Sunday, May 26, 2019

5.26.2019 A Short, Simple, and Direct Way to Share the Gospel (from Calvary Chapel in Lebanon, Pa. )

God is extremely loving and merciful, but God is also a Holy, Righteous and Just Judge who hates sin and has promised to punish every single sin ever committed. God always keeps His promises so all sins Will be punished, including all of mine and all of yours.

there are only two places in the entire universe where sin can and will be punished . one is on my back in Hell, the other is on Jesus' back on the cross. to transfer my sins (or yours ) onto Jesus three things are required.
1. we must first believe (which means to trust in Jesus).
2. we must receive Jesus into our heart and life allowing Him to be our Savior and Lord.
3. we must also repent, which means to turn away from the things we know to be wrong (sin).

the choice is yours.
If you desire God,
who sent Jesus His only Son to earth to die in your place for your sin,
just pray right now,

Dear Father,

I come to you admitting that I have sinned and made many mistakes. I am sorry for those sins  -and I ask you to forgive me. and I do receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, to save me from the penalty of my sins - His death on the cross as payment for my sins. Jesus being treated the way I deserve to e treated so that I could be treated the way He deserves to be treated. I know that I do not deserve that, but by faith I receive this free gift of salvation. thank you for saving me. than you for dying for me. now help me to live a life that would honor you - not as an effort to earn  your favor, but simply as a way of saying thank you for your free gift of salvation. may I never take for granted the price You paid to save me.  In Jesus name, Amen.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

5.15.19 DEAR MUSLIM FRIEND (Rod and Staff Publishers, Inc., Crockett, KY 41413 (606.522.4348

Dear Muslim Friend,
this message is to you from someone who wants to help you be sure you have peace with God and are ready for the day of His judgment. with your background, you already know there is only one true God and that He is all-powerful. you believe that God has given us His revelation. but very possibly you do not have peace with God. I want to share with you the reason why and how you can find this peace. the core problem we all face is sin. we all have sinned. we also know god is holy and  cannot tolerate sin. likewise we know there will be a day of judgment when sin will be judged. we must not ignore sin; sin separates us from God.
Sin has consequences. death is a consequence of sin, as are the other sicknesses and problems in this world. but the worst consequence of sin is eternal separation from God in hellfire. truly, sin has terrible consequences!
it is not according to the nature of God to turn a blind eye to our sin. because God is holy, He cannot overlook sin. that would take away His holiness. God also is a God of mercy, but His mercy will never neutralize His holiness. he cannot sacrifice one of His divine attributes to practice another.

in light of these truths, what can a holy merciful God do about sin? it is not possible for God to overlook sin, for He is all-knowing . He cannot allow sin in heaven, for he is holy. this problem goes beyond our ability to find an answer - but God has the answer.
Forgiveness is the answer. but how can we be forgiven?
you have probably heard of Jesus Christ. it is through Jesus that we have God's answer to the problem of sin facing us. we read of this in the new Testament of the Bible, a book whose primary message is to show us how to find peace with God, the Bible is outstanding. it tells us about the creation of the world and then the fall of man into sin, and ho God made a way for man to be forgiven and free from sin. read on to see what the Bible says we must do to find our answer to the problem of sin. Jesus fills a great and important place in this.
the Bible teaches us again and again that men are compulsive sinners. there is much history in the Bible that confirms this fact;  and if we are honest, we know this is also true today. stealing, lying, adultery, covetousness, disrespect and anger are common today and always were. we must hand our heads in shame and admit that we all are guilty of some of these sins. to find peace with
"
God, we each need to be ready to acknowledge this and stop trying to hide our sins, be two-faced or blame our sins on others.
the Bible teaches that sinless or innocent blood that is shed in death can atone for sin. in the Old Testament of the Bible, God -planned for people to sacrifice animals for their sin. animals were considered innocent, because they did not consciously sin against God - they are not able to, because they cannot make morel decisions. so such innocent blood was shed to give temporary reprieve from God.s judgment on sin.
but animals cannot fully atone for human sin. 'for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins'. Hebrews  10.4  what is needed to provide that atonement is the blood of a guilt-free person, but the Bible teaches us that there are no such innocent persons. no man, woman of child is completely without guilt. not one person is able to die for another's sin, because each is born with a sinful nature that he inherited from his parents. as people are born and grow up, they all sin and are therefore disqualified as redeemers from sin. there is no hope for the human race from within itself because 'all have sinned and come short of the glory of God'. Romans 3.23

the New Testament tells us of the wonderful answer that God was willing to provide for the human race. since there was no innocent person, God Himself provided what is needed for redemption and forgiveness. animal deaths could do a little - they could provide a temporary solution. but if the  death were by God, the atoning quality would be limitless! but how could that be possible? Could god die? God is a spirit and spirits do not die. the New Testament is the record of how God was able to accomplish this. let's further consider this wonderful answer.

What God did was almost beyond comprehension. the Bible tells us that God Himself came to this earth as a human being in the  person of Jesus. Jesus showed His divinity by the miracles He did  - including healing the sick, walking on the water, bringing dead people back to life and silencing a storm. though a human being , Jesus led a sinless life, making Him the answer to the problem of sin. only He was able to be a sacrifice for sin - a sinless person.

the Bible tells us that Jesus was qualified. He was innocent. He was human - born of a woman. he was willing. he died a sinless man. Praise God! the account of His suffering and death is recounted 4 times  in the gospels, the first 4 books of the new Testament. it was foretold by the prophets many years before it happened. you can read it yourself. He was put on  a roman cross by His enemies where he hung for 6 hours. according to the Bible, after Jesus had hung on the cross for 3 hours, the afternoon sky became as night and when Jesus died three hours later, there was a violent earthquake.
God had provided the sacrifice for sin!
the Bible account continues. Jesus was put in a typical grave close to Jerusalem. but he did not remain there. on the third day, he rose from the dad and was seen by more than 500 people  before he ascended into heaven again 40 days alter. the Jewish authorities did all they could to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. but his tomb was empty because he had risen from the dead. the disciples of Jesus, who had been so fearful and discouraged when Jesus was crucified, became fearless and powerful messengers of peace. being filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they boldly preached the truth about Jesus' death and resurrection (Acts 2) the message of salvation has changed the world!
there are conditions to be met for the sacrifice of Jesus to save individuals. His sacrifice has the power to save everyone, but it will not save anyone who odes not follow certain conditions. these can be followed by anyone; rich or poor, strong or weak, master or servant, handicapped or healthy -  anyone. they are not conditions to get something from us; rather, they are conditions to get something from us; rather, they are conditions that will prove our willingness.

the first stipulation or step, is honesty. we must acknowledge our sinful condition and stop trying to hide our sin. some people pretend that they are not so sinful,-at least not as bad as someone else. like a person who is sick physically, we need to be ready to admit we need help. the Bible says; 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceiver ourselves and the truth is not in us'. I John 1.8

the next stipulation is faith. when someone is physically sick, he needs to go to a doctor he trusts. in the same way, we must trust Jesus with out spiritual problem. Just as we cannot follow the orders of 2 conflicting doctors at the same time, we cannot trust in salvation through Jesus Christ at the same time we trust in some other method of salvation. our response must be like Paul's : 'and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do.  Acts 9.6

the Bible teaches us that God loves us all and is not willing that any should perish. the responsibility is laid on each of us to trust our salvation to Him. God will not force us to be saved. he calls us and he asks us to trust Him,  'that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life, for God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3.15-7

'the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. II Peter 3.9

the third stipulation is willingness to repent and confess Jesus as Lord of our life.  'If thou shalt confess with they mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. fro with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans  10.9-10 this will include forsaking sin.

the fourth stipulation is submitting our lives to god's will. you understand this well. Muslim means 'surrendered to God'. however, God wants more than forced submission. He want loving, willing obedience. like a child who loves his parents and wants to do their will, so the child of God wants to do God's will, revealed in the New Testament by Jesus Christ. obedience to god is also for our spiritual benefit and protection. obedience brings blessing and it is the only way to be able to live in victory over the temptations to do evil.
'and we are His witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom god hath given to them that obey Him'. Acts 5.32
'and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.' Hebrews 5.9
'Weeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently'. I Peter 1.22

if we are willing to follow these stipulations for salvation, we will find the burden of sin rolled away and will receive a peace beyond description. yes, there will be temptations and hardships. but we will be able to face them with god at our side.
'therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. and not only so. but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience, experience and experience, hope:  and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us'. Romans 5.1-5

when we have experienced this salvation, we will also want to obey the Biblical command to be baptized into a church that truly believes and practices the Bible. 'Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost. Acts 2.38 'then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Acts 2.41 baptism is a public testimony of the cleansing power of God in our heart and our commitment to submit ourselves to a brother hood of believers. it is the natural result of having been justified by faith and of being at peace with God.

Questions that may be raised:
1. what about the crusades?  the Crusades were conducted by people who did not follow Christian teaching. through history and even today, many people have called themselves Christians but failed to follow the teachings of Christ, who taught us to love our enemies. the reasons why they did what they did probably varied, but they all acted outside of god's perfect will. they did not represent true Christianity.
2. What about the broken homes, immoral dress and lack of respect in the Western world?  is this not the result of christian freedom?
the answer again is that these things are outside of Biblical New Testament Christianity. the western world is rapidly leaving Christian principles; as a result, wickedness is growing. no nation can be  truly Christian, because the New Testament teaches that the church and state are separate and different. nations raise armies and promote many other things that are incompatible with Christ's teaching to love our enemies and do good to them. true Christians have always been groups of people living within nations and representing a kingdom that is not earthly but heavenly. true Christians are always opposed to the sins of immorality, drunkenness and the evil music around them.
if you are really interested in finding peace with God, please read the Bible, especially the New Testament. you may want to start  in the epistle of I John and the gospel of John, which are easy to read and understand.
we would also be ready to answer your questions and help you to understand.

Jesus gave his invitation: 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. take My yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls. for My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11. 28-30  James Martin
Rod and Staff Publishers, Inc., Crockett, KY 41413 Telephone: 606.522.4348 other contact: 215.721.9821


 

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

5.14.2019 POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS: THE USE AND ABUSE OF SCANDAL by John Marini in IMPRIMIS (a publication of Hillsdale College

(I have only 1 hour to type...Oh Lord help me!) ...Scandal cna provide a way for defenders of the status quo to undermine the legitimacy of those who have been elected on a platform of challenging the status quo. to understand a political scandal fully, one must take into account all of the interests of those involved. th problem is that thsese interests are rarely revelaed  - which is precisely wy it is so tempting for parisans, particularly if they are at a politicaldisadvantage, to resort to scandal to attack their opponents. many great scandals arise not as a menas of exposing corruption, but as a means of attacking politcal fors while obscuring the political differences that are at issue. this is especially likely to occur intheaftermath  of elecions t6hat5 threaten the authority of an establiushed order.  in such circumstances, scandal porvides a way for defenders of the status quo to undermine the legitimacy of those who have been elected on a pltform of challenging the status quo - dilutingh as a consequence,, the authority of the electorate...
Richare Nixon won a landslide electoral victory in 1972 and was removed from office less than 2 years later. the Watergate scandal then became the model for subsequent political scandals, down to the current day. how and why didi Watergate come about and what didi it mean?
after the election of 1964,our 2 elected  branches of government, each controlled by Democrats, worked together to exand power in Washington by centralizing administrative authority in the executive bureaucracy. this dramatic centralization of power created a political reaction in the electorate tha5t began pushing back against he Great Society policies of the time. the Republican part5y under Richard Nixon established itself as the parisan opponent of this centr4alized and power ful bureaucracy. following his victory in 1968, Nexons first term required political concessions that often Expanded federal power - concessions aimed primarily at garnering support for the Vietnam War in a Democrati-contolled Congress. but Nixons second term was not going to be a continuation of the first. even The New York Times noted that the trnsformation of government demanded by Nixon afterhis 1972 re-election - his stated intention was to rein in the executive bureaucracy - was as extreme as if an opposiition party had won. 
as we all know, Nixon'sintentions for his second term came to naught. American p0olitics aftr Watergate were shaped by those who had engineered his downfall. as henry Kissinger subsequently noted:
Nixon in the final analysis had provoked a revolution. hge had been re-elected by a landslide in 1972 in a contest as close to being fought on ideological issuew as is possible in
america...the American people for once had chosen on philosop-hical grounds, not on p0ersonality....for reasons unrelted to the issues nd unforseeable by the people who voted for what Nixon represented, this choice was now being annuylld - with as- yet unpredicatalbe consequences.

I recall beeing struck at the time of Watergate by the fact that there was a tremendous mobilization of partisan opinion agains Nixon, but very little parisan mobilaization in Nixon's defencwe. the reason for this, in retrospect, is that it is difficult - if not impossible - to mobilize paritisan suppo9rt once the contes5t is removed from the political arena and placed in the hands of porosecutors, grand juries and judges. Nixon believed, correctly, that his partisan enemies were trying to destroy him. but even Republicans in Congress came to acce3pt Watergate primaily in legal terms. teh most remmebered line from a nixon defender was that of Senator Howard Baker:  'What did the president know and when didi he know iut? Nixon quickly became boxed in; he was limited to making a legtal, rAather than a ppolitical defense of his office
also surp-0rising at the time was how little desagreement there was about how to interpret Water gate. the political and intellectual elites of both paries cmame quickly to agree theat execut6ive abuse of power under Nixon -posed a threat to democracy and tha5t Nixon's removal was required to meet t6hat threat....
it wasn't until many years after Wtergate that we learned t6he identity of the source of the leaks tht5 led to Nixon's removeal. deep throa6t, the souce for the re0ortintg of Bob Woodwar4d and Carl Bernstine at TYhe Washington Post, turnede out to be Mark Felt, a high-level FBI official who had access to all of the classified information pertaining to the investigation. Felt leaked that information selectively over the course of a year or more. helping to shape 0public opini8on in ways the p0rosecut6ion could not. althoutgh woodward and Bernsteing were lauded as investigtative reporters, theyt merely served as a conduit by which the buraucracy undermineed the authority of the elected chief exe3cu6tive. Geoff She0pad, a yo7ung member of Nixon['s derfense tam who  has con5tinued investigating Watergate usuing the Freedom of Information Act. has recently established as well that the prosecutors and judges involved in Watergate violated the procedural requirements that ensure impartiality, acting instead as partisans opposed to Nixon.

our contry was divided at6 th time of Watergtate, as it r4emains divided today, over how we should be governed and thus over what constitutes a good and just regine. is the mofern administrative state - the porgressive innovation tha5t took shpae in the New Deal and ws greatly expanded in the Grea5t society - the just and proper way to govern? or is it just6 qand p-0ropr to govern through the polical strutures established byt the Constitution? does the regulation of Americans' economic and social lives by a centralized bureaucracy establish the moral justification for government? or does the underlying  principle of American constitutionalism - the principle that the power fo government must be limiteed and directed to the proteciion of its citizens' natural rights - remain valid?

between these alternatives there can be no com0promise. this division was not solely of Nixon's making and it  was the inablility of the political parites and of the 2 elected branches of government jto forge a consensus one way of the othr that made the Watergate scandal possible, if not inevitable.

the Ethics in government Act, passed by Congreee in 1978 established the Inderpendent Cousel stature. this legislation was justified on the grtound tha5t executive d8iscretion must be subordinate to law. but tha masked its political purpose, which was to insulate the 0permanent, unelected government frompolitical control. the Independent Counsel statute was devised to stand as a bulwark agains any p0resident of senoior  exeutive branch  official who dared threaten the centralized executive bureaucracy put in plsace by the Democratic Party majorities of the  1960s and 70s. it wwakened the p0resident's political control of that sprawling bureucracy and strengthened Congress's hand in managing it.,  ultimately, it had the effect of transforming political and policy disputes - adjudicated by the elected brqances of government and thus by the people - into legal disputes in which the peplej have no par. as former p0rosecutor Cliff Nichols has written:  'The (Department of Justice) is an instit6ution vested with formidable rsources, including its authority over the FBI.  IT IS AQLSO OFTERN THE BENEFICIALRY OF A THINLY VEILED, YET PRESUMED , ALLEGAINCE WITH MOST OF THE FEDERAL COURTS IN WHICH ITS ATTORNEYS OPWERATE. AS A RESULT AND  given enough time, in most case the DOJ is empowered - via favorable rulings and otherwise  - to access, manipulate and maneuver the federal laws, rules, regulations and pordecdures -not to mention wityness testimony6 - in whatever ways it may deem  necessary to utimately bring most of those it targets to heel, perhaps even including a President.

for nearly 2 centures of our nations' history, prior to passage of the Ethicw in Government Act, there existed no legal mechanism of government outside the p0olitical and leagl authority granted by the Constitution to the legisalative, executive and judi8cial brances. the Constitution establisehed the separation of powrs as the ground of adjudicating all p-olitical sisptues. members of the elected brance would defend their ins6titutional interests, motivbated by self-interest and bny differing opinions regarding the public good. in the most serious political disputes, the legislature had the constitutional power to imp0each the president - in which case both sides could make case to the public  and the people could decide.
today by contrast, the pokitical brqanches, rather than defending their institutional interssts, tend to accommodate the administraqtive stat.  the centralized excutive bureucracy has beconme the central feature of government, adminsitrative rulemaking has replaced general lawmaking and rulby bureucrats ahs replaced rule by elected officails...