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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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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.

Save, Back-Up, Restore

Allen Frederick 3 Comments

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor

Insight from the Journey across the Sky

By Allen Scott



6 Take to heart these words that I give you today. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re at home or away, when you lie down or get up. 8 {Write them down, and} tie them around your wrist, and wear them as headbands as a reminder. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deut 6:6-9 (GW)

Save, Back-up and restore are three terms familiar to every computer IT tech, especially those who working in a ‘Microsoft Windows ™’ environment. With all the malicious malware circulating over the internet and hackers sending out viruses and denial of service attacks, it is not a matter of if, but when a computer will crash. Firewalls and virus protection can only do so much, therefore it is important that when your computer is running smoothly, you take the time to back it up.

If you get in the habit of doing regular back-ups, then restoring a computer system after a crash is pretty simple. However if you fail to back-up your hard drives and save it in a secondary location, then the restoration process will take a lot longer, in fact the lost data may never be restored. Failure to have a back-up is failure to plan ahead for a crash.

I had a run-in with the dreaded drive crash over the weekend. I had been noticing a slowing down of the computer while performing normal computing tasks. I knew that a reboot was in order and so I saved all important data and backed-up the most used documents and proceeded with the reboot. Initially all seemed to go well until the computer shut down and started the reboot process again, and then again, and again. I knew from experience this was not going to be good.

After these endless restarts I was able to get the computer to start in SAFE mode and proceeded to remove the offending program. The offending program was supposed to protect my computer from malicious viruses and malware and yet it was the program that was causing my computer to not operate properly. During one of the program’s normal overnight updates the downloaded patch caused instability in my computer. Therefore it had to be removed, and the computer restored to an earlier date, to eliminate the problem caused by the program. Thank God there was a restoration point.

I have had non-repairable computer crashes in the past, in those cases I had no back-up, there was no restoration point. In fact the only thing I could do was forget the past and start over anew. Loosing all my previous work was difficult to handle but at least I was able to start over. Since then I have learned to save important documents to several locations as well as backing up important data and directories. Especially my daily journal. I have over two years worth of writings and thoughts recorded in this daily journal that I would really hate to loose. Thoughts of what God has been teaching me along this ‘Journey Across the Sky’. It contains thoughts and feelings I have about certain events occurring in the world and reminders of the goodness of God through difficult situations.

Not having a recorded history of where you have been, and where you are going makes remembering difficult, if not impossible. Not having a back-up from which you can draw from in case of a memory loss is frightening. Those who suffer from the physical affliction of Alzheimer’s know first hand the horrors associated with memory loss.

It would be nice if we could simply do a restore for memory loss, but alas that is not possible, even with the advances in modern medicine. Computer hard drives can be restored to almost like new condition, and lost data found again through the back-up, restore process. You save it, and back it up so that it can be restored if needed in the future. For humans it is not quite so simple.

God warned Israel to write the word of God upon tablets and door posts, and to teach them to their children so that when God finally gave them the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they would not forget who it was that delivered them from Egyptian bondage. God warned them to remember where they came from, and to not forget who got them to where they are now. He warned them to not forget His words, but to make sure they backed up this information by writing it down and repeating it often, and by teaching it to their children.

Can you imagine the Bible being lost? Can you imagine our lives without the word of God to fall back on? Can you imagine not being able to re-read those stories of deliverance found in the pages of scripture? What would we do if God had not preserved His word down through the ages? What would your life be like if you had never heard the Gospel of Christ?

Continue reading “Save, Back-Up, Restore” →

February Issue of ‘Pop Goes the Gospel’

Allen Frederick 5 Comments

'Pop Goes the Gospel'

'Pop Goes the Gospel'

Welcome to the February 28, 2009 edition of  ‘Pop Goes the Gospel’. The intersection of God and culture. A confluence of everyday life and the extraordinary. The crossroads of heaven and earth. Each month we offer up a select group of posts from across cyberspace that points us heavenward. This month’s edition is smaller than past editions due to some faulty links from those who submitted material for this edition. If you submitted an article and do not see it here this is probably the reason it was excluded. Anyway, less is more starting with this month’s feature article. Take time to read and comment on each article and by the end of your journey you will have been enriched. Now on with the carnival.

This Month’s Feature Article

Raffi Shahinian presents The Parable of the Cancer Cell posted at parables of a prodigal world.I enjoy doing this carnival each month because I get to read some really outstanding articles. Raffi has done a masterful job in this modern day parable and therefore receives the honor be being the feature poster this month. Be sure to congratulate Raffi for earning the rare distinction of ‘feature post’. Perhaps you can earn a spot at the top next month! Send in your BEST post for our next issue and see if it rises to the top. Use this post as an example in capturing the essence of “Pop Goes the Gospel”. Raffi captured that essence exactly.

In Media

Sarah Scrafford presents 100 Enlightening Bible Study Blogs posted at Christian Colleges.A list of lists. Apparently bloggers at Christian Colleges have a great deal of time on their hands as they produce several list articles on a regular basis. So this month here is yet ANOTHER list from the prolific listers at Christian Colleges blog. Perhaps you will find something there beneficial.

In Church Life

Angelawd presents Is Christianity Sexist? posted at angelawd, saying, Never one for running from controversy Angelawd opens a huge can of worms by tackling the “sexism” of the bible. This is sure to garner a comment frenzy. Let your voice be heard regardless of which side of the issue you find yourself. Tough subjects are not taboo here at “Pop Goes the Gospel”.

Yolanda Lehman presents LOVE POURED OUT (Alabaster Box) posted at Ain’ta That Good News?!.Yolanda, a first time contributor to this blog carnival offers up a challenge to us all. Are we being broken and poured out with Love for our savior? Have our alabaster boxes been broken for Christ, or are we saving the good stuff for ourselves? Probing points to ponder and pontificate upon.

In Culture

Andy Deane presents posted at How to Study the Bible – 40 Bible Study Methods!, saying, “Pastor Andy Deane’s new book, Learn to Study the Bible, teaches you forty different step-by-step Bible study methods to help you discover, apply and enjoy God��s Word. Each practical method has a handwritten example to demonstrate to make it easy for you to follow the steps. Learn how to study the Bible with so much variety that you’ll never get into the rut that routine brings ever again.

Rich Bordner presents Don’t Put God in a Box « The Pugnacious Irishman posted at The Pugnacious Irishman, saying, Cliches abound in our society. Rich points out the overuse of cliches are oft times simply masks used to avoid any debate concerning controversial issues. In particular Rich points out the overuse of the phrase “Do not put God in a box” in defending lifestyle choices. He points out the bias usually associated with this particular cliche. See what you think. And be sure to share some comment love.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of ‘Pop Goes the Gospel’ using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Reference Points

Allen Frederick 5 Comments

Random Ramblings from the Resident Raptor
Insight from the Journey across the Sky
By Allen Scott
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2Open Link in New Window
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Image via Wikipedia

Orchestra’s use them, choirs and choruses use them, professional and amateur musicians use them, sailors, travelers, navigators and builders use them. What are they? Reference points.

For the orchestra A 440 is the reference tone the entire orchestra tunes to, the benchmark for any fine musical performance. To a chorus it is a pitch pipe and to the musician an electronic tuner. Sailors looked toward the heavens and by using a sextant, sailed by starlight. Hikers utilize the compass. Builders would use a level and a plumb line. All are acting as reference points.

Without these reference points orchestras and choirs would be out of tune. Professional musicians would sound like beginners. Travelers would get hopelessly lost, and buildings would have crooked walls.

Slaves, hoping for freedom from a life of slavery in the south, were taught, from a young age, how to follow the North Star, to the place where that freedom lay. To think, in the vastness of space, God placed a steady reference point for all eternity. It is not surprising then that the wise men followed a star to the place where Jesus was born.

Our lives need reference points as well in order to navigate safely through this journey called life. Without a guiding light, a plumb line, or some other measuring device we really would not know how straight or crooked our journey was.

Without a point of reference we would be like a sailor lost at sea, or an orchestra out of tune. Without some sort of compass we would never know in which direction we were actually heading. Today GPS units, utilizing satellite coordinates, guide us safely throughout the country. These electronic marvels communicate constantly with orbiting satellites and recalculate our route as we travel the highway.

To the Christian what is our reference point? Is it a compass, sextant, plumb line, tuning fork, pitch pipe, a star? No it’s a cross outside Jerusalem. Without the death of Jesus on that cross, our sins would not be atoned for, and had Jesus not risen, we would be hopeless. The Bible, God’s word, becomes our road map and the Holy Spirit our GPS (God’s Positioning Spirit).

The church calendar acts as a point of reference as well helping to keep us centered on the reason for our hope, Jesus. Each season helps us to refocus on the life of Christ. We are currently entering into the season of Lent, the time of year were we focus on the death and resurrection of our Lord. It’s life from death, hope from despair, light in the darkness, and joy unspeakable and full of glory. From Ash Wednesday, through Good Friday, into Resurrection Sunday we journey again to the cross, the grave, and finally to resurrection.

The cross is the reference point to remind us of the great price God paid for our sins, and the love God has for us. For the lost, the cross stands as a beacon of hope, a compass pointing heavenward, a steady reference point for all eternity. Without the cross, I would be lost. Thank God for the cross, our reference point, and Jesus our guide.

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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