Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Kindom of God is NOT a Democracy

The man who will read this needs this word of encouragement. The kingdom of God is a benevolent theocracy. There is only ONE KING. Nowhere are there supposed to be votes. You can step out of the kingdom, you can go to a different domain under the same King. But there is no democracy except in ONE place. The Church at Laeodocea was run by a board, by a vote, by the people.

And we know how that came out. Jesus vomited them out.

It wasn't his plan. God places a man in charge (the Angel (the same root word as Apostle) and he is to rule the household of faith over which he is placed.

Somehow that has been polluted with religious systems. And sometimes that was changed because of abuses in the past particularly by the Roman Church.

But that was never God's best. God's plan was for a set man to be called and the vision God gave him and the prophetic voices around him were to define the vision of the Church. If a man who knows that call is stifled he will end up leaving the church within a few years. His call which is without repentance cannot survive the stifle of church systems.

Churches sometimes flounder for a very long time without sound apostolic leadership because of a spirit or a demon.

Either a Laeodocin spirit or the demon Jezebel.

Both are evil.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Never and Always

I'm in the Dakotas with family. There are a lot of goodbyes with the hope that things never happen. Yet there is not an always. This morning the last of my mothers brothers died. The family of John Lee is gone. There is a hope that these things will never happen and they always do. Mortality is unstoppable.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

How Jesus Views Religion

I've been meditating on Romans 11. Going to preach on it. One thing comes clear to me. Jesus isn't very happy about man made religious systems.

He IS happy about FAITH.

John the Baptist told those who came to him in the desert that Jesus was taking an axe to a tree. A tree of a religious system. Paul talks of that tree being cut off in Romans 11. Most all the branches were lost because of that cut. New wild olive branches being grafted in. That's you and me.

But, Paul warns that if we don't remain alive we too could be cut off and discarded. Death comes thru dead religion. Faith in systems, sacraments and traditions rather than faith in God. Baptism doesn't save you, Faith in Jesus confessed with the mouth and the heart does.

Jesus gave an illustration of this. I stole this from David Wilkerson (a modern day prophet I trust) who's newsletter I received yesterday had this.

Jesus was traveling with his disciples out of the city. One of the disciples says, Look there is the fig tree you cursed. Sure enough the fruitless fig tree from a few days earlier was dead as a doornail. It's cursed state was not that it didn't look good, not that it wasn't green and not that it didn't have nice leaves. To a casual observer it looked for all practical purposes like any other fig tree. It was cursed for it's lack of fruit. Just like many churches do today. Look nice but no fruit.

Jesus took the opportunity of this dead fig tree that represents how he feels about fruitless and powerless religion. It should die and dry up just like that fig tree.

Then he says something that in context doesn't seem to fit. Jesus says have faith in GOD. And then he says the passage that many faith teachers hang on. Have faith as a mustard seed. If you say to this mountain be removed and cast into the sea it will be. Mark 11:20-26

We use this to define all kinds of mountains in our lives. Mountains of illness, mountains of debt, mountains of financial pressures, mountains of pain, mountains of loneliness, mountains of failure.

Is that what Jesus was talking about? I'm not sure.

Wilkerson says (and I think I agree with him) that it is the
MOUNTAIN OF UNBELIEF.

We have trouble believing when the big crises comes. We can believe for the little things, but when the mother of all disasters and trouble sets in we run out of faith.

We must say to that mountain
MOVE. Be cast into the sea of unbelief.

Only then will it find a new place and it will not be in our way when we need faith to trust God.

He who trusts God will be established to stand, he who trusts the prophets will prosper. Do both and prosper. 2nd Chronicles 20:20

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

J I Packer on Homosexuality - Worth Reading

I won't even try to summarize this article. It's not that long and if you are confused about things like same sex marriage, this is worth reading.

Rap DNGene

Last Night on the Plane I sat next to a young (35) year old black man. A rapper. Fully regaled in all out Rap regalia.

We talked of music, of Mace (a singer and pastor), of Fifty Cent (who I blogged on earlier). He's a sound guy. He was very very interesting. Knew much about the whole rap scene.

He has seen all the
idiocy in the black community. He grew up on the west side of Chicago. He's real street. But a good guy. I offered him a ride home. His girl was coming to get him. So nope.

Here's the most
interesting thing to me, He's a black man, grew up in a broken home, a rapper by trade and (are you ready for this) a conservative. Big time.

I know these people are out there. The black populace is not uniform in any way.
Certainly not in support for Obama or the democrats. He was angry about the Dems over not drilling for oil.

He grew up poor and still is not rich but he is not fooled by the
demagogues in so called black leadership.

It was inspiring to talk to him. He has a new rap album coming out. I will plug it when it hits. I've already seen the basis for it. More soon.

Now a confession. I'm an old white guy but sometimes I listen to Rap music. So does my music major son. I know a little bit about it all and despite the negativity, good rap can be really good.

We agreed on what was good. Much of what is on the radio today is NOT good. More to come on that as well. Just for clarity, I don't listen to Rock and Roll on the radio and seldom listen to Christian Music on the radio. For the same reasons.

I guess it gave me hope that there are conservative right thinking black men and women who despise the misleaders in the Black community.

One of the ways to know you are a loser headed for prison

I just saw this and decided to get a head start on my list of 13 ways to know if you are a loser headed for Prison. This is number 7,

You fill your mind with violent scary movies, TV, Rap and Hip Hop that glorifies violence and fear.

Read this sad story.

So much to Blog and So little time

Peggy and I are off to the hinterlands tomorrow. I will be pretty much postfree till then.

I have so much to blog and no time to do it. And a dead computer.

Blog Topics to come:
13 ways to know if you are a loser headed for prison
The back country of Texas - "Dallas" in a trailer house.
The presumptive President of the USA acts Presumptively
I will take my "Password" along and if I find a computer I will blog. Otherwise I'll see you all next week. Blogging will resume as of the 31th.

Just when you Thought it was Safe to go Outside - Al Gore Steps in and Spoils it all

I have been a regular and consistent critic of the new age religion of which Al Gore is Chief Priest and Bottle Washer.

In a Wall Street Journal editorial today Brett Stephens really gets down to the nitty gritty.

He says:
Al Gore gave a speech last week "challenging" America to run "on 100% zero-carbon electricity in 10 years" -- though that's just the first step on his road to "ending our reliance on carbon-based fuels." Serious people understand this is absurd. Maybe other people will start drawing the same conclusion about the man proposing it.

And he ends it identifying it as the false religion it really is:

A more interesting question is why Mr. Gore remains believable. Perhaps people think that facts ought not to count against a man whose task is to raise our sights, or play Cassandra to unbelieving mortals.

Or maybe he is believed simply because people want something in which to believe. "The readiness for self-sacrifice," wrote Eric Hoffer in "The True Believer," "is contingent on an imperviousness to the realities of life. . . . All active mass movements strive, therefore, to interpose a fact-proof screen between the faithful and the realities of the world. They do this by claiming that the ultimate and absolute truth is already embodied in their doctrine and that there is no truth nor certitude outside it. . . . To rely on the evidence of the senses and of reason is heresy and treason. It is startling to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible."

You really should read this whole thing. It will free your mind from fear.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Barbarism in Iran

Just thought you would want a peek at what Sharia Law will bring in case for a second you thought you could live with it.

Here's a peek.

What fun eh, haven't had this much fun since Buchenwald.

Postlessnessnesssss

I'm off this PM to Texas to do my Expert thingy.

From time to time people contact me to come and pronounce stuff over their enterprise.

This is one such. I'm off to Texas to a fine nursery I'm sure.

Not a paid vacation, just a paid trip.

So, I'll be back briefly on Tuesday then it's off to Dakoter.

Kevin is coming in ten day. Busy times.