Wings of the Wind

Whoever planned the 911 attacks of nine years ago missed the most important “building,” figuratively speaking.  They thought they hit the most important building, but they missed it by a long shot.

The “building” to which I refer is the church of Jesus Christ.

Two tall buildings, and others, were destroyed 9 years ago.

The church will never be destroyed.  It is not a building.  It is a group of people.

Jesus said, “…the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

Some members of the church of Jesus Christ died 9 years ago.  They were attacked and killed, but their souls were not destroyed.

The church can be and is being attacked today. It can’t be destroyed.

Most church goers today have trouble finding 2^nd Timothy.  It is a small book towards the back of the Bible that was written by Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome.  They are his last words before martyrdom.

It would be good for everyone to read the four chapters of this little book today.  It takes about 20 minutes.

From chapter 3:

¹But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

²For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

³unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

⁴treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…

Sure sounds a lot like our world today.

Those men who were responsible for killing over 3,000 Americans 9 years ago could not be described better.

In the final chapter (4) that he ever penned, Paul wrote:

³For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires…”

This is a good description of many within “Christian” churches today.  Many in those churches no longer believe in absolute truth.

The truth is:

An insidious attack took place in New York 9 years ago.

An insidious attack has been taking place within many of the churches for years.

Many think they are going to heaven because of their good deeds.  The Bible says that no one will go to heaven because of their goodness.

We must get back to simple Bible truths.

When Paul wrote these final words, the many churches he had started were experiencing attacks from within and without.  It is no different today.

Today’s news will be filled with stories of the events that took place 9 years ago.  It should be a reminder.  Life is vaporous (Ecclesiastes).  There are no guarantees.

It should cause us to stop and examine our condition.

Do we know God?

Chris Reimers

……..If you aren’t one of the over 20 million people who have seen this via internet, I hope you become one.  There are probably another 20,000,000 who have seen it in the artist’s country alone.

I define true art as something that “moves” you.  Different things move different people.  This is true art in my opinion.

I can’t remember who sent this to me months ago.  For some reason, I just remembered it today.  Don’t know how I forgot to share it.

Chris Reimers

Sand Artist Kseniya Simonova Moves Audience to Tears with Performance Last Year Winning “Ukraine’s Got Talent”

Miss Simonova, 24, drew a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II.

One video clip, of the many now in many places, has gotten over 15 million views

She begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then warplanes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

It is replaced by a woman’s face crying, but then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again war returns and Miss Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman’s face appears.

She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown Soldier.

This outdoor scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass, saying goodbye.

The Great Patriotic War, as it is called in Ukraine, resulted in one in four of the population being killed with eight to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.

Click here to watch this incredibly talented young lady (Make sure you watch it in fullscreen mode):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo

By Manny of “Kairos Now”

The vast majority of the so-called Body of Christ is like a great centipede slowly marching toward the cliffs of deception and whistling as it walks.  At the head of the slick body of the great centipede, snug in the control room, are the leaders of this well-healed, fits-all-limbs spectacle. The leaders flash cue cards ordering a hasty change of tennis shoes. Slowly from the front to rear, the change comes like dominoes falling in succession.

Jesus warned us that there would be deception in the end times:

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (Matthew 24:11)

For false Christ’s and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)

Pollster George Barna has recorded the present state of the Body of Christ for us.

1. 34 percent of those who call themselves “born-again,” 53 percent of all Christians, and 73 percent of mainline Protestants believe that if a person is good, he will go to heaven. In other words, you do not need Jesus to go to heaven.

2. 66 percent of evangelicals do not believe that the bible is totally accurate; 74 percent of Catholics and 42 percent of all Christians agree.

3. 28 percent of “born-again” Christians, 65 percent of evangelicals, and 40 percent of all Christians believe that Jesus was a sinner when He walked the earth.

4. 52 percent of those who call themselves “born-Again,” 72 percent of Catholics, and 80 percent of all Christians do not believe that the devil is real, that he is only a symbol of evil.

5. 55 percent of “born-again” Christians and 61 percent of all Christians do not believe that the Holy Spirit is a person, only a symbol of God’s presence and power.

6. 35 percent of “born-again” Christians and 39 percent of all Christians do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead bodily.

Some modern Christian “beliefs” are pure blasphemies that no longer follow the Bible’s clear teaching. Many religious leaders have joined “ecumenical” movements claiming that you do not have to know Jesus to get to heaven; just live a “good life.” They have bitten into the lie and openly question the authority and accuracy of scripture. Sounds like the same questioning the serpent laid out for Eve and her husband.

Many are endorsing and performing same-sex marriages. Some groups are even ordaining openly homosexual clergy. Moreover, these are church leaders!

Where do you stand? Do you believe they are right? Will you join with them and just fall in step with great centipede?

These are crucial questions. There are many leaders who are so afraid of losing their tax-exempt status that they dare not say anything against the wave of the great Social Gospel and political correctness.

Jesus said:

Do not think that I come to come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in –law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father and mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Matthew 10:34-37)

Many preachers share a salvation message that promises, “Become a Christian, and God will bless you. You will have everything you ever wanted.”

What is the true Gospel of the Kingdom?

In the early church, the only true gospel of salvation was that of the cross of Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote:

Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)

The true gospel of salvation is the cross! Paul wrote:

And I brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

The apostle Paul was a man with a great ability to preach and teach. He was very wise. Why would he admonish us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, and why did he avoid enticing words of man’s wisdom? Because he feared that he would somehow compromise the message of the cross.

Many preachers today have no such fear and trembling, they draw people into their churches with enticing words of man’s wisdom, rejecting the message of the cross and repentance in favor of the promises of blessings and prosperity for anyone who becomes a Christian. The proof is in the previous poll and its sickening results.  Many preachers will not ever talk about  sin, the cross, or the blood of Jesus.

Jeremiah 6:13-15 speaks of preachers of so-called peace. If you look up the definition of peace in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the definition states peace is prosperity. Some have grown rich and refuse to turn back to God’s ways. For them surrendering your life to God has become passé. Hear what Jeremiah says in the very next verse: Thus says the Lord: stand in the ways and see, ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.” But they said, “We will not walk in it.” (Jeremiah 6:16).

Some of those who continue to preach the unadulterated truth of repentance, sacrifice, and the taking up of one’s cross, have become unpopular, rejected, and even ostracized. Their congregations may not swell into thousands or even hundreds. They preach what the saints need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Satan’s greatest strategy is to deceive the whole world. Jesus repeatedly warned of the great deception in the end times. Sadly enough, the great centipede is goose stepping its way, flashing lights in the heals of its Reeboks, chanting “gay is okay, just come and sway this way, we have plenty of shoes that will fit in a politically correct way.”

The scriptures stand as given, but many pastors and church leaders are not walking in the truth. It is apparently too hard for them to digest and speak the Word as admonished by Paul in Ephesians 4:15 -”speaking the truth in love…” They speak of a watered down gospel and lead many to damnation.  “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there be there in.”

A very good thing happened in Hot Springs, Arkansas on Friday and Saturday.  It has been called a miracle by some.

People from over 50 different churches came together to pray.

They came from the Assembly of God Churches.

They came from Baptist churches.

They came from Methodist Churches.

They came from Nazarene and Pentecostal churches.

They came from many different Christian denominations.

The purpose and topic of the meeting was prayer.

As advertised, it did not turn into a political rally,

a day and a half of entertainment,

or a denominational competition.

The speaker for the event was a man from Georgia named Al Whittinghill.

Mr. Whittinghill was very easy to listen to.

Mr. Whittinghill was very difficult to listen to.

He was easy to listen to because of his enthusiasm for the subject.  He was easy to listen to because of his knowledge of the subject.

He was difficult to listen to because of part of his message.  He spoke of the fall of history’s powerful empires and the common factors that caused their demise.

Today, the United States meets every criteria for societal failure.

Mr. Whittinghill took the attendees through the pages of the Old Testament to illustrate a simple message that can be found in the words of Jesus:

“MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER.”  (Matthew 21:13)

“For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples,” (Isaiah 56:7)

On Saturday afternoon, the group split into small groups and went to locations throughout the city.  There they spent time praying for the people of the city, of the state, of the nation, and for those who frequent the particular locations where they stood.

They went to the schools.

They went to the churches; many to churches that weren’t their own.

They went to the jail.

They went to city hall.  They went to the court house.

Some walked through town asking folks if they needed prayer.

One group went to the top of the Hot Springs Mountain Tower where they could see all of the locations where Christians had scattered throughout the city.

I went to four locations with two kind folks whom I had met a few times.

Later, on Saturday evening, during the final session of what was called “The Prayer Summit,” those who wanted to share their prayer experiences from earlier in the day were handed a microphone.

The Prayer Summit ended quietly, with short prayers by some of the participants and a final prayer by Mr. Whittinghill.

I left with a few impressions.

I don’t pray enough.

Our churches don’t pray enough.

It is possible for churches to look past denominational differences and come together for corporate prayer.

There is hope.

We, the American Christians, must humble ourselves, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways.

Chris Reimers

By Henry Lamb

America is not a democracy. It was never intended to be a democracy. The founders worked hard to see that the new government they created was not a democracy, but a growing segment of the population seems bent on transforming this great nation into a democracy in which the rights of the minority are systematically ignored.

The United States of America was quite deliberately designed to be a federal republic. The founders recognized the highest governing authority on earth to be the individual. They realized that they, as individuals, had the authority and the intelligence to create a new system of government, empowered by the consent of the governed to do only those specific chores that the people stipulated in a written Constitution.

They recognized that in such a government, there would need to be direct accountability to the electorate for every official empowered to make laws that restricted the freedom of individuals. This new federal republic had to recognize and honor the state governments that were already constructed and the local governments within these states, if the new federal republic were to have any chance of succeeding.

The Constitution these men formulated contained two provisions to ensure that the new government would forever remain a federal republic: a Senate chosen by state governments and a president chosen indirectly by what came to be known as the Electoral College. The 17th Amendment destroyed a major safeguard of the federal republic by allowing senators to be chosen by the public, rather than by the states.

The 17th Amendment was a significant part of the wave of progressivism ushered in by the Wilson administration in 1913. Imposition of the income tax, the Federal Reserve, the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Trade Commission began the attack by progressives on the federal republic the founders had so carefully constructed.

The Electoral College is the last and only element of the Constitution that keeps the United States of America from being formally transformed into a direct democracy. Now, the progressives have taken aim and are attacking this last bastion of the federal republic.

Direct election of senators came as the result of a constitutional amendment, which can be reversed as was the Prohibition amendment, another progressive-era mistake. The war on the Electoral College is taking a different path: States are enacting legislation that authorizes all the state’s electors to be awarded to the national winner of the popular vote, regardless of the how the people voted in the state.

Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland and now Massachusetts have all enacted legislation that pledges to assign their electors to the winner of the national popular vote in the presidential election, regardless of how the voters in the state voted.

Prior to this new war on the Electoral College, in all states except Nebraska and Maine, all the state’s electors were assigned to the candidate who received the most votes in the state. This is the winner-take-all system. This system assures that small states have a say in the selection of the president.

Progressives argue that the winner-take-all system is not democratic. So be it. It was not designed to be democratic; it was designed to help balance the power between and among the states and the various branches of government. It was designed to make government function as a federal republic rather than a democracy.

Few people understand the importance of the Electoral College because schools have all but erased the subject from the curriculum. The Electoral College is cumbersome, it is confusing, it is frustrating for the supporters of Al Gore who saw the Electoral College bestow the presidency on George W. Bush, who received fewer popular votes than did Al Gore.

Consider the effect of eliminating the Electoral College: direct democracy.

The president would be chosen by urban population centers. There would be no need to campaign in rural states. There would be no need to be concerned about the needs and cares of rural people. There would be no interest in the minority.

The genius of the American system of governance is the carefully developed balance of power between the states and the federal government, the various branches of government, and between conflicting philosophies of governance. When the minority is driven from the debate, or ignored, tyranny reins.

The first 18 months of the Democratic regime in Washington has demonstrated how the majority can ignore the minority and the Constitution. In the cycle of governance, democracy is the last phase before anarchy. The founders wanted no part of a democracy; they created a federal republic.

A democracy is often described as two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. The wolves are at the door of our federal republic.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/010/sovereignty/8-republic.htm

Articles with surprising polling data numbers published by the Barna Group keep popping up. Deciding to do some checking for myself, I easily found the much-quoted survey that was most recently published in 2009.

Here is the definition that the Barna Group gave for a “biblical worldview”:

For the purposes of the survey, a “biblical worldview” was defined as believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.

I’m no Bible scholar, but the above descriptions are things that most of the least knowledgeable Bible readers would admit are found in the scriptures.

The question becomes:  “Who believes the words of the Bible?”

Two things surprised me: the numbers and how long it’s been this way.

The numbers haven’t changed much in the last 15 years.

One-third of all adults (34%) believe that moral truth is absolute and unaffected by the circumstances. Less than half of those who call themselves “born again” adults (46%) believe in absolute moral truth.

So, two-thirds do not believe in absolute moral truth.

Might this be a reason for many of our problems?

The Barna Group came up with the following conclusion:

Overall, the current research revealed that only 9% of all American adults have a biblical worldview.

If this number is even close, it is a disappointment for those who hold God’s Word in high esteem.

Chris Reimers

Dr. Francis Schaeffer explained the problem almost 30 years ago:

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE0ox_bDIv4&feature=channel

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=853j7khx0Yo&feature=channel