The Bible Belt, Limbaugh And Jesus

For the life of me, I can’t understand why someone like Rush Limbaugh enjoys such strong support throughout the Bible Belt.

He represents just about everything Jesus wasn’t.

He possesses not an ounce of humility.

He exhibits no personal discipline.

He disparages the poor as harshly as Jesus compassionately protected them.

He doesn’t mind lying or relying upon distortion to make a point.

He is a walking, talking bundle of overindulgence.

He’s a hypocrite, preaching about values and principles that he has clearly not followed.

That’s his perogative. If it keeps his pockets fat and his audiences large, then he has every right to continue doing just that.

My question isn’t really about him; it’s about all the people who swear by Jesus in one breath and Limbaugh in the next.

It’s akin to swearing up and down that your favorite color is white … before saying it’s black.

The kneejerk response is to say that people on the left do the same, because some of them pledge allegiance to cads such as Keith Olbermann who can be just as deceitful and acerbic.

Limbaugh’s defenders say there is a double standard, that it isn’t fair to point to his foibles without doing the same for those who are championed by Limbaugh’s main opponents.

That’s a fair concern and a spot-on criticism, and that’s why it was right that hyper-liberal and too-often ugly and divisive talk show host Ed Schultz was taken off the air for a week by MSNBC after he called a conservative woman commentator a slut.

But to get bogged down in the he-said-she-said-worse paradigm is to miss the larger point, because I’m not talking about just anyone in the political arena. I’m not just talking about people who are primarily about politics.

They live by a different set of rules, in which they skirt as close as possible to untruths about the other side and only pull back when they are called on it, and sometimes not even then. Both sides play that game.

I’m talking about people of faith, those who say family values are paramount and claim that living a life that is, in their view, pleasing to God is sacrosanct.

I’m talking about the people of faith who say they are striving to be more Christ-like.

I’m talking about the people who prayed and worshiped on Sunday morning but by afternoon were quick to defend or excuse Limbaugh’s comments directed toward a law student at Georgetown University. He called her a slut and prostitute for having the temerity to weigh in on the debate about where the line should be drawn between the religious freedom of faith organizations and upholding medically necessary coverage and treatment.

I can’t, for the life of me, see how absorbing the vitriol spewed daily by Limbaugh corresponds to a desire to be more like Jesus.

This is not a conservative vs. liberal argument. There are plenty of conservatives who make solid, reasonable arguments about their positions without resorting to the nastiness that is a hallmark of Limbaugh’s career – and without backing down.

There are plenty of conservatives who walk out their principles, and that’s probably why Rick Santorum is giving Mitt Romney more of a run for his money than anyone expected.

Whether you agree with Santorum or not, he is no Limbaugh. He is not preaching one thing in public and living another way in private, even if he does dip his toe into the pool of political distortion as most politicians – Republican and Democrat – at his level do.

I’m talking about the people of faith who are quick to quote the old saw, “You may be the only Bible someone reads.”

What if Limbaugh was the only Bible someone read. Is he a good standard bearer for the Christian faith? If not, then why do some many Christians along the Grand Strand and the rest of the Bible Belt treat him like a god?

I hesitated before writing this piece, wondering if I was holding people of faith to too high a standard.

But maybe too many of the faithful have allowed their standards to fall too low.

By Issac J.By Bailey–The Sun News

Ragbag Headliners

Kentucky Advances Religious Freedom Act

Add Kentucky to the growing list of states confused about how the First Amendment works.

On a 6-0 vote, the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that approves a constitutional amendment that sponsors say is designed to protect the free exercise of religion from unnecessary restriction by government. The bill would “prohibit any human authority from burdening actions that are based on religious beliefs, except in support of a compelling governmental interest using the least restrictive means to further that interest.”

Sponsor Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, said it would give courts “more ammunition in favor of religion” when considering cases like Christians in Bell County who want to hold public prayer at school athletic events.

Voters would have to approve the change to the state Constitution.

Alabama already has adopted such a constitutional amendment and North Dakota is considering one as well. The ability to freely exercise one’s religious rights is clearly enshrined in our Constitution. But the ability to proselytize and compel others to be a part of religious worship and faith is not. This is the distinction Kentucky, Alabama, the Catholic Bishops, and the Republican party seems to miss. –Care2 

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Sen. Inhofe: The Bible Proves Global Warming Is A “Hoax”

Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, has been calling global warming a “hoax” for years – that’s nothing new. However, he’s just written a book called The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, and interviews with him regarding the book have been…interesting.

In an interview with Vic Eliason of Voice of Christian Youth America on Wednesday, for instance, he explained that his theory is “biblically inspired.” He claims that the idea that man-made pollution could affect the climate is “arrogance,” because, as we all know, only God can affect the climate:

Well actually the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that “as long as the earth remains there will be springtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night.” My point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.

It gets better. He also attacked Rich Cizik, the former Vice President of the National Association of Evangelicals, an evangelical leader who’s fought against climate change. Cizik explained his religious reasons for fighting climate change on The Great Warming:

The climate change crisis that we believe is occurring is not something we can wait ten years, five years, even a year, to address.  Climate change is real and human induced.  It calls for action soon.  And we are saying action based upon a biblical view of the world as God’s world.  And to deplete our resources, to harm our world by environmental degradation, is an offense against God.  That’s what the Scriptures say.  Therefore, if we are to be obedient to the Scriptures, there is no time to wait, no time to stall, no time to deliberate.

According to Inhofe, these statements indicate that Cizik is a secret liberal who gave up “the truth about God for a lie.” He goes on to quote scripture he interprets as a Biblical slam against the environmental movement. If you think you can handle listening to Inhofe explain his “hoax” theory to a sympathetic audience, the full audio of the interview is available for download on VYC America’s website. –Care2

Are Songbirds Faithful To Their Mates, Or Do They Fool Around?

… humans are supposed to proclaim their love for their mate through chocolates, hearts, and fine dining. But what about our feathered friends?

It seems that they may not be as faithful to their mates as we’ve been led to think.

“Sexual Fidelity Is Hard To Find” Amongst Birds

From WGBH.org:

The development of DNA identification has given scientists potent new tools for discovering the genetic relationships between animal parents and their offspring. In recent years this has led to some eye-opening revelations about monogamy and infidelity in the animal world — particularly in birds, which have traditionally been thought to form monogamous pairs for child-rearing.

Because avian offspring require a lot of parental care — incubating the eggs and feeding the nestlings — it seemed to both parents’ advantage to be hardworking, faithful partners. Scientists using DNA “fingerprinting” have discovered instead that a surprising number of eggs in birds’ nests contain another male’s genes.

Behind the appearance of monogamy, “sexual fidelity is hard to find,” as science author Virginia Morell put it. ”Social” monogamy — staying together for the sake of the kids — is one thing. But among birds, scientists are finding, females are sneaking off with other males whose offspring are then raised by the female and her unknowing partner.

Parent Birds Raising At Least Two Stepchildren

In other words, there is way more fooling around going on in the open spaces of this country among birds than anyone could imagine. DNA studies of songbirds have shown that among any four baby birds in a single nest, it is typical that only an average of two are the creation of the parent birds that are raising them.

The other two nestling have either a different father or mother, or both. It is a common practice among songbirds to copulate with birds other than their mates, thus producing broods of nestlings with mixed parentage.

Wait, this sounds awfully similar to what’s going on with humans these days.

Divorce Common Among Birds

And just like with humans, divorce is also common among birds, particularly in birds of prey. If a mated pair of hawks, for example, is not successful in producing a brood of youngsters, an avian divorce often arises and one or the other will seek another mate.

Yet, there are some birds that are faithful to their mates. Geese, swans and some seabirds are uncommonly faithful, often for life. Indeed, true love does seem to exist in the bird world, though it is hard to find.

How does this match up to the human world? - Care2

Pat Robertson Says People Could Have Stopped Deadly Tornadoes Through Prayer

Pat Robertson, who earlier called tornadoes a sign of the End Times, was asked today on the 700 Club about the tornadoes that have ravaged parts the country and killed at least thirty-nine people. He said that the storms weren’t a malicious act of God and instead turned it around on the victims, asking, “why did you build houses where tornadoes were apt to happen?”

However, Robertson in 2010 did believe that God used natural disasters to hurt people, saying that Haiti’s earthquake was a result of the Haitian people’s alleged “pact to the Devil.”

Robertson continued that the tornadoes may not have happened if people had prayed for divine intervention, “If enough people were praying He would’ve intervened, you could pray, Jesus stilled the storm, you can still storms.” He also told people who live in areas prone to natural disasters that it’s “their fault, not God’s.” -Right Wing Watch

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Robertson: Prayer Could Have Stopped The Tornadoes

Christmas Under Islam

Earlier I discussed how mosques, some of which breed radicalization and serve as terrorist bases, flourish in America, while churches are increasingly targeted and destroyed in the Muslim world, especially the Middle East, the cradle of Christianity.

This pattern—religious appeasement of Muslim minorities in the West, religious hostility for Christian minorities under Islam—continues and manifests itself in other ways.

Consider Christmas.  The same appeasement that allows a “victory mosque” to be erected near Ground Zero, where jihadists killed some 3,000 Americans, compromises one of Christianity’s most important events.

For instance, a “Montreal suburb has decided to remove a nativity scene and menorah from town hall rather than acquiesce to demands from a Muslim group to erect Islamic religious symbols.” Contrast this with Iran, where many churches were “ordered to cancel Christmas and New Year’s celebrations as a show of their compliance and support” for “the two month-long mourning activities of the Shia’ Moslems,” a reference to the bloody flagellations and self mutilations Shias perform in memory of Imam Hussein during Ashura.

Likewise, the University of London held Christmas service featuring readings from the Quran—Islam’s holy book that unequivocally condemns the Incarnation, which is precisely what Christmas celebrates.  Meanwhile, Islam’s clerics in the West proclaimed things like “saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication or killing someone,” since doing so is to “approve of the biggest crime ever committed by humanity”: the belief that God became man on Christmas.  As the cleric makes clear, these are not his words, but rather the words of Islam’s most authoritative clerics.

Nor are these just words.  Around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of threats, harassment, and fear. One can point to any number of Muslim attacks on Christians to prove this—whether churches attacked, burned, or forced into closure; whether Muslim converts to Christianity beat, killed, or imprisoned; whether Christians abused on “blasphemy” charges; or whether just sheer violence and killings of “infidel” Christians. (See “Muslim Persecution of Christians” for a list of December’s abuses alone).

More telling, however, are the attacks that specifically targeted or revolved around Christmas:

December 25, 2011 was “Nigeria’s blackest Christmas ever”: in a number of coordinated jihadi attacks, several church were bombed, killing over 40 people, “the majority dying on the steps of a Catholic church after celebrating Christmas Mass as blood pooled in dust from a massive explosion.” As expected, the New York Times all but apologized for the terrorists.

Christmas Eve in Uganda saw Muslims throw acid on a church leader, leaving him with severe burns, blinding one eye and threatening sight in the other.  The pastor was on his way to a church party when a man pretending to be a Christian approached him from behind, yelling, “Pastor, pastor.” When he turned, the Muslim threw acid in his face while others poured it on his back, all running away while screaming Islam’s victory cry, “Allahu Akbar!”

In Muslim-majority Tajikistan, “a young man dressed as Father Frost—the Russian equivalent of Father Christmas—was stabbed to death” while visiting relatives and bringing gifts.  Considering that the crowd beating and stabbing him were shouting “you infidel!” police cited “religious hatred” as motivation.

These are among the more violent and illegal attacks on Christians around Christmas time, undertaken by Muslim mobs and terrorists.  In their own way, however, Muslim governments—many deemed “friends” of America—also make Christmas a very “un-merry” time for celebrants.

For example, if “vandals” in Indonesia decapitated the statue of the Virgin Mary in a small grotto days before Christmas, Indonesian officials have been shutting down churches; one “embattled church” fighting for survival was forced to move its Christmas prayers to a member’s house.

This pattern of treating Christian minorities as dhimmis—Sharia’s legal term for non-Muslims under Islam forced to live as despised, second-class citizens—is business as usual in the Muslim world.  Some more Christmas-related examples follow:

• Malaysia:  Parish priests and church youth leaders had to get “caroling permits”—requiring them to submit their full names and ID numbers at police stations, an eerie practice for any non-Muslim under Islam—simply to “visit their fellow church members and belt out ‘Joy to the World,’ [or] ‘Silent Night, Holy Night.’”

• Iran: While celebrating Christmas, a church was raided by State Security. All those present, including Sunday school children, were arrested and interrogated. Hundreds of Christian books were seized. The detained Christians suffered “considerable verbal abuses.”

• Pakistan: Intelligence reports warned of threats of terrorist attacks on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christians also lamented that “extreme power outages have become routine during Christmas and Easter seasons.”

In closing, if people in the West think Christmas is a time of “peace on earth, good will toward man”—to the point of compromising this Christian holiday to appease their “fellow [Muslim] man”—they should know that, increasingly, it is neither a time of “peace” nor “goodwill” for Christians under Islam. –Front Page Mag

Acts 2:38

A woman had just returned home from Wednesday evening Bible study in her church when she saw a thief in the act of robbing her home.

Without turning on any lights, she yelled: "Stop! Acts 2:38!" [Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ everyone of you for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. . .]

The burglar froze. The woman then calmly called the police.

As the officer handcuffed the burglar, he asked him: "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a text from The Bible at you."

"What text from The Bible? She had an ax and two 38s," the thief replied.

The Bible can save your life in more ways than one!

Author Unknown

Bread of Life - Broken for YOU!

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." -John 6:51

Jesus made the claim that He is the bread of life. Just a short while later and He was sitting in the upper room in Jerusalem, celebrating Passover with the disciples. Jesus knew that His time had come. That He would be arrested that night.

Jesus knew that He was the final Passover lamb - the one who would give His life as a sacrifice so that all of us could live forever rather than face eternal death.

So, as they were breaking the Passover bread, Jesus picked up the bread, broke it, and made this amazing claim: "This is my body broken for you. Take and eat this in remembrance of me."

When Jesus said that He is the "bread of life," it is likely that He was preparing the disciples for the fact that He would be giving His life - literally - for all of us, by letting His body be broken and hung from a cross in our place. And that. if we eat of that bread of life, we will never hunger for life.

This bread of life is absolutely free of charge and results in you and I being freed from all the charges brought against us. What a claim! What a promise! Take Him at His word and never hunger again for life. 

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PRAYER:

Lord, Jesus, I am awed. I am humbled. I am speechless. Words fail me. How might I express to You my gratitude for giving Your life for mine? How can I thank You for letting Your body be broken in my place? What response is there for the knowledge that being freed of all charges is absolutely free! Oh, that's right, I can say yes to You, and worship You and love You for the rest of my life. Thank You, Lord! Amen.

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What would it mean to you if you could be assured that you would never hunger for life?

By Sheila Schuller Coleman-Hour Of Power

God's Faith In Us: You Can Do It, Baby!

Throughout my twenty-year career as a professional water skier, I was blessed to win every professional title as a slalom skier. There was one title, however, that was especially hard to attain... the World Championships. After many silver and bronze podium finishes, I headed to the 1999 World Water Ski Championships in Milan, Italy filled with hope that perhaps this would be the year I would bring home the gold and the title of World Champion.

As the top seeded skier in the event, I took to the waters knowing exactly what I needed to perform to win. I skied well during the finals of the competition; however, just as I was rounding the buoy that would bring me victory, I stumbled and found myself in a three-way tie for the gold. As a professional athlete, I can tell you that being in a tie for first is NOT an exciting place to be!

I sat in the water experiencing a wave of emotions... anger, pity, disappointment, frustration, and ultimately a sense of failure. Out of nowhere, my mind was hit by a tidal wave of condemning thoughts such as “You screwed up again! You are such a failure and a disappointment to your family.” These thoughts and many more pounded my mind and eroded any hope I had of victory. 

As I sat in the water wrestling with my thoughts, I suddenly heard my father’s distinct Southern accent coming from the crowded Italian shoreline. He had pushed his way through thousands of spectators to the water’s edge and was yelling at the top of his lungs, “You can do it, baby!”

My father was there, encouraging me to get up and try again. He believed in me and my ability to win the event. He was cheering me on, encouraging me, and wanting wonderful things for me. He and my mother have always been there for me, believing in me and pushing me to be the best I could be. They believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself.

Upon hearing my father’s words, a new emotion welled up inside of me. I realized the truth was that I wasn’t a failure, disappointment, or a screw up. Rather, I was a champion and able to face any challenge that was coming my way.

When the boat came around to pick me up, I made the choice to grab hold of the ski handle and leave my anger and self-pity in the water! As I made my way to the end of the lake, I captured my negative thoughts and replaced them with the truth. I focused on how prepared I was for this challenge and reminded myself that I was more than capable of running what I needed for victory. I also reminded myself that regardless of how I skied on the water, my father loved me not because of what I did but because of who I was...his child. Because of the love of my father and the hope he instilled in me, I was able to take to the water one more time and navigate my way to victory.

Isn’t this an amazing example of our Heavenly Father? Just like my father, God is running up and down the banks of our lives saying, “You can do it, baby!” He is by our sides ready to lead us to victory. He has a Word of hope and encouragement that applies to every circumstance of our life. He is able to give us His strength, wisdom, peace and resources so that we can face every challenge head on and with a confidence that comes only from Him. Like my father, God looks at us and sees not our failures, rather He sees our potential and He loves us not for what we do, but simply because of whom we are... His children!

Do you hear His voice? Do you recognize it or are the voices of the world, your peers, your enemies, or your past mistakes screaming so loud that you cannot discern His Word and love for you? God is calling out to you today. Listen for Him, capture your thoughts and believe only His truth. The truth is this: You are a champion in His eyes and you are a champion in my eyes as well!  Know that with God, all things are possible. No matter how big your obstacles or how large your mistakes; with God at your side and leading the way... YOU CAN DO IT, BABY! -The Washington Times

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Foot Note: Kristi Overton Johnson is a wife, mother, and the world record holder in water-skiing from 1992-2010.  Having retired from professional sports, Kristi now helps others fulfill their God-given destiny.

With a passion to share the life lessons she learned on the water and a desire to encourage the hearts of people through her faith, Kristi founded her non-profit ministry Champion’s Heart.

Champion’s Heart provides life resources, addiction recovery, quarterly magazine publications, leadership training, and sports outreaches. In His Wakes, the water-sports outreach of Champion’s Heart, has helped over 10,000 at-risk youth from across the nation and world have hope, experience victory and discover their purpose through the sport that brought Kristi fame.

Kristi currently resides in Florida with her husband, Tim, and their three children.

An Adventist Response to the U.S. Health and Human Services Contraception Insurance Regulation

What principles should guide the Adventist Church's response to the current debate in the United States about government-mandated health insurance coverage for contraception? The General Conference Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department, along with the Office of General Counsel, reviews some long-standing values that will help chart our course.

On January 20, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a final rule mandating that employers including religious employers who provide health insurance to their employees must provide a full range of contraceptive services to women without co-pay, co-insurance or deductible. This will include all Food and Drug Administration approved forms of contraception as well as female sterilization.

Various religious organizations, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have raised concerns about being required to provide services that they find morally objectionable. While the ultimate impact of the new rule is not yet known, a number of religious organizations that do not object to contraception have also raised religious liberty concerns.

For the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its institutions the provision of contraceptive services does not impinge on the denomination’s religious liberty. The Adventist Church’s principles do not prohibit the use of contraception. See Birth Control: A Seventh-day Adventist Statement of Consensus below. Health insurance offered by most if not all U.S. Adventist institutions currently covers contraceptive services.

Consistent with its longstanding practice of defending religious liberty and freedom of conscience for all, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is concerned any time government requires a religious organization to violate its religious beliefs. The General Conference Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department and the Office of General Counsel continue to watch this developing issue closely and will do all that is appropriate to defend and protect religious liberty and freedom of conscience. –NARLA

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Birth Control: A Seventh-day Adventist Statement of Consensus

Scientific technologies today permit greater control of human fertility and reproduction than was formerly possible. These technologies make possible sexual intercourse with the expectation of pregnancy and childbirth greatly reduced. Christian married couples have a potential for fertility control that has created many questions with wide-ranging religious, medical, social, and political implications. Opportunities and benefits exist as a result of the new capabilities, as do challenges and drawbacks. A number of moral issues must be considered. Christians who ultimately must make their own personal choices on these issues must be informed in order to make sound decisions based on biblical principles.

Among the issues to be considered is the question of the appropriateness of human intervention in the natural biological processes of human reproduction. If any intervention is appropriate, then additional questions regarding what, when, and how must be addressed. Other related concerns include:

> likelihood of increased sexual immorality which the availability and use of birth control methods may promote;
> gender dominance issues related to the sexual privileges and prerogatives of both women and men;
> social issues, including the right of a society to encroach upon personal freedom in the interest of the society at large and the burden of economic and educational support for the disadvantaged; and
> stewardship issues related to population growth and the use of natural resources.

A statement of moral considerations regarding birth control must be set in the broader context of biblical teachings about sexuality, marriage, parenthood, and the value of children--and an understanding of the interconnectedness between these issues. With an awareness of the diversity of opinion within the Church, the following biblically based principles are set forth to educate and to guide in decision making.

1. Responsible stewardship. God created human beings in His own image, male and female, with capacities to think and to make decisions (Isa 1:18; Josh 24:15; Deut 30:15-20). God gave human beings dominion over the earth (Gen 1:26, 28). This dominion requires overseeing and caring for nature. Christian stewardship also requires taking responsibility for human procreation. Sexuality, as one of the aspects of human nature over which the individual has stewardship, is to be expressed in harmony with God's will (Exod 20:14; Gen 39:9;

Lev 20:10-21; 1 Cor 6:12-20).

2. Procreative purpose. The perpetuation of the human family is one of God's purposes for human sexuality (Gen 1:28). Though it may be inferred that marriages are generally intended to yield offspring, Scripture never presents procreation as an obligation of every couple in order to please God. However, divine revelation places a high value on children and expresses the joy to be found in parenting (Matt 19:14; Ps 127:3). Bearing and rearing children help parents to understand God and to develop compassion, caring, humility, and unselfishness

(Ps 103:13; Luke 11:13).

3. Unifying purpose. Sexuality serves a unifying purpose in marriage that is God-ordained and distinguishable from the procreative purpose (Gen 2:24). Sexuality in marriage is intended to include joy, pleasure, and delight (Eccl 9:9; Prov 5:18, 19; Song of Sol 4:16-5:1). God intends that couples may have ongoing sexual communion apart from procreation (1 Cor 7:3-5), a communion that forges strong bonds and protects a marriage partner from an inappropriate relationship with someone other than his or her spouse (Prov 5:15-20; Song of Sol 8:6, 7). In God's design, sexual intimacy is not only for the purpose of conception. Scripture does not prohibit married couples from enjoying the delights of conjugal relations while taking measures to prevent pregnancy.

4. Freedom to choose. In creation--and again through the redemption of Christ--God has given human beings freedom of choice, and He asks them to use their freedom responsibly (Gal 5:1, 13). In the divine plan, husband and wife constitute a distinct family unit, having both the freedom and the responsibility to share in making determinations about their family (Gen 2:24). Married partners should be considerate of each other in making decisions about birth control, being willing to consider the needs of the other as well as one's own (Phil 2:4). For those who choose to bear children, the procreative choice is not without limits. Several factors must inform their choice, including the ability to provide for the needs of children (1 Tim 5:8); the physical, emotional, and spiritual health of the mother and other care givers (3 John 2; 1 Cor 6:19; Phil 2:4; Eph 5:25); the social and political circumstances into which children will be born (Matt 24:19); and the quality of life and the global resources available. We are stewards of God's creation and therefore must look beyond our own happiness and desires to consider the needs of others (Phil 2:4).

5. Appropriate methods of birth control. Moral decision making about the choice and use of the various birth control agents must stem from an understanding of their probable effects on physical and emotional health, the manner in which the various agents operate, and the financial expenditure involved. A variety of methods of birth control--including barrier methods, spermicides, and sterilization--prevent conception and are morally acceptable. Some other birth-control methods¹ may prevent the release of the egg (ovulation), may prevent the union of egg and sperm (fertilization), or may prevent attachment of the already fertilized egg (implantation). Because of uncertainty about how they will function in any given instance, they may be morally suspect for people who believe that protectable human life begins at fertilization. However, since the majority of fertilized ova naturally fail to implant or are lost after implantation, even when birth control methods are not being used, hormonal methods of birth control and IUDs, which represent a similar process, may be viewed as morally acceptable. Abortion, the intentional termination of an established pregnancy, is not morally acceptable for purposes of birth control.

6. Misuse of birth control. Though the increased ability to manage fertility and protect against sexually transmitted disease may be useful to many married couples, birth control can be misused. For example, those who would engage in premarital and extramarital sexual relations may more readily indulge in such behaviors because of the availability of birth control methods. The use of such methods to protect sex outside of marriage may reduce the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and/or pregnancy. Sex outside of marriage, however, is both harmful and immoral, whether or not these risks have been diminished.

7. A redemptive approach. The availability of birth-control methods makes education about sexuality and morality even more imperative. Less effort should be put forth in condemnation and more in education and redemptive approaches that seek to allow each individual to be persuaded by the deep movings of the Holy Spirit.

¹ Some current examples of these methods include intrauterine devices (IUDs), hormone pills (including the "morning-after pill"), injections, or implants. Questions about these methods should be referred to a medical professional. –SDA Church
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This statement was voted during the Annual Council of the General Conference Executive Committee on Wednesday, September 29, 1999 in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Recommendations: Use of Mifepristone (RU486)

1. In the treatment of medical conditions, such as cancer, for which RU486 may provide effective therapy, the drug should be used in keeping with relevant laws and established medical science.

2. RU486 is also used for contraception. When the effect of the drug is to prevent fertilization, its use is ethically permissible. Like other oral contraceptives, however, RU486 may sometimes prevent implantation of a fertilized ovum. This is ethically problematic to those who consider this effect to be abortion.

3. When RU486 is used in legally permissible and medically appropriate ways for the purpose of causing abortion, the previously adopted Seventh-day Adventist Guidelines on Abortion should guide the practice.
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This recommendation was voted by the Christian View of Human Life Committee at Pine Springs Ranch, California, April 10-12, 1994, and was voted by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Administrative Committee (ADCOM), Silver Spring, Maryland, July 26, 1994.

Ronald Reagan Tribute

Bel Air Presbyterian Church

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The above video is a tribute-in-video to Ronald Reagan, after Reagan's death, which was played/shown at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where Nancy & Ronald Reagan were members and regular worshipers for several years. It is a window to Reagan's "spiritual self".

Vladimir Putin, Queen Elizabeth II, and George W. Bush

George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, and Vladimir Putin all died and ended up in hell. One day, the three noticed a red phone on the Devil's office desk. So, they asked Satan what the phone was for. He told them that it was a special phone for anyone to use to make a call back to Earth.

Vladimir Putin was the first of the three to ask if he could call Moscow. After being permitted to do so, he called and talked with someone in the Kremlin. The call lasted 5 minutes. After Putin had hung up, he was informed that the call would cost him $1,000,000. Putin wrote a check for the amount.

Next, Queen Elizabeth II called London. She talked for 30 minutes with someone in the Buckingham Palace. When she finished, Satan informed her that the call cost $6,000,000. She, too, wrote a check for the amount.

Finally, George W. Bush got his turn. He talked for 4 solid hours with someone in Washington, D.C. When he finished, Satan informed him that the entire call cost $5. Bush whipped out a $5 bill from his wallet and handed it to Satan.

When Putin heard about the $5 Bush paid for his 4-hour call to Washington, D.C., he went ballistic, and asked the Devil why Bush got to call the USA so cheaply.

Satan replied, "Well, ever since Obama took over, the USA had completely turned to hell, so it was a local call only."

Author Unknown

Fun Pics

This is not as comfy as I thought it would be

Static cat!

Is the sign really necessary?

A letter to God: Can You Give Us A Hand Here?

Dear God,

You must still be on vacation because it has been awhile since any of us have heard from you. I just thought I would drop you a line and let you know what is going in this crazy, messy world you created.

Let me fill you in on the various things being done in your name.

The theocratic and autocratic regimes of Africa, the Middle and Near East are persecuting Christians, murdering and torturing them. They're burning and bombing your churches, all in your name. They consider Christianity a blasphemy against their one true religion.

They spread terrorism, bombing and killing people in your name, too. Whatever happened to "Thou shalt not kill?"

Here in America, your name is mud.

People are trying to erase it from public life, discourse, and even sight. Christmas, which has celebrated the birth of your son for centuries, is now just “the holidays.” Soon Easter will follow. "One nation under God" is now "one nation." In God we trust?

No one is supposed to trust you. It is in government we trust.

If people of the secular progressive persuasion have their way, you will disappear completely from our lives. The Judeo-Christian principles upon which our country was founded are being eroded.

They new religion is science, and Darwin is their prophet. Maybe you can shed some light on the matter.

At the same time, American politicians are all trying to out-Christian each other. They all claim to be God-fearing, moral Christians. They crow about their "faith" to the masses, but they advocate policies devoid of Christian principles. The only thing they really care about is winning elections. Every time they move their lips, they violate the commandment against bearing false witness.

They claim you hate this, love that, and condemn those behaviors.

There is this big fight over "social values." Could you please clarify those for us? Are they yours? Most of them seem to be man-made rules.

Your chosen people, the Jews, are facing annihilation by religious lunatics who invoke your name to justify their bloodlust. They demand that everyone else convert or die.

Their guy is the only one to worship and their prophet is the only one to follow.

There are violent disagreements on how you want us to live our faith. Christians, Jews, and Muslims are divided into various competing sects and denominations, each claiming to preach your message. Is that message conservative, liberal, orthodox, or moderate?

A little clarification would go a long way.

Maybe it is time you made an appearance. Use a burning bush, building, or volcano to tell us what you really want us to do and how you really want us to live. Maybe you can rain some fire and brimstone on those who persecute others in your name.

A flood, pestilence, or plague of locusts would not be out of place, either.

How about sending us some real prophets to guide us to your true meaning? It all gets so confusing sometimes. Or do you really want us to butcher each other in your name?

One other thing. Could you please tell us your real name or what you want the faithful to call you? God? Yaweh? Allah? The Great Pumpkin? The Great Comedian?

It would be nice if everyone called you by your true name and we were all on the same page.

Well, that’s about it. I will let you get back to your vacation. I hope you are having a wonderful time and the weather is fine. –The Washington Times

Foot Note: Peter V. Bella is a retired Chicago Police Officer, freelance writer and photographer, cook, and raconteur.  He likes to be the sharp stick that pokes, prods, and annoys.  His opinions are his and his alone.

Another Mayan End Of The World Prediction

The doomsday film 2012 had a mega-weekend at the box office when it hit the screens in 2009. It took in $225 million over a period of five days, a combination of $65 million domestically and $160 million internationally Wednesday through Sunday (Nov. 11–16, 2009). Now there’s more evidence that supposedly ‘backs up’ the first prophecy that the world will end on December 21, 2012. This second find is an apparent reference found at the Comalcalco ruin that is carved or molded on the face of a brick. As usual, not everyone who has seen the glyph is convinced.

In anticipation of the hype and hysteria of the Mayan Calendar end-of-the-world scenario, Christians had their books ready for an answer.

Mark Hitchcock, pastor of Faith Bible Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, is the author of 2012: The Bible and the End of the World. To his credit, Hitchcock offers a critical evaluation of the supposed Mayan prophecy. In an interview for Christianity Today, Hitchcock said, “It’s the eschatology of the New Age. It’s basically a mystical, New Age belief system that I believe is spiritual deception. I want to take 2012 and bend the curve to God’s purposes, and use this as a springboard to tell people what the Bible says.”

Tim LaHaye, co-author of the multivolume, multimillion, multi-bestseller Left Behind series, offers a similar evaluation. He “believes the 2012 mania is distracting people from what the Bible predicts regarding the Rapture, Tribulation and Second Coming. ‘The date has been picked up by so many groups and cults that you have to conclude that someone or something inspired all these writers to come to essentially the same period—and that would be divination or spiritism,’ LaHaye says. ‘It’s probably satanic because there is nothing in the Bible about it. In fact, the Bible forbids us to even think about a day and an hour.’” But as we’ll see, it’s OK to think about what generation will see prophecy unfold.

I find all of this kind of funny. Now the dispensational prophetic sensationalists have to compete with the crazy New Agers and secular fright mongers. How many decades have we had to endure predictions of an imminent end from Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, Jerry Falwell, and many others? Falwell (1933–2007) stated on a December 27, 1992, television broadcast, “I do not believe there will be another millennium . . . or another century.” He was wrong.

John F. Walvoord, described as “the world’s foremost interpreter of biblical prophecy . . . [expected] the Rapture to occur in his own lifetime.’”[1] It didn’t. Walvoord died in 2002 at the age of 92

These men claim to reject specific date setting, but they have no trouble and see nothing wrong with identifying our generation as the last generation. But even in this, their track record has been dismal, and yet they want respect from the non-believing world when they speak on Bible prophecy. For example, in his first edition of The Beginning of the End, which was published in 1972, Tim LaHaye wrote,

“Carefully putting all this together, we now recognize this strategic generation. It is the generation that ‘sees’ the four-part sign of verse 7 [in Matt. 24], or the people who saw the First World War. We must be careful here not to become dogmatic, but it would seem that these people are witnesses to the events, not necessarily participants in them. That would suggest they were at least old enough to understand the events of 1914–1918, not necessarily old enough to go to war.”[2]

A number of things changed in the 1991 revised edition. The “strategic generation” has been modified significantly. It’s no longer “the people who saw the First World War,” it’s now “the generation that ‘sees’ the events of 1948.”

“Carefully putting all this together, we now recognize this strategic generation. It is the generation that ‘sees’ the events of 1948. We must be careful here not to become dogmatic, but it would seem that these people are witnesses to the events, not necessarily participants in them. That would suggest they were at least old enough to understand the events of 1948.”[3]

The change from the years of the First World War to the specific date of 1948 as the starting point for the beginning of the generation that LaHaye claims will be alive when the “rapture” supposedly takes place was not made because of anything the Bible says on the subject. The generation that Jesus had in view in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) was the generation of His day. The phrase “this generation” always refers to the generation to whom Jesus was speaking. (For a study of this claim, see Last Days Madness and Is Jesus Coming Soon?) Consider this interview that LaHaye had with Larry King on June 19, 2000:

LaHaye: But I think another reason people are interested in [Left Behind ] . . . is because it talks about the future. We’re living at a time when people look at the future and think of it as rather precarious. In fact, there’s a popular book out a couple of years ago on the death of history,[4] and it’s not from a Christian perspective. And so people recognize that something is about to happen. And the Bible has a fantastically optimistic view of the future.

King: But weren’t people saying this in 1890 and 1790? “It’s coming. Boy, the apocalypse is coming. The end is near.” They’ve always been saying it.

LaHaye: Well, we have more reason to believe that. Until Israel went back into the promised land, we couldn’t really claim that the end times were coming. But ever since 1948, in subsequent years, we’ve realized that things are getting set up. It’s stage setting for these momentous events.

King: Do you believe that some sort of end is coming?

LaHaye: Yes.

King: You believe that that will happen?

LaHaye: In fact, I believe there are a number of signs in Scripture that indicate it’s going to come pretty soon. We say maybe within our lifetime.

King is right. Making predictions has been the stock and trade of prophecy writers like LaHaye. Of course, they don’t pick a specific date, but they use words like “pretty soon” and “within our lifetime.” If they didn’t make these concessions, their books would not sell. LaHaye’s co-author Jerry Jenkins even wrote a book with the title Soon: The Beginning of the End (2003).

Not to be outdone, LaHaye has teamed with Craig Parshall to publish Edge of Apocalypse, an apocalyptic novel “with political intrigue ripped from today’s headlines, the first book in a new series called The End.”

Don’t these guys know when to stop? Like those who are attracted to the prophecies of Nostradamus and the Mayan calendar, there is a steady stream of gullible Christians who know nothing about the failed predictions of some of their favorite Christian prophecy writers but are willing to shell out money for prophecy books that in the end fail to deliver.

New Testament scholar Ben Witherington writes, “The Mayans no more knew when the end would come than anyone else does. It’s time for theological weather forecasting to be given up entirely. Even TV weathermen predicting ordinary events are more accurate.” And this includes the “we know the generation” prophecy writers like LaHaye, Jenkins, Hitchcock, and Parshall.

If the Mayans were so good at predicting the end of the world, then why weren’t they good at predicting their own end and then fixing it? -Godfather Politics

Notes:

Quoted in Kenneth L. Woodward, “The Final Days are Here Again,” Newsweek (March 18, 1991), 55.

Tim LaHaye, The Beginning of the End (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1972), 165, 168. Emphasis added.

Tim LaHaye, The Beginning of the End, rev. ed. (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1991), 193. Emphasis added.

Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: The Free Press, 1992).

Rob Bell-Love Wins (Remake-Jesus Wins)

Is Jesus Relevant Today?

Many think that Jesus Christ wants us to become religious. They think Jesus came to take all the fun out of life, and give us impossible rules to live by. They are willing to call him a great leader from the past, but say he is not relevant to their lives today.

Josh McDowell was a college student who thought Jesus was just another religious leader who set up impossible rules to live by. He thought Jesus was totally irrelevant to his life.

Then one day at a student union lunch table McDowell sat next to a vibrant young coed with a radiant smile. Intrigued, he asked her why she was so happy. Her immediate reply was, “Jesus Christ!”

Jesus Christ? McDowell bristled, firing back:

“Oh, for God’s sake, don’t give me that garbage. I’m fed up with religion; I’m fed up with the church; I’m fed up with the Bible. Don’t give me that garbage about religion.”

But the unfazed young coed calmly informed him,

“Mister, I didn’t say religion, I said Jesus Christ.”

McDowell was stunned. He had never considered Jesus more than a religious figure, and didn't want any part of religious hypocrisy. Yet here was this joyful Christian woman talking about Jesus as someone who had brought meaning to her life.

Christ claimed to answer all the deep questions about our existence. At one time or another, we all question what life is all about. Have you ever gazed up at the stars on a pitch-black evening and wondered who put them there? Or have you ever seen a sunset and thought about life’s biggest questions:

“Who am I?”
“Why am I here?”
“Where am I going after I die?”

Although other philosophers and religious leaders have offered their answers to the meaning of life, only Jesus Christ proved his credentials by rising from the dead. Skeptics like McDowell who originally scoffed at Jesus’ resurrection, have discovered that there is compelling evidence that it really occurred.

Jesus offers life with real meaning. He said that life is much more than making money, having fun, being successful, and then ending up in a graveyard. Yet, many people still try to find meaning in fame and success, even the greatest superstars.

Madonna attempted to answer the question of, "Why am I here?" by becoming a diva, confessing, "There were many years when I thought fame, fortune, and public approval would bring me happiness. But one day you wake up and realize they don't..I still felt something was missing..I wanted to know the meaning of true and lasting happiness and how I could go about finding it."1

Others have given up on finding meaning. Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the Seattle grunge band Nirvana, despaired of life at age 27 and committed suicide. Jazz-age cartoonist Ralph Barton also found life to be meaningless, leaving the following suicide note: "I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, and from house to house, visited countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up 24 hours of the day."2

Pascal, the great French philosopher believed this inner void we all experience can only be filled by God. He states, "There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which only Jesus Christ can fill."3 If Pascal is right, then we would expect Jesus to not only answer the question of our identity and meaning in this life, but also to give us hope for life after we die.

Can there be meaning, without God? Not according to atheist Bertrand Russell, who wrote, "Unless you assume a god, the question of life's purpose is meaningless."4 Russell resigned himself to ultimately "rot" in the grave. In his book, Why I am not a Christian, Russell dismissed everything Jesus said about life's meaning, including his promise of eternal life.

But if Jesus actually defeated death as eyewitnesses claim, (See “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?”) then he alone would be able to tell us what life is all about, and answer, "Where am I going?" In order to understand how Jesus' words, life, and death can establish our identities, give us meaning in life, and provide hope for the future, we need to understand what he said about God, about us, and about himself.

What Did Jesus Say About God?

God is Relational

Many think of God more as a force than a person who we can know and enjoy. The God of whom Jesus spoke is not like the impersonal Force in Star Wars, whose goodness is measured in voltage. Neither is He some great unsympathetic bogeyman in the sky, delighting in making our lives miserable.

On the contrary, God is relational like us, but even more so. He thinks, He hears. He communicates in language we can understand. Jesus told us and showed us what God is like. According to Jesus, God knows each of us intimately and personally, and thinks about us continually.
God is Loving

And Jesus told us that God is loving. Jesus demonstrated God’s love wherever he went, as he healed the sick and reached out to the hurting and poor.

God’s love is radically different from ours in that it is not based upon attraction or performance. It is totally sacrificial and unselfish. Jesus compared God’s love with the love of a perfect father. A good father wants the best for his children, sacrifices for them, and provides for them. But in their best interests, he also disciplines them.

Jesus illustrates God’s heart of love with a story about a rebellious son who rejected his father’s advice about life and what is important. Arrogant and self-willed, the son wanted to quit working and “live it up.” Rather than waiting until his father was ready to give him his inheritance, he began insisting that his father give it to him early.

In Jesus’ story, the father granted his son’s request. But things went bad for the son. After squandering his money on self-indulgence, the rebellious son had to go to work on a pig farm. Soon he was so hungry even the pig food looked good. Despondent and not sure his father would accept him back, he packed his bag and headed home.

Jesus tells us that not only did his father welcome him home, but he actually ran out to meet him. And then the father went totally radical with his love and threw a huge party celebrating his son’s return.

It is interesting that even though the father greatly loved his son, he didn’t chase after him. He let the son he loved feel pain and suffer the consequences of his rebellious choice. In a similar way, the Scriptures teach that God’s love will never compromise what is best for us. It will allow us to suffer the consequences of our own wrong choices.

Jesus also taught that God will never compromise His character. Character is who we are down deep. It is our essence from which all our thoughts and actions stem. So what is God like—down deep?

God is Holy

Throughout the Scriptures (nearly 600 times), God is spoken of as “holy.” Holy means that God’s character is morally pure and perfect in every way. Unblemished. This means that He never entertains a thought that is impure or inconsistent with His moral excellence.

Furthermore, God’s holiness means that He cannot be in the presence of evil. Since evil is the opposite of His nature, He hates it. It’s like pollution to Him.

But if God is holy and abhors evil, why didn’t He make our character like His? Why are there child molesters, murderers, rapists, and perverts? And why do we struggle so with our own moral choices? That brings us to the next part of our quest for meaning. What did Jesus say about us?

What Did Jesus Say About Us?

Made for a Relationship with God

If you were to read through the New Testament you would discover that Jesus continually spoke of our immense value to God, telling us that God created us to be His children.

Irish U2 rock star Bono remarked in an interview, “It’s a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people….”5 In other words, before the universe was created, God planned to adopt us into His family. Not only that, but He has planned an incredible inheritance that is ours for the taking. Like the father’s heart in Jesus’ story, God wants to lavish on us an inheritance of unimaginable blessing and royal privilege. In His eyes, we are special.

Freedom to Choose

In the movie, Stepford Wives, weak, lying, greedy and murderous men have engineered submissive, obedient robots to replace their liberated wives who they considered threats. Although the men supposedly love their wives, they replaced them with toys in order to force their obedience.

God could have made us like that — robotic people (iPeople) hardwired to love and obey him, programming worship into us like a screensaver. But then our compulsory love would be meaningless. God wanted us to love Him freely. In real relationships, we want someone to love us for who we are, not out of compulsion — we’d prefer a soul mate over a mail-order bride. Søren Kierkegaard summarized the dilemma in this story.

Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power … and yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels … she would surely not resist—no one dared resist him. But would she love him? She would say she loved him of course, but would she truly?6

You see the problem. Less poetically put: How do you break up with an all-knowing boyfriend? (“It’s just not working out between us, but I guess you already knew that.”) But to make freely exchanged love possible, God created human beings with a unique capacity: free will.

Rebellion Against God’s Moral Laws

C.S. Lewis reasoned that even though we are internally programmed with a desire to know God, we rebel against it from the moment we are born.7 Lewis also began to examine his own motives, which led him to the discovery that he instinctively knew right from wrong.

Lewis wondered where this sense of right and wrong came from. We all experience this sense of right and wrong when we read of Hitler killing six million Jews, or a hero sacrificing his or her life for someone. We instinctively know it is wrong to lie and cheat. This recognition that we are programmed with an inner moral law led the former atheist to the conclusion there must be a moral “Lawgiver.”

Indeed, according to both Jesus and the Scriptures, God has given us a moral law to obey. And not only have we turned our backs on a relationship with Him, we also have broken these moral laws that God established. Most of us know some of The Ten Commandments:

“Don’t lie, steal, murder, commit adultery,” etc. Jesus summarized them by saying we should love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. Sin, therefore, is not only the wrong that we do in breaking the law, but also our failure to do what is right.

God made the universe with laws that govern everything in it. They are inviolable and unchangeable. When Einstein derived the formula E=MC2 he unlocked the mystery of nuclear energy. Put the right ingredients together under exacting conditions and enormous power is unleashed. The Scriptures tell us that God’s moral law is no less valid since it stems from His very character.

From the very first man and woman, we have disobeyed God’s laws, even though they are for our best. And we have failed to do what is right. We have inherited this condition from the first man, Adam. The Bible calls this disobedience, sin, which means “missing the mark,” like an archer missing his intended target. Thus our sins have broken God’s intended relationship with us. Using the archer’s example, we have missed the mark when it comes to the purpose we were created for.

Sin causes the severing of all relationships: the human race severed from its environment (alienation), individuals severed from themselves (guilt and shame), people severed from other people (war, murder), and people severed from God (spiritual death). Like links on a chain, once the first link between God and humanity was broken, all contingent links became uncoupled.

And we are broken. As Kayne West raps, “And I don’t think there’s nothing I can do to right my wrongs…I wanna talk to God but I’m afraid cause we ain’t spoke in so long ... ” West’s lyrics speak of the separation that sin brings to our lives. And according to the Bible, this separation is more than just lyrics in a rap song. It has deadly consequences.

Our Sins have Separated Us from God’s Love

Our rebellion (sin) has created a wall of separation between God and us (see Isaiah 59:2). In the Scriptures, “separation” means spiritual death. And spiritual death means being completely separated from the light and life of God.

“But wait a minute,” you might say. “Didn’t God know all of that before He made us?

Why didn’t He see that His plan was doomed for failure?” Of course, an all-knowing God would realize that we would rebel and sin. In fact, it is our failure that makes His plan so mind-blowing. This brings us to the reason that God came to Earth in human form. And even more incredible-—the remarkable reason for his death.

What Did Jesus Say About Himself?

God's Perfect Solution

During his three years of public ministry, Jesus taught us how to live and performed many miracles, even raising the dead. But he stated that his primary mission was to save us from our sins.

Jesus proclaimed that he was the promised Messiah who would take our iniquity upon himself. The prophet Isaiah had written about the Messiah 700 years earlier, giving us several clues regarding his identity. But the clue most difficult to grasp is that the Messiah would be both man and God!

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And his name shall be called…Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Is. 9:6)

Author Ray Stedman writes of God's promised Messiah: "From the very beginning of the Old Testament, there is a sense of hope and expectation, like the sound of approaching footsteps: Someone is coming! ... That hope increases throughout the prophetic record as prophet after prophet declares yet another tantalizing hint: Someone is coming!"9

The ancient prophets had foretold that the Messiah would become God's perfect sin offering, satisfying his justice. This perfect man would qualify to die for us. (Is. 53:6)

According to the New Testament authors, the only reason Jesus was qualified to die for the rest of us is because, as God, he lived a morally perfect life and wasn't subject to sin's judgment.

It's difficult to understand how Jesus' death paid for our sins. Perhaps a judicial analogy might clarify how Jesus solves the dilemma of God's perfect love and justice.

Imagine entering a courtroom, guilty of murder (you have some serious issues). As you approach the bench, you realize that the judge is your father. Knowing that he loves you, you immediately begin to plead, "Dad, just let me go!"

To which he responds, "I love you, son, but I'm a judge. I can't simply let you go."

He is torn. Eventually he bangs the gavel down and declares you guilty. Justice cannot be compromised, at least not by a judge. But because he loves you, he steps down from the bench, takes off the robe, and offers to pay the penalty for you. And in fact, he takes your place in the electric chair.

This is the picture painted by the New Testament. God stepped down into human history, in the person of Jesus Christ, and went to the electric chair (read: cross) instead of us, for us. Jesus is not a third-party whipping boy, taking our sins, but rather he is God himself. Put more bluntly, God had two choices: to judge sin in us or to assume the punishment himself. In Christ, He chose the latter.

Although U2's Bono doesn't pretend to be a theologian, he accurately states the reason for Jesus' death:

"The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled. It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven."9

And Jesus made it clear that he is the only one who can bring us to God, stating, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6)

But many argue that Jesus' claim that he is the only way to God is too narrow, saying that there are many ways to God. Those who believe all religions are the same deny we have a sin problem. They refuse to take Christ's words seriously. They say God's love will accept all of us, regardless of what we have done.

Perhaps Hitler is deserving of judgment, they reason, but not them or others who live "decent lives". It's like saying that God grades on the curve, and everybody who gets a D- or better will get in. But this presents a dilemma.

As we have seen, sin is the absolute opposite of God's holy character. Thus we have offended the one who created us, and loved us enough to sacrifice His very Son for us. In a sense our rebellion is like spitting in His face. Neither good deeds, religion, meditation, or Karma can pay the debt our sins have incurred.

According to theologian R. C. Sproul, Jesus alone is the one who can pay that debt. He writes:

"Moses could mediate on the law; Muhammad could brandish a sword; Buddha could give personal counsel; Confucius could offer wise sayings; but none of these men was qualified to offer an atonement for the sins of the world. . Christ alone is worthy of unlimited devotion and service."10

A Gift Undeserved

The biblical term to describe God's free forgiveness through Christ's sacrificial death is grace. Whereas mercy saves us from what we deserve, the grace of God gives us what we don't deserve. Let's review for a minute how Christ has done for us what we could not do for ourselves:

God loves us and created us for a relationship with Himself 11
We have been given the freedom to accept or reject that relationship 12
Our sin and rebellion against God and His laws have created a wall of separation between us and Him 13
Though we are deserving of eternal judgment, God has paid our debt in full by Jesus' death in our place, making eternal life with Him possible.14

Bono gives us his perspective on grace.

"Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff..I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge..It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity."15

We now have the picture of God's plan of the ages coming together. But there still is one missing ingredient. According to Jesus and the authors of the New Testament, each of us individually must respond to the free gift Jesus offers us. He won't force us to take it.

You Choose the Ending

We continually make choices---what to wear, what to eat, our career, marriage partner, etc. It is the same when it comes to a relationship with God. Author Ravi Zacharias writes:

"Jesus’ message reveals that every individual…comes to know God not by virtue of birth, but by a conscious choice to let Him have His rule in his or her individual life."16

Our choices are often influenced by others. But in some instances we are given the wrong advice. On September 11, 2001, 600 innocent people put their trust in the wrong advice, and innocently suffered the consequences.The true story goes like this:

One man who was on the 92nd floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center had just heard a jet crashing into the north tower. Stunned by the explosion, he called the police for instructions on what to do. “We need to know if we need to get out of here, because we know there’s an explosion,” he said urgently on the phone.

The voice on the other end advised him not to evacuate. “I would wait ’til further notice.”

“All right,” the caller said. “Don’t evacuate.” He then hung up.

Shortly after 9:00 A.M., another jet crashed into the 80th floor of the south tower. Nearly all 600 people in the top floors of the south tower perished. The failure to evacuate the building was one of the day’s great tragedies.17

Those 600 people perished because they relied on the wrong information, even though it was given by a person who was trying to help. The tragedy would not have occurred had the 600 victims been given the right information.

Our conscious choice about Jesus is infinitely more important than the one facing the ill-informed 9/11 victims. Eternity is at stake. We can choose one of three different responses. We can ignore him. We can reject him. Or, we can accept him.

The reason many people go through life ignoring God is that they are too busy pushing their own agenda. Chuck Colson was like that. At age 39, Colson occupied the office next to the president of the United States. He was the “tough guy” of the Nixon White House, the “hatchet man” who could make the hard decisions. Yet, in 1972, the Watergate scandal ruined his reputation and his world became unglued. Later he writes:

“I had been concerned with myself. I had done this and that, I had achieved, I had succeeded and I had given God none of the credit, never once thanking Him for any of His gifts to me. I had never thought of anything being ‘immeasurably superior’ to myself, or if I had in fleeting moments thought about the infinite power of God, I had not related Him to my life.”18

Many can identify with Colson. It’s easy to get caught in the fast pace of life and have little or no time for God. Yet ignoring God’s gracious offer of forgiveness has the same dire consequences as outright rejection. Our sin debt would still remain unpaid.

In criminal cases, few ever turn down a full pardon. In 1915, George Burdick, city editor for the New York Tribune, had refused to reveal sources and broken the law. President Woodrow Wilson declared a full pardon to Burdick for all offenses he had "committed or may have committed." What made Burdick's case historic is that he refused the pardon. That brought the case to the Supreme Court, which sided with Burdick, stating that a presidential pardon could not be forced on anyone.

When it comes to rejecting Christ's full pardon, people give a variety of reasons. Many say there isn't sufficient evidence, but, like Bertrand Russell and a host of other skeptics, they aren't interested enough to really investigate. Others refuse to look beyond some hypocritical Christians they know, pointing to unloving or inconsistent behavior as an excuse. And still others reject Christ because they blame God for some sad or tragic experience they have suffered.

However, Zacharias, who has debated with intellectuals on hundreds of college campuses believes that the real reason most people reject God is moral. He writes:

"A man rejects God neither because of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of moral resistance that refuses to admit his need for God."19

The desire for moral freedom kept C. S. Lewis from God for most of his college years. After his quest for truth led him to God, Lewis explains how acceptance of Christ involves more than just intellectual agreement with the facts. He writes:

"Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again..is what Christians call repentance."21

Repentance is a word that means a dramatic turn-around in thinking. That's what happened to Nixon's former "hatchet man". After Watergate was exposed, Colson began thinking about life differently. Sensing his own lack of purpose, he began reading Lewis's Mere Christianity, given to him by a friend. Trained as a lawyer, Colson took out a yellow legal pad and began writing down Lewis's arguments. Colson recalled:

'I knew the time had come for me. . Was I to accept without reservations Jesus Christ as Lord of my life? It was like a gate before me. There was no way to walk around it. I would step through, or I would remain outside. A 'maybe' or 'I need more time' was kidding myself."

After an inner struggle, this former aide to the president of the United States finally realized that Jesus Christ was deserving of his full allegiance. He writes:

"And so early Friday morning, while I sat alone staring at the sea I love, words I had not been certain I could understand or say fell naturally from my lips: 'Lord Jesus, I believe You. I accept You. Please come into my life. I commit it to You.'"21

Colson discovered that his questions, “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” and “Where am I going?” are all answered in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul writes, “It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.” (Ephesians 1:11, The Message)

When we enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, he fills our inner void, gives us peace, and satisfies our desire for meaning and hope. And we no longer need to resort to temporary stimuli for our fulfillment. When He enters into us, he also satisfies our deepest longings and needs for true, lasting love and security.

And the staggering thing is that God Himself came as a man to pay our entire debt. Therefore, no longer are we under the penalty of sin. Paul states this clearly to the Colossians when he writes,

"You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault." (Colossians 1:21b-22a NLT).

Thus God did what we were unable to do for ourselves. We are set free from our sins by Jesus’ sacrificial death. It is like a mass murderer going before a judge and being granted a full and complete pardon. He doesn’t deserve a pardon, and neither do we. God’s gift of eternal life is absolutely free-—and it is for the taking. But even though the pardon is offered to us, it is up to us to accept it. The choice is yours.

Are you at the point in your life where you would like to accept God's free offer?

Perhaps like Madonna, Bono, Lewis and Colson, your life has also been empty. Nothing you have tried satisfies the inner void you feel. God can fill that void and change you in a moment. He created you to have life that is flooded with meaning and purpose. Jesus said, “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.” (John 10:10b)

Or perhaps things are going well for you in life but you are restless and lack peace. You realize that you have broken God’s laws and are separated from his love and forgiveness. You fear God’s judgment. Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift---peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives.”

So whether you are simply tired of a life of empty pursuits or are troubled by a lack of peace with your Creator, the answer is in Jesus Christ.

When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God will forgive you of all your sins---past, present, and future and make you His child. And as His loving child, He gives you purpose and meaning in life on Earth and the promise of eternal life with Him.

God’s Word says, “to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

Forgiveness of sin, purpose in life, and eternal life are all yours for the asking. You can invite Christ into your life right now by faith through prayer. Prayer is talking with God. God knows your heart and is not as concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. The following is a suggested prayer:

“Dear God, I want to know You personally and live eternally with You. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life and change me, making me the kind of person You want me to be.”

Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? If so, simply pray the above suggested prayer in your own native language.

When you make a commitment to Jesus Christ, he enters your life, becoming your guide, your counselor, your comforter, and your best friend. Furthermore, he gives you strength to overcome trials and temptation, freeing you to experience a new life full of meaning, purpose, and power.

Chuck Colson discovered that new purpose and power. Colson readily admits that before becoming a Christian, he was ambitious, prideful, and self-centered. He had no desire or power to love others in need. But his thoughts and motives radically changed once he committed himself to Christ. –Y-Jesus

Endnotes

1. O: The Oprah Magazine, "Oprah talks to Madonna," (January, 2004), 120.
2. Quoted in Josh McDowell, The Resurrection Factor (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publ., 1981), 1.
3. Quoted in William R. Bright, Jesus and the Intellectual (San Bernardino, CA: Here's Life Publ., 1968), 33.
4. Quoted in Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 17.
5. Quoted in Michka Assayas, Bono in Conversation (New York: Riverhead Books, 2005), 203.
6. Soren Kierkegarrd, Philosophical Fragments, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985), 26-28.
7. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: Harper, 2001), 160.
8. Ray C. Stedman, God's Loving Word (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House, 1993), 50.
9. Quoted in Assayas, 204.
10. R. C. Sproul, Reason to Believe (Grand Rapids, MI: Lamplighter, 1982), 44.
11. New Testament, John 3:16
12. Ibid., John 1:12
13. Old Testament, Isaiah 59:2
14. New Testament, Romans 5:8
15. Assayas, Ibid.
16. Ravi Zacharias, Jesus among Other Gods (Nashville: Word, 2000), 158.
17. Martha T. Moore and Dennis Cauchon, "Delay Meant Death on 9/11," USA Today, Sept. 3, 2002, 1A.
18. Charles W. Colson, Born Again (Old Tappan, NJ: Chosen, 1976), 114.
19. Ravi Zacharias, A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 155.

20. Lewis, 56.
21. Colson, 129

Student Who Obtained 0% On An Examination

The student deserves an "A" (100%) for realistic reasoning, and the teacher an "F" (0%) for badly worded/written test questions.

Q1. In which battle did Napoleon die?
* his last battle

Q2. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
* at the bottom of the page

Q3. River Ravi flows in which state?
* liquid

Q4. What is the main reason for divorce?
* marriage

Q5. What is the main reason for failure?
* exams

Q6. What can you never eat for breakfast?
* Lunch & dinner

Q7. What looks like half an apple?
* The other half.

Q8. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?
* It will simply become wet

Q9. How can a man go eight days without sleeping ?
* No problem, he sleeps at night.

Q10. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
* You will never find an elephant that has only one hand.

Q11. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have ?
* Very large hands.

Q12. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
* No time at all, the wall is already built.

Q13. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
*Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to crack.

Author Unknown