Category Insights on Scripture

Deep thoughts from the well spring of life

Is America A Christian Nation? by Alan Allegra

Allen Frederick 3 Comments

Today I hope you enjoy this guest post from Alan Allegra. If you enjoyed it or find it offensive or have any other comment be sure to let Alan know how you feel. From time to time I like to post articles from fellow authors at Faithwriters.com. We can learn a great deal if we take the time to read what others have to say. So without further delay on with this weeks quest article.

Is America a Christian Nation?

b3bc5301-6edd-48b0-a208-8a504e527944.Large Religion and politics are the two most incendiary topics of conversation imaginable. Everything we think, say, and do is influenced by our view of God and government. President Obama’s observation that we are not a nation beholden to any particular religion has struck the match of ardor and ignited the debate over whether America is a Christian nation.

Let me clarify that there is no such thing as a Christian nation. A Christian, by definition, is an individual follower of Christ. No nation can be "a" Christian, although we understand that those who debate the question mean our law is based on Christian (or "Judeo-Christian") principles. Without floundering in a sea of theology, let’s just say that the principles in discussion predate Christianity and Judaism. They were incarnated in the very womb of Creation.

Some tell us we need to "embrace universal principles that emphasize our common humanity and promote greater understanding and appreciation of different cultures." This sounds well and good and politically correct, but is it practical or possible?

The Book of Judges is a horror story right out of a Gothic novel, except it’s all true. It honestly and almost matter-of-factly documents scenes of rape, murder, dismemberment, unbridled lust, idolatry, robbery, economies of truth, betrayal, assassination, warfare, torture, suicide, filicide, and other best-seller fodder. The key verse and epilogue are identical summaries of the culture of the time: "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6, 21:25). In other words, every person followed the dictates of their common humanity, unfettered by government standards.

If we are to appreciate different cultures, then we need to embrace them uncritically lest we offend. We were wrong to interfere with Nazis, and must appreciate Holocaust deniers. Beheading and terror are innate to some cultures, and we need their cooperation to make this a better global village. Forced abortion is practiced by a country with over 20% of the world’s population. Genocide rules in many countries, and a caste system in others wears a heavy boot that keeps the people crushed and oppressed. So we wonder: Whose principles of common humanity should we embrace and cooperate with?

A cursory consideration verifies God’s view of common humanity: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). Jeremiah reminds us, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (17:9). God ordained human government, based on His righteous character, to rein in man’s evil: "For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil" (Romans 13:4).

Are there "good" common principles of humanity and culture that we can embrace? There are values that are shared by humans that manifest themselves in almost every culture, such as private property and the right to life. But these are not beliefs that evolved or sprang up from the fertile soil of man’s own heart. "Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them" (Romans 2:14, 15). God has written His standards in every heart, and we either live by them or make excuses to go our own way.

Founding Fathers [VHS],

The Federalist Papers

Founding Faith: How Our Founding Fathers Forged a Radical New Approach to Religious Liberty

It is historical fact that the founding fathers based the nation’s laws on the Bible. They were not all Christians or Jews but recognized the wisdom of having a righteous standard of law, a law that respects life and encourages true freedom.

Alan Allegra, Executive Administrative Assistant of Faith Church in Allentown, Pa. More devotionals at http://www.faithefc.com/includes/Alan-Devotionals.htm. More articles at Lifestyles Over 50: http://www.lifestylesover50.com/ and the Morning Call: www.mcall.com. Available for writing.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com <a href="http://www.faithwriters.com">CHRISTIAN WRITERS</a>

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You Can’t keep a God Man Down!

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Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered
unto the chief priests and the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death,
and shall deliver him unto the Gentiles:
and they shall mock him, and shall spit upon him,
and shall scourge him, and shall kill him; and after three days he shall rise again.
Mark 10:33-34 (ASV)

NOW THAT IS GOOD NEWS! FOR IT’S A TRUTH, YOU CAN NOT KEEP A GOD MAN DOWN!

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Junk Mail

Allen Frederick 1 Comment

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor

Insight for your “Journey across the Sky”

A View from the Nest www.eagleviews.org

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. James 1:13-15 (ESV)

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny. Edwards, Tryon http://quotationsbook.com/quote/10739/

Several times a week I must clear it out of my mail box or it will pile up endlessly. Although I do not subscribe to any of these services, there seems to be no end to the number of advertisements awaiting my perusal in the weekly mail delivery. Try as I might, there appears to be no way to end this onslaught from these peddlers who invade my privacy without warning and without an invitation. Their incessant barrage into my home is unstoppable. I would like to pull the plug on these worthless paper- peddlers and forbid them access to my mail box. But alas there is nothing I can do to stop the inflow. The best I can muster is to clear out the mailbox and pitch the unwanted solicitations into the nearest garbage pail. Eventually all those offers will come back to haunt me from the landfills around the country. At least for now I am rid of the pesky things.

We are surrounded by messages each and every second. Our lives are bombarded with noise and triviality. We are constantly being solicited with thoughts and advertisements vying for our attention. This is why the Bible warns us to think only on those things that show merit and hold true lasting value. If I took the time to read every piece of junk mail that infiltrated my mail box, I would be spending time doing a worthless activity and I’d probably be tempted to spend hard earned money on some useless gadget or gizmo.

My virtual email box is even worse with the constant barrage of SPAM mail I get on a daily basis. This is even after the spam filter picks out a good bit of it. How many times am I going to get the same offer for this, that or the other business opportunity, or offers for augmentation of one portion of my anatomy or another. Never mind the fact that these are not always gender specific. I mean I get woman’s care product offers as well as male enhancement offers. Come see this, come do that, write to me and the list goes on and on and on.

 

 

Internet Security Barrier Antispam Sunbelt iHateSpam 4

Someone, somewhere has to have way too much time on their hands to be producing all this junk mail and spam email that circulates around the world. But they, like the producers of junk mail, know that there is a market for their services. Otherwise, they would not produce it. The sad facts are, if a message is repeated often enough and loud enough, it oft times supplants legitimate thought and reasoning. Advertisers know that if a person sees a message enough times and it is presented in a provocative enough way, many people will actually buy what they are advertising, whether they wanted it or not.

Thus is the nature of mass-marketing. Therefore junk mail purveyors will continue to produce their endless reams of merchandising paraphernalia. Oh how I wish there was a spam blocker for the US postal system.

Spiritual junk mail is just as real and pervasive as actual junk mail. Our minds are bombarded with sights and sounds, scents and sensations, each and every moment of our lives. Some of these thoughts are worthy of our attention but many are not worth the time it takes to ponder them. Yet we are constantly bombarded to the point of mental overload. Even our night thoughts have a tendency to be invaded through dreams and imaginations. Therefore it is important that we watch our thoughts carefully and on what things we spend time thinking about.

What we take the time to meditate on and ponder, become the thoughts that eventually lead us to take action. If we fill our conscious minds with worthwhile thoughts, then we can reasonably expect to produce worthwhile actions, but if on the contrary, we meditate on negative and evil thoughts, those too will eventually produce actions that could result in death – death to ourselves or others. Hate, lust, envy, murderous rage, greed and covetousness are all evil thoughts and produce a harvest of evil actions which produce evil results.

Keep your mind clear, and be alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion as he looks for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 (GW)

The enemy of our souls, knows all too well that if he constantly pounds our thoughts with negative input, sooner or later our actions will start to represent those very same thoughts. Therefore it is important that we filter out these spiritual spam messages on a constant basis.

Mass marketers and satanic forces, both understand the power of rapid and consistent repetition. They both understand the human mind’s capacity to retain information, long after the initial exposure to the message is removed. It is those mind images, that make it imperative to wipe the hard-drive of our minds, clear of all negative images, on a regular and consistent basis. We must then replace the negative with what is wholesome and uplifting. If allowed to clutter our thoughts unabated, those negative images will eventually lead us to take action which will produce negative consequences.

If we do not clear the junk mail from our minds then, just like our mail boxes and computer inboxes, our minds will overflow with all those negative junk messages and crowd out anything meaningful and hopeful. It is imperative then, that we constantly battle junk and spam.

Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants—what is good, pleasing, and perfect. Romans 12:2

So therefore, until there is no longer a market for their services, I will have to continually filter and discard spam and junk mail on a regular basis. Knowing that if I do not initially discard all these attempts to alter my behavior, I will become much more likely to act upon one or more of these offers and end up wasting money on some “too good to be true” offer which I would later regret having succumbed to. In spiritual matters the results of reacting to unsolicited offers could be deadly.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)

Along for the journey

 

 


 

 

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Zeros and Ones

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blessed2c

010001000110111100100000011101000110100001100101001000000111011101101111011100

100110101100100000011011110110011000100000011000010110111000100000011001010

11101100110000101101110011001110110010101101100011010010111001101110100*

see end of article for translation of this binary string

Snowflakes!

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a coalmouse asked a wild dove.

“Nothing more than nothing,” the dove answered.

“In that case I must tell you a marvelous story,” the coalmouse said. “I sat on a fir branch close to the trunk when it began to snow. Not heavily, not in a raging blizzard. No, just like in a dream, without any violence at all. Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,471,952. When the next snowflake dropped onto the branch–nothing more than nothing — as you say — the branch broke off.”

Having said that, the coalmouse ran away.

The dove, since Noah’s time an authority on peace, thought about the story for a while. Finally, she said to herself, “Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come to the world.”

image Binary code is the language of computers. A series of instructions that tells the CPU how to handle the data stream. If you were to simply look at a binary code string you would see nothing more than zeros and ones. Unless of course you understood the basic language of a computer. 01000001 does not mean anything to the average person but in the hands of a computer programmer those ones and zeros spell out the capital letter ‘A’. To think a digital picture is simply a series of zeros and ones, on or off, yes or no, true or false. These are the basic instructions utilized by a programmer to get the desired output.

As Christians, we are part of a master plan much like those zeros and ones are a part of the binary code of a computer program. When lined up in the right sequence wonderful things can happen. What happens when one of those lines of computer code becomes corrupted? The whole program comes to a crashing halt. If a zero is supposed to be a one then instead of the predicted results you will get unpredictable outcomes.

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Just like one snowflake alone does not seem to make much difference when joined with other snowflakes, their combined weight of ‘nothing more than nothing’ can cause a pine branch to break. Zeros alone will not cause a computer to operate, but when you add just a single one you begin the journey toward a positive output.

As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist (be the one), fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:5

Timothy admonishes us to endure hardships, to put up with opposition, to withstand the storms and fulfill the ministry set before us. Each of us, who have been redeemed from the curse of sin and death, have been placed in the body of Christ to do our part. We have gone from a zero to a one. It might appear that by yourself you seem so small and unable to accomplish much, but together with the rest of the body of Christ you are able to accomplish greater things than you could have imagined. Evangelism is simply each “one” making another “one”. Each on fire Christian ignites another. Simply turn an off to an on, a zero to a one.

How could one person chase a thousand or two people make ten thousand flee? Their rock used these people to defeat them and the Lord gave them no help. Deut 32:30 (GW)

Where else besides binary code can 4 = 100 or 27 = 11011? In scripture we find similar arithmetic where God was able to route thousands of the enemy by a few men of God because he fought with them. In His math 2 = 10000. So you do not have to be many, just be a one in the right place and God can do great things through you. Now if we all line up in our rightful positions in the body of Christ and be ‘THE ONE’ we will see great things of God accomplished for and through us.

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. Revelation 3:15

God does not want you to be a ZERO but to be number one. To be number one you simply have to be “turned on”. God desires for us to be hot not cold. He wants us to be “on fire” for Him and the work He has set out before us. Be the “one” placed where God can use you and watch how much happens when we hold our ground as “one” in the binary code of life. Or do nothing and be a zero, a place holder, turned off, and tuned out. The choice is yours, choose to be a “one”.

* translation to above binary code string is: do the work of an evangelist.

Evacuation Route: by Pam Davis

Allen Frederick 4 Comments

 

Evacuation Route
Image by Radio Rover via Flickr

With all the problems currently facing us on the economic front, with what seems like a tsunami of sorts swirling in over our heads as we try to stay afloat in the sea of financial uncertainty, I thought this article put into perspective what really is important in life.

 

Those facing a devastating hurricane must decide what is the most important things in their life to take with them, and what must be left behind. Those who fail to heed the emergency management warnings may face lose of life or serious injury.

The handwriting had been on the wall for quite some time that we were facing a financial house of cards. Those in authority to warn people in the path of its destruction did everything they could to hide the seriousness of the approaching storm from those who would later suffer the full brunt of the storms wrath. The only way to have avoided this particular storm was to not be in its path when the storm hit. Now those same officials who failed to warn the people are making matters worse by trying to cover-up their involvement in the house of cards construction and it’s later demolition. Congress would better serve the public if they actually had an EVACUATION plan in place that could be implemented instead of trying to cover their tracks.

Thank God the bible has an evacuation route already prepared for those who wish to listen. If we heed the warnings found in scripture we can build our financial homes on solid foundations and not upon sinking sand. If we heed the warnings found in scripture we can build our lives upon a sure foundation as well, and though the storms of life may buffet us, yet we can weather the storm because he have our priorities in order. If we heed these warnings we can plan our evacuation route long before the time comes when we need to implement the plan.

RAMONA, CA - OCTOBER 30: A real estate for sa...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

As the stock market continues to fall, as home values continue to decline, as the economy continues to falter, now is the time to take stock in what really is important in life and then rebuild upon that foundation so that you can escape future storms that are bound to come. Today is the day to plan your evacuation route and plan for the future using sound biblical foundational truths.

Guest author Pam Davis now presents: Evacuation Route

Life in The Sunshine State is not always a vacation paradise. Even there residents have to face the reality of nature. You take the bad with the good, where ever you live. In this case that means the possibility of Hurricanes. In recent years Florida had the fury of many. Their power, their destruction is embedded in memories. In a storms path Real Estate is leveled, communities and their people are scarred. When the Hurricane Warnings were issued the call rang out: “Evacuation Mandatory.” The Emergency Management authorities had done their work. The evacuation routes were prepared, streets and highways properly marked. If residents and tourists would follow the directions of authorities , they could leave the danger and flee to safety. Problems always develop when a evacuation is ordered. Many people underestimate the seriousness of the storms threat. They decide to stay put, hunker down, and ride out the storm. It can mean the loss of life or serious injuries.

 

Another problem faces those who do evacuate, as they face critical decisions of what to take with them., and what they must leave behind. We are often unaware what a “tight grip” our possessions have on us! At the approach of a Hurricane people are forced to meet this issue head on.

In the Spiritual realm a force more powerful than a Hurricane is lurking. Sin, Evil, Temptations, are all growing, building, gaining strength, as they approach. Do we have to see the destruction? Do we need to have our lives leveled, bear the scars forever? No! God has given us His Evacuation Route! He has made a way of escape.( I Corinthians 10:13) The choice is ours, stay where we are or flee to safety. Will we take “Seriously The Seriousness” of sin? Can we see it as God sees it, leading to death, Eternal separation from Him, for those outside of Christ? To Christians, will we face the reality that sin causes a break in our intimate fellowship with The Lord, and a loss of fruit bearing? Or, as those who decide to take their chances, and sit out The Hurricane, will we choose to “dig in our heels” and remain in the Approaching Storm of Discipline And Judgment?

OK, so if we do take the provided way of escape; what about our baggage? We are told to cast away our sin, anything that weighs us down in our race ahead.( Hebrews 12:1) Christ tells us that to those who leave all behind we will gain Eternal Life. We are also told not to look back..( Luke 9:62)

Our way of escape is always there, is always open. It is never stopped , due to a traffic jam, as evacuation routes often are. So, do not face the powerful Storms of life alone! As Hurricanes are named alphabetically, our way of escape is JESUS, THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, A-Z!

I am a wife of over 40 years, mother and proud granny. I was born in N.Y. State, currently reside in central AL. With a past career in Radio announcing our family lived across the nation, later worked in the child care ministry. Now, I am living the dream of writing. All things are possible!

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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