I just finished reading April's Voice of the Martyrs magazine. I highly recommend it if you don't receive it already. This month's focus was on North Korea, which was incredibly inspiring. It is unreal how much we take for granted as Americans. The persecution in some countries is intense. I wonder how long 'believers' would attend church in this Joel Osteen Era if we were to suffer real persecution.
I felt led to share this comment from Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs:
"We all have to die. The decision does not depend on us. If nothing follows, the most beautiful life is nothing more than a banquet offered to a condemned man before his execution. He gets dainties and then he is hanged. He may live in an ideal society, but eventually he will rot, forgotten forever by everyone.
Go comfort somebody who is dying in a cancer ward, or his family, with these words: "We are building a happy Socialist society," or "Science achieves great things. We have been to the moon and soon we will be on Venus." There is not much consolation in this. But tell the dying and the bereaved about the heavenly Father and the Christian's hope of living eternally with Him, and you will see the difference.
If the athiests are right and there is no life hereafter, "All our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death" Shakespeare
This past year I have had alot of time to think about things like this and they are very true. When you are faced with the possibility of dying, nothing on this earth really matters except your faith in Jesus. So if you haven't already please repent of your sins and turn your life to Jesus. You will never regret it.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
My short conversations with Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney
As most of you know North Dakota is right in the thick of the Republican Primaries. So, naturally, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney have shown up in Fargo over the past two months. My wife and I decided to go check it out. The first one I went to was Rick Santorum's event on February 15. Rick Santorum is a very strict Roman Catholic, if you haven't been able to tell by all the contraception talk. When we got to the Holiday Inn we could not believe how many people were there. I think it was somewhere between 1,000-1,500 people. We stood in line for about 10 minutes when we noticed that Santorum was going to walk right by us. I brought some anti-catholic gospel tracts with to give him. They just so the differences between Catholics and Christians like the eucharist, praying to Mary, etc. He finally made it to where we were standing and I gave him the tracts. He said, "Do you want me to autograph these?" I said, "No, there for you." He looked at me funny, shook a few more hands, and than walked into a side room to do a Piers Morgan interview.
Santorum's speech was amazing. My favorite part was where he talked about how when he was in the Senate he brought the Infant Born Alive Act before Congress and I believe he said it passed. He went on to say that the only state to bring a similar bill was Illinois. This bill would stop a baby from being able to be thrown in the garbage if it was meant to be an abortion, or put on a shelf to die. (There have been documented cases of this.) Santorum said that when this bill came to the floor the only state senator to say anything against it was President Obama. He said he could not vote for it because he thought it would affect Roe vs. Wade. The crowd gasped and booed.
After his speech I noticed that there were not that many people around Santorum so I approached him to get his autograph and a picture. He agreed, but the interesting part was he recognized me from earlier. He gave me a face that said, "Oh, you're the character that gave me those gospel tracts." So the moral of my story is if Santorum becomes president I can say that I tried to get him saved. I'll leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit.
My second experience with the Republican Primary was the Mitt Romney Campaign Event at Wrigley Mechanical in Fargo on March 1. As some of you know I have a real serious problem with Romney because he is lying about his positions on social issues. He has been in support of same-sex marriage in the past, and also was to the left of Ted Kennedy on abortion when he sought to defeat him in the Massachusetts Senate Race in 1994. Massachusetts was the first state to approve of same-sex marriages. This was while Romney was governor and he did not lift a finger to stop it. I recently purchased a book called, "Mitt Romney's Deception: His Stealth Promotion of "Gay Rights" and "Gay Marriage in Massachusetts."
So I got to the event fairly early, which was well attended by Mormons. I sat next to a lady who had brought her kids from Minot and had drunk the Kool-Aid on Romney's flip-flopping. She had no idea how bad he really is and had turned her brain off because he's a Mormon. I decided not to get into a theological debate and just have some polite conversation.
Romney gave a good speech and afterwards I approached him to get his autograph. The kicker is that I brought the book mentioned above for him to autograph! I wanted to get his reaction to it and maybe argue with him. Romney had five Secret Service agents around him and I raised a pen for him to sign, and they told me, sternly, to put it down. Naturally, I did. I had no intention to stab a potential future president. After that I folded the cover of my book over, budged in front of a few people, and handed it to Romney to sign. He took a look at it and said, "What to do we have here?", he than flipped the cover over and gave a surprised look. He than said to me, "You want me to sign this?!" I said, "Could you please just sign it?" He said, "No, I'm not going to sign something that isn't true and full of lies!" Now I don't remember exactly everything that was said, but that was the gist of it. So as the Secret Service were getting ever more pissed off with me, I decided to back down. I had just been lied to by a potential future president of the United States and was fairly ticked off but decided it wasn't worth it.
The book is full of direct quotes from Romney when he was governor on social issues. For example he says he has never been in support of homosexual marriage. If that is true why did he give an honorary homosexual marriage license to one of his advisors?! He also has many other quotes in it from the Boston Globe and Boston Herald saying that he would not stand in the way of gay rights.
I eventually made my way back to Romney to get his autograph on a campaign placard. Romney didn't recognize me and signed it. I went home completely disgusted with our political process. I pray God will give us some real gody candidates next time.
For those who are curious I will be voting for Santorum at the North Dakota Caucus today because I think he will take a stand for social issues and act like a real man if elected president. I do not think he will be bowing to Saudi kings and Chinese premiers like our current president loves to do. Well I think that's enought writing for one post. Hope everybody enjoyed!
Santorum's speech was amazing. My favorite part was where he talked about how when he was in the Senate he brought the Infant Born Alive Act before Congress and I believe he said it passed. He went on to say that the only state to bring a similar bill was Illinois. This bill would stop a baby from being able to be thrown in the garbage if it was meant to be an abortion, or put on a shelf to die. (There have been documented cases of this.) Santorum said that when this bill came to the floor the only state senator to say anything against it was President Obama. He said he could not vote for it because he thought it would affect Roe vs. Wade. The crowd gasped and booed.
After his speech I noticed that there were not that many people around Santorum so I approached him to get his autograph and a picture. He agreed, but the interesting part was he recognized me from earlier. He gave me a face that said, "Oh, you're the character that gave me those gospel tracts." So the moral of my story is if Santorum becomes president I can say that I tried to get him saved. I'll leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit.
My second experience with the Republican Primary was the Mitt Romney Campaign Event at Wrigley Mechanical in Fargo on March 1. As some of you know I have a real serious problem with Romney because he is lying about his positions on social issues. He has been in support of same-sex marriage in the past, and also was to the left of Ted Kennedy on abortion when he sought to defeat him in the Massachusetts Senate Race in 1994. Massachusetts was the first state to approve of same-sex marriages. This was while Romney was governor and he did not lift a finger to stop it. I recently purchased a book called, "Mitt Romney's Deception: His Stealth Promotion of "Gay Rights" and "Gay Marriage in Massachusetts."
So I got to the event fairly early, which was well attended by Mormons. I sat next to a lady who had brought her kids from Minot and had drunk the Kool-Aid on Romney's flip-flopping. She had no idea how bad he really is and had turned her brain off because he's a Mormon. I decided not to get into a theological debate and just have some polite conversation.
Romney gave a good speech and afterwards I approached him to get his autograph. The kicker is that I brought the book mentioned above for him to autograph! I wanted to get his reaction to it and maybe argue with him. Romney had five Secret Service agents around him and I raised a pen for him to sign, and they told me, sternly, to put it down. Naturally, I did. I had no intention to stab a potential future president. After that I folded the cover of my book over, budged in front of a few people, and handed it to Romney to sign. He took a look at it and said, "What to do we have here?", he than flipped the cover over and gave a surprised look. He than said to me, "You want me to sign this?!" I said, "Could you please just sign it?" He said, "No, I'm not going to sign something that isn't true and full of lies!" Now I don't remember exactly everything that was said, but that was the gist of it. So as the Secret Service were getting ever more pissed off with me, I decided to back down. I had just been lied to by a potential future president of the United States and was fairly ticked off but decided it wasn't worth it.
The book is full of direct quotes from Romney when he was governor on social issues. For example he says he has never been in support of homosexual marriage. If that is true why did he give an honorary homosexual marriage license to one of his advisors?! He also has many other quotes in it from the Boston Globe and Boston Herald saying that he would not stand in the way of gay rights.
I eventually made my way back to Romney to get his autograph on a campaign placard. Romney didn't recognize me and signed it. I went home completely disgusted with our political process. I pray God will give us some real gody candidates next time.
For those who are curious I will be voting for Santorum at the North Dakota Caucus today because I think he will take a stand for social issues and act like a real man if elected president. I do not think he will be bowing to Saudi kings and Chinese premiers like our current president loves to do. Well I think that's enought writing for one post. Hope everybody enjoyed!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Book of Proverbs, Jesus' Forgiveness, Psychology
This morning in church we did a bible study on Chapter 1 of Proverbs. I have never given much thought to this book of the bible until recently. One of my favorite bible teachers, Jacob Prasch, often teaches that the Book of Proverbs is the Christian's psychology book. When I first heard this I found it to be quite interesting since I work in a field where psychology is highly valued. I have never respected psychology because I believe it gives man an excuse for his sin. I believe most, if not all, mental problems come from past sin or hurts in a persons life. I have noticed when I get depressed about something that it usually has to do with something stupid that I did in the past. So what do I do when I feel this way? If I need forgiveness I ask Jesus to forgive me.
In 1 John 1:9 it says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
No matter what we have done God promises to forgive us. Now I am not using this as a license for sin, but just to tell you that no matter what you have done you can be forgiven. Why would we want to pound the nails into Jesus hands all the more by continuing in sin?
One of the other areas I have a problem with the mental health field is the idea of self-esteem. This is a big thing in James Dobson's ministry or so I have been told. You want some self-esteem? Try this: If you were the only person ever created Jesus would have come and died for you because of your sins! That's right, the Creator of the universe DIED FOR YOU!! How much more self-esteem do you need?
One more area that I believe people get bogged down in mental health related issues is the area of unforgiveness. In the bible Jesus commands us to forgive others:
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15
God will not forgive us if we do not forgive others. I admit at times this is extremely hard but I have noticed that when I forgive somebody a weight is lifted off my shoulders.
Well, that is my rant for the day. So next time you feel that you need 'mental help' just remember the cost that Jesus felt that you were worthy for him to pay.
In 1 John 1:9 it says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
No matter what we have done God promises to forgive us. Now I am not using this as a license for sin, but just to tell you that no matter what you have done you can be forgiven. Why would we want to pound the nails into Jesus hands all the more by continuing in sin?
One of the other areas I have a problem with the mental health field is the idea of self-esteem. This is a big thing in James Dobson's ministry or so I have been told. You want some self-esteem? Try this: If you were the only person ever created Jesus would have come and died for you because of your sins! That's right, the Creator of the universe DIED FOR YOU!! How much more self-esteem do you need?
One more area that I believe people get bogged down in mental health related issues is the area of unforgiveness. In the bible Jesus commands us to forgive others:
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15
God will not forgive us if we do not forgive others. I admit at times this is extremely hard but I have noticed that when I forgive somebody a weight is lifted off my shoulders.
Well, that is my rant for the day. So next time you feel that you need 'mental help' just remember the cost that Jesus felt that you were worthy for him to pay.
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