Warning:  there are STRONG opinions and comments in this post.  If I alienate readers, well, so what!  There is truth here.  Deal with it!

There’s debate about what caused the demise of Republican wins this election season.  What always seems to pop up is abortion.  There are those inside the party that say the “abortion debate” has caused the Repulican Party harm — that it has made the party a single-issue party that has alienated enough people to cause defeat in elections.

Some say that one of the main losses was from women leaving the party because of the abortion issue.  Guess what?  I don’t care!  If that was really true (statistics seem to not support this by any great measure), then good riddance!  Besides, I know many good women who have morals and do not abandon God’s truth on this matter.  They are REAL women!  The others ignore the “inconvenience” of the truth for the expedience of the LIE!

Let’s get real.  What is evil?  A living being’s (it has beating heart, it can move it’s legs–kicking; it can move its arms and hands and fingers; it…can…breathe…) life has the attempt of murder forced upon it by a “doctor.”  Miraculously, the living being survives.  What to do?  By every SANE moral standard since human existence, one would try to SAVE the living being from destruction outside the womb.  Instead, we have DEBATE on to whether there should be laws to keep the living being ALIVE!  It makes me weep to think of the helpless BABY (a living being) sitting in trash can in an enclosed closet of a cold hospital shivering until the cold and hunger and thirst and every other deprivation takes the baby’s life. THIS…IS…EVIL!!!  You know what?  I may offend here…those who believe that the child should die…they DESERVE hell!  Unless they repent, may they suffer eternally!  I am tired of the SOFT, milquetoast crap here.  The innocent are being murdered!  The advocates of such evil will have a good time conversing with Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Stalin and (to reference a recent event) the Beslan terrorists.

Unfortunately, our president-elect fought against a law (again, like we should have needed one!) to save babies from botched abortions.  Maybe the Holy Spirit will convict him and turn him from such evil ways.  I do not know.  My concern is more about the fact the many within the so-called Evangelical community equivocate on the previous paragraph.  It seems like we need to be more specific, now, to describe true Christian believers:  how about Evangelical Christ Followers with a Biblical Worldview?  If there is a rapture, and it occurs in our lifetime, how many will be caught up?  Will we be surprised at the small number.  The remnant of those who survived the Babylonian destruction (and God’s judgment) of Israel was small compared to the population.

How much can we compromise on God’s Word and His Truth before He abandons us to our own evil desires?  If you find yourself making excuses for killing the unborn, I plead with you to repent!  Change!  It is not too late!  Murder is murder!  You cannot compromise with the Word of God!  It is Truth!  God will judge you!  I do not say this to condemn but to speak the truth!  I cannot judge you, but God has given us all what He has set before us as truth and His will in our lives.  He hates compromise.  He wants unwavering servants!  Yes, we will mess up and be weak in some things.  But, if we recognize it (by being in His Word), then we have a chance to repent!  We can change!  We can have true fellowship with God!  Yes, He will show us grace and mercy even we are sinning (I know this to be true in my own life), but God will require us to respond!  If we do not respond and we harden our hearts, He will abandon us to our hardened hearts–like Pharoah.  And in the end, we will die!

I am not a super-christian.  But, I am continually comparing the truth of the Word of God to my life.  There are struggles.  There are times when it is easy to examine my life with respect to the Word and change.  Sometimes, it is harder.  It takes a change of mind — taking captive thoughts to make them obedient to Christ.  Jesus is King and Ruler of all!  I have been guilty of neglecting Jesus in the past.  I no longer take Him for granted — or at least I try not to — the sinful nature is a constant hassle.  The name and person of Jesus is becoming a more ever-present presence in my life.  Like others have said, I will not “arrive” until Glorification at the end of this present life.  But, He will sanctify me until then!  God Be Praised!  Have Hope!  If you struggle with the above, PRAY!  God will listen!  He will change you by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name Jesus Christ our LORD who is in Heaven with His Father!

Is there something that affects you such that strong feelings well up inside you, perhaps feelings that threaten to bring you to tears – or even do bring you to tears?  The something could be circumstances, events or both.  There are both events and circumstances that can do that for me.  One event in particular is 9/11/01.  When movies were coming out about that horrible event, I knew I couldn’t watch those movies.  Seeing the images of the planes crashing into the buildings still affects me.  Who knows when, if ever, I might view the images, documentaries, or movies without strong feelings welling up in me.  This will probably pass, but the circumstance I describe below most likely will not.

There is also a circumstance that always greatly affects me.  I realized this when I was in graduate school.  I was watching a news show about North Korea.  During that time, they were experiencing a severe famine.  In the news show, they were talking about abandoned babies at an orphanage.  They were showing these little ones each individually in their own little “crib.”  Many of the babies were crying.  I remember imagining how alone the babies were.  I remember imagining them just wanting to be near their mothers, and to wanting to be held by their mothers — to just experience human touch.  Yet, their mothers were not there.  They were alone and crying, by themselves, in their cribs.  I couldn’t help but cry because of the situation.  It was from then on, that I have become emotional when viewing images of suffering children, especially babies.  It is worse when I am not feeling particularly “happy”.  It doesn’t take much, in seeing the circumstance, to get me emotional then.

Recently, I have been wondering if given what the circumstance of suffering children does to me, if I should be persuing some kind of ministry along those lines (helping suffering children — whatever the “suffering” is.)  More specifically and practically, I have been wondering if the next mission trip (or trips) I go on should have some aspect of that help in its (their) goals or mission focus.  I am praying…

This is from Cassiodorus, a Christian from around the 5th – 6th century commenting on Psalms 81:4.  I think it is neat:

‘Blow up the trumpet at the beginning of the month, on the day of your noted solemnity.’…It should be observed that we are enjoined to hymn the Lord and celebrate the solemn day with instruments for musical performance; just as those instruments sweetly combine to produce pleasant melody and a single harmony, so all our actions can be directed to the Lord and offered to his ears with the most pleasant intonation.  The discipline of music incorporates great power and knowledge that brings delight; teachers of secular literature, through the generosity of God who grants all that is useful have made it possible through theoretical texts to ascertain what was earlier regared as hidden from view in the nature of the world.  The first division of this discipline, then, is into harmonics, rhythmics and metrics.  The second division, that of musical instruments, is between percussion, strings and wind.  The thrid division is into six harmonies, the fourth into fifteen tones.  In this way the virtue of his most beautiful discipline is unfolded by distinctions made a long time ago.  We read in secular works that many miracles were brought forth by these measures.  But we need say nothing of this fabulous material; we read that by means of David’s tuneful harp the demon was expelled from Saul.  The divine reading attests that the walls of Jericho at once collapsed at the din of trumpets.  So there is no doubt that the sounds of music, at the Lord’s command or with his permission, have unleashed great forces. [Emphasis mine]

In the New Testament, pneuma, can be translated as both Spirit and wind (among other english words.)  It is the Spirit or wind that drove me from the Doldrums back into the current of Sanctification that steers me (at the end) into Glorification.  Praise the LORD!  He kind of slapped me around a little bit during a church service the night after the night I wandered into the doldrums.  He reminded me  of some things and corrected me on other things.  So, at the end of the service, I had been blown out of the doldrums.  So, again, praise the LORD and His might ways!

Did you ever wonder what to do with Ps. 137:8-9?  If we want to “pray the Psalms”, how do we take those verses?  How can we pray them?  There is an excellent article on www.breakpoint.org on this.  Check it out!

Last night and this morning I have been experiencing the Doldrums.  When such a thing happens, I cannot help but turn to God in prayer.  It is comforting to know that my Father in heaven will listen to me, and that His Son will intercede or me.  It always helps, but it may not completely remove me from the doldrums.  Time is what is needed as well.  When I “become busy” during the day, doing the things I must do — which usually involves ministry — that also helps, because it can take my mind off the root cause that places me in the doldrums.  Certainly, ministry that is in the service of others can help because it reminds me of the needs of others and not just my own.

A good friend of mine and a fellow blogger mentioned recently some thoughts about triggers.  And there were certainly triggers involved to place me into the doldrums.  Whether they are valid or not, I cannot say.  I also just got done listening to the last part of an excellent teaching on spirtual warfare by Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.  So, certainly the enemy, being crafty and devious, can take advantage of events and cause such doldrums (making the events into triggers.)

The particular set of triggers (or types) will frequently arise in this time in my life.  They seem to be unavoidable.  It is certainly tempting to turn inward at these times and remove myself from fellowship of others.  I try to fight it, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose (if it is indeed not good to turn inward for a short period of time.)  It is also in these times that my faith is tested.  The core of my faith is not shaken, but the outer edges can threaten to crumble.  If I allow those edges to fall apart, I may fall into sin.  So, I pray for God’s strength in this time.  I pray for His comfort and His peace upon me.

If the Gospel is not preached (one different from what Paul, Jesus, and the Apostles preached), people are condemned to hell.

The Gospel Is Key

Job 3

Job “curses the day of his birth.”  Job cries out in despair.  When one is in the deepest valley it is easy to fall into despair and wonder why we are even on this earth.  I think that at this point, Job has lost a lot of his faith in his God.  Our faith in God can sustain us in the darkest hour. 

We do not have to question why God allowed us to be here on this earth.  Although we may not know our immediate purpose, we can know for sure that God’s plan for us is good.  Some scripture to follow…

Job 1 – 2

Job has been immensely blessed by God.  He is also righteous before God.  We see here that Satan is summoned daily before God to give account of what he is doing.  It is also here where we see one of his roles as accuser.  God asks Satan to consider Job and his righteousness.  Satan accuses Job of doing it because he is blessed of God.  He says that if God was to take away Job’s blessing, Job would curse God.  God then allows Satan to take away Job’s material possessions and children.  Of course, Job mourns his loss, but he also praises God. 

We see how relentless Satan is in his accusations.  Satan says that Job still blesses and praises God because he has his health.  God then allows Satan to inflict disease upon Job.  Job still does not curse God, even when his own wife says he should.

Do we have Job’s faith?  If we are blown into the valleys of life, will we continue to praise God?  If we do not love God, even in the midst of the storms of life, how strong is our faith towards Him?  Is it easy?  Not all the time.  But there is so much in God’s Word that attest to His faithfulness and His love for us.  Also, we can, as followers of Christ, look upon the times in our own lives to His faithfulness and love for us.  This can give us hope and comfort while we are in the valley and storms are all around us.

Next, we will see that although Job’s faith towards God is not shaken, his attitude towards Him is not right.

I hear a lot about being in the mountain top or being in a valley. Sometimes, though, I think there are times where one is either in the mountain top or valley and there are storms. A storm can drive someone from the mountain top into a valley. But, what if you are encountering a storm (or storms) while you are in the valley? I have to emphatically say to “get in God’s Word!” This sounds like the pat Christian answer, but it is the ONLY answer.

If we are in the Word and focusing on it (not being distracted) while being in it, we can open ourselves to what the Holy Spirit wants to say to us. The Holy Spirit can speak to us in many ways. He may speak to us and what He says will be in what we are reading. He may guide us to seek Godly counsel from someone. He may also bring to mind something totally irrelevant to what you are reading in the Word, but the mere fact you are open to Him gives you what is needed to hear Him.

I say the above as I currently experience some storms in a valley. I know that the Word will shelter me from the storms, although I remain in the valley. Only God can place me back on the mountain.

Recently some verses in God’s Word have encouraged me:

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
A righteous man may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all;
he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
                                    - Psalm 34:17-20

Also recently, I was reading Psalm 18, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me of something that was totally irrelevant to the Psalm, but it was something the He wanted me to do. So, for me, it illustrates what I was saying above.