Pope Francis, employing the usual double-talk of politicians, admitted that Roman Catholic teaching condemned homosexuality as a sin. Then, temporizing as politicians do, he noted that certain issues could reduce the sin to a non-sin, even to innocence.
Christians who read only the Bible for our beliefs escape the endless casuistry of Canon-law. Since Scripture clearly and consistently, with no deviation, condemns homosexuality as a sin that demands repentance, we believe it’s a sin that demands repentance, as Paul clearly taught in I Corinthians 6:9-11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reparations to blacks for the slavery of their ancestry simply adds another layer of egotism to black culture’s already-ballooning refusal to accept personal responsibility for its future. They have previously claimed their ancestors worked without pay. True enough. Well . . . think of it from this perspective: where their ancestors WORKED FOR NOTHING, irresponsible blacks in America have, at least since the 1960’s lived on welfare—in essence being paid to NOT WORK. That left black boys and men free to be serial fornicators and adulterers, impregnating girls and women, then leaving them in the care of welfare while they proceeded to their next conquest. Billions of dollars have been GIVEN to blacks since the 1960’s. Those unearned sums have more than repaid what their ancestors weren’t paid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A bonus not in the U-T In all the meetings church leaders have held to discuss methods of numerical growth, has anyone suggested a return to personal evangelism? That is, equipping willing disciples with simple methods that teach Christ to neighbors, friends and relatives. They don’t need to memorize scripture, or employ sales pitches as if we’re selling a product. Consider personal evangelism instead as simple as reading the Gospel of John with a prospect, noting the person of Christ in the personality of Christ. After all, Christ’s words convinced heathen Samaritans that he was the Savior of the world John 4:42. His words can’t possibly have a lesser impact today.
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A curious dichotomy exists in Exodus. The Israelites trembled before Sinai’s spectacle while Moses ascended the mountain into God’s presence. In turn, his stay with God convinced the people he had died; while, on his second time with God, he found his face alive with Glory—before which Israel fled. Read Exodus 19, 20:18-21, 32:30-34 for examples.
That dichotomy still exists in life. Unbelievers complain that God’s punishment of people proves his wrath, not his love; his darkness, not his light. While believers in Christ, simply forgiven sinners, testify to God’s grace and mercy, not his justice. The unbeliever finds anger in God while the saved find peace with him. What accounts for the difference? At least this: the presence of the Holy Spirit in believers. When we come to Christ, the Holy Spirit’s presence in our life fits our eyes with spiritual lenses that turn God’s justice into mercy, his wrath into love, our condemnation into “life and peace”, Romans 8:6, our oncoming death into God’s ongoing life. Obviously then, the way to always see God’s Light and Glory, Friendship and Fellowship is through conversion, turning us from dead letters to living epistles. Fini All people, even atheists, admit that Jesus is one of the Great Men of history. Of course, they lump him in with others who played important roles.
Christians need to know and proclaim that Jesus isn’t:
Christ’s singular nature, coupled with his Universal Authority over Heaven and Earth:
-- he claims too much to answer all the needs of all the nations in all generations. And they are WRONG. End Part II Playwright Eugene O’Neill had a successful, Nobel Prize-winning literary career. He nevertheless wrote from an inner darkness no light banished. Our Century, 1930-1940,
p. 59. Playwright Tennessee Williams enjoyed O’Neill’s fame and suffered a similar affliction. Williams in particular couldn’t shake his fascination with Christ, without accepting the Master’s love and grace. That left him in the grips of sensuality and its inevitable dismal view of human nature. They both could have been Mexican authors. For that nation’s literature stressed hope raised, then disappointed; promises mad, then broken; rescue apparently possible, then failing. The entire Bible corpus instead shines God’s light on life:
Now…anticipating the question: “how can God be love and Christ be light” when God’s judgments in history are so clear and Christ’s warning that not all are going to Heaven is so obvious?” The next blog endeavors to answer the question. Being begotten by a German officer and a 16 year old Norwegian girl in WWII didn’t prevent a California man from being moral, business owner and citizen of the United States. He did wonder if he would have been like his Nazi officer-father had he not been fortunate in having moral adoptive-parents. Possibly, but that’s not inevitable.
The critical spiritual question confronting all mortals demands a correct answer—for our personal good, our inter-personal relationships, our responsibility to God, our church fellowships. All mortals need to understand…whatever parentage we have, we’re first obligated to our Creator God. We can outgrow childhood limitations, but we cannot be what God ordained us to become without acknowledging and accepting his Son. It doesn’t matter who we have as parents; it matters only that we know and obey our ORIGINAL parent. If, as the evolutionist claims, we originated in the slime of primeval ooze, “forget our depravity. In 30 to 40 million more years, we’ll likely get better.” But if, as the truth is, we came from the all-wise mind of God in Christ:
THEN, it’s “Dear God, forgive our baseless, senseless, inexcusable, wicked thoughts and behaviors.” Dear readers, understand humanity is:
Part I briefly told of a Cardiff, California man’s discovery that he had been born in October, 1945, of a union between a German officer/pilot and a 16 year old Norwegian girl.
While most of us know at least our biological ancestry, others may have questions about theirs. In reality, potential medical problems can result from ignorance of our nativity. Or, as in my branch of the Hurley family, personal conflict-issues arise. My dad’s first wife died giving birth to my half-brother Claude. For some baseless reason, dad held that against the baby; that dreadful sin precipitated unresolved personal conflicts between the two as Claude matured. The Cardiff, California man still wonders if his life would have been different had he known, before 2010, that his biological father had been a Nazi. I doubt it, but who knows? He had a very happy childhood in his adopted family. That erased any remembrance of being an orphan when his mother abandoned him. He became a successful businessman in adulthood. Maybe his nativity genes inspired that skill. Would my dad’s acceptance of Claude eased his way through childhood into an emotionally-adjusted man? Very likely. I can still remember an adult Claude coming to the house to see mom anytime dad was absent. And they both standing in the kitchen crying, embracing each other: mom because she loved Claude as her own son; and Claude, dad’s own son by mom’s sister. My five or six years couldn’t understand the emotional outburst from both. For as they held each other and wept, I retreated to our living room. All of this has pointed spiritual lessons. End Part II Inspired by a misguided master-race theory, Heinrich Himmler established Lebensborn homes in 1935 Germany. The “font of life” program aimed to produce blond, blue-eyed babies begotten by German soldiers and national maidens. The program produced some 20,000 babies 1935-1939. It continued following Nazi occupation of Norway in 1940.
A Cardiff, California man’s interest in his nativity had been piqued by viewing a History Channel documentary on the subject. His research uncovered the truth: he had been born in October, 1945 to a German officer/pilot and a 16 year old Norwegian girl. His cousins affirmed his suspicions when he returned to Norway in 2010. He also learned that his father had been killed in action and his mother had abandoned him in 1947. The Norwegian government whitewashed those five years of history, as governments are in the habit of doing when confronting unpleasant facts. The boy/now California man, found himself in an orphanage, which is how the Cardiff, California boy/become man, came to America. While American citizens, his adoptive parents traveled to Norway to find a child. This fascinating story teaches us particularly interesting spiritual facts about human origins. End Part I P.S. Out of study the last two days. Glad to be back. V The first statement II Peter makes regarding the finality of history 3:3-7: unbelievers in every age deny it. An easy decision since they reject the Biblical concept of catastrophism—God’s violent interruption of history in Noah’s Flood. The various flood legends recorded in world cultures do not rival the historic flood of Noah. It records the loss of all but 8 humans kept alive in an ocean-liner sized Ark. It also serves as a symbol of God’s greater destruction of the entire cosmos by FIRE!
The second statement 3:8. God’s delay in finalizing history reminds us that he is as timeless as we are time-bound. He gave us a time frame for historical records, providing the days, months, years and centuries that make history so boring to some and, to others who tolerate the dates to study their significance, so essential. What it all means is that God makes decisions by a different perspective: the sin that ripens society for judgment Genesis 15:16. Which leads to the third statement 3:9. History—HIS STORY—concerns itself with God working out his will in human lives, the purpose that Paul revealed in II Corinthians 5:1-10. Whatever our career-choice, our life-purpose remains singular: to live eternally in the new body Christ modeled, Revelation 1:12-18, and we inherit. Thus, history is really all about God telling us:
Jesus Returns as Judge.
ETERNAL LIFE in Christ bequeaths a full life of discipleship NOW and HOPE of a dramatic, inimitable life THEN. Fini The First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics leave no doubt that desolation remains the ultimate outcome for our planetary system. It’s the principle of diminished capacity: energy expended diminishes as it’s used. It’s also the basic explanation why we age. Our bodily systems wear down as used until they wear out. My brother Dick felt he had reached that point a few days before death. He told his doctor he was “worn out.” Some take longer to reach the end of the energy-capacity, but no one has ever defied the ultimate result of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The evolutionist conjectures that earth and sky, planets and stars, will simply twinkle out of existence: there one instant, then…pfft…gone the next. The Bible-believer knows better. As God out of nothing created the heavens and earth in six 24-hour days; as he destroyed the world in Noah’s flood; as he has in history raised up and humbled nation after nation, he has now assigned the entire universe to BURNING by humanity disgracing, corrupting and depraving all creation by our willful sins and refusal to repent! Peter 3 discusses that finality in three statements. End Part I John Galsworthy didn’t stand by himself when he decried the Biblical emphasis on rewards. He and other unbelievers refused to follow Jesus, declaring their interest in being good its own reward.
Jesus taught the value of rewards and the prospect of rewards a worthy goal. Not only did he teach the fact in the Parable of Talents, Matthew 25:14-30. Not only did he use it to encourage perseverance in service, Matthew 25:19-21, 22-23. Not only did he condemn the servant who refused to be inspired by reward, Matthew 25:24-30. Jesus looked forward to his reward John 17:5: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began”. He welcomed the restoration of his Glory as a reward for his Humiliation as God’s servant, Philippians 2:5-11. We should then delight in the prospect of knowing “Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead”, Philippians 3:10-11, Colossians 3:1-4. Jesus went back to the Father to prepare a place for us John 14:2-3. Should we, in mock humility, decide not to accept our place there? One day Jesus returns to earth in colossal glory. Would we egotistically opt to be exempt from claiming our share of it? Since we serve him in the Blessed Hope his Victory over death and Satan brings us, would we be so silly to have no interest in his conquest—because we pridefully assert our morality over his Spiritual Grace? |
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