Here is a situation going on right now in our country. A woman, who is a florist, in the state of Washington, is being sued, simply because she would not provide the flowers for a friend, who is a homosexual man. The man was planning a wedding with his gay partner, and the woman, who has provided flowers for him in the past, is now being sued on charges of being discriminatory.
The man became angry when she refused to do the flowers for his 'wedding'. He then made it known to the social media avenues of his case against her, and the attorney general for the state of Washington stepped in and sued the woman because she violated the anti-discriminatory laws for that state. The ACLU also stepped in and the two gay men sued the woman as well. Now she is in danger of losing everything she has, her home, her savings, and her business.
The question for us, is, what will we do about this? I think it is good to promote this incident on Facebook and other social media. People need to know what is going on in this country. But, will we stop there? Will we consider the need to pray for this situation, or are we thinking that prayer won't do anything?
What does God think about this situation? This woman actually stated that she could not perform this activity (providing flowers for a gay wedding) because of her relationship with Jesus Christ. Friends, this woman is taking a bold stand for the Lord. How can we support her during this time? Perhaps she will end up in jail, or at least homeless. Are we concerned for her as a sister in the Lord? Can we at least take some time to pray for her and this situation? Can we pray for the gay men who are suing her, and for the attorney general for the state of Washington?
She is being sued on false charges. Maybe, somehow, she will be able to win a court case. I don't know. But here's the thing we need to remember; this could be any of us in the future. With the direction the country is going, we could end up being sued or thrown in jail for calling guys 'men' and girls 'women' (an article was written recently by someone telling us - specifically doctors- not to call a newborn baby a boy or girl, depending upon the genitals the baby has. The baby has to grow up and decide what 'it' wants to be). Your turn could be next. What would you want the church to do if you end up in jail because of your convictions?
For full story, follow this link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/20/living/stutzman-florist-gay/
Do you not have convictions or are you easy to compromise with? Do you see the clear words of Scripture or do you make up what you want to believe what the Bible says about something?
Jesus' words are very clear. Either we are for Him or we are against Him. We cannot be 'kind of' for Him or 'kind of' against Him. Are we understanding that Jesus said that there are many who will call Him 'Lord, Lord', but He will tell them to depart from Him because He never knew them. Today, there are many people who say things about Jesus that are just not true. For example, there are a group of mainly young people, who would call themselves Christians, but believe that Jesus doesn't want us to do evangelism. I was puzzled when I first heard this and didn't think to ask what they thought of the verses in the Bible where Jesus tells us to preach the Gospel to every creature and to make disciples of all nations. But then again, these people have a low view of Scripture. They believe that whenever Scripture and the culture go against each other, then Scripture must bow to the culture. You might think, who in the world would believe this? Check out the book then, by Rob Bell called, 'Velvet Elvis' and you will get an idea of where this thinking comes from.
People are either listening to the wrong voices or have wishful thinking (a form of idolatry, by the way). For example, how many times, when preaching or sharing the Gospel with someone, the response from the other person is, 'But God is all-loving' or But God is all-forgiving'? The homosexual community thinks they have science on their side because they think science proves that homosexuality is inherited. But how can it be inherited if the parents themselves are not gay? The supposed tests they did to prove that homosexuality was inherited were incomplete, so there was no final answer on it. Plus, other tests have been done to show that identical twins do not necessarily end up with both being gay, even if put into different environments. If they are brought up in the same environment and turn out gay, the environment could play a lot of factors in both being homosexual. They failed to take that into consideration though.
So, what can we do? We must pray. This is a spiritual battle and we have to use spiritual weapons to fight with. We can yell and scream all we want, but if God is not with us, then we are fighting in vain.
I am concerned because I am seeing more and more 'Christians' be an advocate of homosexuality. First of all, I really do have compassion on homosexuals. I have faith that God can deliver them and set them free, if they want to be delivered. I would be friends with homosexuals as I would with anyone else (I am not saying I would engage in homosexual activity). They are people who are created in God's image, but are far away from God, for various reasons. I am for those who desire to repent and be free. I also know that freedom doesn't come overnight and without serious battles. But what I am opposed to is the group of homosexuals taking advantage of people who don't agree with them, and who are using force to make them submit to the concept of homosexuality as a valid and God honoring way to live. That is what I am opposed to.
Homosexuality is a serious sin before God. God has every right to destroy us if we live like that. The Bible is clear that homosexuals will not enter the kingdom of heaven.* The Bible is also clear that Jesus died to save homosexuals and the power in His blood is strong enough to break the bonds of homosexuality in a person. It is not a matter of a person's 'rights' because no one has the right to be homosexual. Any sexual relationship outside of marriage is a serious sin, and God will not let it go unpunished. Those who go to an abortion clinic to get rid of their babies are not only in trouble because they are guilty of murder. The problem is deeper than that. God never gave permission for a man and woman to have sexual relations outside of marriage. I don't care how much the woman wants to hold onto this man. If you have to hold onto a man to get him to love you then he is not worth your love. If a man loves the Lord Jesus Christ, he will not force you to have sexual relations with him, no matter how sweet his talk may be. The Bible is very clear on how we are to take care of our bodies and not do things to destroy them. If we have an abortion, we are destroying a life that God created, even if it is created out of a sinful relationship. There are people today who have survived being born as early as 19 weeks in the womb. We don't have a right to take the life of a person who is not born yet.
So please consider these things. There is another way. You do not have to go the way of the world. Culture does not dictate what is necessarily true or right.
One day, you and I will face God in judgment. On that day, Jesus will be either a person's Advocate, or a person's Adversary. There are no alternatives concerning this.
If you have never heard the Gospel before or are unsure of your salvation or relationship to God, please go to http://thegospelconversation.blogspot.com or http://test4gp.wordpress.com
Jesus didn't die for us so that we could continue living in sin. He died so we could be free from the bondage of sin and so we could be entirely cleansed from the guilt and filth of our sin.
* 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ESV
Monday, March 9, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
The Reason Why Conservatives Are Lagging Behind
This is a more practical blog for Conservatives today. Why do we have openly dishonest evil men and women in leadership positions in our government at this time? The answer is really quite simple though. There are a couple of reasons I will cover here.
One reason is apathy. If you haven't noticed, the church (I'm talking about the body of related believers that make up the church) has been pretty apathetic for the past several years. Part of this is due to living in a fallen world and having affections for things other than God. This has been going on for maybe 50-75 years now. Take the situation when a survey had been done concerning how many Christians actually participate in evangelism. It was found that only 2% of professing Christians in the church actually share the Gospel with people. Why such a low percentage? Probably because of apathy. The same apathy that doesn't care about the future of our country, and doesn't recognize the danger that our country is in.
But the second reason concerns me just as much. It is that the Conservatives are divided. Take the Liberals, for example. They know their guy who they want to be president. They have 1 person running from the Democrat party. Conservatives have both the Republican and Libertarian parties. On top of that, most professing Conservative Christians did not want to even vote for those who won the primaries. Many wrote in their own choices. The reasons for their not voting for Romney, for example, was due to the fact that Romney was a Mormon, and some actually believed that he was a Satanic High Priest and that Romney had a secret agenda that would cause Americans to become Mormons. Would you rather have someone try to make us become Mormons (if that ii was his agenda) or was it a better choice to have voted for someone who really does have a sneaky agenda and who pretended to be a Christian at first, only to reveal later on that he was a Muslim, and is enabling Muslims to gain control in our country?
I honestly wonder where our brains are sometimes. If a person does not become a Muslim, the worst thing that will happen will be that he or she will be beheaded (and by the way, that is happening now). If a person refuses to become a Mormon, guess what? What is the worst thing that happens to a person who refuses to become a Mormon? I haven't seen much more than ostracizing the person who refuses to become a Mormon. Which is worse, being beheaded or being ostracized?
The other thing that caused division was the abortion issue. I actually heard Romney saying he was against abortion. He made a couple of statements about it. But the Conservatives were not happy about that. They want a president who will all out eradicate abortion. That would be ideal, but guess what? That's not going to happen in America. Plus, the President doesn't really have the authority to end abortion, even if he were totally against it. All he can do is to sway people to be against abortion. That would be a great thing to do in itself, but there is not much more he or she can do while in office.
Here is something we need to know though: When we elect a man or woman for presidency, the elected president appoints others in different governmental positions. If we elect a God-fearing man into presidency, he will make wise decisions. He will also appoint wise people in the various offices in government. Keep this in mind.
So now we have a president who is not much different than a tyrant. But we have no one but ourselves to blame. We are the ones who are apathetic and divisive. Plus I wonder if the young people really understand how the government actually works.
If we continue on this path, I am concerned that our country will come to an end, at least the way we know it today. Those who fought for our freedoms seem to have fought in vain. We are not holding onto the freedoms that were provided by God for us, in the beginning of our nation. We are also believing the lies that come from the mouths of professors who are very Liberal minded and who are teaching in our colleges and universities today. Many of these professors are basically teaching the same principles of communism. Everyone is equal and everyone gets equal amount of pay. Everyone gets equal amounts of material goods, etc. That is not the way equality works though. That limits the creativity and talents God put into each person as men and women will now have more restrictive job opportunities. Civilization was never intended to work that way.
One reason is apathy. If you haven't noticed, the church (I'm talking about the body of related believers that make up the church) has been pretty apathetic for the past several years. Part of this is due to living in a fallen world and having affections for things other than God. This has been going on for maybe 50-75 years now. Take the situation when a survey had been done concerning how many Christians actually participate in evangelism. It was found that only 2% of professing Christians in the church actually share the Gospel with people. Why such a low percentage? Probably because of apathy. The same apathy that doesn't care about the future of our country, and doesn't recognize the danger that our country is in.
But the second reason concerns me just as much. It is that the Conservatives are divided. Take the Liberals, for example. They know their guy who they want to be president. They have 1 person running from the Democrat party. Conservatives have both the Republican and Libertarian parties. On top of that, most professing Conservative Christians did not want to even vote for those who won the primaries. Many wrote in their own choices. The reasons for their not voting for Romney, for example, was due to the fact that Romney was a Mormon, and some actually believed that he was a Satanic High Priest and that Romney had a secret agenda that would cause Americans to become Mormons. Would you rather have someone try to make us become Mormons (if that ii was his agenda) or was it a better choice to have voted for someone who really does have a sneaky agenda and who pretended to be a Christian at first, only to reveal later on that he was a Muslim, and is enabling Muslims to gain control in our country?
I honestly wonder where our brains are sometimes. If a person does not become a Muslim, the worst thing that will happen will be that he or she will be beheaded (and by the way, that is happening now). If a person refuses to become a Mormon, guess what? What is the worst thing that happens to a person who refuses to become a Mormon? I haven't seen much more than ostracizing the person who refuses to become a Mormon. Which is worse, being beheaded or being ostracized?
The other thing that caused division was the abortion issue. I actually heard Romney saying he was against abortion. He made a couple of statements about it. But the Conservatives were not happy about that. They want a president who will all out eradicate abortion. That would be ideal, but guess what? That's not going to happen in America. Plus, the President doesn't really have the authority to end abortion, even if he were totally against it. All he can do is to sway people to be against abortion. That would be a great thing to do in itself, but there is not much more he or she can do while in office.
Here is something we need to know though: When we elect a man or woman for presidency, the elected president appoints others in different governmental positions. If we elect a God-fearing man into presidency, he will make wise decisions. He will also appoint wise people in the various offices in government. Keep this in mind.
So now we have a president who is not much different than a tyrant. But we have no one but ourselves to blame. We are the ones who are apathetic and divisive. Plus I wonder if the young people really understand how the government actually works.
If we continue on this path, I am concerned that our country will come to an end, at least the way we know it today. Those who fought for our freedoms seem to have fought in vain. We are not holding onto the freedoms that were provided by God for us, in the beginning of our nation. We are also believing the lies that come from the mouths of professors who are very Liberal minded and who are teaching in our colleges and universities today. Many of these professors are basically teaching the same principles of communism. Everyone is equal and everyone gets equal amount of pay. Everyone gets equal amounts of material goods, etc. That is not the way equality works though. That limits the creativity and talents God put into each person as men and women will now have more restrictive job opportunities. Civilization was never intended to work that way.
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