Him, he also hates pride, divorce, witchcraft, rebellion, and abuse of power. Just a minor note] and that if they continue to live in that lifestyle they will perish. So it is not alright with God. I want to make another point, Homosexuality IS NOT the unforgivable sin, while it is a very disgusting and hard to leave sin, they are able to be saved. They also need to be loved just as we would love someone struggling with other types of sins, but this does not mean we accept their sin as normal. We would not say that looking at porn, shooting a person or shooting up on crack is fine with God, and neither is Homosexuality.

Abortion is another position that is embraced as being okay, which is really not. In Luke it mentions that when Mary visited Elizabeth, that John the baptist leaped inside of Elizabeth and the mention of Jesus' name, that does not sound like a mindless sack of flesh to me. Also, in the Psalms David mentioned how he was "knitted in his mother's womb" by God; so obviously they are not insignificant to Him either. One thing all of the pro-abortionist people fail to mention is how many woman this procedure places in danger, the immense suffering (emotionally, physically, etc) these woman go through afterwards and the link between breast cancer and abortion. God is very strict when it comes to children, Jesus said himself that it would be better for someone to tie a millstone around his neck and toss himself into the sea than to cause a child to stumble away from God, so if he feels this much about children who are already alive, how much more does he feel for those whose very soul and body he is creating in a mothers womb?!

This is long enough as it is, and I could go on and on about this, but I will not. I have covered some of the trendier teen ones and have left out others. What it comes down to is this, discernment. Discernment is the ability to judge something according to the Word, and the ability to see something for what it really is; many Christians either neglect this or forget about this, it is one of the gifts that God will give to those who seek it. Mainly though it is a result of diligent prayer, learning, reading (the Word,) and fellowshipping with like minded believers. There are many influences in this world from public school, to movies, video games, music and the most deadliest of all books! Many people will allow their kids to read dangerous books like Harry Potter, and will say "well, if it gets the kids to read other than just watching T.V all day. Than that is good." Yeah they read, they read how to become witches and how to lose their souls! Books are so deadly because people think that as long as their reading that that justifies it, that is precisely WHY books are the most dangerous. The worst time in a Christians life is college, the whole point of college is to destroy a child's upbringing in Christ; one college professor for a major university said that he found it hilarious how Christian parents will pay thousands of dollars to send their kids to college, with a belief in God, in which his job is to sit there and destroy everything they learned. So we need to be ever careful in our walk with Christ, it is indeed a narrow road, and a hard road at that; but if we truly seek to serve him he will guide into sound doctrine and truth.

I know this is long and that it may be boring, and it is not quite as thorough as maybe I wanted it to be. I just wanted to give everyone a little heads up on what is going around, just remember to test all things according to God's word and you should be fine.

TheWhistleHut

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