Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
***But we don’t become Christ. The weight and shield of Christ’s righteousness saves us, and not our own. ***
That is correct. We do not become an actual Christ - that is ridiculous. We do believe that the priest, acting in Sacramental fashion, acts as the corporal hands, directed by Christ, in administering the Sacraments.
The priest, beseeching the Holy Spirit to bless us in Baptism; the priest beseeching that Jesus proceeds with the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It really is God alone; we just do as He has directed us.
***”These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”—1 John 5:13.***
That ye may know.
That ye may believe.
That is not 100% fully guaranteed assurance.
***We do it BECAUSE we’re saved, not to achieve it. God wants us to do good works because He planned them for us from the beginning.***
What happens if you don’t do good works? What happens to your bad works? Does it really matter to the Reformed?
***RC’s traditionally have been more Democrat than Republican. I believe they began voting with the conservatives because of social issues.***
In the 1800s, Catholic immigrants were militantly opposed by Protestant Republicans, so therefore they went Democratic. The social issues gradually forced Catholics to the right.
I am appalled at the way that Republican politics has gone. And shoveled so much of the vote to McCain.
***What happens if you don’t do good works? What happens to your bad works? Does it really matter to the Reformed?***
If you have no desire to do good works, I would question your faith. God gives us the desire to do good works, the ability to do good works, and the command to do good works. Not for salvation, but in thanksgiving.
Your bad works, I assume, are sins. They are already forgiven by Jesus Christ.
Yes, it really matters to the Reformed.
Navy Seals get a break too. :) Any deployment is classified. Seals, like the rest, undergo continuous training, standowns if something goes wrong, and learning new techniques, acquiring new equipment, etc. It's not Hollywood. No one is on the mission 24/7/365, except when you are on the mission. There are no Mondays or Saturdays or eight hour-work days.
He is one of the finest young men I've ever had the pleasure to know. He graduated from college, had a good job the war started and he signed up as an enlisted man
Sort of like Pat Tillman. Great sacrifice. Let us pray that he makes it through this conflict safe and sound. But we need to remember how our establishment betrayed Pat Tillman's patritoism and used his untimely and unjust death at the hands of his own troops as a propaganda tool.
This also reminds me of the pathetic and shameful circus that was made with Private Jessia Lynch and the lies that were sent out into the public about the heroism she later denied.
Has anyone been prosecuted for such lies? In the case of Specialist Tillman, some heads rolled because of the high profile he had, but in Jessica's case, she was simply used and then discarded when she told the truth.
Hopefully, this young man will serve his country without a glitch. But serving the country is independent of politics; supporting the country's foreign policy conducted by fallible men and women is not a prerequisite for serving the country. Nor do fallible men and women have a monopoliy on patriotism. (besides, most of them never served).
Your ingorance is most regrettable. France fell in half the time that it took the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with no one to help, attacked by Germans, Moussolin's fascists, Hungairan nazi collaborators, Bulgarian nazi collaborators, and Albanian nazi collaborators, to be occupied. Our great firends of the last 2 decades, Croatians (who were Yugoslav citizens) welcomed the Wehrmach troups with flowers and cried "Danke Deutschland!" (Thank you Germany!).
The Yugoslav Royal Army reatreated into the woords and began guarrilla-style resistence immediately and three months after the occupation began transmitting first radio messages form the liberated territories of the occupied homeland. The only beacon of free territory in Europe!
The resistence movemnt of WWII Yugoslavia is a textbook example of resiliency. It tied numerous German divisions and was instrumental in causing Hitler to fatefully delay his invasion of the Soviet Union. Unlike the French, Dutch , Norwegian and other resistence movements, who limited thier operations to sabotage, the Germans mounted no less then seven major offensives aimed at erradicting the resistence. Easy pickings, right.
The Orthodox do not find pleasure or ustice in sin, and war is sin, the result of sin and perpetuated by sin. The west keeps trying the pagan and OT method of eye-for-an-eye, even though the God they call their own tells them otherwise. You don't erradicate evil by returning evil.
When cornered, the EO will resist because there is nothing else left to do. That doesn't mean they have to arrogate themselves the crown of justice. It's a necessary evil brought on by evil.
I really feel for you.
Thank you Marysecrrtary. I appreciate your honesty.
Yeah, I do. How about an economic system that actually protects national interests?
Your ignronce is regrettable too. Show me where does the EO Church question the existence of Satan? In fact, show me where I questioned the existence of Satan! And I will show you that the whole thing just went right oevr your head.
You find 'just war' in that quote? He is saying don't let others talk nonsense, but say something in return.
YThat's profound.
Oooo, ooo, ooo, I got one. I got one. I got one.
Are you ready for this? K already has a plan on a micro scale that is easily implimented nationally. She sends me to work every day; she creates the family budget; she gives me the deposit slip on paydays to deposit my paycheck; she controls the checkbook and spending; she pays the bills before they are due; puts the balance in savings and I get an allowance. I get to make the big decisions like foreign policy and when to mow the lawn.
KOSTA: Yeah, I do. How about an economic system that actually protects national interests?
Since you've just dismissed capitalism, what "economic system actually protects national interests?"
Kindly name it.
The resistance movement must have been from the Augustinian [just-war] wing of the EO, right????
You mean like National Socialism -- Bolshevik or NAZI style?
Kosta: “Your igorance is most regrettable.”
Not regrettable ignorance, Kosta, contemptible. Sadly it is emblematic of the mindset which gave birth to the present disastrous foreign policy of Washington, started by Bush 41, advanced by the execrable Clinton and brought to its inevitable nadir by Bush 43. By the way, UC, one of my ancestors died on the walls of Constantinople at the side of Constantine XI in battle with the Eastern Barbarian Turks on May 29, 1453. He died for civilization and Christianity, UC. Generations of Eastern Christians have fought and died for that at the hands of the Mohammedans. What about you Protestants? How many centuries have you been suffering for Christianity and Christian civilization at the hands of Islam? You think that Western Protestantism has the right to scorn the sacrifice of the Eastern Romans? My God, no wonder we're in the state we're in!
UC, the Greek partisan resistance on Crete delayed Operation Barbarossa. Do you understand what that delay meant? Did they teach you about what went on in the Balkans during WWII? Did they teach you about October 28, 1940? Do you know what Ioannis Metaxas told Mussolini that day and what meaning that had for the ultimate triumph of the Allies in WWII? Do you know what Churchill had to say about the Greek and the Serbian partisans? Do you know what allies they were to the United States? Or are you just a Mohammedan supporting neo con with no understanding of history or culture beyond the Eastern seabord who thinks its just peachy that America picks up the tab for KLA terrorism against our Christian allies because that man Bush has been advised by his Saudi business partners that Islam is the Religion of Peace and its good for business?
***If you have no desire to do good works, I would question your faith. God gives us the desire to do good works, the ability to do good works, and the command to do good works.***
Intriguing. Hypothetically, what happens to the Reformed if they resist this desire?
***Your bad works, I assume, are sins. They are already forgiven by Jesus Christ.***
So therefore, there would be no reason to avoid committing future sins, since they are already forgiven. Therefore Martin Luther’s exhortation that future sinfulness is of no importance still holds?
***UC, the Greek partisan resistance on Crete delayed Operation Barbarossa. Do you understand what that delay meant? Did they teach you about what went on in the Balkans during WWII? Did they teach you about October 28, 1940? Do you know what Ioannis Metaxas told Mussolini that day and what meaning that had for the ultimate triumph of the Allies in WWII? Do you know what Churchill had to say about the Greek and the Serbian partisans? Do you know what allies they were to the United States? Or are you just a Mohammedan supporting neo con with no understanding of history or culture beyond the Eastern seabord who thinks its just peachy that America picks up the tab for KLA terrorism against our Christian allies because that man Bush has been advised by his Saudi business partners that Islam is the Religion of Peace and its good for business?***
Unfortunately, many here are think that CNN is the beginning and finish of world news. Even the BBC is awful compared to its glory years in the 50s and 60s. We must educate rather than chastise because these people have not had the information, they have not had the education, they do not understand because everything that they have been taught has short sheeted their world view.
If you do not get CBC and CTV, where is your extra-American view that lends some sort of alternative to the world view? If you do not get ITV or some English language European or even Australian channel, where is the world wide perspective?
I think of it as duty to provide these otherwise goodly folks with the information and the perspective to use it. It is not much different with providing them with the Good News, you know. They are veritable Visigoths, understanding little except destruction, with no regard as to consequences.
American history as taught in schools is dismal at best. It is almost as if it is designed to make students uninterested and therefore not understand or remember any of it. Do not shrink, Kolo. It is our duty.
“...understanding little except destruction, with no regard as to consequences.”
Sadly, that bears repeating.
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