Injustice from Christians….BLAME it on JESUS!

THE CHURCH IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SO MUCH INJUSTICE

“I have to doubt any religion that has so many fanatics and hypocrites,” insisted Helen, a law student. “There are so many people who are not religious at all who are more kind and even more moral than many of the Christians I know.”

“The church has a history of supporting injustice, of destroying culture,” responded Jessica, another law student. “If Christianity is the true religion, how could this be?”

Keller, Timothy (2008-02-14). The Reason for God (p. 49). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

Many people who take an intellectual stand against Christianity do so against a background of personal disappointment with Christians and churches. We all bring to issues intellectual predispositions based on our experiences. If you have known many wise, loving, kind, and insightful Christians over the years, and if you have seen churches that are devout in belief yet civic-minded and generous, you will find the intellectual case for Christianity much more plausible. If, on the other hand, the preponderance of your experience is with nominal Christians (who bear the name but don’t practice it) or with self-righteous fanatics, then the arguments for Christianity will have to be extremely strong for you to concede that they have any cogency at all.

So we have to address the behavior of Christians— individual and corporate— that has undermined the plausibility of Christianity for so many people . Three issues stand out. First, there is the issue of Christians’ glaring character flaws. If Christianity is the truth, why are so many non-Christians living better lives than the Christians? Second, there is the issue of war and violence. If Christianity is the truth, why has the institutional church supported war, injustice, and violence over the years? Third, there is the issue of fanaticism. Even if Christian teaching has much to offer, why would we want to be together with so many smug, self-righteous, dangerous fanatics?

“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”

Keller, Timothy (2008-02-14). The Reason for God (p. 52). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

Has God Changed His views on Homosexuality? Is God outdated? The Grammy Award thinks so!

Homosexual (I don’t use the word “gay”, because all of my Homosexual friends are not gay at all, underneath, they are miserable) and straight couples were married at a Music Awards show last night. I am not making this up…check out the link below.

A rap group, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis summed up their view quite nicely when they rapped:

“The right-wing conservatives think it’s a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made rewiring of a predisposition.
“Playing God, aw nah here we go
America the brave still fears what we don’t know
And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten
But we paraphrase a book written 3500 years ago.”

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/01/27/grammys-get-political-with-mass-wedding-to-support-same-sex-marriage/

There are several interesting points and perceptions in this rap song that help us understand our Homosexual friends:

1. Sexuality is not a Decision. It is a genetic Predisposition. (a liability or tendency to suffer from a particular condition, hold a particular attitude, or act in a particular way: a child may inherit a predisposition to schizophrenia | genetic predisposition.) “I was born this way.” A Leopard cannot change his spots. How could my sexuality be Sin when I was born this way?
2. Straight people want to rewire us or cure us through Religion or treatments to change us back to them.
3. Non-Homosexuals are “Playing God”. They have a corner on the Truth! And they are judgmental and without love.
4. America still fears Homosexuality and is backward in there thinking. America just doesn’t understand and they fear what they don’t understand.
5. We are all God’s Children, both Straight and Homosexual, and God loves us all, no matter how we were born.
6. Straight people have forgotten this Love of God and substitute it with a Book that was written 3500 years ago.

Jefferson Bethke’s Mother is a lesbian. In his new book, Jefferson addresses his and her reaction and her condition which he believes is sin.
Then, my junior year of high school, my mom told me what was devastating news at the time. She came into my room, sat me down, and told me she was gay. She went on to include that she had fought it all her life and that the woman whom she had invited to live with us months earlier under the pretense that she was just a friend who needed help was actually her partner. (She fessed up after a fight between them.) I felt betrayed by my mom, embarrassed for not figuring out why another woman lived in our house, and ashamed that my mom was gay. What would my friends think? My attitude was so self-centered back then. All I could think about was myself. I was a good Christian kid, so I couldn’t have a gay mom, right? After that, my mom threw in the towel on the traditional Christian faith. The treatment of gays by conservative Christians finally got to her. My initial thought was, Well, if Jesus didn’t work for her, why would he work for me? So I gave up on God too. I was in pain. I was lonely. I wanted to escape but couldn’t . I went from religion to rebellion.

Bethke, Jefferson (2013-10-07). Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough (p. 4). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Think about the above comments and send me a note about your thoughts. Questions that I want answers to:
How do we love Homosexuals?
How do I share the Gospel with them?
Whats my role?
Is feminism the root cause?

Are You Holding Back???

Brothers: I am sitting in my hotel room in Bangkok reading a great book I once read 30 years ago, “Knowing God”, by J. I. Packer. He is asking me a question………is He asking you too??

“Have you been holding back from a risky, costly course to which you know in your heart God has called you? Hold back no longer. Your God is faithful to you, and he is adequate for you. You will never need more than he can supply, and what he supplies, both materially and spiritually, will always be enough for the present. “No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Ps 84:11 RSV).”

But WHY do we all hold back? Are we looking for the good life somewhere else…somewhere outside of Jesus? Do we flirt with this world too much?
Packer states the obvious from scripture………

“You know what kind of life it is that Christ calls you, as his disciple, to live. His own example and teaching in the Gospels (to look no further in the book of God than that) make it abundantly clear.
You are called to go through this world as a pilgrim, a mere temporary resident, traveling light, and willing, as Christ directs, to do what the rich young ruler refused to do: give up material wealth and the security it provides and live in a way that involves you in poverty and loss of possessions. Having your treasure in heaven, you are not to budget for treasure on earth, nor for a high standard of living—you may well be required to forego both. You are called to follow Christ, carrying your cross.”

So why am I living like this Earth is my home?? Why do I cherish material possessions, even cling to them as if they are my security, my goal and my first love??
Packer gives the answer….

“One reason, it seems, is that in our heart of hearts we are afraid of the consequences of going the whole way into the Christian life. We shrink from accepting burdens of responsibility for others because we fear we should not have strength to bear them. We shrink from accepting a way of life in which we forfeit material security because we are afraid of being left stranded. We shrink from being meek because we are afraid that if we do not stand up for ourselves we shall be trodden down and victimized, and end up among life’s casualties and failures. We shrink from breaking with social conventions in order to serve Christ because we fear that if we did, the established structure of our life would collapse all around us, leaving us without a footing anywhere.”

In essence, we FEAR the COST. The risks are simply too great!! As Packer goes on to say……”we are not persuaded of the adequacy of God to provide…..”

OH GOD….Start the Change in us and especially, me, TODAY!!

MAKE MY LIFE A PRAYER TO YOU

Check this out. God used this Keith in my life in the early days. He speaks of Hypocrisy and the Coming of Jesus:

TAKE THIS TEST

Do you lock on when an attractive woman comes near you? Smelling and looking fine……..ANSWER…only if I have a heart beat!!!
Do you masturbate to images of other women? Other than my wife…..Answer…….Only if I still have my penis!!
Have you found your wife to be less sexually satisfying? Only if I am into Fantasy PORN…..if I love her with Agape love……It is “mind blowing” SEX.
Are you holding a grudge against your wife………a grudge that gives you a sense of entitlement? Do you mean an entitlement to masturbate?? I have in the past.
Do you seek out sexually arousing articles or photo spreads in newspapers or magazines? Only if I am wearing my glasses!!
Do you have a private place or secret compartment that you keep hidden from your wife? In order to look at porn and jack off!!??? I used to.
Do you look forward to going away on a business trip? In order to jack off on PORN??? I used to…..now I dread it because I miss daily sex.
………..

We will answer the rest tomorrow as a team!!!!!

What does ADDICTION mean? Titus 2:3…….”to be brought into bondage, much like a slave.”

1-800-NEW-LIFE

WHAT IS ADDICTIVE SEX??

Brothers:

What a fascinating article in the New York Times by a liberal feminist!!!! Even some of the Liberals are worried about internet pornography and sexting. The responses to this article are even more intriguing! Read to the bottom. Let us stand together as the Body of Christ with the full armor of God. (Eph 6:16 says….”In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.”) This is a fight for your mind. The Enemy wants to control it……………will you let him?? Anthony Weiner did!!!

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

Weiner’s Women

By SUSAN JACOBY

Published: July 30, 2013 362 Comments

THERE is something missing from the endless moralizing and sophomoric jokes aimed at Anthony D. Weiner. That something is the role of women in a coarse and creepy Internet culture dedicated to the fulfillment of both male and female desires for virtual carnal knowledge.

People ask how Mr. Weiner’s wife, the soulfully beautiful and professionally accomplished Huma Abedin, can stay with him. My question is why hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of women apparently derive gratification from exchanging sexual talk and pictures with strangers.

These women are not victims of men like Mr. Weiner (or of ordinary, obscure sex seekers in the digital world) but full and equal participants. There is no force involved here; people of both sexes are able to block unwanted advances. Women are certainly safer on the Web than they would be going home with strangers they meet in bars.

Nevertheless, the female thrill seekers are as bewildering in their own way as the sleazy would-be mayor of New York is in his. Why is he called a pervert while Sydney Leathers’s statement that their Internet contact progressed to phone sex twice a week — “a fantasy thing for both of us,” she told one tabloid TV show — is greeted with neutral, if not exactly respectful, attention? Some fantasy. Cinderella, where are you now that we need you?

I actually have no nostalgia for the double standard of sexual morality under which I was raised in the 1950s, when women were supposed to be the gatekeepers of sexual propriety while they waited for Prince Charming. But the unfairness of the old expectations does not justify a new double standard, which pretends that only men are responsible for virtual sex that may prevent or wreck real-life relationships.

One vital, often overlooked aspect of feminism (especially by those who have bought into the stereotype of ’60s feminists as man haters) has always been its insistence on the right of women to express and take pride in their own sexuality.

But the “sex” that women engage in with often anonymous men on the Web has nothing to do with pride in one’s body or mind. Whatever women or men are getting out of sex via Twitter or YouTube, it is not recognition of their specialness as individuals. I could call myself Susanna Reckless and post pictures of my much younger self online tomorrow, but the resulting encounters would have nothing to do with the real me. It all recalls the classic New Yorker cartoon with the caption, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

The morality of virtual sex, as long as no one is cheating on a real partner, is not what bothers me. (But it bothers Jesus of Nazareth in Matthew 5:27-30) What’s truly troubling about the whole business is that it resembles the substitution of texting for extended, face-to-face time with friends. Virtual sex is to sex as virtual food is to food: you can’t taste, touch or smell it, and you don’t have to do any preparation or work. Sex with strangers online amounts to a diminution, close to an absolute negation, of the context that gives human interaction genuine content. Erotic play without context becomes just a form of one-on-one pornography. (Amazing how our Culture takes the Sin out of Sin.)

Nor do I consider it worse for women than for men to engage in this behavior. But I do suspect — because I concede the validity of the numerous studies concluding that men are more interested in and aroused by pornography than women are — that women who settle for digital pornography are lowering their expectations and hopes even more drastically than their male collaborators are.

As a feminist, I find it infinitely sad to imagine a vibrant young woman sitting alone at her computer and turning herself into a sex object for a man (or a dog) she does not know — even if she is also turning him into a sex object. Twentieth-century feminism always linked the social progress of women with an expanding sense of self-worth — in the sexual as well as intellectual and professional spheres. A willingness to engage in Internet sex with strangers, however, expresses not sexual empowerment but its opposite — a loneliness and low opinion of oneself that leads to the conclusion that any sexual contact is better than no contact at all.

That’s undoubtedly just as true for the men who have been called arrogant as a result of their online indiscretions. Deep down, what does a man really think of himself when he must feed his ego with phony gasps of erotic pleasure from strangers in a digital vastness? What does a woman think of herself in the same arid zone of sex without sensuality?

This is not the sort of equality envisioned by feminism. It is, rather, the equality of the lowest common denominator — a state of affairs that debases the passion and reason of both men and women. (The Bible would call this SIN! Separating yourself from a Holy God…..but that would be too black and white…too judgmental for Ms. Jacoby) Check out the 2 comments at the bottom.

Susan Jacoby is the author, most recently, of the e-book “The Last Men on Top.”

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 31, 2013, on page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: Weiner’s Women.

362 Comments

NYT Pick

This negative judgment of consensual flirtatious internet behavior seems quite puritanical to me. It’s not a sign of loneliness. It’s just a fun and titillating diversion. It is a “bit on the side” and not a replacement for more physical erotic pleasure. It seems very likely to me that the younger generation will enjoy doing such things more and more, and like facebook posts, we will come to see them as normal.

I thought we feminists were committed to women fulfilling their desire in any way we choose. Would Ms. Jacoby condemn a “a vibrant young woman” for “sitting alone” and fantasizing, sans computer? If not, where is the greater impairment to her self-worth if her fantasies are mediated by digital communication? Someday we might look back and smile over contemporary culture’s overheated linkage of self-worth and the enactment of sexual desire. Maybe we’ll come to think that vibrant young women aren’t degraded by sexual pleasure any more than by the solitary pleasures of cooking and eating a nice meal or playing chess with a computer. Maybe we’ll understand that the fraught, hyper-valuation of sexual desire is really just the obverse of sexual repression. (Sad to say, Laura, but there are no people in hell today looking back and smiling about their Sin.)

Everyman’s Battle – We need REAL Men around here! Men of honor and Decency, Men with their hands where they belong, and their eyes and minds focused on Christ.

Are you that Man?………a Real Man? A Man of honor and decency? I must tell you…….I have failed this test many times……..giving my eyes and mind to Christ first and my wife, second!!

Just a few questions to get you thinking………..

Ever felt unsaved because of your insatiable lust for women? Sooooo shamed and guilty and deeply flawed……an evil person……a total loser! NO victory over Lust…….Alone…….not able to share it with your friends??
Ever doubted yourself……loss after loss after temptation after loss after temptation after loss………small wins but falling right back into lust??
Ever felt judged by this verse? Matthew 5: 27-28???
Ever doubted these promises? Isaiah 1:18?? Romans 8:33-39
Ever longed for Holiness but never felt like you had a chance in Hell to get it??
Ever used lust in the form of porn or masturbation to feel better after a tough day or week at work or argument with your wife?
Ever been told by your wife that sex is robotic, void of feeling and passion?
- One wife said………”When my husband and I talked about this, he was honest and I was very angry with him. I was hurt. I felt deeply betrayed because I’d been dieting and working out to keep my weight down so that I would always look nice to him. I couldn’t figure out why he still needed to look at other women.”
- And the author’s wife…….”I don’t want to sound mean, but because women don’t generally experience this problem, it seems to us that some men are uncontrolled perverts who don’t think about anything but sex. It affects my trust in men, knowing that pastors and deacons could have this problem………many men have this problem. Since most men are affected, we really can’t call you guys perverts?

Anybody pass the test on page 26-27????? What a stupid question!!!

TAKE THIS TEST

Do you lock on when an attractive woman comes near you? Smelling and looking fine……..ANSWER…only if I have a heart beat!!!
Do you masturbate to images of other women? Other than my wife…..Answer…….Only if I still have my penis!!
Have you found your wife to be less sexually satisfying? Only if I am into Fantasy PORN…..if I love her with Agape love……It is “mind blowing” SEX.
Are you holding a grudge against your wife………a grudge that gives you a sense of entitlement? Do you mean an entitlement to masturbate?? I have in the past.
Do you seek out sexually arousing articles or photo spreads in newspapers or magazines? Only if I am wearing my glasses!!
Do you have a private place or secret compartment that you keep hidden from your wife? In order to look at porn and jack off!!??? I used to.
Do you look forward to going away on a business trip? In order to jack off on PORN??? I used to…..now I dread it because I miss daily sex.