PANTS ON FIRE

February 19, 2013

(CNSNews.com) – “President Barack Obama claimed today that since he has been president both parties have worked together to cut the federal deficit by $2.5 trillion—despite the fact that the national debt has increased $5.9 trillion during Obama’s presidency, which is more than it increased under all presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton combined.”

Read the rest of the article here.

I know we should pray for our leaders. My prayers are too few though I wonder if it makes a difference. How can we trust this man in the White House? Is anything he says the truth?  Is it surprising that we live in a culture of lies? If the Lord tarries, I don’t plan on seeing a penny of the Social Security funding that the government has promised me.  The man who sits in the Oval Office has had much to do with this.

Either way, the Lord will meet my needs.  I continue to ask our Heavenly Father to help me “trust in the Lord with all my heart, and lean not on my own understanding.”  I am not afraid of working until I die.  There is no such thing as retirement in the Bible.   My hope is that God will allow me to continue working among the spiritually needy as long as I’m this side of heaven.

CR


DR. BENJAMIN CARSON

February 16, 2013

I would like to thank Madge Franks for emailing this video to me. Dr. Carson spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast recently. He is a man with some answers, something that we could use more of these days. Let me know what you think about Dr. Carson’s speech.

CR

Note: It is a few days after posting this and it appears that this video has been pulled from You Tube and you can no longer watch it here.  I don’t mean to be paranoid but it wouldn’t surprise me if Mr. Obama’s “workers” had something to do with this.  Since we know so little about the man in the oval office because people have been paid to keep secrets, should I be blamed for this type of thinking?  Maybe it’s just a glitch.  I bet it pops back up one of these days.  We’ll see.

Note 2: A day later and it’s back.  Must have been a glitch.


A STATEMENT OF FAITH

February 14, 2013

(The following is an article I read at Pastor Silva’s Appraising Ministries website.  He found it at another website which is listed below. – CR)

By Jon Cardwell, pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Anniston, Alabama

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.” —Hebrews 13:9

I am a creedal Christian; and I believe that in the latter portion of these last days, it must be so.

Someone says, “Give me Jesus.”

I must ask, “Which one?”

Someone says, “I follow Christ?”

I must ask, “To whom do you refer?”

Someone says, “I believe the Bible.”

I must quote the Old Book and reply, “Thou doest well: the devils believe, and tremble.” Many Unitarians, for example, say they believe the Bible, but the denomination denies its authority and sufficiency.

On Dwight Moody’s trip across the Atlantic Pond to England, one British clergyman desired a statement of faith in print from the American evangelist. He responded quickly, “My creed is in print.”[1]

“Where?” was the general inquiry from the assembly.

“In the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah,” was Mr. Moody’s reply.

Now this may have been perfectly acceptable in 1875 (which it was for the ministry leaders of London in that day because Mr. Moody held a series of meetings with the assembly’s approval), but this just won’t suffice five quarter centuries later. Tell me that your creed is the 1689 London Baptist Confession and I can have a better idea of where you’re coming from; or the Westminster Confession; or the Belgic Confession; or the Thirty-Nine Articles; or the Apostle’s Creed; or the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message of the SBC; etc. These, at least, tell us something.

Yet, though I also say I am a creedal believer, at the same time we must note that sometimes the creeds still do not weed out the false confessors, such as Simon the Samaritan. He was even baptized.[2] Yet, Peter said that Simon was in the “bond of iniquity,[3] a mark of an unbeliever since believers are slaves to Christ and righteousness.[4]

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Then for discernment’s sake, tell me what you believe about His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and the consummation at His return.

Remember, the Pharisees believed the Word but they didn’t want the crucified Christ and His bloody cross:

“Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him” (Mark 15:31-32).

The Sadducees believed the Law of Moses but they denied a resurrection:

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection” (Matthew 22:23).

What do we believe about the Word of God? Does it speak to us of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ? Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (John 5:39). If the scriptures testify of Christ, and in them is found eternal life, then the truth of Christ, and Him crucified, is on every page, for in Him alone is life everlasting.

The doctrine of justification by grace is the truth of Christ crucified. Christ crucified is the one essential discernment tool given men from heaven. Any doctrine, be it Arminian, Calvinistic, free will, predestination, whatever; if it does not have Christ crucified as its foundation; if Jesus Christ dying for sinners and rising again in power is not its guide as the chief cornerstone; if the incarnation of almighty God and Christ’s life lived and sacrificed as the perfect substitute is not its preeminent center; if the risen Savior’s ascension to the right hand of Majesty and His promised return is not part and parcel of the gospel incarnation and crucifixion; then that doctrine is prone to perversion and susceptible to corruption.


[1] William R. Moody, The Life of Dwight L. Moody, 1900

[2] Acts 8:13

[3] Acts 8:23

[4] Romans 6:18-20

The original appears here.


THOU SHALT CALL HIS NAME JESUS

February 8, 2013

“Thou shalt call his name Jesus.” —Matthew 1:21

When a person is dear, everything connected with him becomes dear for his sake. Thus, so precious is the person of the Lord Jesus in the estimation of all true believers, that everything about him they consider to be inestimable beyond all price. “All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia”, said David, as if the very vestments of the Saviour were so sweetened by his person that he could not but love them. Certain it is, that there is not a spot where that hallowed foot hath trodden–there is not a word which those blessed lips have uttered–nor a thought which his loving Word has revealed–which is not to us precious beyond all price. And this is true of the names of Christ–they are all sweet in the believer’s ear. Whether he be called the Husband of the Church, her Bridegroom, her Friend; whether he be styled the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world–the King, the Prophet, or the Priest–every title of our Master–Shiloh, Emmanuel, Wonderful, the Mighty Counsellor– every name is like the honeycomb dropping with honey, and luscious are the drops that distil from it. But if there be one name sweeter than another in the believer’s ear, it is the name of Jesus. Jesus! it is the name which moves the harps of heaven to melody. Jesus! the life of all our joys. If there be one name more charming, more precious than another, it is this name. It is woven into the very warp and woof of our psalmody. Many of our hymns begin with it, and scarcely any, that are good for anything, end without it. It is the sum total of all delights. It is the music with which the bells of heaven ring; a song in a word; an ocean for comprehension, although a drop for brevity; a matchless oratorio in two syllables; a gathering up of the hallelujahs of eternity in five letters.

“Jesus, I love thy charming name,

‘Tis music to mine ear.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92)


SWEEP IT UNDER THE CARPET OF TIME

February 7, 2013

I believe the creation story in the Bible.  This is a video worth watching.

CR


NEARLY HALF OF AMERICAN FAMILIES LIVE ON THE EDGE OF FINANCIAL RUIN

February 5, 2013

I have asked repeatedly on this blog: “How can God bless a nation that has turned its back on Him?”  Here’s another article indicating that I am not too far off.

“More than one-quarter of households earning $55,465-$90,000 annually have less  than three months of savings.”

How is this possible?  My household doesn’t get close to the smaller figure and we don’t get food stamps, we don’t take free school lunches, and we don’t try to squeeze money out of our government.

Yet it seems we are in better shape than those noted above.

The title of this post doesn’t surprise me.  We are a very materialistic society.  We buy things we can’t afford.  Many are in debt up to their eye sockets.

We have forgotten God.  We have left His Word sitting on the shelf.

How is it possible for Him to have favor on us?

CR


ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND CHARLES DARWIN

February 2, 2013

“Applying the lessons of Genesis, including its teaching that all humans are created equal in God’s sight, would have spared America two agonizing tragedies: race-based slavery and the human slaughter of its civil war.”

This is a quote from a very interesting article written by James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D. in a recent Institute for Creation Research publication HERE.

I have read the article three times and I am going to read it a fourth.  I think the author offers a very interesting thesis.  Read the article and let me know what you think.

CR


OUT OF TUNE

January 25, 2013

By Donald Grey Barnhouse

Several  years ago, musicians noted that errand boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work.  It was talked about and someone suggested that it was because the bells of Westminster were slightly out of tune.  Something had gone wrong with the chimes and they were discordant.  The boys did not know there was anything wrong with the peals, and quite unconsciously they had copied them.

So you will tend to copy the people you are most with; you will borrow your thoughts from the books you read and the programs you listen to, almost without knowing it.  God has given us His Word, never out of tune, to set the standard for our song.  Here is the absolute pitch of life and living.  If we learn to sing by it, we shall easily detect the false in all of the music of the world.[1]


[1] “Let Me Illustrate” by Donald Grey Barnhouse, p.305, 1967 by Fleming H. Revell, a division of Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, MI

I would like to thank Pearl, whose former blog Be Thus Minded is full of little jewels like this.

CR


25 Signs American Women Are Being Destroyed By The Sexual Revolution And Our Promiscuous Culture

January 23, 2013

By Michael T. Snyder

(Article originally posted to The American Dream and reprinted here in January, 2013)

Has the sexual revolution been good for American women? Not at all. In fact, when you look at the facts it becomes clear that the sexual revolution has been an absolute disaster for American women. In the United States today, men have been trained to primarily view women as sex objects, and our culture has become exceedingly promiscuous. As a result, the United States leads the world in teen pregnancy, there are 19 million new STD infections every single year, more than half of all children born to women under the age of 30 are being born out of wedlock and we are witnessing the systematic breakdown of the family unit in America. And yet anyone that tries to teach our young women that they should dress modestly and keep themselves pure for marriage is severely criticized. Well, if all Americans actually did keep themselves pure until marriage, we wouldn’t have nearly the problems with STDs, teen pregnancy and abortion that we do today. The consequences of teaching our young women that they should be “free” to run around and sleep with a whole bunch of different men have been dramatic. The following are 25 signs that American women are being destroyed by the sexual revolution and our promiscuous culture…

#1 There are 19 million new STD infections in the United States every single year. Approximately half of them happen to young people in the 15 to 24-year-old age bracket.

#2 It costs the U.S. health care system approximately $17,000,000,000 every single year to treat sexually transmitted diseases.

#3 There were more than 1.4 million cases of chlamydia reported in the United States in 2011. An astounding 33 percent of those cases involved Americans that were younger than 20 years of age.

#4 It is estimated that about one out of every six Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 have genital herpes.

#5 24,000 American women become infertile each year due to undiagnosed STDs.

#6 In the United States today, approximately 47 percent of all high school students have had sex.

#7 Sadly, one out of every four teen girls in the U.S. has at least one sexually transmitted disease.

#8 According to one survey, 24 percent of all U.S. teens that have STDs say that they still have unprotected sex.

#9 Amazingly, one out of every five teen girls in the U.S. actually wants to be a teenage mother.

#10 If you can believe it, the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate on the entire planet. In fact, the United States has a teen pregnancy rate that is more than twice as high as Canada, more than three times as high as France and more than seven times as high as Japan.

#11 When men don’t have to wait until they get married to have sex, then they are likely to delay marriage or never get married at all. According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

#12 Today, an all-time low 44.2 percent of all Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 are married.

#13 In the United States today, more than half of all couples “move in together” before they get married.

#14 The divorce rate for couples that live together first is significantly higher than for those that do not.

#15 America has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.

#16 For women under the age of 30 living in the United States today, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.

#17 At this point, more than one out of every four children in the United States is being raised by a single parent.

#18 Approximately 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States are on food stamps.

#19 The sexual revolution has caused women to be primarily looked at as sex objects. In this kind of environment, it should be no surprise that there has been an absolute explosion of pornography in recent years. An astounding 30 percent of all Internet traffic now goes to pornography websites, and the U.S. produces more pornography than any other nation has in the history of the world.

#20 One survey discovered that 25 percent of all employees that have Internet access in America visit sex websites while they are at work.

#21 Overall, more than 50 million babies have been killed in America since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

#22 When you total up all forms of abortion, including those caused by the abortion drug RU 486, the grand total comes to more than a million abortions performed in the United States every single year.

#23 The number of American babies killed by abortion each year is roughly equal to the number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars that the United States has ever been involved in combined.

#24 It has been reported that a staggering 41 percent of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion.

#25 One study found that 86 percent of all abortions are done for the sake of convenience.

So what can be done about any of this?

Unfortunately, turning our culture around would not be an easy thing. Loose sexuality is glorified on television, in the movies, on our radios and in our magazines. Just about everywhere you turn there are very powerful sexual images. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Devvy Kidd…

America’s culture has come a long way since the 60s. For decades it has resembled a filthy sewer and shows no signs of returning to decency. Children are being sexualized with markets targeting little girls as young as kindergarten age. Cable television (which includes ABC, CBS, NBC) has become nothing more than a purveyor of soft porn. Sexual imagery is everywhere. The filth used to be confined to porn channels like HBO, Cinemax and others which I have never had in my home. Now, it’s the ‘big three’ (ABC, CBS, NBC) and all the other networks that consistently pump sin and sex into households every night of the week.

Meanwhile, we have raised an entire generation of young males that don’t know how to be men. Our culture has taught them to be extremely hesitant to be husbands and fathers, and instead it has taught them to be sex-obsessed idiots that want to “score” with as many women as possible.

As long as our culture pushes these values, we will continue to suffer the kinds of consequences listed above.

So what do all of you think about these things?

Do you believe that there is any hope for America?

——————————————–

I am privileged to be able to share some of this information, along with the photo above, with some young ladies in a few days.  I will also share with them that God’s way (No sexual relations before marriage) is the best way.

We have turned a beautiful thing into something degrading.  As the article states: “The consequences…have been dramatic.”

How bad do things have to get before we turn back to God’s precepts?

I wish I had the answer to that question.

CR


VERY GRIMM

January 21, 2013

I reblogged a post by Sue Acuna two posts down and it reminded me of an article that I sent to the local newspaper over five years ago.  The article appeared in the “In My Opinion” section.  I haven’t watched much of the current junk on T.V. but I can only imagine that things have gotten worse.

Christians never lose hope because they know the end of the story.  Actually, the end is only the beginning of forever.  Even though we see society in spiritual decay, our hope is not in the things of this world.  Thank heavens.  Here is the story I shared with the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas half a decade ago:

CR

Dear Editor,

(For “In My Opinion?”)

Kidnapping, murder, the vicious beating of a nice elderly woman followed by visuals of her as she’s wheeled into a hospital with pieces of flesh eaten off, a comatose youngster angry at the world and channeling evil actions through others upon others as her doctor father reads Grimm’s Fairy Tales to her in her unconscious state…I guess that’s what I get for having a bladder infection and curiosity.

You see, I was sick and couldn’t make the final Cutter Morning Star High School football game of the season. (Hold your heads high boys, you never stopped trying.) I had to stay home alone as the kids went off to be a part of Mr. Terry’s excellent band.  My wife would be in the stands without me.

There was a time that I never thought I’d ever go to another high school football game, as at 15 ½, I had an after-school job.  I did attend one game as a high school freshman. I remember watching Scott Hertenstein walk off the field after the game.  Hertenstein had no neck in the days when everybody else did.  He was the only good player we had.  His defensive prowess kept the other teams’ scores down.  It was tough to watch him, the gladiator in the arena, walk off the field that night after another close loss.

Over thirty years later I am catching up.  I have been pleasantly surprised at the sportsmanship and behavior of the Garland County teams I have seen this season.  There has been no: chest-banging, finger pointing, double upside down flip-flop in-your-face end-zone football spinning celebrations, beastly coaches stalking the sidelines like panthers ready to rip into any mistake-prone kid playing his heart out, etc.   Major college teams and the pros could learn a few things from our local games.

Home alone…on an unusual Thursday evening of football.  What to do?  So much to do!  I pick out a great looking article from my Prophesy in the News magazine.  I flip a tape in the VCR to tape “Survivor” for a family fan and view the first few minutes. (Catch the first and last 10 minutes and you miss nothing.  Miss it all and you miss nothing.)  The T.V. goes off.  Silence…a beautiful sound.  I read an article or two.  The hour passes.  I turn off the VCR, click on the T.V. and check C-Span.  Nothing interesting.  My basic cable T.V. Guide displays many of the programs I never watch because of the young, developing minds living with me.  I decide to get a look at what America’s watching at 8:00 on a usual Thursday night.

At this point you might skim the first sentence above.  In it, I describe parts of an episode I saw.  Who knows what I missed as, if you’ve ever had a bladder infection, you know where I spent some of the hour.  Unfortunately, I didn’t miss the final scene of the show where one of the evil influences, a pretty female, is shot between the eyes and dies (I think) after a number of convulsions and electro-static reactions.  The appallingly graphic nature of these “special effects” would have R rated this show not that long ago.

During commercials, I changed the channel and watched five minutes of a major network’s top-rated show.  Most of the scene depicted a body lying on an examining table and two new millennia detectives trying to figure out how this and that had happened to it.  Add up the victim viewing time of the entire “Columbo” series and you might equal the cadaver time in this single episode.

What else is there to say?  Are large portions of the American public so depraved that the shows I’ve mentioned are “entertainment?”  The answer, sadly, is obvious.  I hope that all adults who swallow this poison aren’t subjecting their children to it.

Although I used to like football, even coached some, I haven’t really followed it much the last decade.  After Thursday night’s experience, I look forward to next year’s high school football season where somehow the National Anthem is still the National Anthem, the crowd is decent, and the bands, no matter how small, are always appreciated.

I’ll check in with the nightmare that a large portion of America’s “entertainment” has become in a couple of years.  Will it be any worse?  Maybe I can take some antibiotics and make it all go away.

Chris Reimers

Hot Springs

(Dear Editor, please include the following:)

After completion of this article, I arrived at church on Sunday morning and found the following quote introducing my pastor’s sermon notes:

“The Holy Spirit is like ‘a wide-spectrum antibiotic for the ills’ that most Christians deal with.”

-Dr. Charles Ryrie

.