Friday, January 27, 2006

Politics and worldview 2

Coming back to the blog post I wrote yesterday about Politics and worldview, I started thinking of Christian maturity.

(11) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Eph 4:11-14 ESV


It seems to me that the maturity of the church depends a lot on the ministers of the church. Naturally, the maturity of the church does not depend solely on these ministers. However, it seems to me that Paul thought that the role these men play in the church is of great importance.

When I look at the 21st century church, I cannot but think that as an organism, it still has not grown into mature manhood. The people of the church are still very prone to being "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes."

The ministers of the church therefore, have an ever growing task to bring the church to maturity. However, that does not seem like it will be happening soon. The evidence for this is all too clear when we see a church with great influence--notice that I did not say good influence--likeSaddleback Church deciding to go Hollywood style "glitz and glamour" with a singles night where they will dance the night away in the "Worship Center." It just seems to me that the church continues to be influenced by what "works" (whatever that means) in the world and using the methods of the world. This is in no way conducive to church maturity. Maturity will lead us away from the ways of the world, not to it! Paul will call what Saddleback is doing "human cunning" and "craftiness in deceitful schemes."

It is because churches do this kind of silly worldly stuff that the people in those churches are not maturing. Just to make sure that you understand; knowing theology and doctrine cannot be equated to maturity. It is how that doctrine influences your life that will determine how mature you are.

When it comes to politics, the way you behave in, and respond to, politics and how you vote will clearly show your level of maturity as a Christian. When you keep on supporting parties like the ANC and even the DA, then I have to put a big question mark next to your name. Both of these parties are terribly weak on the big issues and in fact both support abortion (the systematic elimination of human beings - GENOCIDE!) and other horrible sins!

Pastors, it is time for you to start preaching a Biblical worldview from the pulpit, not shirking away from controversial stuff like politics ("oooooooohhh"). You have a mandate from God to preach the truth, ALL OF IT! You do not have the right nor the mandate to pick and choose the truths you will preach on!

Continue to Politics and Worldview 3...

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Politics and worldview

I have been thinking of the Christian worldview for a long time now. This is one of my pet peeves in the church... that there simply is no Biblical worldview in much of the church today.

As those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know, I am standing as a candidate for the ACDP in the South African local municipal elections on March 1, 2006. It is a thoroughly Christian party where every little bit of policy is checked against the Bible. The ACDP is not just another conservative party here in South Africa and it is much less just another party that is anti-ANC.

Being completely aligned with what the Bible says about issues, it is easy for the church to marshal its people to vote for the ACDP. And, in fact, if the polls and statistics are correct, then South Africa is majority Christian with about 72% claiming just that! On the other hand, when we look at the election results of previous years it proves that most of those who claim to be Christian in polls have no idea what it means to be Christian.

A case in point is a member in our own church who used to be a member of the ACDP. For some odd reason he has decided to leave the ACDP and stand as a candidate for the ANC! Now if this doesn't strike you odd, I don't know what will! His reasoning for this is that many people at our church vote for the ANC! Yea... the devil too! His reasoning is as sound as the teenage boy who wants his ears/belly button/nose/tongue/etc pierced because "everybody else is doing it!"

Now for those who don't know, the ANC is in the business of rushing controversial legislation through parliament so that laws can exist to favour them. They stand FOR abortion, pornography, same-sex marriage, disarmament of the people, early release of violent criminals and much more! Their worldview is the complete opposite to that of the Christian worldview. How a Christian can vote for the ANC, never mind standing as a candidate for them is completely beyond my understanding!

The fact that so many "christians" do vote for them can mean one of two things: they are not Christians or their worldview has no bearing on what the Bible says.

Who should be blamed for this? Who else but the church? For too long the mantra has been "Don't mix church and politics!" What? As Christians, can we live a political life--voting and complaining about politicians--and also live a separate Christian life? This simply points to a Biblically uninformed worldview. Everything that we do should be informed, touched and transformed by the Bible. IMHO, I believe that when a pastor discovers that he has people in his church who vote for someone like the ANC or standing for them in an election, that he should approach them with great concern. These people are in effect standing with the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of God. When God says "You shall not murder" these people are saying "No! We will murder!" When God says "You shall have no other gods before me" they say "We are god. We stand for humanism!" How can a Christian stand for this!

When a pastor does not make clear who his people should stand for, they will stand for anything, especially if his church is filled with people with no Biblical worldview! If we as Christians are to affect all spheres of life, why are pastors so reticent to voice their Biblically informed opinions in matters of politics?

Maybe pastors who do not voice their opinions do not want to upset those who vote for the enemy of God's kingdom and as a result lose these people? But then again, what do I know?

Continue to Politics and Worldview 2...

Monday, January 23, 2006

Political campaigning has started!

The reason for my absence on my blog is due to several things, but mainly since my political campaigning for our local municipal elections has started. Up until this past weekend it was not in full swing yet. However, this is where my thoughts have been almost permanently!

Today, however, is the day when things will start getting rough. I feel sorry for my family, though. From today until 1 March (election day), my family will hardly ever see me. I will be out every night from Monday to Friday. Ever Monday and Tuesday night I will be in meetings and every Wednesday to Friday night I will be out campaigning. I believe it will be a time of great stress, and as a result I covet your prayers for this time. Saturdays will also be used for campaigning. Sundays will belong to my family.

You are probably thinking, "What are you talking about?" I wrote about my decision to go into politics in a blog post called A small start in politics back on December 12, 2005. You can read all about it there.

Because my evenings will no longer be open, I will have to go to gym in the mornings. I used to do 2 spinning classes a week at night after work to supplement my cycling which is done over weekends. With the election drive in full swing now, I have to attend morning classes. It was my first one this morning.

Obviously, another thing that will be impacted is this blog. I will for a while not be able to deliver on some of the studies that I would like to do. My posts will most likely be short just to keep you up to date.

I will be standing for the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and you can read their manifesto for these local municipal elections here. It is a PDF document. You need to use the free Adobe Reader to read this file. If you do not have this reader, you can download it from Adobe's website for free.

I will probably blog mostly on issues that I see in these elections and how they may affect the people of the ward I am standing in. I will attempt to highlight these issues and address them from a Christian point of view.

Just thinking...

Black Jesus

Have you ever thought of Jesus as black? Well, if you have then now you can see the movie.
 
In the movie Son of Man, Jesus is portrayed as being born in a squatter camp somewhere in a modern-day African state plagued by war and poverty. Director Mark Dornford-May disclosed his idea for the movie, saying that they "wanted to look at the gospels as if they were written by spindoctors and to strip that away and look at the truth... The truth is that Christ was born in an occupied state and preached equality at a time when that wasn't very acceptable."
 
For Dornford-May, it seems that Jesus' message was all about equality. There certainly is a message of equality in the preaching of Jesus. However, that equality is not the same as what Dornford-May expects! The equality that Jesus preached is that all are equally condemned before a holy God and deserving of an eternity in hell! This equality demands that we all pay for our sin. Since, God is an infinitely holy God and we have broken the laws of such an infinitely holy God, the righteous and just demands of a righteous and just God is that we pay infinitely for our sin. However, since we cannot pay enough for breaking the just laws of God, it is righteous and just for us to pay for an eternity for that sin in hell!
 
Anyhow, the fact is that Dornford-May has become the spindoctor himself, and succeeded in adding "spin" to the life of Christ!
 
Read more about the movie here.
 
Just thinking...

Friday, January 13, 2006

The spiritual gifts and its so-called absence from history

One of the issues that almost always comes up in the discussion of spiritual gifts is the fact that the gifts of the Spirit seemingly died out in the history of the church. It seems, and I would like to stress the word "seems," that the gifts of the Spirit started diminishing soon after the first century and became "non-existent" by the middle ages.
 
Based on this, many claim that if the Holy Spirit wanted these gifts in the church throughout all of church history, then they would not be so notably absent in church history.
 
I am not sure who gave the go-ahead for this type of reasoning and when, but since when do we judge truth by our limited understanding of church history?
 
Nevertheless, if we have to judge the validity of the Spirit's working by our observances of history, then surely we are on dangerous grounds here.
 
The doctrine of the gifts of the Spirit is not the only doctrine that died out, or became severely minimised! Soon after the first century ended the doctrine of justification by faith became limited. By Martin Luther's time it was just about non-existent! When Luther made his remarkable discoveries about this doctrine, salvation of works was at the order of the day!
 
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, is the One who teaches us of the vital truths of Scripture, yet the church was in ignorance of this truth for close to 1000 years. Does that mean that the Spirit did not want His people to know this vital truth?
 
Just because a doctrine seems to be out of use and unknown for a period of time does not mean that it has ceased altogether.
 
Just thinking...

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Prophecies do not add to the Bible

Being a Reformed-Continuationist--believing that the spiritual gifts still continue today--is not always easy. Mention to people that you believe that the gifts still continue today and the first accusation thrown at you is that you do not respect the Scriptures enough and that you want to add to the Scriptures.
 
This is an absolutely false accusation! I know a lot of Charismatics and not one of them believes that a prophecy today could be added to Scripture. The so-called revelatory gifts run through this gamut of accusations the most. These gifts are the gifts tongues and interpretation, prophecy, words of wisdom and words of knowledge.
 
The argument is simple: the canon of Scripture is closed, as a result these gifts should also have ceased. The use of any of these gifts brings revelation and revelation adds to the already settled Word of God in the Scriptures.
 
Let me make this clear. I do not believe that anything can be added to the Scriptures. Nothing! The Scriptures are inerrant and infallible and complete.
 
However, if prophecy, for example, brings revelation and revelation should be added to the Scriptures since it is from God, then why is the Bible so thin? I am now not talking about modern day prophecy. I am talking about prophecy in Biblical times. Is what we see in the Bible all the true prophecy that ever was spoken in Biblical times? That obviously cannot be true since the Bible speaks very clearly of many more prophets than those who have their written material included in the Bible!
 
Just because someone is a prophet (an office that I do not believe is still in operation today - Eph 2:20) or prophesies, does that mean that the word in this case must be added to Scripture? This is the impression that I get from the arguments of many cessationists. If this is the case, then where are the prophecies in the Bible by prophets such as the prophets from Jerusalem (Ac 11:27), or what about Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius and Manaen (Ac 13:1), Judas and Silas (Ac 15:32), Philip, the evangelist's daughters (Ac 21:9) and the rest of what Agabus prophesied (Ac 21:10)? If it is true, as cessationists seem to want to propose, that prophecies today will add to the Scriptures, then where are the New Testament books of these prophets mentioned in the book of Acts?
 
I just do not think that if someone prophesies today that the word spoken by this person must be added to the Scriptures! Why should it be so today if it didn't happen in Biblical times?
 
Let me make it clear, some of my favourite authors are cessationists. I do not hold that against them since I do not think that I should choose whom I enjoy reading or fellowship with on the basis of the cessationism vs continuationism issue. Some of my favourite authors are John MacArthur, James White, R.C. Sproul, etc. I also enjoy reading material written by Phil Johnson who has a very clear head when it comes to most issues, including the issue at hand. Even though I disagree with him on this issue (even though he hasn't really touched on the issue on his blog), does not mean I should ignore his ideas on this issue or any other issue. In fact, the first blog I read every morning is Phil's blog because I think he has a lot to say to us that is well worth spending the time reading.
 
I do believe that cessationists and continuationists can learn from each other on this issue. Many times we think that the "opposing" camp believe a certain way when they simply don't! This is why we can learn from each other and find out first hand what we really believe in. And simply because someone doesn't have all the answers does not mean that they are wrong on any issue.
 
So, if there is any debate on the issue (there is very little proof for such a current debate), let us listen to one another with the idea of learning from one another and not to find mud to sling at one another!
 
Just thinking...
 

Problem with email posting

I have experienced problems with posting to my blog via email.

I have sent 3 emails already that just didn't go through.

So, today I decided to post via Blogger. Then about an hour and a half later one of the mails I sent yesterday came through today, thus creating the same post twice!

Is there anyone who knows what is going on?

Stopped thinking...

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Salvation is about God, not us!

(3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  (4)  even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love  (5)  he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,  (6)  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.  (7)  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,  (8)  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight  (9)  making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ  (10)  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  (11)  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,  (12)  so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.  (13)  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,  (14)  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Eph 1:3-14 ESV
 
While I was reading in Ephesians this morning I was thinking about the absolute wonder and amazement of Eph 1:3-14.
 
It dawned on me that when we think that salvation is all about us, then we will come up with the idea of a synergistic religious system of salvation like that believed by Arminians. Believing that I can decide for my own salvation can only be because I believe that it is all about ME! That is a religion of conceit and of great selfishness. When we think it is about us primarily, we will end up thinking that we are these wonderful creatures that God cannot help but save! As a result we start thinking so much of ourselves to the effect that we think we could thwart God's purposes in salvation, notwithstanding the fact that the Bible clearly portrays God as sovereign and us as the potter's clay! When we think like this we start thinking that we could decide whether we will be saved or whether we will continue to live without Him.
 
It amazes me to think that millions of Christians do think like this. Oh, how arrogant! How deceitful pride can be! When we think we are the pinnacle of all that is, we are treading on dangerous grounds. No wonder the writer of Proverbs tells us that pride comes before a fall! When we see ourselves in a position of being able to inform God of our "decisions" regarding Him, then surely we have been greatly deceived by that great and evil tempter of mankind, the devil.
Salvation is not primarily about us, it is primarily about God! It is God who chose us (v4). We didn't choose ourselves. If that is how it happened, then we would be able to say that it is all about us! God predestined us, not according to our personal greatness, but according to the purpose of His will. When we read this passage in Ephesians of the greatness of our salvation we have to see that it is about Him! Why? Our salvation--chosen (v4), predestined (v5), redeemed (v7), forgiven (v7), been given an inheritance (v11), saved (v13)--is all to "to the praise of his glorious grace" (v6), "to the praise of his glory" (v12) and "to the praise of his glory" (v14).
 
Whatever God does for us and to us in our salvation, however wonderful that is, is for His glorification.
 
(16) So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.  [17]  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."  [18]  So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.  [19]  You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?"  [20]  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"  [21]  Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use?  [22]  What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,  [23]  in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory--  [24]  even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Rom 9:16-24 ESV
 
(12) But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,  [13]  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Joh 1:12-13 ESV
 
It is clear that our salvation is not by our own will, but is solely of God.
 
The fact that our salvation is about God and His glory, should make us humble. We should realise that it wasn't because we were so clever or so spiritual that moved God's heart to save us, but that our salvation is rooted in the glorification of God and the purpose of His will.
 
The sooner we realise that salvation is about God, and that God can even use "vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory" (Rom 9:22b-23), the sooner we will humble ourselves before Him. If God can use the non-elect in their destruction to make known the riches of His mercy to the elect, then surely that should drive us to humility, love and obedience!
 
God is the Master Potter and we are only the clay!
 
Just thinking...

Monday, January 09, 2006

Impartiality of the Gospel concerning the People of God and the Land of Israel

After reading and hearing about Pat Robertson's recent comments regarding Israel and Prime Minister Sharon I discovered this open letter called An Open Letter to Evangelicals and Other Interested Parties: The People of God, the Land of Israel, and the Impartiality of the Gospel.
 
This open letter has been signed by many Reformed scholars and it proves one thing: not all Christians agree with Pat Robertson's traditional dispensational interpretation of the Bible which puts the ethnic people of Israel at the top of the spiritual "food chain" so to speak.
 
 
Just thinking...

Friday, January 06, 2006

When the gifts will cease

Much is made by cessationists about 1 Cor 13:8-13. According to them this points to the end of the first century when the last book of the canon was completed and God literally closed the book.
 
(8) Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  (9)  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  (10)  but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  (11)  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  (12)  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.  (13)  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1Co 13:8-13 ESV
 
Cessationists (maybe not all of them) believe that verse 10, "but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away," refers to the perfection and completion of the Scriptures or to the maturity of the church.
 
This simply does not make sense to me. The context that verse 10 finds itself in strongly suggests "that Paul is here referring to the Second Coming of Christ."[1] Verse 12 clearly has our face to face meeting with the Lord in mind here which will happen at the 2nd Coming or when we die. It is very clear that we still do see dimly; however, when we stand before Christ we will see Him face to face. It is also quite clear that we currently only know in part, whereas we will "know fully" on that great and glorious day!
 
The "perfect" of verse 10 can therefore only be pointing to the day that we stand before Christ. The "partial" will then pass away.
 
End Notes
1. The Reformation Study Bible, R.C. Sproul, General Editor, ESV, Ligonier Ministries, Orlando, FL, 2005, p1662.
 
Just thinking...

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Touching on the gifts

The Christian blogosphere is once again buzzing with the issue of whether the gifts of the Spirit have ceased or whether they have continued. Naturally some will take sides depending who they want to be popular with while others will do so because that is what they believe the Scriptures teach. There are some powerful Christian bloggers out there and they have the ability to create a larger readership for other bloggers. As a result, some "smaller" bloggers will probably side with the powerful ones in order to get more readership and a pat on the back.

That is not my aim to get a pat on the back by other bloggers as long as I feel I am accountable to God's Word. I may be wrong in my assessment as to what the Scriptures are saying, but right now this is what I believe.

I am not a cessationist! On the other hand, I also do not want to be known as a charismatic. However, I am definitely reformed. I would prefer to be known as a reformed-continuationist. The word "charismatic" is somewhat of a curse word in my mind. Charismania is flooded with the likes of T.D. Jakes, Tommy Tenney, the Word-of-Faith movement (WOF) and others such as T.B. Joshua claiming to be prophets of God, but seem to be more like snakes from the darkness.

Much of what is happening in the charismatic movement (CM) cannot and must not be condoned. Sure, there are many thousands that treat the gifts of the Spirit, especially what may be called revelatory gifts (for lack of a better term), like a crystal ball. This happened because few in CM teach accountability to the Word of God and themselves have no doctrinal discernment. Much of CM see themselves as islands and that they do not need to be taught by others. They have the "spirit" of course! As a result they have no doctrinal knowledge or any background in doctrinal history. They also have no idea why they believe what they believe and as a result accept modalists like Jakes and Tenney into their fold as genuine Christians. These charismaniacs see no need to learn from others who have gone before us. So, learning about church history for them is learning about the last 100 years, forgetting the 1900 years before that! As a result their theological outlook is very narrow and they suffer from what Jonathan Moorhead calls Theological Myopia.

So, where does that leave me, a Reformed-Continuationist?

This is something that I have been struggling with for a long time. I have a problem with groups like Catholic-Charismatics since I believe that the same Spirit that gives tongues is also the Spirit of truth. If the spirit that gives them these tongues does not lead them to the truth of the gospel, then it is not the Spirit of truth that gives them these tongues.

I do not believe that tongues, prophecy, etc are at the beck and call of the Christian. "To one is given through the Spirit" (1 Cor 12:8) this gift or that gift. Some in CM seem to think that they can do with this or that gift what they want at their own leisure. However, I do not agree with this. The gifts are at work according to God's sovereign will. God will speak when He wants to and no person can control that. However, no new revelation can ever be given again. The complete revelation of God is set in the Scriptures.

If we as Christians, whether we are continuationists, charismatics or cessationists, do not make the Scriptures our final authority in our life and doctrine then we are heading for another 1000 years of "dark ages." In the "dark ages" people had implicit faith. Whatever the church believed, that is what they believed. They had no scriptural knowledge as to what they believed. Much of that attitude pervades the church today. Cessationist churches are not free from this attitude either. However, I do believe that it is more pervasive in CM than elsewhere. Many of them no longer have Scriptural knowledge of their faith, but rather get it directly from the 'spirit" or from someone like Kenneth Copeland.

The church is in a very low state and it is my assessment that a new reformation is needed to drive the church back to sola scriptura.

Just thinking...

Weeds among the wheat

Yesterday, while I was driving in my car to work I was listening to the ESV version of The Listener's Bible read by Max Mclean. I was listening to the book of Matthew at the time when it came to chapter 13.
 
It was verses 24-30 that spoke to me:
 
(24) He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field,  (25)  but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.  (26)  So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.  (27)  And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?'  (28)  He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?'  (29)  But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.  (30)  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
Mat 13:24-30 ESV
 
The man sowed his good seed in order to produce wheat. However, the enemy came in secret and sowed weeds among the wheat. There is a particular weed that looks very much like wheat. It is called bearded darnel. Before the wheat starts bearing grain they look very similar. Yet, when the grain shows, then you can discern between the wheat and the weed. This is what happened in our parable.
 
It still amazes me that the church can be so gullible to believe that every person or preacher that names the name of Christ is a genuine Christian. From this story we learn that this is not true.
 
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jud 1:4 ESV
 
The old saying that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and sounds like a duck then it must be a duck is decidedly false when we take this parable into account. However, this has been the way many in the church have looked at it. It is because of this attitude that people like T.D. Jakes, Tommy Tenney and the Word-of-Faith preachers (Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, et al) have been accepted as the real deal into the charismatic church especially. Please note that not all charismatics accept these people.
I am not suggesting a doctrinal witch hunt; however, we do need doctrinal discernment. The idea is not to be suspicious of everyone, but rather to give people the benefit of the doubt until they reveal themselves to be "weeds."
 
Yet, many in the church will do absolutely nothing even when the "weeds" are revealed! We cannot allow the "weeds" to continue choking our people while remaining quiet about them. We have to alert the church when "weeds" have infiltrated us.
 
I know, it is not our job to remove the "weeds" from the harvest field. That is God's job. However, that does not mean that we should just sit still and hope for the best. "Que sera, sera!"
 
It is up to every Christian to remain vigilant and "to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jd 3)
 
Just thinking...

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Bill Gates Antichrist?

Got your attention, didn't I?
 
We all know that the Chinese government is absolutely against free speech. They are even now trying to put a stop to bloggers in China. The amazing thing is that Bill Gates and his Microsoft empire have started cooperating with the Chinese government to silence bloggers.
 
Adrian Warnock and other bloggers have picked up on this, even while mainstream news is silent about it.
 
It seems to me that money clearly speaks louder than conscience at Microsoft. I am convinced that if Microsoft decided not to cooperate with the Chinese government, they would lose a major chunk of their annual revenue from the Chinese market. I suppose in business you don't throw away a market of over 1 billion people aside for something as archaic as principles, do you?!
 
Just imagine how many XBox 360s could be sold into that market? What about their operating system called Windows XP?
 
I was always taught as a kid that the more we have the more we want. Is this Bill Gates' story? We will have to wait and see about this issue with the Chinese government.
 
All that you and I can do is to bring this flow of events to the attention of the rest of the world!
 
Are they going to listen?
 
Just thinking...

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Christmas has come and gone

Those who read my blog on a more regular basis have probably wondered what happened to my blog and why I haven’t written anything new for some time.

 

Well, I have been on leave from 23 December 2005 until today 3 January 2006. I decided that I would not blog at all during this period just so that I could get a proper break from everything.

 

Christmas is a special time in our family--especially the extended family with grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins of our children--and so we go all out in decorating our houses for Christmas. So, like my mother-in-law says, we are creating happy memories for our children.

 

However, one of the memories that always stick in my mind from Christmas, and that is almost any Christmas, is the fact that Santa Claus rules Christmas when it comes to displays. It is extremely difficult, almost impossible, to find something as part of the Chistmas decoration for homes that actually point to Jesus Christ and His birth.

 

So, even in our homes, there is very little by way of decorations that point to Jesus. This saddens me greatly!

 

On Christmas Eve the extended family always sit up till midnight, at which the children are woken up for the annual Christmas gift-fest! However, right after supper the children usually present the adults with a little Christmas show. This year's (2005) show has definitely been the best. There were a couple of different dance numbers to some contemporary Christian music, which was followed by 3 Bible readings (2 from Psalms and 1 from Matthew). This again was followed by prayers from each of the kids and it was all ended by a creative movement to a worship song in which we were invited to join in worship. The children really excelled in their little production and we are all so proud of them. The adults are not involved in this production at all. It is created and performed by the kids alone! The eldest of the lot turns 11 on February 1.

 

It is always so good to see that even when the world can only see Santa Claus, our own kids still see Jesus as the ONLY reason for the season!

 

The new year has come and so we have to mostly go through everything that we went through last year. So, as a new year's wish I would like to bless you with the following:

 
(24) The LORD bless you and keep you; (25) the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; (26) the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Num 6:24-26 ESV
 
Just thinking...
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