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Tag United States
If You Love God, the World is Going to Hate You
“… Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4, ESV).
This week in Pakistan, a pregnant Christian mother of four and her husband, falsely accused of burning pages of the Koran, were beaten by a Muslim mob and thrown into a kiln, a fiery oven at a brick factory, where they were roasted alive.
Over 200 Christian girls in Nigeria were captured by Boko Haram. “I abducted your girls, said its leader, Abubakar Shekau in May; “By Allah I will sell them in the marketplace” as slaves.
Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American, is still being held in prison in Iran for apostasy and practicing his Christian faith. Source
The current trend in society today is for everyone to get along. The tag-line is tolerance. Except when it comes to morality and societal norms than tolerance becomes lost in the rhetoric and vitriol.
No one likes to be told what to do, and yet that is exactly what is happening in our society. A few people are telling everyone else how they are to behave and act. They are pushing their views of morality upon the masses, and refuse to show any tolerance to those who might not hold to their moral standards. These preachers of hate stand in the city square and pontificate loudly and forcibly their viewpoints and even threaten dissenters with legal action. They are all for freedom of speech and assembly as long as those who are speaking are using the approved talking points and are gathered in support of the ‘cause’. There is no room for opposing viewpoints.
If anyone does happen to offer an opposing viewpoint or even question the legitimacy of the issue they are shouted down, or worse yet browbeaten into submission.
Who are these militant purveyors of hate? If you said right-wing conservative Christians you would be 180 degrees out of step with the real world. The true haters are all those who hate God. They call themselves progressive, liberal, or free-thinkers. They portray themselves are ‘enlightened’ and educated, while portraying their adversaries as ignorant, unenlightened, and regressive. They only wish to hear one side of an argument, and that has to agree with their viewpoint.
Real enlightened individuals espouse multiple viewpoints, and ponder all differences of opinions, and weigh all options before forming a defining position on any issue. The ones who militantly vocalize only one viewpoint are not open-minded at all but are rather close-minded and dogmatic. They show no tolerance or mercy. They are hateful, vindictive, and vile ideologues.
They do however have one thing in common, they have a uniform dislike for anything that resembles God or godliness. They hate the sound of Jesus’ name, and run with their ears stopped when scripture is read out loud. They bash Christianity and decency at every opportunity. They are lawless, abusive, selfish, slanderous, ungrateful, unthankful, disrespectful, loud, obnoxious, unforgiving, proud, abusive, greedy, brutal, lack any self-control, are conceited, and boastful. They rejoice in wrongdoing, and actually encourage others to take part in their destructive behavior as if to be promoting a worthwhile cause.
Those who espouse Christian principles and a Godly worldview, attempt to live at peace with all men. They are loving and kind, generous, forgiving, merciful, law-abiding, honest, truthful, and humble. And because they love Jesus Christ and have faith in the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, they are hated by the world, just like Jesus was.
2 Timothy 3:2-4 (NIV)
2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–
We have been warned that this day would come. There will be those who will pretend to be godly and even use scripture to support their perversions, and the bible tells us to have nothing to do with them. Do not imitate their ways, do not even engage them in their folly, simply have nothing to do with them. Let them go and do what they are going to do, because in the end they will receive the rewards their folly deserve, for they have rejected the wisdom of their elders, and have forsaken the sure paths to walk in crooked paths. They have built their lives on the shifting sand of moral relativism and as a result what they are building will crumble and fall. It is inevitable and their destruction is sure.
As for your my brothers and sisters in Christ:
Matthew 5:11-12 (BBE)
11 Happy are you when men give you a bad name, and are cruel to you, and say all evil things against you falsely, because of me. 12 Be glad and full of joy; for great is your reward in heaven: for so were the prophets attacked who were before you.
And that is the way I see it. What say you?
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Fruit Inspectors, Log Detectors, or Foolish Advisors? You be the Judge!
Isaiah 59:14-15 “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth has fallen in the streets and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.”
I am afraid that we have lost our way in America. For too long we have been fed this anti-biblical principle that no one is allowed to judge anyone for anything, and we are all just supposed to love one another no matter how the other person behaves or what the other person believes even if those beliefs are contrary to our own. We are being told over and over that tolerance is the way forward, and we all need to be accepting of others.
The only problem with this is those who are calling for others to not judge set themselves up as the arbiters and judges of all that is judgmental. In other words they judge others while exempting themselves from the same judgment they are meting out.
In fact, in today’s modern culture, “judge not” carries more weight than another of Christ’s one-liners, ”Go and sin no more.” This is a situation where a little Bible knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
JUDGE NOT and THOU SHALL NOT are not stand alone statements.
It is important to take scripture in context to get the full meaning of what Jesus or any of the other biblical writers are trying to say. Taken in context then we have our judge not comment below.
Mathew 7:1-5 “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
You see, Jesus commanded us to not judge hypocritically, He never commanded us not to judge. He asked us to remove the logs so we could “see clearly” to help our brother. How are we to remove a log if we feel that we do not have a log? And how is it that we learn about having a log in the first place? If everyone around us keeps telling us the way we see things is right and good, then we will continue down a path that we think is right only to find that path led us right to our own demise. What was the problem? How did we get here? Why did God allow me to go down this road? My friend it was because you had believed the lie that you should not be judged in anything you said or did or thought. You were blinded by a huge log that you refused to allow anyone to point out to you.
So then how do we learn about our logs or specks for that matter? We learn from others who have already removed the logs from their eyes, or better had the logs removed for them by the Lord through spiritual encounters.
I Corinthians 2:15 “But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.”
We are instructed to judge all things….things…not people. Actions, thoughts and words are things. Choices are things, what people do are things. You should judge decisions and actions of others to decide if those actions are good or bad. Yes my friends some things are bad for you. Heck if we follow the teaching of these blinded fools and not judge anything then we will not be long for this life since we will be eating poisoned fruit. Who is it among us who will stand and say that they do not judge what they eat? No one would intentionally ingest poison, and yet many, for lack of judgment, are ingesting a deadly poison, that of a failed worldview. Their visions are clouded by huge logs. Just like a good chef knows how to pick good fruits and vegetables to cook with, and seeks out only the freshest and finest ingredients, shouldn’t we do the same when it comes to things that pertain to this life?
Yes we are and yes we should!
I Corinthians 6:2-4 “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.”
“….How much more the things that pertain to this life.”
Only a fool would willing eat poison, or follow a path that led off a cliff, and using sound judgment is the key to avoiding such deadly consequences. The problem with sin though is its subtlety. It is not labeled poisonous and there are no DANGER signs posted on the pathway of destruction. In fact sin is very enticing, it has an intoxicating appeal. It is addictive. Like the siren’s of Homer’s Odyssey sin’s haunting allure leads all to their destruction.
We all have specks in our eyes and our visions are cloudy, some even have forest growing in their eyes, therefore all of us need some guidance and direction when it comes to matters that pertain to life. It is where we go to get that instruction which could be a matter of life and death. Paul admonished the Corinthian church to set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. In other words listen to those who you might not otherwise esteem as notable. Many times God speaks through those we least expect and in ways that challenge our intellects.
How then can one know what is good and what is bad? Discernment is the short answer, but learning from others is probably the better answer. Allow others to look for logs and specks. Allow your fruit to be inspected by a certified fruit inspector.
Matthew 7:15-18 “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”
Jesus clearly delineates between good and bad, and exhorts us to do the same. That requires judgment.
Do not think too highly of yourself that you feel you are above reproach in all areas of life. Pride will surely lead you down the road of self-destruction because you will not heed the warnings of others, or listen to the rebukes of those who have gone down the same path before you. You will simply cry out in a loud voice…WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE while you are speeding along the pathway of destruction.
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“Not Letting a Crisis Go to Waste” Led to a World War
History has a way of repeating itself,
therefore it would do us all well to learn from it.
After World War I, Germany‘s economy suffered from depression and a devaluation of their currency.
On January 30, 1933, Adolph Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany by promising hope and universal healthcare. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? But wait there is more.
Less than a month later, on February 27, 1933, a crisis occurred – the Reichstag, Germany’s Capitol Building, was suspiciously set on fire.
Hitler was quick to use this crisis as an opportunity to seize emergency powers, suspend basic rights, and accuse his political opponents of conspiracy. Not wanting to let any crisis go to waste Hitler’s propaganda machine leveraged it for political gain.
He ordered mass arrests followed by executions, even ordering his SS and Gestapo secret police to murder rivals, as during the Night of the Long Knives. On the dawn of a new election in America Obama sent his IRS hit men to obstruct his political rivals.
Hitler confiscated guns, forced old German military leaders to retire, and swayed the public with mesmerizing speeches. He was a great orator and could move a crowd with great speeches. Just speeches, just words or the soothing song of the siren of death? He spoke of great things while plotting the destruction of many lives. He came preaching peace and safety only to reign over sudden and utter destruction.
Using diplomatic intimidation, deception, and Blitzkrieg ‘lightning’ attacks, Hitler’s National Socialist Workers’ Party proceeded to take control of:
Austria, The Sudeten Region, Bohemia, Moravia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, France, Monaco, Greece, The Channel Island (UK), Czechoslovakia, the Baltic states, Serbia, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia and more. He was leading Germany to total world dominance.
The National Socialist Workers Party operated over 1,200 concentration camps where an estimated 4,251,500 people lost their lives. Today in America more than 1200 abortion clinics operate around the clock killing millions of innocent lives yet unborn. This is a modern-day holocaust. Lives considered not worthy to live are being snuffed out as the world turns a blind eye.
Church leaders who spoke out in opposition to Hitler were arrested and executed. As it was then it is still today, religious leaders who are vocal about their opposition to todays genocide are often arrested and prosecuted. We have not yet gotten to the place where those who oppose America’s holocaust are killed, that day may soon arrive.
Something had to be done to stop this madness. Who or what was going to intervene on behalf of all the lives lost during Hitler’s bloody rampage?
In his D-Day Orders, JUNE 6, 1944, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower sent nearly 100,000 Allied troops marching across Europe to defeat Hitler’s National Socialist Workers Party:
“You are about to embark upon a great crusade… The eyes of the world are upon you.
The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you…You will bring about…the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe…
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely…And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
Over 160,000 troops from America, Britain, Canada, free France, Poland, and other nations landed along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast of France.
It was the largest amphibious invasion force in world history, supported by 5,000 ships with 195,700 navy personnel and 13,000 aircraft.
America heard the news from a transatlantic radio-telephone hookup from Supreme Headquarters to all major press services and broadcasting networks in the U.S.
A dramatic 10-second pause preceded it. Colonel R. Ernest Dupuy, General Eisenhower’s public relations officer spoke:
“This is Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force. The text of Communique No. 1 will be released to the press and radio of the United Nations in ten seconds.”
The seconds were counted off… “One, two, three…:”
“Under the command of General Eisenhower,” Dupuy read slowly, “Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France…”
An extremely rare ringing of the Liberty Bell was heard across the country on national radio as Philadelphia Mayor Barnard Samuel tapped it with a rubber mallet and proclaimed, “Let it proclaim liberty throughout the land, and the return of liberty throughout the world.”
In the larger cities, people flocked to cathedrals and synagogues. Across rural farmlands, they stopped what they were doing and headed to church.
The invasion did not happen speedily, and it was not without great loss of life. Americans were already making great sacrifices and mourning their dead, but they were about to be sent reeling with news of corpse strewn beaches a world away.
Today, 70 years ago, the sea along the heavily fortified beaches of Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword and Pointe du Hoc ran red with the blood of almost 9,000 killed or wounded. All that bloodshed led to a major turning point in World War II. The blood of those brave men who stormed those beaches that fateful day in 1944 would soon bring to end the brutal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich.
Eleven months after D-Day, the war in Europe ended with an Allied victory on May 8, 1945.
VA More Concerned with Removing Religious Symbols From Chapels then Healing Vets
See on Scoop.it – Eagle Views
The Department of Veterans Affairs may be embroiled in a healthcare scandal — the severity of which led to the resignation of VA head Eric Shinseki — but pockets of the VA health system seem to be focused not on improving healthcare for veterans,…
EagleWings‘s insight:
With the sorry state that the VA is in they need all the prayer they can get, but once again the PC police as struck with a vengeance against Christ and his followers. Not wanting to offend the small minority who might take offense to seeing Jesus on a cross or a statue of Mary, the VA as put in place regulations that shield the small but vocal minority who may cry foul.
I am really growing weary of these cry babies whining everywhere they go and complaining about religious symbols in places of worship. If you do not want to be confronted with the cross then stay out of the church and the chapel. But if you enter a church or a chapel right-minded individuals would expect to find Christ there.
There are a million and one places you can go if you want to avoid any mention of Christ, but if you venture into a CHRISTIAN facility you will be presented with a CHRISTIAN MESSAGE in word and symbol. and if that offends you then do not attend such places.
Why are there chapels in VA hospitals you may ask? Because many vets and families of vets like having a place to go pray to their Lord. If you are not of the Christian faith and want to have a place where you too can go to pray to your god or goddess get to work on setting up a place of your own or perhaps even ask the Chaplin nicely if he/she will allow you to use the chapel and he/she may even VOLUNTEER to cover-up any offensive symbol, but REQUIRING Christians to remove symbols of their faith is not INCLUSIVE and COMPASSIONATE nor is it TOLERANT.
See on www.theblaze.com
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