On my son Ethan's birthday twelve days ago, his kindergarten class had a small party for him. His teacher asked him what he wished for his classmates on his birthday. Ethan replied, "Peace."
I don't know where he came up with that. It wasn't planned, but it was a good thought from a six year old.
The Gospel of Luke, chapter two, tells the familiar Christmas story of the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary in a cattle stall in a little village called Bethlehem. It then describes how an angel appeared to shepherds out watching their sheep in the night and announced to them the birth of their Messiah. "Fear not," the angel said.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
Then an angel chorus of multitudes joined in to say, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, Peace, Good Will Toward Men."
The Christmas season is an especially poignant time when families get together, friends are reunited, rivalries are set aside, and for a few days people try to get along in peace. How sad that in America atheists, with the apparent blessing of the government and a progressive judiciary, are trying desperately to remove the reason for the peaceful season.
Everywhere people are searching for peace. The purpose of the United Nations was to try and establish or maintain peace worldwide, but everywhere you look there is no peace. There is an ongoing drug war along the US-Mexican border. In the Philippines there are the Abu-Sayaf, and the Moro Muslim movements that want to split the country; there is the devastation in Tacloban, Leyte, and in Samar from the recent typhoon, and corrupt government officials are walking away with donated relief goods and selling them in Manila. There is unrest in Thailand, persecution of Christians in China.
The Middle East is in flames. Libya is still not stable two years after Khadafi was overthrown. Yemen is the new recruiting and training center of Al Qaeda, which is not on the run. There is unrest in Egypt after the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government, and Coptic Christians are being persecuted, driven from their homes, and their churches burned down. The civil war in Syria has killed over 100,000 people, and the Al Qaeda backed rebels, with illegal support from the current US administration, has wiped out and murdered entire Christian villages. Even Turkey is in trouble. War continues in Afghanistan. Suicide bombers still plague Iraq. Iran continues on its quest for nuclear weapons. The North Koreas threaten to use nuclear weapons every time they feel a little belligerent. There are civil wars across the African continent, including an erupting conflict in the world's newest nation, South Sudan.
AIDS is still a global problem. Malaria is a scourge in the tropics and Africa. New strains of diseases combat medicine. The global economy with high unemployment everywhere is on the brink of collapse. People are fearful of the future because there does not appear to be much peace in the world today.
But they are looking in the wrong places. People look for love and fulfillment in immoral lifestyles that only bring heartbreak and often disease; they look for escape in alcohol and drugs that bring only a temporary forgetfulness, but make their problems worse; they look for meaning in power by hurting and putting people down who are weak, and still they are empty; they look to religion and find contradiction; they look to government for answers to individual problems and find it has none.
It is interesting that in the Christmas season, the time we celebrate peace and God's love, the highest rates of suicide occur. The reason is that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (I John 2:15-17), all that the world offers, cannot bring satisfaction to the heart or peace to the soul.
Peace is only found in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). The angel said, "Fear not." There is reason to have faith and hope because he announced the good news, news that will bring great joy. This news was not limited to the Jews, or to any small group of people. It was for everybody.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
The Savior was born. No longer does anyone need to fear about their eternal destiny. The Messiah has arrived; the One who will take away all our sins has come. Peace comes by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Christ came, born of the Virgin Mary, to live a perfect, sinless life, because we are sinners (Romans 3:23).
He came with the intention of dying for our sins on the cross because we could not pay for our sins on our own (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Then He rose from the grave as proof that He can raise us up to heaven. This is the gospel:
That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. (I Corinthians 15:3-4)
Without Christ we are bound for hell (Romans 6:23), but if your faith is in Christ, His Christmas gift to you is eternal life and a place prepared in heaven. Jesus is the only way (John 14:6).
You don't need to fear the future. Jesus came as a baby in the manger to become the Christ on the cross to give you peace, and you can have peace in your heart by receiving Him as your Savior.
Dear God, I am receiving the Christmas gift of Jesus Christ and the eternal life you have promised. I understand that I cannot save myself, and that Christ is the only Savior. I am repenting of my sin, and asking you to forgive me and to come into my heart and save me. In Jesus name, Amen.
May the peace of Christ be yours. Merry Christmas.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Duck Dynasty
I've never watched Duck Dynasty. I'm not into reality shows. I don't get thrills sitting around watching other people live their supposedly normal lives with TV cameras all around them watching everything they do and say.
Be that as it may, in the United States of America we have something called the First Amendment, which guarantees our right to free speech. For two hundred years or so that meant free religious speech as well, but in the last thirty years religious freedom has increasingly come under such attack that we have reached the stage where Christians are on the brink of not being able to express their beliefs about anything, anywhere, anymore.
Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson is a case in point. In an interview with GQ magazine, in which he was probably set up for the gay lobby and liberal media to have an excuse to find offense, he expressed his belief that according to the Bible homosexuality is a sin, and that homosexuals, like all unrepentant sinners, will not go to heaven. You would have thought he had raped and murdered the holy family. Not only did liberals and gays jump on his case, so-called conservatives also piled on the condemnation.
Piers Morgan, the British talk show host who doesn't understand our Constitution, declared that the First Amendment shouldn't protect the speech of "vile bigots." He doesn't understand what a vile bigot is either.
Leaning conservative but mostly straddling the fence, that great theologian, wishy-washy Bill O'Reilly, infamously turned to Matthew 7:1-2 to point out that even though Robertson had a right to say it, he didn't have a right to judge.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
As with all, believers and non-believers, who stoop to using this argument to squelch religious opinions, O'Reilly misinterprets the meaning by cracking the first verse like a whip, but ignoring the second verse which explains it. The verse is not saying we cannot make judgments about people or what they are doing. Everybody makes judgments about people every day. In Matthew 7, verse two qualifies verse one by saying that if you judge people by a certain standard, you must live by the same standard because God will judge you according to the same standard you set. In other words, live consistently by your judgments. So, in fact, we are to make judgments. Jesus also told us to make judgments in John 7:24:
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Regardless, O'Reilly, GLAAD, and all the rest of them missed the whole point. Phil Robertson wasn't judging or condemning anybody. He was expressing his belief in God's Word, which very clearly teaches that homosexuality is a sin (Romans 1:18-32), as well as all kinds of fornication, and drunkenness, greed and idolatry, and that homosexuals, along with a list of other unrepentant sinners, will not inherit the Kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9). It is God that has judged homosexuality to be sin, and God who said homosexuals won't be in heaven.
Phil Robertson didn't single out homosexuals, the interviewer did. Robertson didn't instigate a riot, he didn't incite violent, negative reactions against gays, he didn't call for retribution against them for their lifestyle. He simply answered an interviewer's question, and what was the vile bigoted thing he said?
You put in your article that the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.
So, in saying that homosexuality is a sin, Robertson made no condemnation of homosexuals, but rather said that all people ought to love all people, as well as love God, and that if we all repent from our sins and turn to Him, the world will be a better place. Far from being hate speech, it is a very loving, compassionate and caring message.
Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, has called for the beheading and stoning to death of gays.
So who does the media crucify, and which religion is called intolerant and unloving, and who, and which religion has the media ignored in spite of this very hateful, intolerant speech?
Duck Dynasty has been the most successful reality show in history, but its producer, A&E, has suspended Phil Robertson from continuing on the program. The family says they won't go on without him. Actually, I think they should go on, and on the first episode without Phil they ought to bring up for discussion why he isn't there and continue the discussion on homosexuality. Put the noose on A&E's neck and make them pull the plug on the whole show.
Be that as it may, in the United States of America we have something called the First Amendment, which guarantees our right to free speech. For two hundred years or so that meant free religious speech as well, but in the last thirty years religious freedom has increasingly come under such attack that we have reached the stage where Christians are on the brink of not being able to express their beliefs about anything, anywhere, anymore.
Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson is a case in point. In an interview with GQ magazine, in which he was probably set up for the gay lobby and liberal media to have an excuse to find offense, he expressed his belief that according to the Bible homosexuality is a sin, and that homosexuals, like all unrepentant sinners, will not go to heaven. You would have thought he had raped and murdered the holy family. Not only did liberals and gays jump on his case, so-called conservatives also piled on the condemnation.
Piers Morgan, the British talk show host who doesn't understand our Constitution, declared that the First Amendment shouldn't protect the speech of "vile bigots." He doesn't understand what a vile bigot is either.
Leaning conservative but mostly straddling the fence, that great theologian, wishy-washy Bill O'Reilly, infamously turned to Matthew 7:1-2 to point out that even though Robertson had a right to say it, he didn't have a right to judge.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
As with all, believers and non-believers, who stoop to using this argument to squelch religious opinions, O'Reilly misinterprets the meaning by cracking the first verse like a whip, but ignoring the second verse which explains it. The verse is not saying we cannot make judgments about people or what they are doing. Everybody makes judgments about people every day. In Matthew 7, verse two qualifies verse one by saying that if you judge people by a certain standard, you must live by the same standard because God will judge you according to the same standard you set. In other words, live consistently by your judgments. So, in fact, we are to make judgments. Jesus also told us to make judgments in John 7:24:
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Regardless, O'Reilly, GLAAD, and all the rest of them missed the whole point. Phil Robertson wasn't judging or condemning anybody. He was expressing his belief in God's Word, which very clearly teaches that homosexuality is a sin (Romans 1:18-32), as well as all kinds of fornication, and drunkenness, greed and idolatry, and that homosexuals, along with a list of other unrepentant sinners, will not inherit the Kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9). It is God that has judged homosexuality to be sin, and God who said homosexuals won't be in heaven.
Phil Robertson didn't single out homosexuals, the interviewer did. Robertson didn't instigate a riot, he didn't incite violent, negative reactions against gays, he didn't call for retribution against them for their lifestyle. He simply answered an interviewer's question, and what was the vile bigoted thing he said?
You put in your article that the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.
So, in saying that homosexuality is a sin, Robertson made no condemnation of homosexuals, but rather said that all people ought to love all people, as well as love God, and that if we all repent from our sins and turn to Him, the world will be a better place. Far from being hate speech, it is a very loving, compassionate and caring message.
Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, has called for the beheading and stoning to death of gays.
So who does the media crucify, and which religion is called intolerant and unloving, and who, and which religion has the media ignored in spite of this very hateful, intolerant speech?
Duck Dynasty has been the most successful reality show in history, but its producer, A&E, has suspended Phil Robertson from continuing on the program. The family says they won't go on without him. Actually, I think they should go on, and on the first episode without Phil they ought to bring up for discussion why he isn't there and continue the discussion on homosexuality. Put the noose on A&E's neck and make them pull the plug on the whole show.
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