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Now in our 10th Year! • Sept/Oct 2014
What Does Jesus Look Like? see story in centerfold
Inside This Issue: • Max Lucado ....... page 5 • Is Mark David Chapman Saved? ................. page 13 • Computer Tips ... page 14 • Is Your Church a Soap Opera?................. page 28 • Dee Wampler...... page 29 • Silence Satan ...... page 31 • Dave Ramsey...... page 35 • How We Told Our Kids About Sex ............ page 39
FULL PAGE OF
PUZZLES! ... page 27 na i ouSect ? Y e e hip r A am ons 8 S ati age l ep e R se
Sept/Oct 2014
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15 Awkward Church Moments Everyone Tries to Avoid as seen on Faithit.com • Written by Brian Orme.
6. Provocative Dancing on Stage Nuff said. Free spirited, Pentecostal friends? 5. The Too Long and Repetitive Worship Song We all love to worship, but sometimes, you know, you have to stop singing and worship in other ways.
Love church? Us too, but every once in a while there’s a situation, let’s say an awkward one, that’s just unavoidable. 4. Translations Gone Wrong editor’s note: Once I was in a Spanish service in Here’s a short list of ‘em.
Mexico and the English translator’s rendition of Balaam hearing a voice that came from behind him was, “And suddenly from Balaam’s behind came a voice!”
15. Can You Help in the Nursery? Usually followed by, “Just for this week.” 14. Stomach Growls You know, that loud lion growl you get when everything’s quiet. That one.
3. Rogue Worshipper Often seen with tambourine. Always up in your space.
13. Sex in the Sermon… with Your Kids OK, that was awkward.
2. Getting Judged by Others This can be awkward–if there’s no mercy or grace involved.
12. Mic Squeals The kind that jars your fillings!
1. Conversations on Politics Um, excuse me, your liberal views are showing…
11. Forgetting Someone’s Name Here they come, here they come… Hey, guy. 10. When Your Kid Cusses in Class My baby did what? She must’ve learned that from her father, excuse me. 9. The Rambling Testimony The one that goes on for ten minutes but never makes a point… 8. Sitting in a Saved Pew C’mon. This is church people—no seat saving. 7. Awkward Clapping So, are we clapping for Jesus or the song or the… (This one might apply more to our Baptist friends.)
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God Sees with the Eyes of a Father by Max Lucado
Matthew 14:14 says. “He had compassion on them.”
American Christian Voice P.O. Box 336 • Rockaway Beach, MO 65740 Office: (417) 336-3636 • John’s cell: (417) 353-7598
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W
hen Matthew writes that Jesus had compassion on people, he’s not saying that Jesus felt casual pity for them. Matthew is saying that Jesus felt their hurt in His gut. He felt the limp of the disabled. He felt the hurt of the diseased. He felt the loneliness of the leper. He felt the embarrassment of the sinful. And once He felt their hurts, He couldn’t help but heal their hurts. He was so touched by their needs that He forgot His own needs. He was so moved by the people’s hurts that He put His hurts on the back burner. God sees with the eyes of a Father. He sees our defects, errors, and blemishes; but He also sees our value. Maybe that’s why God brings hurting people into your world, too! From In the Eye of the Storm Listen to UpWords with Max Lucado at
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Did Robin Williams Know Jesus Christ? by Bryan Fischer
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obin Williams' suicide is tragically sad. But did he go to heaven? Robin Williams' suicide—as is every suicide— is a tragically sad thing. My heart hurts to think what Williams' inner life must have been like at the end to drive him to such a terrible decision. My heart aches for those he has left behind—his wife, his children, loved ones and friends. His death has left a hole in their lives that nothing and no one can fill. In the wake of his suicide, billboards and media pundits alike have been assuming that Robin Williams is now in heaven, making God laugh along with other funny men who left this Earth before their time. So, is he? There is one thing we do know and one thing we do not know that can help us think clearly about Robin Williams' eternal destiny. The one thing we do know is that access to the presence of God and life in the age to come is reserved exclusively for those who have placed their eternal trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, ESV). There is nothing remotely ambiguous about that statement. All roads may lead to Rome, but only One leads to eternal life. The only door that leads to life is the narrow gate that Christ Himself has opened. As the apostle Peter put it, "[T]here is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). The world naturally will stiffen their necks when they hear these words and throw epithets at those who verbalize it. But their argument is not with us; it is with Jesus Himself. He is the one who said it. We simply agree with Him. Williams' desperately sad ending arouses our sympathy, as it should. But we must not confuse our sympathy with God's salvation. There is one and one path only to eternal life, and that path has not been altered by so much as one centimeter in 2,000 years. That's what we know. The one thing we do not
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com know is whether Robin Williams did business with God in his dying moments. While his mother was a Christian Scientist (a counterfeit form of religion that is neither Christian nor scientific), his father was an Episcopalian, so it is certainly possible that Williams heard the gospel in his formative years and may have remembered it all his life.
Sept/Oct 2014
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The thief on the cross did not place his faith in Christ until he was drawing his final breaths. His last words were, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." In response, Jesus' last words to him were, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:42-43). It takes but one moment, one whispered, even agonized, prayer, to pass from eternal death to eternal life. No one but the thief and Christ knew that this transaction had been made. The thief's wife and children didn't know, and it's unlikely that any of the onlookers heard this private exchange. As far as everyone knew, this man died as he lived—a sinful, unrepentant and broken man. Yet we know better now, and one day we believers will be where he is--with Jesus in Paradise. Will we see Robin Williams there? We don't know. Only two men know the answer to that question. But we who are yet living know how we can find our place in God's Kingdom. Whether we experience eternal life or eternal death is not God's choice but ours. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, the last words to be spoken are, "Thy will be done." Either we will say it to God, or God will say it to us. So the pressing question is not where Robin Williams is spending eternity. The question is, where will you? Bryan Fischer is the director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association and host of the talk radio program Focal Point. editor’s note: Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide, spent time with the late Robin Williams on press junkets for movies—and he shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with the comedian... they both grew up with a few similar parental beliefs," Movieguide reports. "Robin had, at one point, accepted Jesus Christ in one of the recovery programs, but he was always searching and never quite finding." Isn’t it great that since God judges all mankind by thier hearts and what they knew about His Son only He can and will be the judge. Our vain speculations are just that... vain.
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.YAK BAK Feed Back from our Readers I am surprised you have quotes from Mahatma Gandhi. He was a Hindu and did not belive in the divinity of Christ. -Dale Wilcox, Tucson, AZ Dear Dale, Truth knows no prejudices. There is another “Truth” Quote from him on page 11 -ed ___________________ The ACV piques my interest with articles on subjects that most churches consider taboo, although the Word of God does not. Jesus and the Holy Spirit inspired authors of the New Testament knew we needed to comprehend how to live in this real world honoring God while loving the “unloveable” as well as those within His Body who may disagree with us. With serious articles interspersed with regular, practical columns, some humor and even puzzles; the American Christian Voice has it all! Debbie Prothero, Forsyth, MO ___________________ From the late David R Huskins on Christians who identify with being gay (blog): I think the biggest concern I have on this subject is the number of people who are preoccupied with other peoples private behaviors or even public behaviors when the issue for me is do we see all men in Adam or in Christ? If in Adam we will be viewed and identified by many things including race, gender, sexuality, cultures, appetites, denomination, party affiliation, nationality…but if in Christ our identity is simply CHRIST. It seems that some who focus on their conviction of how sinful homosexuality is see nothing wrong with being homosectarian (same sect relationship) they condemn same sex relationships as a cardinal sin but practice a very similar religion of only having a spiritual relationship with those just
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www.AmericanChristianVoice.com like them. ___________________ Thank you for the Ben Carson feature in the August issue. He is a great man of God and inspiration to so many. I would love to see him become president. What a great parallel to Saul and David. God gave Israel Saul through His permissive will (because that’s what the people wanted) and it could be he would give us Dr. Carson through his perfect will. Arlene Rush, Springfield, MO ___________________ Okay, that gluttony article really got to me. That was a sneaky way for you to point out the 2 X 4 in my eye. From now on I will not worry about the speck in my fellow neighbor’s eye and just love them to Christ the way he wooed me. He had a lot of patience with me and especially AFTER I became a believer. We really like how you show us just how much God loves us just the way we are without the religious caveat of “but He doesn’t want you to stay that way.” Of course he wants us to grow but why do believers have to always add some type of condition to His unconditional love? God loves us deeply and passionately just the way we are! I am a parent to three “little terrors” and I love them just the way they are. They are children and they will mature over time with my appropriate discipline and nurture with love. When they misbehave I do not love them any less. I feel for Christian folk that had parents that showed them a conditional love based on good behavior. I can only imagine how that screwed up thier perception of our heavenly father. Bill and Sandra, Plano, TX ___________________ Send your “letters to the editor” to: editor@americanchristianvoice.com
or mailing address:
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I am soooo sorry! by John G. Sacoulas, editor ACV I will never promote a Hollywood film before I see it again. Not that I endorsed the film because I didn’t see it until recently when it hit Redbox. However, I agree with Glenn Beck when he said he needed more of the man that loves God, and less of a crazy person who wants to break down the doors inside the ark "to kill his whole family." He said the movie was just ridiculous, and seemed more "comic" than a correct telling of the sacred story. Beck said Noah shared his homicidal thoughts with one of his sons in the movie by explaining that, "People are evil. And God only wanted animals on the ark. And so we are all going to kill each other. And I am going to be first - I will kill all of you. Then you are going to kill me, then we will bury people once we get down on the ground again, then you are just going to have to kill yourself. I will trust you on that." "It treats a prophet of God like a lunatic," Beck said. "There's no redeeming value in Noah, none. He hates people. I'm sorry. No prophet of God hates people."
I I have to correct Glenn here. Jonah hated the people of Nineveh but Noah does not express his contempt for humanity. I am not prudish to Hollywood filling in some unknown details but they had a perfect script from the Bible and chose not to use it. Regardless, Noah was a 150 million dollar disaster.
"The human spirit needs to accomplish, to achieve, to triumph in order to be happy." - Ben Stein ACV Contributors Cross-Word Answers from Page 27
Tim Davis- Columnist Veeda Smith - Branson Frontline Jeremy Storch - Ask the Rabbi... Mike Endecott - Computer Tips Dave Ramsey - Act Your Wage Dee Wampler - A Minute with a Man Lee Grady- Fire in My Bones Stephanie Hallowell - Poetry George Kurland - Staff Photographer Max Lucado - Crosswalk John Sacoulas - Steward & Editor Lorri Sacoulas - Steward & Publisher Harriet Ford - Monthly Devotionals Marvin & Regina Reynolds- Archivists Jeff Wilson - Account Manager
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Are You in a Same Sect relationship? by John G. Sacoulas
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spent many years in a same sect relationship. Since breaking up with my partner (denomination) I realized how my former lifestyle damaged my ability to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Oh, sure at the time I got a lot of grief from friends and loved ones for being in a same sect relationship with someone just like me. But I thought, well I was born that way. I couldn’t ever remember not be attracted to my partner. In fact, I was convinced we were soul mates! Of course, week after week my partner warned me that others would try to point out that being a homosectarian was wrong and that I was going to go to hell unless I changed my ways and repented. So every time I heard those indictments I bristled in righteous indignation and thanked God
that very day I was not like those other people. Each time I was intimate with my partner I was indoctrinated about people trying to “teach me the truth” and that only we really had the truth because God gave it to us since we were His called out ones to receive special revelation from Him. We had conventions where we all praised God for being His
“elect” and vowed we would not rest until the whole world heard our... I mean His, message. To be sure, we were to only marry others like us lest we be unequally yoked. This way we would know exactly what kind of music, style of worship, dress, hobbies, diets, length of hair, version of the Bible, type of car we drove, how we disciplined our children, what type of entertainment we could watch, Miracle Whip or mayonnaise, prohibiting alcohol, tobacco and everything else bad for us
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(except fatty foods. We had a special dispensation of grace in that area because the leader of our group was really over weight) lest we be out of the will of God.
and worthy not because of what I do or do not do but because I accepted the Gospel trade of taking that righteousness from Christ in exchange for my sin.
Our special seminary ensured us that we would meet other homosectarians and produce little homosectarian children to further populate the future Kingdom of God.
That is what makes me in good standing with my heavenly Dad. Now, since renouncing my homosectarian lifestyle, I am free to learn from all kinds of people of God. There are great truths in most of all of God professing, Jesus accepting folk. Now when I hear conflicting messages from these sources the Holy Spirit sorts it out for me and I receive it as having a “ring of truth” directly from Him.
Since we knew that all truth came from the Holy Spirit (as it was given to our leader to interpret for us) we earnestly prayed to God for His truth. Our blinders... I mean our particular understanding allowed us to pick and choose what the Holy Spirit said to us by our brainwashed dogmatic bias... I mean insight. Since denouncing my partner and leaving the homosectarian lifestyle, the Holy Spirit has opened my eyes to all kinds of real truth and joy of what our creator intended for us all along. It really wasn’t about material possessions, food or drink or other such liberties. It was that He genuinely loves all His creation and the apple of His eye is the ones that accept the sacrifice of His only Son Jesus the Christ who shed His precious blood to get rid of all the religious rules and regulations that my own personal vanity thought me worthy. The Holy Spirit has since filled my heart and mind that to please God I need to love myself because I am perfectly righteous
I also discovered that our unity is found only in our diversity. This is the mysterious way that God designed our fellowship with other believers. Now I can garner beautiful nuggets from others without embracing their deficiency. Could you unknowingly be in a same sect relationship? Your reaction to this facetious article might be a good test. Did you laugh or maybe just smile a little? Good sign. Are you shaking your head and praying for my salvation right now? Bad sign. Love others furiously like God loves you and you won’t ever have to read them scripture... they will SEE the scripture in you. John G. Sacoulas is editor of the ACV, and a recovering homosecterian.
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American Christian Voice has postal subscribers in 20 different states? Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Is your state represented? Subscription information on page 38! That is just the printed edition. The online edition covers the entire country! (according to the unique IDs as reported by Constant Contact)
“Another flaw in the human character is that everyone wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”-Kurt Vonnegut
A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him. - David Brinkley
Sept/Oct 2014
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Terrified of Losing 72 Heavenly Virgins, Islamic State Fighters Reportedly ‘Run Away’ from a Certain Type of Soldier
have been fighting “very bravely.”
by Sharona Schwartz • theblaze.com
“I think [the Islamic State] were more afraid of us than of the men,” a female Kurdish fighter named Tekoshin told AFP, the New York Post noted. “They believe they’ll go to hell if they die at a woman’s hands.”
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adical Islamists who decide to embark on suicidal missions often do so with the expectation they will be rewarded with 72 virgins if they die in battle; however, it turns out there is one major caveat to the scenario, according to a U.S. lawmaker.
four female battalions, including some recruits who are mothers, while the highest ranking women are colonels.
Royce said heard at a meeting with the Kurdish foreign minister that female fighters were “laughing” when they saw Islamic State jihadists flee from them.
“We are now on the battlefield, but I’m married and I have a daughter, whom I left with my parents to fight against extremists. I’m happy to perform my national duty to defend Kurdistan,” one fighter told Al-Monitor.
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That is, if they are killed by a woman, the deal is off. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, told the New York Post, “These ISIL [Islamic State] soldiers apparently believed that if they were killed in battle, they went to paradise as long as they were killed by a man.” In this recent photo, a woman from an elite unit of female Kurdish Peshmerga fighters trains in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Some Kurdish women living in Northern Iraq are training to be peshmerga, as the self-ruled Kurdish region's militia is known, to fight against the imminent threat of Islamic militants and to protect their land. (AP Photo) In this Thursday, July 3, 2014 photo, a woman from an elite unit of female Kurdish Peshmerga fighters trains in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Some Kurdish women living in Northern Iraq are training to be peshmerga, as the selfruled Kurdish region’s militia is known, to fight against the imminent threat of Islamic militants and to protect their land. (AP Photo) The issue is of some relevance, especially in Iraq, where female recruits are among the ranks of the Kurdish peshmerga forces, now fighting the Islamic State jihadist group. “[T]hese female soldiers were communicating their satisfaction with the fact that they had taken the fight to ISIL and had stopped the advance, turned back the advance — slayed a number of these fighters, who would then run away,” Royce said adding that the female fighters
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In this recent photo, a woman from an elite unit of female Kurdish Peshmerga fighters trains in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles (260 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Some Kurdish women living in Northern Iraq are training to be peshmerga, as the self-ruled Kurdish region’s militia is known, to fight against the imminent threat of Islamic militants and to protect their land. (AP Photo)
Al-Monitor, an online publication that covers the Middle East, ran a profile on the female battalions in August. While the battalions were set up in 1996, the female peshmerga fighters are being further motivated by hardline rules being imposed on women by the Sunni radical group including enforced wearing of Afghanistanstyle head-to-toe covering of women, marrying women off against their will and female genital mutilation, Al-Monitor reported. The female peshmerga fighters are now on the front lines against the Islamic State jihadists. Al-Monitor reported that there are
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Looking at Porn Has Monumental Impact on the Human Brain and Society, Anti-Smut Group Warns by Billy Hallowell
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ight the New Drug, an organization that opposes pornography, believes that smut isn’t merely a moral stumbling block, but that it’s also a public health conundrum that poses some serious risks to the human brain, relationships and society. “We will not rest until the world knows that pornography is harmful,” a greeting message reads on the group’s website. And, judging from the organization’s vocal opposition and tactics, its leaders have no plans of slowing the spread of their anti-porn sentiment. Relying on innovative technology and viral media campaigns, Fight the New Drug takes a crisper and cooler approach than some of the other organizations like it. And, unlike many of its peers, it’s not a faith-based initiative, though it touts a firmly anti-porn message in the presentations it sponsors in schools throughout North America, according to the Christian Post. By relying on “science, facts and personal accounts,” the group is hoping to educate the next generation in understanding porn’s many harms. Clay Olsen, cofounder and executive director of Fight the New Drug, recently told the Post that education is key to combating and preventing the fallout.
“Our belief is that if we can raise awareness on the impacts and harmful effects of pornography not only on the individual neurological and brain impact, but also on relationships in society, many who found themselves or could find themselves experiencing these harmful effects would choose to avoid [using porn],” Olsen told the Post. Fight the New Drug’s focus is on prevention and helping people stop the utilization of porn once they’ve started. Like drugs, Olsen and his organization argue that pornography can have a devastating impact on users’ lives. Relationships are just one of the areas where a significant impact can be felt, he said. “The more harmful effects occur [in porn addiction] with its relation to our intimate relationships and our overarching society,” Olsen said. “Studies have shown us that individuals that regularly consume pornography can end up preferring the computer screen to a human being to get their sexual fix.” According to Fight the New Drug’s website, research has shown that porn negatively harms the brain and has an impact on sexual violence in society. Claiming that this is the “first generation in the history of the world to face the issue of pornography to this intensity and scale,” the organization is hoping to encourage individuals to take personal responsibility to halt the problem.
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Stained Glass Theatre: “Serving Christ Through the Arts”
Next Showing: The Hiding Place by John & Elizabeth Sherrill, adapted for stage by Ron Boutwell Performing September 11 through October 25, 2014 Follow the heroic story of the Ten Boom family as they risk everything for God’s chosen people.
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Fight the New Drug is hardly the first organization to argue that porn use can become addictive. Project Know, an alcohol and substance abuse program, noted in its research last year that pornography, by its very design, “poses significant risk of addiction” and is “the perfect trap for the human sex drive.” And earlier this year, former Miss America Kirsten Haglund told TheBlaze in an interview that she believes pornography and the “hyper-sexuality” of women are having a negative impact on society. It portrays an unrealistic view of women and that, perpetuated, destroys relationships,” Haglund said of porn. “Unrealistic expectations destroy relationships.” Former porn stars like Vanessa Belmond have also shed light on the horrific things they’ve seen within the porn industry.
www.fightthenewdrug.org
ACV Mission Statement: The American Christian Voice is published under the direction of the Ozarks Christian Foundation, a 501(c)3 non profit agency. Its primary purpose is to edify the body of Christ through inspirational articles of Christian faith and courage, educate the body of Christ through informative articles promoting the cultivation of a Christian world view, and encourage the body of Christ to support one another. We are dedicated to be Kingdom builders as we realize that our unity can only represent God in our diversity as we love the lost through Christ. Our focus is on, and to, the invisible church which Jesus said, “The gates of hell would not prevail against.” We announce the current events of the visible church, and we believe the Body of Christ is made up of people who have found salvation by faith in Jesus Christ evidenced by the good works they are doing and have done. We report the good as well as the bad within our church family as a testament
Sept/Oct 2014
American Christianity trains its leaders in Bible colleges. Biblical Christianity nurtures leaders through personal mentoring by Joseph Mattera
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iblically, leaders were not sent outside of the context of a local church to be trained for the ministry. They were nurtured personally in the context of congregational life by church leaders (as the Apostle Paul did with Timothy; as Aquila and Priscilla did with Apollos in Acts 19; and as Barnabas did with John Mark in Acts 15). Unfortunately, the American church attempts to nurture its top leaders by sending them outside of the local church to a theological seminary which can only equip/grade them on an intellectual level. Joseph Mattera is overseeing bishop of Resurrection Church, Christ Covenant Coalition, in Brooklyn, N.Y. for the necessity of a Savior. Our observations are made from a fairly moderate to conservative viewpoint. We encourage our readers to eschew religion and pursue a relationship with God through Jesus Christ as led by the Holy Spirit, thus allowing an open mindedness to differing opinions on non-essential matters.
We strive not to be the fire alarm, but the fire extinguisher Please be advised that the contents of this publication often do not represent the positions held by many of the sponsors of the American Christian Voice (or for that matter, the publishers). Would you remember to favor the advertisers here in the ACV. They help keep our John & Lorri cover price so Sacoulas low! Publishers, ACV
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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer vs. the Phoenix Suns owner
For Reading and Supporting the American Christian Voice!
The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, came out strongly opposing AZ's new immigration laws.
There are 7 things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics -Mahatma Gandhi
Arizona's Governor, Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver's criticism of the new law: "What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gatecrashers are but the ushers and security
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer
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personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn't be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns' ownership was expected toprovide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?"
Sometimes God does not give you something you want, not because you don’t deserve it but because of what Jesus did on the cross, He believes you deserve more. -John G. Sacoulas
www.GraceCommunityAssembly.com Sun. 9:00 am & 11:00 am • Wed. 6:30pm Grace Community Assembly 440 State Hwy 248 Branson, MO (417) 336-2422
Pastor Pastor Allen Asbury David Betzer Equiping our families for ministry to each other and outreach to the needy and lost. Spirit-filled Davidic style Praise and Worship Annoited Bible-based teaching Fellowship after each service Nursery & Children’s Shabbat School
Meeting at Branson Hills Ministry Center 256 Church Road, Branson, MO 65616 417.334.7373, www.TheTabernacleinBranson.com Discover the Hebrew roots of your Christian faith!
Join us for weekly services: Erev Shabbat (Friday) 7:30 pm Shabbat (Saturday) 11 am • (417) 334-7373
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Sept/Oct 2014
A Little Bible Study
It surely can't get any simpler than that.
"Left" and "Right": A little Bible study.
Spelling Lesson: The last four letters in American...........I Can The last four letters in Republican........I Can The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
Remember what Jesus said: 'Goats on the left, sheep on the right'(Matthew 25:33). Jesus also told Peter that if he wanted to catch fish do it from the right side of the boat. They did and filled the boat with fish. John 21:6 (NIV) He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish." Origin of Left & Right... I have often wondered why it is that Conservatives are called the "right" and Liberals are called the "left". By chance I stumbled upon this verse in the Bible: Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV) - "The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left." Thus sayeth the Lord. Amen.
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LEAVES ON THE VINE Agape Life Fellowship • Pastor Twila Bridges • 6185 W. State Hwy 266 Springfield, MO • (417) 831-2333 www.agapelifefellowship.org
Calvary Chapel of Branson, MO 611 6th Street • Branson, MO (417) 561-1000 • (417) 336-1297 Sunday Service 10:15 AM Pastor Sparky Ferguson Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, CA 3800 S Fairview St • Santa Ana, CA 92704 (714) 979-4422 Calvary Chapel of Fayetteville, AR 2418 N Gregg Ave Fayetteville, AR • (479) 301-2313 Phil Heppner www.calvaryfayar.com Carpenters House (417) 334-0081 • 187 1st St Hollister, MO 65672 Faith Center Church/ CRA Ministries, Int'l 8537 Missouri 76 Reeds Spring, MO • (417) 338-8537 www.christianrodders.org El Shaddai Ministries 4501 Quail Court Harrison, AR. 72601 (3 miles down Bellefonte Rd.) services: Saturdays at 2:30pm 870.365.0004 www.ElShaddaiMinistries.net
Faith & Wisdom Church 3950 Green Mountain Drive Branson, MO • (417) 335-9991 www.fwcbranson.com Gateway Austin, Texas Northwest Austin: McNeil Campus South Austin: South Campus Internet Campus: email to get connected internetcampus@gatewaychurch.com Branson, MO: Gateway Branson www.gatewaychurch.com
Gateway Branson, MO Located in the Vista Plaza Shopping Center on the backside 2005 West Highway 76 • Suite 106 Branson, MO • (417) 335-9915 www.gatewaybranson.org Grace Community Assembly 440 State Highway 248 Branson, MO • (417) 336-2422 www.gracecommunityassembly.com Morningside Church • Pastor Kevin Shorey • 180 Grace Chapel Rd Blue Eye, MO • (417) 779-9000 www.jimbakkershow.com/morningside/ church-services/ Peace Lutheran Church (ELCA) 350 State Drive Hollister, MO • (417) 334-1499 www.peacelutheranchurchhollister.com Springfield Church of God (7th Day) 1521 East 24th Street North Springfield, MO • (417) 831-6721 www.springfieldcog7.org Still Waters International Ministries 124 Deer Mountain Road Walnut Shade, MO • (417) 598-1231 www.stillwatersintlministries.com The Tabernacle in Branson 256 Church Road Branson, MO • (417) 334-7373 www.thetabernacleinbranson.com United Methodist Church 1208 W 76 Country Blvd • Branson, MO (417) 334-3423• Rev. Stacie L. Williams Sunday Services: 8 am Traditional 9:30 Contemporary, 11 am Traditional www.bransonumc.org
For a donation as little as $10.00 per month your church can be listed in Leaves on a Vine. What a great gift you can make to your fellowship! Call John at: (417)336-3636 or (417)353-7598
Page 13
John Lennon’s Assassin: My Life Is All About Jesus by Cathy Lynn Grossman/RNS ark David Chapman, the man convicted of killing John Lennon, was denied parole on Aug. 20 for the eighth time. (NY Dept. of Corrections) He wants only one thing now—to tell others about Jesus.
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Parole examiners asked whether Chapman might harm others if released and whether he was concerned that he might be a target himself for someone seeking the notoriety of murdering him. Chapman pledged that his crime days were over and as for risk to himself: "I leave it in God's hands." His main interest now lies in ministering to prisoners. "Me and my wife have a ministry. We distribute brochures that
Mark David Chapman, 59, told parole examiners he was no longer the man who sought notoriety through killing the Beatles rock star in 1980. Now, he said, he's sorry, "forgiven by God" and eager to spend his days—in prison or out—ministering to others. Examiners denied Chapman the possibility of parole for the eighth time on Aug. 20. According to the 25-page transcript of the hearing, Chapman expected that finding. He will continue serving 20 years to life at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, near Buffalo, N.Y. In his last parole hearing in 2012, the transcript shows, he was just as interested in testifying about his religious faith. The transcript details how he spent years plotting the shooting of Lennon, acquiring a gun and bullets, lying to his wife about his whereabouts and plans. No more, he said. Now, his wife of 35 years, who visits him at least annually, is his partner in faith. He told the board: "We're closer to the Lord now than we were on the street so I am going to credit Him with keeping our marriage together and our sanity." Chapman's anniversary gift to her was a gold cross with a ruby heart in the center. It was not "just to say, 'Thank you, honey.' It's to tell God thank you for His love for us, for sticking with us," Chapman said.
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tell people about Christ. ... That is where my heart is." Chapman apologized for the pain he caused Lennon, his family and his millions of fans: "I am sorry for being such an idiot and choosing the wrong way for glory. I found my peace in Jesus. I know Him. He loves me. He has forgiven me." The upshot: He plans to spend his days "telling people, 'Hey, you have another option. You have Christ. ... Either crime or Christ, which way do you want to go here?'" And he predicted correctly during the hearing ("We all know how this will turn out," he said) that those days would be in prison. The board ruled that Chapman's release would be incompatible with the welfare of society" and would "deprecate the serious nature of the crime," according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. editor’s note: Does the idea of Mark David Chapman being saved offend you? God will judge his heart but when we realize our sin was just as offensive to God before the cross...
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The Ministry Directory is brought to you in part by: Love In the Name of Christ (Love INC) is a movement of Christian churches working together to show God’s love to the poor and needy. • 7347 W. Hwy. 76 • Branson • (417) 336-7056 • Toll Free: (866) 568-3462 Jennifer Maupin, Executive Director, jmaupin@omcloveinc.com Jodi Lilley - Client Coordinator jlilley@omcloveinc.com ADOPTION Cherish Kids may be contacted at 6100 North 19th Street, Ozark, Missouri 65721, by telephone at (417) 581-KIDS (5437) or by emailing: info@cherishkids.org . MBCH Children & Family Min. Adoption & foster care services 1837 E. Cherry St. Springfield • (417) 831-2342 ASSISTANCE Salvation Army Lt. Shawn DeBaar 1114 Stanley Branson MO 65616 (417) 339-4434 CHILDREN Dolly Parton's Imagination Library FREE books for children John Richardson PO Box 6850 Branson MO 65615 (417) 337-9400 johnr@dixiestampede.com www.imaginationlibrary.com EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE
Jobs for Life Work training program 5004 West Hwy 76 Branson • (417) 335-9915 DISASTER ASSISTANCE Convoy of Hope Assisting those in need 330 S. Patterson Ave. Springfield • (417) 823-8998
FAMILY ASSISTANCE
Gift of Hope Inc Meghan Connell 15366 US Hwy 160 Forsyth MO 65653 (417) 546-8062 dcampbell@nationalenzyme.com www.giftofhopeinc.org
coming from The U.S. who desperately need deliverance from these addictions. Antonio lives in The U. S with his wife Olga and has been alcohol and drug free since January 5th 1975. He was once a leader of AA but JESUS delivered him! Antonio can be contacted at 562-3224480 or at antonioolga @aol.com. The only requirement to come to Rancho Poiema is that a person be willing to provide $150.00 dollars a month to help offset cost of food and utilities and not be detoxing at the time of entry. There are other ministries that can assist with that need.
women with life-controlling issues PO Box 1438 Hollister, MO 65673 417.449.5122 info@ehor.org • www.ehor.org
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YOUTH Bridges For Youth Youth ministries 834 N National Ave. Springfield • (417) 864-8430
WOMEN
Lives Under Construction Boys Ranch 296 Boys Ranch Rd, Lampe, MO 65681 • (417) 779-5374
PRISON Bill Glass Ministries Prison visitations 1101 S. Cedar Ridge Drive Duncanville, TX • (972) 298-1101
The Caring People Weekly care groups designed to provide love and support to Single Moms 164 Corporate Place Branson, MO 65616 417.334.0131 info@thecaringpeople.org www.thecaringpeople.org
Teen Harvest Youth Ranch Christian, Bible-centered ministry To boys mainly between ages 12-17 who need assistance in a good home to establish a proper environment in which to grow and learn. Located at County Road 402, Ava, MO 6560. Call Pastor Paul Neighbour at (417) 683-1080 For more info or visit web site:
YMCA Fitness for families 175 Industrial Park Dr. Hollister • (417) 337-9622 Ozarks Regional YMCA Julie Eaton, Director of Marketing, jeaton@orymca.org • 417 S. Jefferson Springfield • (417) 862-8962 ext. 2117
FOOD Smart Choice Foods Discount food program To find a local host: www.smartchoicefood.com National Office (866) 643-0877 Christian Action Ministries Food assistance program
610 South Sixth Street, Ste 102 Branson • (417) 334-1157
GREIF COUNSELING
HOMELESSNESS Victory Mission Residential work program 824 W Commercial St. Springfield • (417) 864-2244
REHABILITATION Church Army Branson Cary McKee PO Box 6224 Branson MO 65615 (417) 339-3804 cmckee@churcharmyusa.org www.churcharmybranson.org
Grace Community Assembly Ask about Divorce Care Tuesday night meetings held at 440 State Hwy 248 Branson • (417) 336-2422
Concerned Women for America (CWA) Conservative political women ministries 1015 Fifteenth St. NW, Ste 1100 Washington, D.C. • (202) 488-7000
Rancho Poiema The vision of Pastor Chris Martinez of Calvary Chapel Tijuana, Mexico. The goal of this Ministry is to reach out to those individuals that are dealing with drug and alcohol problems. Grief Share The Ranch is 25 miles inland from Grief recovery support group the city of Ensenada, Mexico and is If you’ve lost someone close to you, or located in a place of serene and tranquil know someone who has, please call us to atmosphere which is ideal for seeking find out more information about our The Lord and far removed from old weekly seminar/support groups. We friends and contacts. know it hurts, and we want to help! The Ranch offers 9 Branson/Forsyth • (417) 544-4177 month Discipleship though The Holy Scriptures and HEALTH personal involvement with a team of dedicated staff members, who were once also in bondage to drugs Health Care and alcohol but have been for the uninsured. set free by The Power Of (417) 336-WELL( God and The Holy Spirit! Cesar Delgado is The current Director of Rancho Poiema and can be reached at the 0115216461630752 international number. Antonio Sanchez is a current Board Member for The Ranch and will assist www.FaithCommunity Health.org in helping those that will be
PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH (ELCA)
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WORSHIP SERVICES: Praise & Worship Sun. @ 8:30 a.m.
Options Pregnancy Center Crisis pregnancy center 192 Expressway Ln. Branson • (417) 336-5483 Pregnancy Life Line Crisis pregnancy center 15765 Missouri 13 Branson West • (417) 272-5210
www.teenharvest.com
Crisis Center Becky Vermeire PO Box 282 Branson MO 65615 (417) 561-5105( 866) 379-0074 crisiscenter@centurytel.net www.womenscrisiscenter.net Esther's House of Redemption Residential discipleship program for
Everybody is made in the image of God, but if you continue to judge them by what they do not know they will never believe you when you preach about the love of the one who created them. -John G. Sacoulas
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Stop Being a Mouthpiece for Satan by David Lindell (James River Assembly West Campus Minister, Springfield, MO)
By God's grace, use your words for the encouragement, not the destruction, of others.
I
tend not to think of myself as a mouthpiece for Satan; in fact, I prefer to see myself in the opposite light. This is why a passage tucked near the end of the New Testament is so troubling for me. The third chapter of James deals explicitly with our words. While we expect the Bible to have something to say about what comes out of our mouths, the forcefulness of James’ imagery is jolting. With dynamic metaphors, the author reveals the might our words possess. His first two images — a bit in a horse’s mouth and the rudder on a massive ship — allude to the tongue’s exacting control over a person, which can dramatically influence the direction of their life. While these images are decidedly neutral, the writer’s third image is unquestionably negative. “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” he exclaims. Just like a forest fire, the tongue can burn up a life as its words spread rapidly, leaving little hope of reversing or containing the devastation that follows in their wake.
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com The tongue can burn up a life as its words spread rapidly. In verse six, James takes it a step further to say that the tongue actually is a fire. There is real-world destruction in its words, and its ruin is easy to see. We glimpse it in the pained laugh of someone made the butt of a snarky joke, in the embarrassment of a child publicly berated
by a parent, in the flushed face of a woman whose inadequacies are routinely paraded by her spouse — each scenario smells eerily of smoke. James goes on to say that with these words we become the mouthpiece of hell, because the tongue’s fire is fueled by hell itself. Our hellish words “[stain] the whole body.” They penetrate deeply, resembling the “sword thrusts” described in Proverbs 12. The internal damage they inflict twinges unexpressed long after the conversation ends, setting aflame “the entire course of life.” James borrowed this phrase from first century pagan religious language; it refers to the unending cycle of reincarnation. The inference is that the words we say assume
a life of their own. They keep coming back to burn up what had almost healed. What James says next is devastating. If the tongue is a fire, it is a fire you cannot prevent: “No human being can tame the tongue.” So what do we do? What can we do? The early church Father Augustine offered hope when he wrote in his book On Nature and Grace, “[James] does not say that no one can tame the tongue, but no one of men; so that when it is tamed we confess that this is brought about by the pity, the help, the grace of God.”[1] It isn’t a matter of mustering up enough self-discipline — watching our language or shutting our mouths, as we’ve all likely been admonished to do. Taming the tongue can only be done by the enabling grace of God. James continues: “With [our tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” That last phrase calls to mind some of the very first words of scripture, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). This connection to creation shows this passage is about more than the tongue — it's about our identity. Words ground our identity. What we say and what others say about us —
Sept/Oct 2014 whether positive or negative — shapes who we are and how we see ourselves. We can’t divorce ourselves from what comes out of our mouths. Jesus articulates this reality, “It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person… what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.” (Matthew 15:11; 18a). This is why words are not just about the tongue: they are directly connected to who we are — to our identity — and they are intimately connected to the core of our being. Taming the tongue can only be done by the enabling grace of God. In other words, we can wash our mouths out with soap all we want, but it won’t transform our hearts. James 3:1112 reinforces this point: Does a fresh water spring produce salty and fresh water? No. Do olives grow on a fig tree? No. Do figs grow on a grapevine? No. Why? Because producing those things is contrary to their identity. The more clearly you grasp your identity in Christ, the more clearly you will see the destructive power of the tongue diminished as your words begin to align with your true self. And the more you come to see every person around you as a person created in the image of God, the harder and harder it will be to use your words to destroy what God has made.
As seeing and knowing, God is one. As being seen and known, God is three. God Loves you just the way you are, not they way you should be. Because no one is as they should be. - Brennan Manning
See page 2 for details!
Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened. -Billy Graham
Sept/Oct 2014
God is Better Than You Think, and the Reason is in Your Food by Alex Kocman God's goodness in food God's goodness goes as far as the cross, yet begins as close as your dinner plate. Fill in the blank: "God is great, God is ____, let us thank him for this food."
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. When we usually think of how God has demonstrated himself in the world, we tend to think of the truth of the Bible, or apologetics, or miracles, and certainly the God-man Jesus himself, above all.
when we disobey, dishonor or just ignore his sustaining power—patiently giving us day after day to turn back to him (Genesis 6:3, Hebrews 9:27-28). Why did Paul list rain and crops among the prime evidences of God's goodness in the world, burying the lead (that God became a man and died and rose to reconcile man to God)? It isn't that food and water are better than the Gospel; it's that food and water just give us the tip of the iceberg of God's goodness embodied in Christ.
But unfortunately, these things all too often get compartmentalized in the back of our minds as "spiritual" or "religious," and the rest of our daily life—eating, working, living—looks basically the same (except for saying grace, that is).
How will anyone understand the immeasurable riches of God's goodness in Christ for the afterlife if they don't first understand that every good Even Jesus himself gets backlogged into thing they've ever tasted of in If you were raised in a traditional the "religious" part of my mind—after all, this life is a heavenly sign of Christian household, chances are you do I discipline myself to thank God for might feel more guilt for forgetting God's inexhaustible goodness? The answer, of course, is "good." And while words of God's goodness are often on our lips, they seldom make the 18-inch jump down to our hearts (or stomachs, if you prefer).
saying grace than for the amount of saturated fat in what you're actually eating. But anyone who has followed the habit of praying before eating knows that it takes almost no time for it to become rote. The proof? We thank God for our food three times a day, but almost never thank him for the other essentials—air, water, sleep, work—not to mention the death and resurrection of Christ. Why is it that we discipline ourselves to robotically thank God for every meal, then excitedly scarf down whatever's on our plate, while we far less often thank God for sending Christ—and even when we do, we seldom "dig in" with excitement to enjoy his satisfying sustenance? Imagine for a moment that you're alone in a city full of pagans and the villagers have mistaken you for a god yourself. Your task: (1) shift the focus from yourself and (2) draw all the attention you can to the goodness of the true God. Where do you begin? That was Paul and Barnabas' situation in Acts 14. Interestingly, Paul's response to the idol-worshipping town was this (v. 15-17, NIV, emphasis added): Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from
him three times a day like I do for my food?
When we forget the daily goodness of God in giving us water, air, food and sleep, the infinitely greater realities of his goodness—like the cross of Christ— become distant.
But every day, for believer and nonbeliever alike, God's goodness is overwhelmingly near. Paul said it himself: God, seeking to leave a witness for his existence in this world, has made his goodness plainly visible for all. He has for millennia watered the crops of both the good and the wicked with water from above. He filled the earth with countless fruits, vegetables, waters and animals to fuel our bodies daily. He keeps the sun far enough away to not incinerate you yet near enough to keep you from snapping frozen in the depth of space. He holds this tiny chunk of earth in perfect trajectory hurling around a star at 67,000 miles per hour, assuring that we don't feel a thing. He breathes his spirit into each breath we take, each moment making certain that we remain "living souls" rather than dead bags of dirt (Genesis 2:7). And he lets that breath remain in our lungs even
Salvation isn't just about escaping the fires of Hell, but being privileged above all earthly honor to taste the deep, fatherly goodness of your Creator. As the Psalmist prayed, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing... You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand" (Psalm 16:2, 11, NIV). If our version of the Gospel message doesn't so much as hint at the hearty sustenance of God's goodness through Christ, we've committed a subtle, grave
Page 17 error. We've busied ourselves preaching forgiveness only without total reconciliation—getting into Heaven without stopping to think about the good God who's there smiling and waiting. Next time you pray and look down at your plate, remember that if he is truly good enough to give you three square meals a day, imagine what it took for him to also look down from Heaven at you and also decide to die for you. God's goodness is near, welling up from the deepest part of his heart and showered over the whole world. How pathetically foolish would it be for us to ever value the daily blessings of food and water over the abundant goodness of being adopted as God's children—through trusting his Son, Jesus Christ. If you understand that, you might start thanking God for things more than three times a day.
If God had a cell phone He would say to you...
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Why It’s Never Too Late to Start Over Written by Rick Warren
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od is a God of second chances and fresh starts. And if you're alive and breathing and reading this post, God obviously isn't finished with you yet. Don't quit, and don't give up, even when you've experienced failure. Instead, allow God to use failure to move you forward. In my last article, I talked about five reasons we often experience failure, and today I want to share with you the four ways to recover from failure and move forward. 1. Accept responsibility for your own failure. Prov. 28:13 says, "A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful. But if he confesses and forsakes them, he gets another chance." When we refuse to admit our mistakes, they are wasted. Be honest with yourself. Be honest with others. Most of us are experts at passing blame on to others. It's part of our natural sin nature. We blame the economy, we blame the weather, we blame fate, we blame luck, you blame your parents, you blame your spouse, you blame the government. But God says if you want to start over— if you failed—just admit it. I don't know where we get the idea that we have to pretend that we're perfect. We're not. You're not perfect! And neither am I. In 1974 after an 88-game winning streak, UCLA basketball lost to Notre Dame. They lost a game in which they had been ahead by 11 points. The next day in the headlines, John Wooten, the coach, said "Blame me." That's the mark of a winner. He doesn't pass the buck. He said we just got overconfident.
2. Stop regretting and start repenting. When you've had a major failure, stop regretting and start repenting. The Greek word for repent means to change your mind, to look at it a different way, to change your direction, to change your
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heart. You don't just sit around a moan, "I'm a failure. I'm a flop. I can never be used by God again. I'm wasted. I'm worthless. God's going to set me on the shelf." Stop regretting and start repenting.
God. The choice is condemnation or confession. You can either live in condemnation or you can confess it and get on with life. Forget the former and focus on the future.
2 Cor. 7:10 says, "The sadness that is used by God brings a change of heart that leads to salvation, and there is no regret in that. But worldly sadness causes death." There are two kinds of sadness mentioned in this verse: Godly sadness and worldly sadness.
4. Trust God to work it all out. In Rom. 8:28, Paul writes, "We know that to those who love God, who are called according to his plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good." God is working out a pattern in the fabric of our lives that's going to be beautiful. It all fits. But sometimes from our point of view it looks like a jumble, a mess. We look at our lives and think, "How can anything good come out of this?"
Godly sorrow motivates you to change. It brings a change of heart. It motivates you to do something. It motivates you to change. Worldly sorrow is demoralizing, depressing, and it causes death. One of the most devastating emotions in life is self-pity. You never learn anything at a pity party. Almost every success in life is built on a failure. You learn from it. I'm convinced that some things are only learned through failure. 3. Forget the former and focus on the future. Phil. 3:13-14 declares, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." What memory in your life are you allowing to continually manipulate you? Every time it comes up you think, "I wish I'd never done that! I regret that!" And you're manipulated by it. Some of you are allowing your past to control your future, and that's a mistake. Your past is past. You can't change the past by worrying about it. Let it go and focus on the future. It's not so much where you've been, but what direction your feet are headed now that counts. The past doesn't have to control you anymore.
I used to worry about the source of the problems that come into our lives a lot more than I do now. Is this problem from the devil? Is this problem from other Christians? Is this problem from the Lord? Is this problem something I've brought on myself? The longer I grow as a Christian, the more I think I understand that it doesn't really matter the source of your problem. It doesn't matter if the devil brought it on or other people caused it or if you caused it yourself, God will still use it. God has a way of overriding our big mistakes. He works them all out. God wants to take your greatest failure— that area of greatest failure that you want to hide and keep secret—and He wants to turn it into your greatest strength. He wants to make a life message out of it. What is your area of weakness? Whatever
it is, that's what God wants to work on, if you stop regretting, and stop having a pity party and let Him work in your life. Rick Warren is founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for pastors
The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-yearold, two-hundred-proof grace—of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us singlehandedly.The word of the gospel—after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps—suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started... Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case.-Robert Capon
I don't care what your failure is in life. You are not washed up unless you choose to quit, unless you choose to give up, unless you choose to reject the grace of
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Page 19 A chart posted online purports to show the most common birthdays of American children. The graphic, created by a user on Reddit, was based off data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the chart, most babies seem to be born in the month of September, about nine months following the holiday season. In contrast, actual holidays are the least-common dates for new births, the chart reveals.
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Ben Stein: AntiDepressants Gave Me Suicidal Thoughts CBN News
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onday night's Emmy Awards featured a tribute to iconic comedian and actor Robin Williams, who recently committed suicide after a lifelong battle with depression. Like Williams, actor Ben Stein told CBN News he also struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide. It's unclear whether Williams took antidepressants. But Stein said those drugs played a dangerous role in his personal battle with depression. He said the closest he came to actually taking his own life were the times he was taking anti-depressants. "The absolute worst I've ever felt in my entire life was under the influence of two drugs called Thorazine and Mellaril," he said. "That was a long, long time ago, when they were supposed to make you feel better and yet, suicidal thoughts—they had the exact opposite effect, and I really came close to death," Stein told CBN Health and Science reporter Lorie Johnson. "And then within the last several years, a drug called Wellbutrin, which is a well-known anti-depressant was prescribed to me and it actually worked quite well for about two weeks. And
Ben Stein then I felt an overwhelming compulsion to commit suicide, and I stopped taking it and it went away," Stein said. Stein said he has kept his depression and thoughts of suicide at bay through prayer, rest and fresh air, and getting intp a 12-step program. "Unless there's some gigantic breakthrough I'm unaware of, I would never think of touching anti-depressants again. That being said, if they work for other people, God bless 'em," Stein said. In a recent compelling column in The American Spectator about Robin Williams' suicide, anti-depressants and prayer, Stein wrote, "Turning every problem over to God saves lives."
The things that you take for granted someone else is praying for.
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A Smart Family! Often the people most concerned about others going to hell when they die seem less concerned with the hells on earth right now, while the people most concerned with the hells on earth right now seem the least concerned about hell after death.
~Rob Bell
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Mothers: Culture Has Set Us Up For Failure
moms. You can skim: www.coffeeandcrumbs.net: when love feels heavy
by Lynn Morgan *disclosure: this article is boldly honest from one perspective and may be highly offensive. But that is the only way to spark the questions to find, specifically for someone who is looking.
This woman speaks of her new mother stage, and how naive she was when pregnant. She writes "You will not be able to tell the difference between exhaustion and depression, and that darkness will rob you from what should be the most tender months of your daughter's new life." ...I don't want to be robbed!
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f course I considered not putting my name in this article. Do you know how many people would be highly offended? Or worse, highly judgmental; people thinking I've endangered my children. However, I think we all agree that parenthood is the basic human right to be protected above all else in our pursuit of happiness as described in the Declaration of Independence. My children and family is the one thing that I, as well as most everyone, will fight for. The only exception is the parents and extenuating circumstances that endanger the child. I have always been leery that the word "endanger" could be expanded, manipulated, and possibly subjective. I recently read an article that broke my heart. Yet I know first hand that it is a reality for
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She continues, "Your baby will cry, a lot. Your days will both begin and end with the saddest screams you will ever hear.... Your baby will only sleep in ten minute increments.... Contrary to the laws of nature, Anabel will not come out knowing how to siphon milk from your body.... Compared to everyone else, you are failing. No matter how many hands you have on deck, you will be deserted." Men take these expressions from one mother, and know that it is many that feel this way and frequent. I have heard it echoed. Find respect for the enormity of bringing a person into this world and then protecting
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it. It's really something to be cherished.
But I CANNOT help but wonder... are newborns really supposed to be this difficult? Read the article; she speaks harsh reality. So my harsh reality is: no interventions, labor in a private and loving setting, and maybe consider the secret to motherhood: belly sleep. A baby never looks so beautiful as sound asleep on his belly, safe and cuddled. He sleeps like a baby is supposed to sleep: around the clock. That's right. No 10 minute increments (mine was an average of 30 minutes). He awakes to feed, poop, and play a little, but at 0-3 months old, they should go right back to sleep. And you have a well rested baby on your hands, as well as a happy mom. There should be an extreme joy at this age. Infants are easy, and the work comes with growth. (Or maybe I'm crazy, and this is God speaking, "Good job on that hard work you did with the painful labor."...But...)
Now let's talk about these "laws of nature". I'm going to say it because it seems there's an underground lacking a voice. "You" threw the "laws of nature" out of the window when you started meddling with the human body! And "We" have believed this propaganda as "just how everything is done". The Hospital? We believe we are so advanced in birth that the hospital is the safest place to be for a woman in labor. Yet, labor literally is a "law of nature". Baby is created and grown inside a body that was formed to deliver this child once maturity is reached. Interventions: Ultrasounds, Fetal monitoring, Erythromycin eye ointment, Vitamin K shot (high dosage with fillers), Hepatitis B shot, Epidurals, Pitocin, Other drugs for pain relief, Vacuum/Forceps, and finally Cesarean section.
"Back to Sleep" campaign (0 to 1 year babies when napping are on backs only) was the biggest hooey the medical society ever sold us. And out of fear, we ate it right up. These doctors are not moms. And when you research the dialogues, the doctors ultimately say parents have to determine what's right for their family and the moderation of it. That's fine and dandy, except they shoved it down our throats in culture, commercials, and products to the point that only an underground exists. It's never spoken because even the underground is full of guilt and fears of accusations of endangerment.
Nature? I don't believe so. The most popular comment is, "The pain of labor is not necessary." What makes us think that we can "slap" God's design in His face and there not be some side effects? He intended for the pain of labor, but most "high-risk" labors are in the hospital originally to get the Epidurals, and escalate from there. *I am not saying that "high-risk" pregnancies are not safe in hospitals. Please trust these surgeons who are well trained in watching vitals and medical emergencies. However, we treat more "high-risk" labors than necessary because of bad reactions to different drugs.
To sum up, the hospital's interventions and vaccinations are a cocktail that we don't know what we are doing to our body's ability to handle an infant and post-partum successfully. And "Back to Sleep" is a response to "we don't know what's wrong" that unfortunately makes post-labor ten-fold more demanding, only adding to the depression. "We" never questioned that we have babies in hospitals with drugs. "We" never questioned "Back is Best". Maybe it's time we questioned what is best for us, Moms?
If you are one who has taken advantage of these interventions, please take no offense. I realize this is a very personal decision, and all women who birth a child is to be respected and loved for bringing life.
Why is it a blessing to “sow seeds in someone else’s field?”
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Did Jesus look like the iconic Leonardo DaVinci rendering?
Sept/Oct 2014 Illinois, to two Atheist parents, Akiane was seeing visions of God, Jesus and heaven. What first began as pencil drawings,
Not very likely! The effiminate long haired, Anglo looking depiction of Christ comes from Leonardo DaVinci’s skewed idea of who Jesus was. Most likely, it was his poor thelogical exegesis assuming Jesus was a Nazarite. Nazarites took a vow before God to not cut thier hair. Two reasons of this errant assumption was they also vowed obstention frm wine. Jesus did not. Furthermore, Jesus was from the city of Nazareth making him a Nazarene not a Nazarite. -editor
Origin of the Jesus Painting by the Young Lithuanian Girl in 'Heaven Is For Real' Christian Life News Staff "Prince of Peace," painted by Akiane Kramarik at age 8. Released in April, the movie Heaven Is for Real is based on the New York Times best-seller and follows the story of a 4-year-old boy named Colton Burpo. Colton claims to have visited heaven during a near death experience. He shares his story about heaven with his curious father Todd Burpo. With the portrayal and understanding through the child's innocence, Colton's family is not sure what to think of his story and his visit to heaven. Throughout the film, Todd tries to have Colton identify Jesus through a varying number of images and photos he has on hand, but without any success. It is not until the end of the film, that Colton identifies the face of Jesus on Todd Burpo's laptop. A character in the film referred to as the "young Lithuanian girl" paints the image of Jesus, but her name and the name of her Jesus painting is never revealed. Many who have seen the movie are left wondering who "the young Lithuanian girl" painting Jesus is and the connection between her, the movie and Colton. The "little Lithuanian girl" portrayed in the movie is famed child artist Akiane Kramarik. At age 4, Akiane painted her vision of Jesus Christ, which is replicated in the film. Born in 1994 in Mount Morris,
Akiane kept replicating these visions into beautiful expressions of art and moved to pastels. By 6 years of age, Akiane switched to acrylic paint and then oils. To date, she has produced over 200 published art pieces and 800 literary creations along with two bestselling books. Akiane has shared her experience and artistic talent on television shows such as CNN and the Oprah Winfrey Show. Akiane's image, titled "The Prince of Peace," is not only featured in the film Heaven is for Real, but also her life experience is replicated and told through Colton. Both children share similarities in their experience such as: both being 4 years old when first having their noted heavenly experiences, agreeing on the possibility of an afterlife, agreeing on the existence of God, Jesus and heaven, and more. The two met for the first time in 2012 on the Katie Couric show and say they have more to share, but are waiting on God's perfect timing. More About Prince of Peace & Akiane At age 4, Akiane began having vivid visions of Heaven, Jesus, angels, and God. Her parents, who were atheists at the time, came to realize that these visions were more than just the active imagination of a child. From that point on, Akiane became passionate about drawing and painting first in pencil, then charchol and by age a 6 paint. This exquisite canvas reproduction of Akiane’s painting of Jesus titled “Prince of Peace” was completed at age 8 and is considered her first masterpiece . Prince of Peace is also known as - the "Heaven is
for Real painting of Jesus". Akiane's portrait of Jesus, Prince of Peace, is featured in both the Heaven is for Real movie by Sony/Tristar and all the "Heaven is for Real" books by Todd Burpo published by Thomas Nelson. She began praying and searching diligently for someone that looked similar to who she saw in her vision of Jesus. One day, after hours of focused prayer, a man knocked on her door. He had heard she was looking for a model for a portrait of Jesus and offered to sit for it. Akiane accepted his offer and the result is her first masterpiece, the Prince of Peace. Akiane and her painting quickly gained international attention and has since appeared on hundreds of television shows and been featured in thousands of publications – both nationally and internationally. Within a very short time, Akiane’s art work has become a global phenomenon. Prince of Peace is considered to be her first masterpiece. Akiane explains that love and truth are represented on the illuminated side of Jesus’ face, while the opposite side reflects darkness and suffering. The light in his eyes is added as a reminder that He is always with us. The subtle tones of his skin clearly portray his Middle Eastern decent.
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brown I wrung out the trust to make the pink I wrung out my own eyes to make the blue I wrung out the seaweed to make the green I wrung out the nightly pain to make the black I wrung out my grandmother's hair to make the gray I wrung out my visions to make the violet I wrung out the truth to make the white Today I want to paint God's face IT'S NOT TOO LATE ! ~ Akiane ~
Biography Akiane's life began in an unusual way, with an underwater home birth in a shack on the edge of a cornfield. Although during her first years the family experienced severe hardships, Akiane grew up in a nurturing home-schooling environment. Her mother was a Lithuanian immigrant teacher and her father a chef from Chicago. In their rural Illinois home the family had no friends, no relatives, no television or radio, and their life was quite simple: long walks in nature, open conversations, and hands on explorations of knowledge.
Why a light & dark of Jesus' Face? “Love and Truth are represented on the light side of Jesus’ face; The other is of darkness and suffering yet there’s light in His eye. This light is a reminder that He is ALWAYS with us!" ~ Akiane ~
When Akiane was four years old, even though the family was indifferent to spirituality or religion, suddenly she started experiencing vivid impressions about invisible realms and a great desire to express them through art utilizing whatever medium was found on hand: candles, lipstick, fruits, vegetables, charcoal or pencils.
Akiane's Poem About " Prince of Peace"
It's Not Too Late Perhaps I wanted to catch it perhaps not But one morning an eagle dropped a diamond And right then with my faulty brush full of my own hair I wanted to paint I wanted to paint the wings - Too late they flew away I wanted to paint a flower - Too late - it withered That night the rain was running after me Each drop of rain showed God's face His face was everywhere On homes and on me I wrung out the love to make the red I wrung out the stumps to make the
Though once in while she would share many details about the self-aware universes she was seeing, most of her spiritual experiences, however, she kept secret, so as not to overwhelm her parents. "It is not time yet for you to know what I see. When that time comes, then you will know." Whether it was Akiane's vivid imagination or real experiences, her realistic drawings of mostly faces, undoubtedly impressed everybody, and during the first local art exhibitions people often had a hard time believing that the work could actually be created by such a young child. Soon afterwards, Akiane plunged into the
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world of colors, and a few more years later into the world of poetry leaving her family and audiences puzzled. Gradually the days became filled with thinking, painting and writing, and at the tender age of eight the self-taught prodigy completed her first five-foot long oil paintings mastering realism equal to that of a seasoned artist. The media took immediate notice, and her unique story rapidly circled the nation. Oprah Winfrey was the first to discover this nine-year-old's gift, and once she shared it during her show, Akiane's fame took off. Soon every continent was reporting her breathtaking story. Since then, she has been called a genius, a prodigy, a crystal child, an indigo, a messenger, a visionary, an ambassador, and the first true master of the 21st century. Completely unconcerned about all the labels or the accolades about her, Akiane, now seventeen, continues to express herself through art and poetry, inspiring and changing countless lives one person at a time. Those who have gotten to know this young genius, find her joyful, gentle, dedicated, modest and unpretentious. The young painter seems to be completely focused on her work getting up at four in the morning, for many hours painting in her studio, detail after detail, layer after layer, month after month—sometimes spending as much as four months on a single masterpiece. Akiane plans to continue publishing books, travel with her art and poetry around the world and help needy families with the funds from her gallery sales and auctions. "I see ordinary life in an extraordinary world, and I see extraordinary life in an ordinary world. Everything is One. We are all connected. If we experienced the present through eternity and eternity through the present, we would know true Love." she explains in her upcoming book, Eternity Is Not That Long.
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and finish line is love. I know I am just one person, but I wish that with each brushstroke and with each message I could bring hope to those who have lost it." Now, because of the generous heart of one little girl, you too can own "Prince of Peace"; the painting that been descrbed by thousands of people (including art collectors) as the most intriguing portrait of Jesus they have ever seen.
www.akiane.com art-soulworks.com 303-670-0362
3 Things Christians Do That Make Us Unlikable Written by Justin Lathrop
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o you or does anyone you know unwittingly display any of these characteristics? (iStock photo) It is no secret that Christians don't exactly have the best reputation outside (or even inside) the church. Jesus says we should be known by our love, but today it seems we're known for traits and behaviors that are much less flattering. I've heard Christians referred to as judgmental, hypocritical, pushy, and just plain mean. Unfortunately, the people who call us those things are often correct. But that needs to change. The world needs the gospel more than ever, and we're supposed to be the messengers of that gospel. Turn on the news and you will come face to face with the prevailing darkness in our world. The world needs bringers of light, love and joy—people to bring light and life into places that know nothing but darkness and death. People don't listen to people they don't like—and our reputations are getting in the way of our ability to share Christ with the people who need Him most.
Included into the group of the richest kidsentrepreneurs of America Akiane has been touring around the United States along with other top entrepreneurs teaching millions of people about the secrets to success and happiness.
No, being a Christian won't always be popular; Jesus promised that. The decisions we make and the ways we live our lives are counter-cultural in almost every way. But unpopular and unlikable are not the same thing.
"Our future is our present. If we take care of it, we take care of tomorrow. The start
Here are a few things Christians do that can make us unlikable—and how we can
curb those bad habits.
where I think we are disliked the most.
1. We insist on being right. We are people of conviction, people who believe something strongly and fight for that belief no matter what. But all too often, those convictions make us bad listeners.
I've heard people on the receiving end of evangelism compare it to their experience at a used-car lot. Someone who doesn't know you is trying to sell you something— something you're not sure you want in the first place.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone who was convinced they were right even before you opened your mouth? That conversation starts to look a lot more like a monologue. I'm not suggesting we weaken our convictions, but rather that we practice the art of listening and work on understanding. Hearing new ideas doesn't weaken our own, and listening to someone who lives their life differently won't compromise our integrity. Instead it will help us connect to someone new and give that person a new frame of reference for the kind of friend Christians can be. 2. We use Jesus as an excuse to be angry or rude. Rejection is a fear deeply ingrained in each of us, and I think as Christians, we're just waiting for the moment we're going to be rejected. So you know what we do? We work to make that happen sooner. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. We feel that we have to fight for our beliefs, that we're going to be challenged or rejected, and so we become headstrong, mean, even rude before anyone else gets the chance. We site Scripture saying, "Jesus was hated, so I'm going to be hated too." But we forget just who hated Jesus: Religious people. Jesus being hated isn't an excuse to be rude. Jesus was hated because of His love. And if there's any reason we are hated or rejected, I vote that it be because of love too. 3. We let our agenda be "conversion" over love. I want to be careful in how I say this, because I am not at all undermining Jesus' command in the Great Commission. But sometimes we focus on converting people instead of loving them, and that's
While evangelism is part of our job, and the Great Commission is something we should be working to fulfill, we should be doing it a whole lot more the way Jesus did it—through love. The people Jesus was harshest with were the people who claimed to know Him— religious people who were missing the point altogether. Love was always the point, and love is what Jesus showed to the people who didn't know Him, the people whose lives were changed most radically. We'd find our audience much more receptive, and ourselves much more likable, if we focused on making disciples through love instead of through apologetics. Being a Christian is a hard balance to walk. We want to be true to our beliefs no matter what—even if that comes at the price of not being liked for them. But often I think the opinions of those outside the church can be used as a spotlight, highlighting places in us where we're missing the mark, or off from where Jesus wants us to be. Let's not compromise ourselves for the sake of popularity, but rather let's respect the feedback we're being given and use it to take a good hard look at ourselves and the way we're coming across. We'll be better for it. With more than a dozen years of localchurch ministry, Justin Lathrop has spent the last several years starting businesses and ministries that partner with pastors and churches to advance the Kingdom. He is the founder of Helpstaff.me (now Vanderbloemen Search), Oaks School of Leadership and MinistryCoach.tv, all while staying involved in the local church. For the original article, visit:
justinlathrop.com
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Bankruptcy Helped Me Love My Neighbor A guest post by Troy Jackson
How one pastor found himself caught up in the mortgage crisis. One of the first prayers I learned as a child was the debtor’s version of the Lord’s Prayer. You know, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” It wasn’t until this past year, however, that those words became real to me. When my wife and I moved to Cincinnati in 1994, we decided to buy a home in Mt. Auburn, a largely African American community near University Christian Church, a congregation filled with college students where I was a new pastor. We spent the next ten years loving both our house and our neighborhood. As our family grew, we decided to sell our house to a hardworking African American single mom. Meanwhile, we bought an old brick house in the heart of Mt. Auburn that we planned to restore, with plenty of space for us to entertain and accommodate regular guests. But due to family circumstances, the timing was never right to move into the larger Mt. Auburn home, and instead we moved to a different neighborhood. A few years later, at the beginning of the housing crisis, we heard that our original house was in foreclosure. Apparently, that hardworking mother bought a sub-prime mortgage, and when the balloon payments hit, she simply could not keep up. I think of her often, most recently when I read this paragraph of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article, “The Case for Reparations,” which describes the systematic extraction of wealth from African Americans throughout American History: In 2005, Wells Fargo promoted a series of Wealth Building Strategies seminars. Dubbing itself “the nation’s leading originator of home loans to ethnic
minority customers,” the bank enrolled black public figures in an ostensible effort to educate blacks on building “generational wealth.” But the “wealth building” seminars were a front for wealth theft. In 2010, the Justice Department filed a discrimination suit against Wells Fargo alleging that the bank had shunted blacks into predatory loans regardless of their creditworthiness. This was not magic or coincidence or misfortune. It was racism reifying itself. According to The New York Times, affidavits found loan officers referring to
their black customers as “mud people” and to their subprime products as “ghetto loans." As horrible as my wife and I felt at the time, the pain of what that woman and so many others experienced during the height of the foreclosure crisis still felt distant. That same crisis had also pushed our rental property in Mt. Auburn under water, but in the meantime we had arranged a master lease with a bright, ambitious young woman who converted it into a vibrant community house. While that community’s rent didn’t fully cover our costs, my wife and I continued to pay our mortgage, hoping the housing market would improve. In the spring of 2013, our tenant called to tell us she and her friends could no longer keep up. Suddenly, my wife and I were in big trouble. We tried to sell, but discovered that so many homes had been foreclosed on in Mt. Auburn that the price of real estate had dropped over 50%. Eventually we called the mortgage provider for our rental property, to let
them know we could no longer keep up with our payments. We hoped they would take the property from us, or agree to a short sale, or work with us in some way. Every time we called, however, we talked with a different person, none of whom had any record of our previous conversations. We even completed the short sale application twice, but the next time we called, all that work had disappeared. Several months later, my wife received notice that we were being sued for the entire unpaid principal on our home in Mt. Auburn. After several weeks of seeking solutions, fervently praying, talking to attorneys, and seeking counsel, we realized that our best option was to file for bankruptcy. So here I am, a 45year old pastor and community organizer, with two masters degrees and a Ph.D., married to a highly successful social worker with a masters of her own, up to my neck in the process of filing for bankruptcy. I have hidden this fact from almost everyone in my life, embarrassed and ashamed by my family’s situation. On many days I feel like a failure, for letting down my wife and children. In the church, we are implicitly taught to hide our struggles and our pain and our shame. So I hid. But slowly, over the past few months, I’ve begun to share my story, and I believe this response to Coates’ article is a great opportunity for me to come out as a bankruptcy filer. I’ve come to believe that my family and I are, at least in part, collateral damage of the most recent wealth extraction scheme targeting black Americans and Latinos. Along with many of our minority friends and neighbors, we will be adversely affected by our bankruptcy for years. Even so, the impact of the most recent economic crisis has been far worse for others. As a Pew Research study reports: in percentage terms, the bursting of the housing market bubble in 2006 and the
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Sept/Oct 2014 recession that followed from late 2007 to mid-2009 took a far greater toll on the wealth of minorities than whites. From 2005 to 2009, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66% among Hispanic households and 53% among black households, compared with just 16% among white households. Some have lost all of their equity in homes that have been in their families for generations. Others have put every cent they saved into the dream of home ownership, only to see it all washed away. Whether or not they declare bankruptcy, theses people are struggling from pay check to pay check, leaning on pay day loans, working inconsistent hours with very low pay in fast food or retail, trying to get by on less than enough. Their pain no longer feels distant to my wife and me. They are our neighbors again, this time in a much deeper way. The Lord’s Prayer is more real to me than ever: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Perhaps you will also understand why I hope another famous refrain, this one by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., becomes real to all of us: “We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured.” In the midst of vulnerability and pain, God is connecting me with my neighbors and with the love and grace of Jesus like never before. Troy Jackson is the interim executive director of the AMOS Project, a faithbased organizing effort in Cincinnati fighting for racial justice. Troy lives in Cincinnati with his wife Amanda and their three children, Jacob, Emma and Ellie.
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7 Factors That Could Accelerate Your Teen Daughter’s Sexual Activity
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com Example: Not letting her borrow your car because you don't trust her is a consequence to irresponsible behavior. Have this talk with her now.
Ask the Rabbi...
I
t makes you want to go back to simpler times. The only thing to worry about was her tripping and falling. Those were the days when your little girl sat in your lap and you could make everything better with a kiss. Now you are on the other side of braces. She has blossomed into her teens and boys have come into the picture. She enters the world of dating and your trepidation is palpable. She is blissfully unaware of what you know well. You know how teenage boys think and feel. You know the emotional entanglement that dating brings particularly when things get physical. A young girl's heart is like a spider web; the more intimate they get, the more of his hand is on it. Teenagers don't have the life experience to know the deep impact of their actions. When he moves on, he pulls his hand off the web leaving it in tatters. Sadly, she may even think of herself as ruined. The following seven factors increase the likelihood of your daughter being sexually active at a younger age. Knowing these and taking action will help lessen the chance of your daughter engaging in sexual activity in her teen years.
Alcohol Consumption. Drinking causes teens to misunderstand emotions, which clogs clear decision making. Increasing the danger is that getting drunk happens quicker for girls because of their smaller bodies. A Strict Home. You have to let go. Your rules are not going to stop her from making bad decisions. The tighter you try to make your grip, the more she's going to slip through your fingers. More and more secrets will be kept. The focus needs to be trust and consequences.
Feeling Disconnected from You. Cultivate your relationship with her. Spend as much time with her as you can. Ask her out on dates—mid-week has a higher chance of acceptance. Show her genuine care, interest, and affection. Never stop pursuing. Divorce. If you are divorced or contemplating divorce, you need to know this reality. There is no judgment here and it doesn't mean that the situation is hopeless. It just means that you need to be all the more proactive in the other areas of this list, particularly your connection. Work with your ex-wife as best you can. No Clear and Effective Communication of Disapproval of Sex Outside of Marriage. Talk to her about sex. I know it's awkward and she will be uncomfortable. Have your talking points ready, but be as natural as you can be. Talk about the physical risks, but focus on the emotional ones more. Keep it honest and real, but no browbeating. Don't give one big talk and assume that's it. Think of it as a running dialogue. Peer Pressure. They will want to do what their friends are doing. Get to know their friends the best you can. Don't turn a blind eye to the crowd they are rolling in. Ask inquiring questions. A strong sense of identity and bond with your family's core values will help counter peer pressure. Sexual Abuse. As a result, many times young girls' values are wrongly tied to their sexuality. Your daughter needs a lot of care and professional counseling. If it hasn't been done, you need to contact the authorities and confront the perpetrator. Let her see the full weight of your protection. Huddle up with your wife tonight and talk about how to discuss sex with your kids. At AllProDad.com, dads in any stage of fatherhood can find helpful resources to aid in their parenting.
their needs. Sukkot also points to the millennial reign of Yeshua the Messiah. Everyone is invited, whether Jew or Gentile, to attend these High Holy Day services; admission is free. Rabbi Storch will elaborate more on these fall festivals during the high holy day services.
AllProDad.com Staff
Are you comfortable enough to talk with your teen daughter about sex?
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with Rabbi Jeremy Storch THE BIBLICAL HIGH HOLY DAY SERVICES According to Judaism, Rosh Hashanah marks not only the Jewish New Year, but the creation of the world itself. Rosh Hashanah is also called the Feast of Trumpets, in which God is hailed as the Creator of the Universe and the King of Israel.
Rosh Hashanah services will be held Wednesday, September 24th at 7:30 PM and Thursday, September 25th, at 11:00 AM. Yom Kippur services will be held on Friday, October 3rd, at 7:30 PM and Saturday, October 4th, at 11:00 AM. Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) services will be held Wednesday, October 8th, Friday, October 10th, at 7:30 PM and Saturday October 11th, at 11:00 AM.
According to Messianic Judaism this feast points toward Yeshua (Jesus) as the King of Israel, the Jewish Messiah, and the Savior of the world. Yom Kippur represents the Day of Atonement, held once a year, when the high priest of Israel made atonement for the sins of the Jewish people by offering, as a sacrifice, the blood of bulls and goats in the Most Holy Place of the Temple. According to Messianic Judaism this all pointed toward Yeshua (Jesus), as the once and for all perfect sacrifice for the sins of all mankind and who is our great High Priest. Sukkot represents the Feast of Tabernacles, where the Israelites were commanded to dwell in "booths" and rejoice before the Lord for seven days, thanking Him for His faithfulness to provide all
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To contact Jeremy for ministry in your congregation, for a radio or television interview or other special event, or for information on his albums or teachings, please call or email:
The Tabernacle Branson’s Messianic Congregation 256 Church Road Branson, MO 65616 (417) 334-7373
TheTabernacleInBranson.com
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Sept/Oct 2014
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Halloween Fun!
Answers to Cross-Word Puzzle on Page 7
Answers 1.Skunk 2. Fewer 3. Muffin 4. Turtle BONUS Knew His “Stuff” Answers to Sudoku Puzzle on Page 25
franc (abbr.) 57 Pinch 59 Biblical word for You idiot! 61 Do __ others 65 Farm credit administration (abbr.) 67 Consume 69 Greek 71 Fatal 73 Herr's wife 74 Abdominal muscles (abbr.) 75 Cling 76 Ceases 77 Digit 78 Do not throw your __ before swine 79 Blessed are the __ 80 Scorching DOWN 1 Makes a sound like a lion 2 Adios 3 Taut 4 Association (abbr.) 5 Small domestic bird 6 Where Jesus died 7 Bro. or sis. 8 El __ (Texas city) 9 Flowering herb 10 Reserved 11 Name for Holy Spirit 12 Dry
13 Look 21 OT book of history 22 Religious songs 26 Strike 28 __ A Small World... 30 Stop 32 School group 34 European monetary unit 35 Adam and Eve's garden 36 College (abbr.) 37 Rodents 38 Come, O Lord! (Aramaic) 43 American Football Conference (abbr.) 44 Biblical seat of emotions 46 Sweet potato 49 Samuel's mentor 51 BB association 53 Water (Spanish) 56 Building face 58 Ocean jewel 60 Chili con __ 62 Under, poetically 63 No-no 64 Beginning 65 What birds' wings do 66 Surrender 68 Beers 70 Outer layer 72 Possessive pronoun 73 Female (abr.)
Unscramble the Words 1. ewenlalho _______________ 2. tkric ___________________ 3. eartt ___________________ 4. kmnspiup _______________ 5. nugrnin _________________ 6. oaegrn _________________ 7. tshavre _________________ 8. prie ____________________ 9. amfily __________________ 10. nedfisr ________________ 11. pryat __________________ 12. tgnih __________________
13. tsocsume ______________ 14. akmupe _______________ 15. asmk _________________ 16. oonm _________________ 17. loscoh ________________ 18. idhaoly ________________ 19. eclrbaeet ______________ 20. radciosteon ____________ 21. dncay _________________ 22. vaslee ________________ 23. reste __________________ 24. owlley _________________ 25. thlisg ______________
Answers 1. halloween 2. trick 3. treat 4. pumpkins 5. running 6. orange 7. harvest 8. ripe 9. family 10. friends 11. party 12. night 13. costumes 14. makeup 15. mask 16. moon 17. school 18. holiday 19. celebrate 20. decorations 21. candy 22. leaves 23. trees 24. yellow 25. lights
ACROSS 1 Lab animal 4 What children learn 8 Student's programming language 14 Lyric poem 15 Asian dress 16 No longer at sea 17 Old Testament city 18 Stuck up person 19 Hinder 20 Hates 22 Garden tool 23 Former president of U.S. 24 Canal name 25 Wan 27 Brazilian city 29 Rapid eye movement 31 Rascal 33 Oak 36 Capital of Jordan 39 Trinitrotoluene 40 Wall support 41 Central Intelligence Agency 42 Morse code dash 45 Tell 47 Bard's before 48 Land measurement 50 Marsh 52 Brother of Moses 54 Transaction 55 Taxi 56 Madagascar
ADVENTURE BASKETS CANDY CELEBRATE CIDER CORN COSTUME FALL FAMILY FIELDS FRIENDS FUN GAMES HALLOWEEN HARVEST HAYRIDE HOLIDAY KNOCKING LANTERN LAUGH LEAVES
LIGHTS MAKEUP MASK MOON NIGHT OCTOBER ORANGE PARTY PEACE PUMPKINS RIPE RUNNING SCHOOL SEED STREET TREAT TREES TRICK YELLOW
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When Church Becomes a Soap Opera by J. Lee Grady
D
o you feel, at times, your church's atmosphere has become a soap opera? I've never watched much daytime TV, but every week my local newspaper runs a plot summary for the most popular soap operas. I sometimes read these for a laugh. In one week, the plot of a typical daytime soap will sound something like this: Lexie tells her therapist that she plans to leave Buzz. Jade admits she wants to try a coffee date with Romeo again, but she's afraid to tell him about her recent arrest in the Bahamas when she was with Logan. Dusty learns he's the father of Angelique's baby, which makes Kendra furious. Jake and Savannah bicker about whether he knew she was Samantha's twin the whole time. Paige worries that Roscoe is stalking her, so Brooke hires a detective. Kayla is positive that Skye is the one who hit
Colton over the head, causing his amnesia. All that drama in one week! But you might discover there is just as much drama happening in a local congregation. If there were such a thing as a Christian soap opera, the plot might sound like this: Maribelle leaves First Assembly because Della didn't speak to her at the children's workers meeting. Tyrell gets mad at Pastor Hawkins because he didn't invite him to speak at the youth retreat. Tara thinks she sees Frisco outside a tattoo parlor so she warns Wanda. Ida posts photos of her mission trip on Facebook, and Kitty gets mad because she was cropped out of the pictures. Gladys tells her prayer group that she thinks Pastor Parker's wife has a spirit of Jezebel because she wears red so often. Boone tells Zane he will end their friendship if he removes April from the worship team. Willow files for divorce from Bryce after she learns he and Barbie had an affair during the pastors' conference. It's true: Church can be full of drama. It's especially hurtful if it involves malicious gossip, misunderstandings, misjudgments, blowups, adultery, jealousy, false accusations, suspicion, slights, financial schemes or church splits. I know people who dropped out of church completely because they ended up in a church soap opera. Their attitude today is cynical: "I love Jesus. I just don't like His people."
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I've seen a lot of drama over the years— not just in church but also in Christian ministries. People can be easily offended, opinionated, quick to judge, eager to believe the worst and horribly insensitive. But we can't let other people's bad behavior steal our joy or stop us from serving God. If church drama has gotten you down, keep these guidelines in mind: 1. Don't care so much about what others say about you. Eccl. 7:21 says: "Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you." Not everyone is going to celebrate you; some people will ignore you. And if you
Sept/Oct 2014 volunteer to lead anything, you will be rejected and criticized from time to time. So what? Get over it! Many years ago a pastor prayed for me that I would have "alligator skin" because he knew I would be criticized a lot. I learned to let people's opinions and judgments roll off my back. This doesn't mean I don't listen to criticism if it is valid. But we can't crave affirmation or praise so much that people's opinions end up controlling us. We must live to please God, not people. 2. Mind your own business. You can be pulled into a church soap opera— and be dragged down with it—if you are too eager to correct everyone's faults. Prov. 26:17 says: "Like one who takes a dog by the ears is he who passes by and meddles with strife not belonging to him." It is foolish to take sides in a church dispute, especially when you don't have all the facts. Don't be so quick to determine who is right and who is wrong. 3. Change the channel. If Sabrina ignored you at church today, or if Heather told you that Crystal told her that Jackie told her that Marsha said you are arrogant, don't even give the silly comment another thought. Chances are that's not what Marsha said; her comment was distorted when it passed through the gossip mill. (And if Marsha did say it, forget about it. She's the one with the problem since she didn't talk to you directly.) Years ago British pastor Charles Spurgeon told students in his Bible college that they must develop "one blind eye and one blind ear" if they were to survive ministry. The same rule applies to us today. There are times when we must confront bad behavior. But we must also learn to turn a blind eye when people do stupid little things to hurt our feelings, and we must turn a deaf ear when we hear words that are meant to make us mad or trigger anxiety. Just tune them out! If you are being weighed down by the petty things people say and do, don't waste any more emotional energy obsessing over them. Forgive quickly, pray for the people involved, be a peacemaker instead of a troublemaker, fix your eyes on Jesus, and let Him deal with the drama. J. Lee Grady is the former editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He is the author of 10 Lies the Church Tells Women and other books. You can learn more about his ministry, The Mordecai Project, at themordecaiproject.org.
ACV is for sale at: Heavenly Wear New Victorian Village • Branson (417) 544-9071
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A Minute with a Man
D
id you ever wonder what our Founding Fathers thought about faith in God and Jesus Christ? Compared to what our government leaders say today, it makes you sick to think about how wonderful and straightforward our leaders used to be.
Read the words of Benjamin Franklin: “I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, it is probable that an empire can rise without His aid?”
“I have been alternately called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe all power... will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.” President Abraham Lincoln said that he hoped that the Lord was on our side saying: “I am no at all concerned about that, for I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right, But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.”
Now you know what our Founding Fathers really said.
My, how far we’ve come from the original history of our great nation to today when the name of Jesus Christ is the name we dare not mention in public life. Should Christians get involved to help good candidates run for office? And if so, should they be Republicans, Democrats or Independents?
Springfield, MO Attorney Dee Wampler has 50 years trial experience as a Greene County prosecutor and defense attorney, and is the author of “The Myth of Separation of Church and State” and “The Trial of Christ: A 21st Century Lawyer Defends Jesus.”
Our founding fathers thought that if you were reborn a Christian, that you should reflect that in your political involvement. As our founding father Benjamin Rush, signer of the U.S. Constitution said:
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The Demise of Guys? by Eric Reed "Please, sir, may I have some different?" It's not "more" the average young guy wants today, it's different. Psychologist Philip Zimbardo describes drug addiction as "wanting more," but guys today have what he calls arousal addiction, always "wanting something different." This neverending stream of stimulation is behind the growing failure of males to connect with women socially or to succeed academically. They're dropping out of life. Sorry, fantasy is far better than reality, I have to get back to my video games now.
Zimbardo cites excessive internet use, video gaming, and online porn as causes of this new addiction. By age 21, boys spend 10,000 hours gaming, two-thirds of that time in isolation. The average young man watches 50 porn clips per week. "Boys' brains are being digitally rewired in a totally new way, for change, novelty, excitement, and constant arousal," Zimbardo says. "They're totally out of sync in traditional classes, which are analog, static, and interactively passive. And they're totally out of sync in relationships, which build gradually and subtly." This is creating a generation of young men who do not connect well in traditional teaching situations and who lack social skills especially with women.
Dee Wampler
City Reaches Settlement with Street Preacher by Amos Bridges, Spfd MO NewsLeader
A
Baptist preacher ticketed repeatedly for disturbing the peace in downtown Springfield, MO has reached an agreement with the city that will see his charges deferred while limiting the times and manner of his street sermons. Aaron Brummitt, of Lighthouse Anabaptist Church, had been charged with a total of eight municipal ordinance violations resulting from a string of confrontations wiht Springfield police and downtown residents complaining
about the volume of his speeches. Circuit Court. The municipal tickets, punishable by Wampler said agreement defers fines up to $1,000 and/or up to a year in prosecution of the tickets for one year, jail, could go away entirely if Brummitt after which they will be dismissed. In abides by the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement signed Monday evening. Attorney Dee Wampler, who represented Brummitt, said the four-page agreement covers six of the eight tickets written to the preacher. Wampler said he expects the agreement will be extended to include two additional tickets that had been transferred to another judge in Greene County Aaron Brummitt
The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us. -Billy Graham
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return, Brummitt has agreed to a number of restrictions, including: • He won’t use sound amplification with a volume greater than 75 decibels • He’ll stay at least 125 feet away from Park Central Square while preaching when an event with a city permit is taking place • He generally will preach no more than once a week for no more than 90 minutes at a time. Four weeks a year he will be allowed to preach twice in the same week. Wampler said he thinks the agreement is fair result for his client. “He has no prior record,” he said. “He’s an ordained minister.”
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Guess What Hotel Chain Is Banning Bibles Now The Christian Institute
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CHIROPRACTIC CARE Please let the professionals do it. Do not try this at home!
A Few of the Many Benefits of Chiropractic Regular Chiropractic Care removes Nervous System Interference. The nervous system without interference properly controls every aspect of your body to allow for: • Healthier Children = fewer ear infections, asthma, bed-wetting, etc. • Healthier Adults = increases energy & productivity • Healthier Moms = easier pregnancy & delivery • Healthier Seniors = better balance = decreases likelihood of falling • Improves Posture • Improves Overall Health • Counteracts the effects of gravity • Makes you feel great • Slows or stop spinal degeneration • Slows the aging process • Makes spinal discs healthier • Quicker recovery • Increases energy • Improve athletic performance • Allows for better sleep • Better mobility • Improves spinal structure • Relief from chronic pain (fibromyalgia) • Prevents many surgeries • Increases productivity at work • Better Immune System Function • Relieves stress • Prevents many health problems • Relieves tension Mention • Increases vitality that you saw us • Spend less on health care expenses in the ACV & get $20 off • Improves digestive function your Initial Visit! • Clearer/better/sharper vision • Improves circulation *Includes: Consult with Dr. • Decreases ringing in ears Bo, Chiropractic Exam AND • Diminishes acne/eczema • Relieves painful menstruation 1st Adjustment. • Asthma & Allergies diminish
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The U.K. nationwide hotel chain Travelodge has removed Bibles from all of its rooms, in a move criticized by the Church of England. Bibles provided free by the Gideons have been taken away for "diversity" reasons. The removals took place after refurbishment work across the hotel chain, which replaced the drawers where Bibles were being kept. In response, a spokesman for the Church of England said: "It seems both tragic and bizarre that hotels would remove the word of God for the sake of ergonomic design, economic incentive or a spurious definition of the word 'diversity.'" Writing on the Telegraph website, commentator Tim Stanley described Travelodge's decision as "an act of cultural vandalism upon a tradition that goes back 126 years." A spokesman for Travelodge said: "The reason is because of diversity. With
the country being increasingly multicultural, we didn't feel it was appropriate to just have the Bible." He added: "People were also taking Bibles away and with the redesign of the rooms, it was felt that it would be better to remove them." Travelodge is the only hotel chain in the country to have removed the Bibles, despite its never having received a complaint from a guest. Both Premier Inn and InterContinental Hotels, which owns the Holiday Inn chain, say that Bibles are being retained in their hotels. A spokesman for Premier Inn said: "On the rare occasion that a customer does not wish to have a Bible in their room, they can request this to be removed ahead of their stay." The practice of placing Bibles in hotel rooms dates back over 120 years, originating with the work of the Commercial Travellers' Christian Association. In recent times, the work of distributing Bibles in hotels has been taken up by The Gideons International, which provides this service to more than 190 countries worldwide.
Going on a Mission at Home MBCH Children and Family Ministries (an affiliate of Missouri Baptist Children’s Home) is seeking Christians willing to serve God by supplying foster care for teens. The Therapeutic Foster Care ministry provides a daily rate of pay that allows one foster parent to remain at home and care for the child. Training and licensing is provided for the foster parents at no cost. You can make a difference in the life of a hurting child by “Going on Mission at Home”. For more information about becoming a licensed foster parent, call:
(417) 831-2342 or visit: www.mbch.org
Creation Experience Museum is Free Admission and open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 10am to 5pm. It is located seven miles north of Branson on US 65 on the Northwest Access Road off the State Route 160 Forsyth/Reeds Spring exit (the long brown building with the Ship). (417) 561-0750 Come visit us and bring your family – they need to know how loved and valued they are!
Sept/Oct 2014
3 Sure-Fire Weapons to Silence Satan’s Threats by Kyle Winkler he enemy wants to have control over your life, but God has already equipped you to effectively fight back.
T
The pervasive image of Satan as a red guy with horns and a pitchfork, orchestrating all the evil in the world from his command center in hell, is nothing more than myth. The devil is not red with horns and a pitchfork. And while he does orchestrate evil, he doesn't do it from hell. No, Jesus revealed that hell is the place prepared to destroy Satan and his demons, not their home (Matt. 25:41). In fact, the devil will not see hell until his final rebellion at the end of time when he is thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7–10). This all begs the question: If Satan isn't in hell, where is he and what is he doing? The Opposer The Bible teaches that Satan spends his time roaming the earth, searching for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Like most names in Hebrew, "Satan" is more than a name; it's a job description. It means "one who opposes or blocks." Picture man-to-man defense in the game of basketball. As you move about the court, trying to make your best shot, the devil hovers over to block you. You feel his breath on your face, whispering things like "You can't make this!" or "You're no good!" Understand that Satan is your greatest opponent, and his goal is to ensure that you miss yours.
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com Thankfully, God has not left us powerless to Satan's attacks. The book of Revelation reveals the three sure-fire weapons God has given us to silence Satan's threats. And they have defeated [the accuser] by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. —Rev. 12:10-11, NLT
The Accuser
With this newfound revelation, I fell to my knees and, through my mind's eye, saw visions of the gruesome scene when He who knew no sin took on my sin (2 Cor. 5:21). I then tearfully positioned myself at the foot of the cross to be covered by His measureless amount of forgiving blood.
Satan has another role, too. And that's as "the accuser of our brothers and sisters" (Rev. 12:11, NLT). In this, Satan works like a prosecuting attorney filing claim after claim of how we tripped up and why God can't use us. These threats and accusations are the bulk of the spiritual warfare that we face and too often hold us back from our destinies.
All the agony Jesus faced on the cross was meant to heal ours. This is what Isaiah prophesied: "By His wounds we were healed" (Isa. 53:5). See that the cross is the place of your victory. It's the place where your record of wrongs was canceled, and thus, where Satan is dethroned and silenced in your life (Col. 2:14–15).
Three Weapons
Our testimonies are the stories of our struggles and how we overcame them through God's power. These are extremely poignant because they build the faith of listeners to expect that God will also do the same for them. Jesus' Resurrection provides a pinnacle example of the power of testimony. Upon rising from the dead, he could have appeared with a redeemed body that erased all signs of the past. But instead, He kept the scars from the things He had suffered as evidence that there stood a man who should be dead but is now alive (John 20:19-20). His scars are His testimony, and they tell His story.
The Blood of the Lamb In my book, Silence Satan: Shutting Down the Enemy's Attacks, Threats, Lies, and Accusations, I chronicle my own battle with Satan's accusations. But just as I was about to walk away from ministry, the Lord opened my eyes to the words of John the Baptist: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29, ESV). This was a familiar scripture, to be sure. But in the heat of the warfare, I understood it in a fresh, new way. I saw that "behold" isn't a quick glance, but a close study. In this verse, John the Baptist instructs us to meditate upon and look closely at Jesus in His moment of taking away the sin of the world.
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It's important to recognize that scars are simply wounds that are healed. So just as Jesus modeled, the scars from your past are testimonies of the power of God in your life. They provide evidence to others that God still mightily heals and transforms.
Kyle Winkler is founder of Kyle Winkler Ministries, a media and teaching ministry broadcasting on the Christian Television Network and various online outlets. Before launching his own ministry, Kyle served at Christ Fellowship, one of the nation's 15 largest churches, and as vice president of an international apologetics ministry. He holds a master of divinity in biblical studies from Regent University. Arm yourself with daily encouragement from Kyle on Facebook and Twitter. His latest book, Silence Satan: Shutting Down the Enemy's Attacks, Threats, Lies, and Accusations, releases in September.
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(417) 831-2333 The Crucified Life The Bible uncovers the final weapon in our arsenal against Satan: "... and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die." This describes the crucified life. If your past is completely nailed to Christ's cross, then there's no reason for shame or embarrassment. Your record of wrongs should no longer haunt you, and you should no longer fear the opinion of others. When I arose from Satan's attack on my life, it was like bursting forth from a tomb. The guilt and shame that attempted to keep me in the grave could no longer hold me down. The past had lost its influence. Rather than shut me up, I determined to speak up and tell my story, regardless of what anyone thinks. Silence Satan and Live Victoriously Satan's threats are aimed to silence our voices from influencing the lives of many
Your Testimony
others. He knows that our stories have the ability to release the power of Jesus, and so he tries to mute them with accusations. But through the Blood of the Lamb and the testimony of its transformation, we have control of our pasts, and with it, the ability to silence Satan and live victoriously!
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9 Secrets That Your Pastor's Wife Wishes You Knew by Christine Stolaas
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he's always there. Sometimes in the background, sometimes with a welcoming smile up front, sometimes noticed and appreciated, sometimes being silently judged. Your pastor's wife; the powerful force behind most church leaders often perceived as a mystery by the rest of the church.
It doesn't have to be that way. What if we just asked our pastor's wife to candidly, honestly, even anonymously share some of their secrets? What if we invited them to share their hearts and tell us what they wished the church knew? I posed a simple, open-ended question to a panel of pastors' wives in different states, from different denominations, with various years of service, "If you could tell the church a few things about your role as a pastor's wife, what would you say?" The women selected are the wives of music ministers, children's leaders, senior pastors and youth pastors. Some of them serve in churches with large staff and even larger budgets, others in newer church plants, and even some from old and barely surviving congregations. Despite such different backgrounds, their responses were strangely similar and in several cases, almost identical. I've sat for coffee, exchanged emails and had lengthy conversations with many who freely shared their secrets with me in exchange for the promise of anonymity. What follows is a condensed collection of their words. 1) "I wish people knew that we struggle to have family time." There was one common response that I received from every single pastor's wife. Every. Single. One. Over and over again, many pastors' wives shared numerous occasions where planned vacations had been cut short (wouldn't that be hard?). They told me tales of family evenings being rearranged for crises of church members, middle-of-
the-night emergencies and regular interruptions. A true day off is rare; even on scheduled days off their husbands are essentially on call 24/7. 2) "Almost every day I'm afraid of screwing it all up." They don't have it all together. They battle many of the same
Jesus. There I said it!" They have a variety of interests. Believe it or not, many pastors' wives went to college and had full-time careers before becoming "Mrs. Pastor's wife." They have hobbies, likes and dislikes, and though they often serve beside their husband, they are individuals with their own unique gifts.
Do not make the mistake of assuming your pastor's wife has the same personality as her husband. One wife shared that when they announced their engagement people regularly commented on how good of a singer she must be (because Remember, Rusty, you’re the pastor’s dog. her husband-to-be All the other dogs will be watching you. was a music issues every other woman battles: minister). When she shared that she marriage issues, extended-family sounded more like a dying cat than an difficulties, sickness, finances, children elegant song bird, the shock on their faces who make poor decisions, fear and was evident. insecurities. Some seasons of life are obviously harder than others; but 5) "Sundays are sometimes my least remember, ministry wives are not Wonder favorite day. Wait—am I allowed to say Woman with special powers. Please have that?" Sundays are hard. And long. And a little mercy and extend grace. there is no rest. To a pastor's wife, Sunday means an early morning of rushing 3) "Being a pastor's wife is THE around to have the family ready in their loneliest thing I've ever done and for so "Sunday best." Although you may not see many reasons." Personally, I think this is your pastor's wife on the platform, rest surprising to many (it was to me). Several assured, Sunday is equally tiring for most ladies shared the difficulties of finding (all) of them. friendships that are safe, being looked at (or treated) differently and even the desire 6) "It's hard to not harbor resentment to be invited for an occasional ladies night or to allow your flesh to lash out at out. One woman shared, "Invite us to members who openly criticize his something just to get to know us. We like ministry." They hate church criticism being known." People in the church often more then anything. It's hurtful. assume that the pastor's wife is always Offensive, and yes, it's very hard not to invited and popular. In reality, for take it personally. whatever reason, many ladies fear It is one of the most damaging things they befriending them. On Sunday mornings witness regularly inside the church pastors' wives are often sitting solo, and whether it be through emails, social media those with children are essentially single or gossip. They wish people understood parenting. how serious God's Word speaks on the danger and power of our words. And how 4) "It is OK and welcomed to have much it can injure the pastor's family. conversations with me about things that do not pertain to church, or even 7) "Please don't look down on me or
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Sept/Oct 2014 assume I don't support my husband just because you don't see me every time the church's doors are open." Most wives are not paid staff. They are wives, often mothers, and some are employed outside the home. They need to be allowed the freedom to pray and choose the ministries they feel called to. 8) "I wish people knew that we taught our children to make good choices, but sometimes they don't." Jokes about pastors' kids should be avoided at all costs. The risk of rebellion in a "preacher's kid" is no secret. They aren't perfect and never will be (are yours?). They have to learn to walk in their faith just as other children and need encouragement and love to do so. Again, extend grace. 9) "What I can tell you is I have been blessed beyond measure. I have been given gifts, money, love and prayer—so much prayer—by so many." They love their church and understand the role comes with special challenges and special blessings; it is fulfilling and brings them great joy. One Extra Thought Though it was not a common response, there was one that stood out. The top of the list of one seasoned pastor's wife simply read, "I deleted my number 1." Some secrets are so difficult to share, even the promise of complete confidence is not enough to bring them out. These godly women have something they want us to know and as a body of believers working together toward the same goal, I think we might gain a better understanding of how to appreciate our leaders by listening. All of these responses point to a singular truth: Your pastor's wife is a human being who desires to be known, just as you do. Reprinted with permission from Shattered Magazine. Christina Stolaas is a mom to four young kids, wife, a lover of the outdoors and people.
Sept/Oct 2014
Vicky Beeching and the Reason So Many ‘Christians’ Are Coming Out as Gay by Ed Vitagliano
I love homosexuals. Gays or lesbians who have read my writings for the American Family Association through the AFA Journal for 18 years probably don't believe that statement. I can't say I blame them. When it comes to homosexual activism in this country, I have firmly resisted it for almost two decades. Why? Because I believe the homosexual movement is a part of the sexual revolution that, by and large, has been extremely destructive to individuals and society. I was disappointed to read about yet another Christian artist who has "come out" as a homosexual and claimed that God had a hand in the process. In other words, she stated that God (1) made her a lesbian and (2) led her to declare it unashamedly to all who would listen. Her name is Vicky Beeching. I had never heard of her, but that's not unusual. Let's just say I'm slightly behind the curve and leave it at that. Being a Brit, she may have been better known "across the pond" than in America, but folks I spoke with here at American Family Radio had heard of her. She joins other well-known Christian artists such as Ray Boltz, Jennifer Knapp and Clay Aiken who came out of the closet. I think most men would think that Vicky is a pretty lady, and those sorts of appraisals are usually made without thinking. This makes the subject of sexual orientation rather difficult to understand at times. Since I was 5 years old, I've noticed girls. I had my first crush on a neighborhood girl and actually had a dream that I married her! I can remember my second crush in the first grade when I was 6: Jill Drowns. Brown eyes, blond hair in braided pigtails. As for my wife of 33
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com years, well, she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen—and still is. I don't know what it's like to feel that way toward a man. I don't know what it must have been like to feel that way toward another boy in first grade. So I feel compassion toward homosexuals. I don't believe most of them woke up one day and decided they'd be attracted to same-sex people. Neither do I
Vicky Beeching believe they're born that way. I think the answer lies somewhere in between. What causes homosexuality? I think there's probably a web of causes—some apply to this group, some to that, etc. I believe that some homosexuals have endured sexual abuse or other trauma; others suffer from a deficit of some sort that turned them toward the same-sex side of the aisle in an attempt to heal. At this point I realize I have offended most of the homosexuals reading this. So let me even the score and offend some Christians: I believe some percentage of homosexuals (I have no idea how large or small) simply grew up just like me—only different. Instead of having a crush on an opposite-sex person, they experienced a crush on a same-sex person. To them it appeared just that natural. But if there's a God who designed us— and I believe there is—then we obviously aren't designed to be attracted to the same sex. With my apologies to the Vicky Beechings of the world, the human race is clearly designed as male and female, with sexually complementary equipment. We are obviously intended to grow through childhood and enter puberty attracted to the opposite sex—because that's the only thing that makes sense of the biological design inherent in humankind. So for Vicky and Ray and Jennifer and Clay—how do we explain the fact that
their attraction developed in complete disregard for design? Here's the short answer: They're broken. Why is that so hard to say? Sexual and romantic attraction was supposed to develop one way, and it developed another. Maybe it was because of something that was done to them or around them; maybe it wasn't. But it is different. Are we not all broken in small and large ways? As a fallen race, isn't there a web of characteristics about us all that doesn't reflect the way God designed us? If a child is born blind, does that mean God approves? Isn't it a sign that something is not as intended? Eyes were created to see. To not see is not the same as being able to see. The blind are still human, but their brokenness is still brokenness. But isn't that what we're doing with homosexuality? Aren't we denying the obvious-–that there's a disconnect between design and operation in the homosexual? Aren't many in our society applauding as courageous those who declare their brokenness to be wholeness? The preaching of the cross can dissipate the mist covering our eyes. To turn the old saying around, we discover that you're not OK; I'm not OK. This is the problem Paul addresses in 1 Cor. 1:18-25. For some the cross is an offense, because they don't believe they are sinful and in need of rescuing. For others it is foolishness, because it addresses a spiritual world that they don't consider important to the life they lead. This is by no means a problem limited to homosexuals. Paul was talking about humanity in general. We are all broken in one way or another. Only God can make a broken person whole. Sometimes it is done as a miracle, as when Jesus healed a blind or lame or paralyzed person. Sometimes we must
Page 33 wait for our entrance into the kingdom of heaven, when all brokenness is finally healed. I believe God can make homosexuals whole in this life. Despite the ridicule that follows such a statement, I believe that does happen. 1 Cor. 6:9-11 says so. However, for many—or even most— homosexuals, in order to be Christians they will have to accept that their "orientation" is a manifestation of brokenness, not wholeness. Like the rest of us who are broken in some other way, they will have to reject that lameness and give it to God. They will hobble through life learning to love Him more and more—and yes, learning to obey Him. In that way, homosexuals are just like me. No better and no worse, but broken nonetheless. Ed Vitagliano is the director of research and news editor for the AFA Journal.
A
young, exuberant minister was applauded as he held his head high ascending the steps to the speaker’s platform. Overly confident, self-assured and quite impressed with himself, he was certain the crowd would be captivated by his message. Less than thirty minutes later, he dropped his head and descended the steps utterly discouraged and perplexed as to why his sermon fell flat. The tepid response was the equivalent of a golf clap as he slouched into his seat embarrassed and deflated. “What happened?” he whispered to his wife in the seat beside him. Anticipating he would ask the question, she gently clasped his hand and said, “Honey, I think if you had walked up the way you came down, you probably would have come down the way you walked up.” -Larry Tomczak
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Ted Cruz Booed Off the Stage for Pro-Israel Remarks Newsmax.com
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peaking at a conference for Middle Eastern Christians, Sen. Ted Cruz was booed so mercilessly for his proIsrael remarks that he was forced to leave the stage. The Texas Republican was the keynote speaker at the gathering in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday sponsored by the nonprofit organization In Defense of Christians (IDC), The Daily Caller reported. "Tonight, we are all united in defense of Christians," he told the sold-out audience. "Tonight, we are all united in defense of people of good faith, who are standing together against those who would persecute and murder those who dare disagree with their religious
teachings." Cruz went on to say: "Christians have no greater ally than Israel." At that point, the crowd erupted in a chorus of boos. "Those who hate Israel hate America," Cruz continued as the booing and calls for him to leave the stage grew louder. "Those who hate Jews hate Christians." As the jeers filled the venue, Cruz declared: "I am saddened to see that some here, not everyone, but some here are so consumed with hate." He was interrupted by shouts of "all of us!" and "leave the stage," and one audience member shouted "you speak for yourself." IDC's President Toufic Baaklini came
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Sen. Ted Cruz out on stage to ask the crowd to quiet down, but Cruz had heard enough. "If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you," he said. "Good night, and God bless." With that, Cruz walked off the stage, The Daily Caller disclosed. Several supporters of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime were scheduled to speak at the conference, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Among them were Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Rai, who has defended Hezbollah's right to attack Israel and expressed his willingness to meet with the terrorist group's leader. Another speaker, Syriac Orthodox Church Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius
Sept/Oct 2014 Aphrem II, has disclosed that he had a recent meeting with a "high-level delegation from Hezbollah." Church of Antioch Patriarch Gregory III Laham, who also spoke, has blamed terrorist attacks against Iraqi Christians on a "Zionist conspiracy against Islam" designed to give "a bad image of Islam." A few hours after he left the stage, Cruz said in an interview with the Free Beacon: "I've certainly encountered audiences that disagreed with a particular point of view. But this virulent display of hatred and bigotry was remarkable, and considerably different from anything I've previously encountered. "The division and anti-Semitism expressed tonight by some of the crowd is not reflective of the teachings of Christ, and is in fact directly contrary to the tenets of Christianity."
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Dear Dave, Do you recommend that people continue tithing and giving while getting out of debt? Sarah Dear Sarah, If you’re tithing, that would refer to you being a Christian or of the Jewish faith. To the best of my knowledge, those are the only two religions where tithing is taught as a part of the faith. The word literally means “a tenth,” as in a tenth of your income. If you are an evangelical Christian, what does Scripture say? It says to take the tithe off the top before you do anything else. You keep doing it always, not from a legalistic perspective, but because it’s part of God’s instructions on the best way to live. It gives you a baseline for giving and generosity. Then, get yourself and your household cleaned up and in good financial shape before engaging in other acts of giving, which are called offerings. This is the normal process that Scripture outlines. But remember, God is crazy about you and loves you very much. When
you give, it’s the act of being unselfish and putting others first. —Dave Dear Dave, In an attempt to improve my bad credit I recently bought a new car which I financed at 17.9 percent for 72 months. If I make the minimum payment of $468 a month, I’ll end up paying about $13,000 in interest alone. Is there a formula I can use to avoid paying all this interest? Marcus Dear Marcus, There sure is. Sell the stinking car! Your credit rating and interest rate are lousy because you haven’t paid your bills. And you haven’t paid your bills because you’ve been buying a bunch of crap you couldn’t afford — like this new car at $468 a month. Listen, you could have more than $5,500 in just 12 months if you just saved up all those car payments. That would get you a good little used vehicle that wouldn’t be an anchor around your neck for the next six years. Stop believing the lie, Marcus. Going into debt doesn’t improve your life.—Dave
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What Are the Key USES of Cash? This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor. As an investor, you may find that the elements of your portfolio that seem to draw most of your attention are stocks and bonds. After all, these investment vehicles, and others derived from them, provide you with potential growth and income opportunities — which is why you invest in the first place. Yet, you also may find significant value in a more humble financial asset: cash. In fact, you might be surprised at the various ways in which the cash, and cash equivalents, in your portfolio can help you complete your financial picture. One way to understand the uses of cash is to look at the “USES” of cash. In other words, consider the acronym USES: Unexpected expenses and emergencies—You’ll need sufficient cash for situations such as a job loss, a home repair or an unplanned medical expense. During your working years, you should keep three to six months’ worth of living expenses in a cash account specifically designed to meet unexpected expenses. Once you’re retired, you may be able to get by on a smaller emergency fund — up to three months’ worth of living expenses, although you will need more for everyday spending. Specific short-term savings goal— Are you anticipating a big expense —a wedding, a big vacation, a down payment on a new home, etc. — sometime within the next few years? If so, you’ll want to set aside sufficient cash, with the exact amount depending on your specific shortterm goal. Everyday spending —It goes without saying that you’ll need adequate cash for your everyday spending needs — groceries, utilities, entertainment, mortgage/debt payments, and so on. Of course, while you’re working, you will probably handle most of these costs with your
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Page 35 paychecks, but you may still need to set aside one or two months’ worth of living expenses. Once you’re retired, though, it’s a somewhat different story. While your expenses may go down in some areas (such as costs associated with employment), they are likely to go up in others (such as health care). So your overall cost of living may not drop much, if at all. Consequently, it may be a good idea to set aside 12 months’ worth of living expenses, after incorporating other sources of income, such as Social Security and outside employment. In addition, you’ll have to decide on the most efficient way of drawing on your other sources of income, including Social Security and investment accounts such as an IRA, a 401(k), etc. It’s especially important to create a sustainable withdrawal strategy for your investment portfolio because you don’t want to run the risk of outliving your money. Source of investment—You’ll want to have some cash available in your portfolio — perhaps 2% to 3% of the portfolio’s value — to take advantage of investment opportunities as they arise. Also, having even a small percentage of your portfolio devoted to cash can modestly improve your overall diversification — and a diversified portfolio is your best defense against market volatility. (Keep in mind, though, that diversification can’t guarantee a profit or protect against loss.) So, there you have it: four key USES of cash. Taken together, they provide some good reasons to keep at least a modest “stream” of liquid assets in your portfolio. If you'd like to know more, visit our website to find out what to expect from Edward Jones.
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Sept/Oct 2014
Sept/Oct 2014
How We Told Our Kids About Sex by Matt Barber arents, be warned: At some point you will have to have the sex talk with your little ones
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It was the summer of 2011. We were visiting friends in North Carolina one weekend for a lovely wedding on the beach. Our strong-willed, opinionated and hyper-inquisitive children—a boy and two girls—were, at the time, 10, 7 and 6 respectively. My gorgeous, though Chicago-tough and Sicilian-sassy, wife and I were at lunch with the kids at a little seaside cafe the following day. A late morning ocean breeze puffed through the eatery's open bay windows, filling our nostrils with that salty pong of damp sand and faint sea life, forecasting a beautiful day ahead. We were discussing the wedding ceremony from the previous day. The blushing bride, a delightful young woman, happened to be about eight months pregnant and, to my knowledge, had not been the beneficiary of a second immaculate conception. As the tsunami bursts forth from still waters without warning, our youngest daughter's face abruptly took on an air of contemplative curiosity. She looked to me and asked, "Dad, how can she (the bride) already have a baby in her tummy if they're not married yet?" I became as a squid in my chair, squirming during the awkward silence that followed and finally responded, "God wants mommies and daddies to wait until they're married before they start having babies, but sometimes people forget that and start early and then get married later." I sat back in my chair, satisfied that I had successfully evacuated "hurricane sex talk," until our older daughter hit me with the follow-up lightning bolt: "But what about," she began, "but how do the babies get in the mommy's tummy in the first place?"
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Page 37 So, where to begin?
The room began to spin as I was overcome by a sense of utter horror and dread. My wife started laughing and said, "This one's on you, honey!" I then spent the next two minutes or so hemming and hawing as I explained to all three children— each transfixed by my words—in as forthright, clinical and ageappropriate a way as humanly possible, exactly "how babies get in their mommies' tummies." When I finished, the children sat in stunned silence, a look of shock and disgust on each of their divine, innocent, cherub-like faces. All at once, and with justice most poetic, three precious little heads wheeled toward my wife. "Mommy, you did THAT?" demanded our youngest with absolute indignation and disbelief. To which her older sister added, "Three times!?" Parents, be warned. If it has yet to happen, your day, too, will come. You will, at one time or another, as surly as dawns death and Obama tax hikes, be forced to have "that talk" with your little ones. It may come without warning, organically and impromptu, as it did with us; or, alternatively, it may come at your direction. I suggest the latter. I suggest you prepare. Be proactive. Board up the windows and lay down the sandbags. And then strike first. Either way, they're going to learn it sooner or later from either you or another. And what they learn from others may well, most likely will, undermine your values. Severely.
Rocker Marilyn Manson, while certainly no role model for children, is, nonetheless, an intelligent chap. He at least calls it how he sees it: "This is the culture you're raising your kids in," he once warned of today's godless,
As with all things, the Holy Scriptures are a good place to start. "Start children off on the way they should go [train them], and even when they are old they will not turn from it" (Prov. 22:6). When it comes to matters of sex and sexuality, parents should universally steep their children and young people in the "word of truth," the Bible, encouraging them to both submit to and champion (to "fight or speak publicly in support of") the infallible, unchangeable and absolute truths found therein. This is so even when the absolute truths of Scripture have become unpopular in a world that prefers the absolute lie of sexual relativism.
secularized America—one that he helped make so. "Don't be surprised if it blows up in your face." And blow up it will. In a culture that slaughters the preborn, mocks purity, celebrates sexual sin and makes a joke out of the institution of marriage by imagining sin-based counterfeits, it remains a daunting task for parents to raise children with the courage and conviction to both faithfully observe, and stand unashamedly for, God's truths on matters of sex and sexuality. Especially when the enemies of God, marriage and family, insist upon telling your children, at a younger and younger age, that evil is good and good is evil. Our jobs as parents are further complicated by virtue of the fact that, for many young people, at least for now, popularity is preferred over principle. The prospect of being "hated by everyone," which, as Christ warns, will, and must, befall His faithful, lacks, understandably, a certain level of appeal (see Matt.10:22). From an earthly standpoint, it seems counterintuitive to both welcome and find joy in being "hated by the world." Even so, stand strong, parents. Persevere—because, ultimately, that's the price of admission.
Funny thing, absolute truth. It's absolute. As I've written before, it's like a buoy pulled beneath the lake's surface and fixed tight with rope. With time, and against the tide of Christ's love, that rope, the lie of relativism, eventually rots. It snaps under its own weakness, hurling the buoy, truth, from cold darkness to warm sunlight. In today's culture, moral and sexual truths have been pulled deep beneath the surface. Even though steeped in Scripture, children may be pulled under and tied down for a time by relativism's glittery allure. But when the relativist rope rots, fear not, for those who have been fastened to "the way, the truth and the life," who is Christ, will burst back into the light. On matters of sex and sexuality, tether your children to absolute truth. Then trust God to do the rest. Matt Barber is founder and editor-in chief of BarbWire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter: @jmattbarber).
I feel sorry for the man who has never known the bracing thrill of taking a stand and sticking to it fearlessly. Moral courage has rewards that timidity can never imagine. Like a shot of adrenaline, it floods the spirit with vitality. -Billy Graham
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from the editor...
Why should you support the American Christian Voice? by John G. Sacoulas
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e have subscribers in 20 different states and it continues to grow as a Kingdom unifier. We pray the contents will help us all grow in our journey of faith and wisdom. We are now in our 10th year of printing the only Christian magazine of its kind in the nation that is fun and inspirational uniquely representing the whole Body of Christ. We have served the Christian community to the best of our ability, trying to be fair and balanced to more than one position on the non-essential matters. Of course, it is the human, religious nature to make twigs into trunks. You can imagine the difficult task we have to try to educate and spiritually mature the believer without creating a great offense in the process. If this publication took a left-wing, flaming liberal position or a stinking, right-wing, conservative position (extreme opinions either way), folks on both sides of that spectrum would get pretty generous to support their own ignorant bias. Having a Christian magazine be moderate to conservative usually generates moderate to conservative financial support because it
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doesn’t get us all fired up. However, we believe a moderate approach to the majority of hot topics is the most prudent and, dare we say, Christian approach?
The Body of Christ is extremely diverse because it mysteriously serves God’s purpose to be that way. The ACV is a Kingdom paper. We know a $36.00 yearly subscription in this economy is a huge amount. Maybe a friend ink! can split it with you and you both can share it. If that is not possible, could you please try to get the ACV at your favorite vendor? They are mentioned at the bottom of the pages. That’s only $15.00 a year. It would be a shame for this magazine to disappear only to have people saying that had they known our needs, they would have helped out in some way. If we were all ads, we would need no support from the reader, but we hope the contents are a blessing to you and to others and is worthy of your financial assistance.
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Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. Do you have any idea how much God loves you right now, exactly the way you are, with all your sins, flaws and shortcomings? Think about it... did you believe you would love your children more when they grew up and were out of diapers and selfish little personalities? If religion has made you believe you cannot measure up, please visit S.W.I.M. this coming Sunday. Info on page 23. It’s not your Momma’s church!
Sept/Oct 2014
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Why Christians Should Celebrate Halloween by Ken Eastburn
H
alloween is one of those days, one of those things, that Christians have a hard time coming to terms with. It is like whether to shop at a store that supports a cause that is evil or fundamentally opposed to the message of Christianity— what do you do? When I asked my Twitter and Facebook friends whether Christians should celebrate Halloween, I got varied responses. One person indicated that they didn’t celebrate it because it is all about death and Jesus was all about life. Another had indicated that they didn’t think it was a problem since the holiday essentially boils down to getting dressed up and going trick-or-treating for most Americans. When asking my friend Google this question, he (she?) was kind enough to pull up a plethora of blogs and articles ranging from "Who cares?" to "Sure … if you want to put your kid in danger of hell." (These are my summaries of others’ thoughts.)
Pope Francis: Christians Joining Jews in Suffering Religious Persecution by Sandy Fitzgerald
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t is Christianity's "turn" to suffer religious persecution, Pope Francis told a World Jewish Congress delegation visiting his home in Rome Wednesday night, saying that Christians are being killed while the world remains silent. Francis and World Jewish Council President Ronald Lauder both condemned attacks against the world's Christians, reports Haaretz, particularly in the Middle East, where extremists with the Islamic State (ISIS) have targeted Christians in Iraq and Syria. "In the world, there is still great suffering," the pope told the delegation. "First it was your turn. Now it's our turn." Francis
also
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Before I answer, I should give you some history. There’s two sides to Halloween: the name and the practices. The practices find their origins in a Celtic holiday called Samhain. Celebrated as the end to their harvest season, they believed the boundary between the living and the dead dissolved and that evil spirits caused trouble for the living. The story goes that the living escaped this trouble by disguising themselves as evil spirits— you know, the whole blending in technique … works every time. The name is actually Christian in nature—it means All Hallows Eve, which is All Saint’s Day—a day set aside to honor saints past. But it is undeniable that Halloween has pagan, if not satanic, roots. So the question becomes, Should Christians celebrate a holiday that has pagan/satanic roots even if it is largely commercialized today? While I understand why many would not want to, I think the answer to this question should be yes! Allow me to explain why:
delegation, which included WJC CEO Robert Singer and Claudio Epelman, director of WJC Latin America in Argentina, that he wants to visit refugees in Jordan who have fled there to escape violence in Syria and Iraq. Lauder told Haaretz that Christians in Iraq and Syria are even being identified with a symbol bearing the letter Jewish letter nun, or N, for Nazarene, which he said identifies Christians' homes much "as the yellow star was used in the past against European Jewry." "Israel is the only place that is safe for Christians in the Middle East, " Lauder said. Francis also during the meeting drew comparisons between the World War II
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Halloween Provides a Unique Opportunity for Community
Halloween Today Is Different From Halloween a Long Time Ago
How many days out of the year create the same opportunities that Halloween does? Not only are kids knocking on your door every two minutes, but families are getting together, having fun and building community. Opportunities like that don’t come around all the time (a couple times a year, maybe). Ask yourself this: What good is being done by excluding yourself from community with your neighbors?
True, Halloween, at one point in time, involved all kinds of things that can legitimately be considered evil and to participate in those activities would be a participation in evil. But unless you are part of a minority group of neo-pagans or wiccans (i.e. unless you are not a Christian), your participation in Halloween won’t come close to participation in those activities. It is one thing to be against legitimately evil practices, and it is quite another to be against practices that aren’t really all that evil (putting on a costume and having fun) because some people, at some point in time, believed things far different from what we believe today.
Celebrating Halloween Gives Evil Less Power, Not More Think about it: If Satan can’t get you to worship him, what would he be willing to settle for What cripples people? Fear, maybe? If he can convince you to stay inside and lock the doors guess what you won’t be doing—loving people, serving your neighbors and living like you believe that “greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4, NASB). Celebrating, on the other hand, turns Satan’s mission on its head. To conquer evil, do good. To conquer sadness, laugh. To conquer death, live.
To conquer Satan, celebrate. Love. Serve. Pray. Give. In doing so, you’re-proclaiming the victory of Christ. Holocaust and the persecution of Christians in Syria and Iraq, reports The Telegraph. “Pope Francis told us privately that he believes we are in World War Three,” said Lauder. "But unlike the first two world wars, instead of happening all at once this war is coming in stages,” he said. Further, Lauder said, that the pope's words meant that "first Jews suffered savage attacks that were met with the world's silence and now it is Christians who are being annihilated and the world is silent." ISIS has also encouraged "lone wolf" attacks against Western Christians, The Telegraph reports, while emptying Christian town in Iraq and Syria and demanding Christians either convert, flee, or
The bottom line is this: Halloween has no power that you refuse to give it. It is evil to the extent that you buy into the beliefs behind it. If you don’t buy those beliefs, then there’s no harm in throwing on a costume and having fun. In fact, that may be the very thing God is asking you to do. Have you asked Him? Ken Eastburn is a pastor at The Well, a community of house churches in the Southern California area.
face death. The Pope has in the said that ISIS should be stopped, reports The Telegraph, saying "in cases like this, where there is an unjust aggression, then it is licit to halt the aggressor." However, he stressed "halt," rather to "bomb or make war" against the insurgents. The Pope's words, plus his standing as the most prominent Christian leader in the world, has led ISIS to issue "credible threats" to murder Pope Francis, Sadr said he does not have specific details of a threat but is convinced the Pope is in real danger. "I think they could try to hit him during his travels or even in Rome, because there are members of ISIS who are not Arabs but also Canadians, Americans, French, British and Italian," Sadr said.
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Christians ... a bit different different spirit.org
Stand out from the crowd The Bible teaches that God chose Israel to be different, to be a special people, set aside for Himself, and to be different from the nations around them. God gave Israel His Word, to be the guide for a life of faith in Him. Israel failed because they trusted in their own strength and reasoning, rather than in the Word of God. Their story is instructive.
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com Christians are chosen by God, and God wants believers in Jesus to be different [Romans 12:2]. In the Bible we read about Caleb. Out of the millions of Israel, the Lord identified Caleb as having a different spirit. “He follows Me with all his heart,” God said [Numbers 14:24]. We love that endorsement by God. As Christians we should not be afraid to be different. Because we have faith in Jesus Christ we have the indwelling Holy Spirit. He helps us in our weakness. Like the apostle Paul we can say that we do not
Dr. Zeke Emanuel: 75 Years Long Enough to Live by Wanda Carruthers
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bamacare architect Dr. Zeke Emanuel explained on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" why he believed 75 years was long enough for a person to live, saying that's about the time health began to decline. "I picked 75, when you think about the combination of physical decline, the rise of Alzheimer's, the loss of creativity. And I really say you need to think about what you're going to leave your children, your family, your community, the country," Emanuel said on recently. In an article in September's issue of The Atlantic provocatively titled, "Why I Hope to Die at 75," Emanuel spelled out his case for why longevity in life didn't necessarily translate to quality as people advanced in age. "Seventy-five. That's how long I want to live: 75 years," Emanuel wrote in the article. "Here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: Living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived." Emanuel told "Morning Joe" that it all boiled down to "the meaning and the purpose of your life," adding that Americans had a tendency to believe they were the "American immortal — they do everything to live as long as possible." "One of the big American beliefs is this thing called compression of morbidity. You know, we're just going to be healthy, healthy, healthy, fall off the cliff, and we won't have any of this disability.
Sept/Oct 2014
mind standing out from the crowd. [Galatians 1:10]. editor’s note: So how do we stand out? Unfortunately fo far too many Christians it is by presenting to the public a selfrighteous air of what they do and do not do. This is religion at it’s finest. To be different from the world we need to emmulate Christ by doing what He did to stand out. Love the unloveable, denounce religious behavior, forgive quickly and repay evil with knindness. What if that list was what everyone thought of when they think of a Christian?
Materialism Most of us live in societies dominated by the search for financial success. Jesus had a different attitude toward money and possessions. The New Testament presents a strong argument for delayed gratification. editor’s note: Material wealth should be sought after by every believer. However, it should be for the purpose to bless other’s with it and continue to use this wealth to further the Kingdom of God
"The reality is, that hasn't been, in the last 25 years, the way it's gone. Disabilities increase every time we live longer. And then there's Alzheimer's. At 85, between a third and half of the people have Alzheimer's. Does that sound so desirable to you to live to 100?" he said. One fear of Obamacare among some was the concept of "death panels" that could deny treatment for illness for a person as they advanced in age. Emanuel said that while he had "been against euthanasia for 25 years," he did support the idea of a person halting their medical care once they got to a certain age.
Paul Norman
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"I am about 'I'm not going to the doctor. I'm going to stop doing the doctor stuff,'" he said. "The question isn't living longer. The question is high-quality life. This is what most people want." editor’s note: I am not a Dr. Zeke Emanuel fan but I agree that outside of a handful of outliers it does seem that quality of life vs. financial constraints are unbalanced. Critics who believe we should preserve life at advanced ages at all cost should consider that it is man’s intervention with pharmacueticals that are prolonging what would be a more natural, peaceful death. I am an advocate of pain killers but certain major sugeries to preserve someone’s life when there are a host of other maladies afflicting the patient seem to be an indulgent use of resources in a bankrupt health care system.If you are a Christian, death will be a promotion not a sorrow. Contemplate this scripture: Psalm 90:10 New King James Version (NKJV) The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. The ACV is available at:
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Sept/Oct 2014
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The Delicious Invitation to Rest
hole in the dike with his finger, let the trickle of responsibilities flow unimpeded? Wouldn't I drown?
A guest post by Jen Pollock Michel and Amy Julia Becker
Ten years ago, when I started to seriously consider practicing the Sabbath, these reflexive fears met me. Most new invitations from God seem to me like the offer of bitter medicine. I assume it will taste terrible though do me some good in the end. Sabbath, in one light, could be seen like this—all restriction and rules. It could be counted as just one more obliging way to pay the cantankerous piper. And maybe that was my fear: that in the practice of rest (and the dutiful effort to please God), I'd only find more anxiety in the piles of the undone.
"It's not anxiety we find in the piles of the undone..."
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confess that I am more of a Sabbathbreaker more than a Sabbath-keeper, although it was ten years ago now that I began to rally some frail faith for practicing the habit of weekly rest. Ten years ago, I was the mother of three very small children: a preschooler, a toddler, and a small baby. The survival of our days depended on the masterful choreography of our schedule. To arrive on time to Bible study each week (the one event besides church that we managed with consistency), I would pack the diaper bag the night before, prepare breakfast and lunch, set the table, and put my Bible and notebook in the car. In the morning, we'd race there. At lunchtime, we'd race home. Hope was poised precariously on the success of keeping the baby awake in the car, feeding the kids lunch, and getting all three children to bed at the same time for their afternoon nap, the stretch of time needed for freelance writing, for laundry, and for the all-important dinner prep. My life was running at its greatest clip. Sabbath felt like a guilty pleasure in my breakneck life. But as I was reading about the practice in Gordon MacDonald's, Ordering Your Private World, I began reveling in the deliciousness of this invitation. Rest? What would that feel like? There's no forgetting the tsunamic feeling of life's everyday back then, with three children underfoot, a husband busied with career and graduate school, my foray into freelance work. There's no forgetting the heaviness of the chronic busyness settled squarely on my chest, never budging, never letting up, relentless with its demands. I was lean on time. How could I lend an entire day out? What would happen if I, like the mythical Dutch boy who saved Amsterdam by plugging the
But the Scripture never portrays the Sabbath as a dreary obligation. The Pharisees, of course, had wrung the joy out of it with their legalistic impulse. They were the first to criticize Jesus' disciples when they plucked heads of grain on the Sabbath to eat. "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" (Mark 2:24) Jesus rebukes them, reminding them that by their accounting, King David would have been a law-breaker. He was a man who entered the house of God and, because he was hungry, ate the holy bread of the Presence. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," instructed Jesus (v. 27). Jesus insists that the Sabbath command hasn't been given for God's good—but for ours. Ten years ago, I took a risk on this: that God meant something for my great good in his invitation to mute, if only temporarily, the noise of my to-dos. So now I don't fold laundry on Sabbath. I don't plow through email on Sabbath. I don't tackle long overdue household or work projects. These restrictions aren't rules to which I oblige Pastor: Andy Hassen
Springfield Church of God (7th Day)
1521 E. 24th Street N. Springfield, MO 65803
"Sharing Freedom in Christ"
(417) 831-6721
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myself. Rather, they are invitations. Despite the pots and pans of Sundays (I cook a big breakfast for my family, and we often practice hospitality on Sundays), we let the hours of Sunday laze like a slow-moving river. And the mystery is always that when time slows, there seems to be more of it. Without the hurry, I recover some unexpected plenty. I read. We talk. We play games and laugh. The hours feel elastic and long. Sabbath is a day meant for our great good, "the day in which we pause our striving and start abiding," write John Pattison and C. Christopher Smith in their fine book, Slow Church. Sunday is the day we risk on the strange notion (the gospel) that we can be loved and cherished by God for doing absolutely nothing.
www.imagesatthecross.org
As Pattison and Smith write, "Sabbath is an exercise in radical grace: in the midst of our sin and brokenness, God loves us. Our creator God looks down at us with absolute love; we set aside the Sabbath to meet that gaze." Sabbath is the day that I cease to see myself as a tool of production. And blissfully, I recover the scale and proportion of my life, even my own self. No chore is as vitally important as I think, no email as urgent. I am not indispensable, and the world turns when I nap. Sabbath is one practice by which I chasten my desire to be in control and remember the force holding the world together: God. As it turns out, it's not anxiety we find in the piles of the undone. It's deliverance from fear. And worship. And rest. Jen Pollock Michel is the author of Teach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition and the Life of Faith (IVP). She writes regularly for Her.meneutics and Today in the Word. She lives in Toronto with her family.
Wrap by Perfect Signs in Hollister, Missouri. They can be reached at (417) 337-7446
If the Arabs layed down their arms today, there would be peace in the Middle East. If Israel layed down their arms today, there would be no more Israel. -Benjamin Netanyahu
Sabbath School: 9:45 am Worship: 11:00 am Wednesday night: 6:30 pm
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A week without a Sabbath is perpetual bondage.
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Should Christians Celebrate the Feasts of the Lord? by Mike Shrieve Charismamag.org
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little over 20 years ago, I was about to go to Russia to conduct a series of gospel meetings just across the street from the Kremlin. Since the iron curtain had recently fallen, we were anticipating a powerful, spiritual awakening. Our evangelistic team was gearing up for great things. Then the unexpected happened; at the last minute, God abruptly changed my plans. He told me not to go to Russia, but to go to Israel for the Feast of Tabernacles, an annual event put on by the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. I was in awe; why did God change my agenda so drastically? I would not find out until I arrived in Israel several weeks later. The Elijah Prophecy One day when the rest of the group was visiting certain sacred sites in Israel, I stayed behind in the motel to seek the face of God. "Why have you sent me here, Lord? What is it I need to understand?" Over and over I petitioned my heavenly Father for an answer. And then it came. The Holy Spirit said, "Go to the last chapter of Malachi and read. When I turned to that page, my eyes fell on the last two verses of the Old Testament: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse" (Mal. 4:5-6). The blinders fell off of my eyes, and I began to see vital spiritual truth. Elijah restored Israel to true worship: a more pure experience of the faith of their fathers, uncontaminated by heathen influence. My heart was quickened with the realization that God will once again in these last days send the "spirit of Elijah" (the spirit of restoration) to the church, restoring us to a more pure and uncontaminated expression of New Covenant Christianity. John the Baptist fulfilled this prophecy on one level as the Age of the Law (which had been corrupted) transitioned into the Age of Grace (see Matt. 17:10-13).
www.AmericanChristianVoice.com However, the Spirit of God let me know there was yet another level of prophetic fulfillment: that in the last days He would turn the "hearts of the fathers" (a reference to the natural offspring of Abraham) to "the children" (the "offspring" of Judaism, New Covenant believers in the Messiah) and there would be a powerful coming together as we become "one new man" (Eph. 2:15). We, the church (made up of both Jews and Gentiles), will turn our hearts toward the Jewish people, with Gentile believers especially realizing their Abrahamic roots, while many of the natural seed of Abraham will simultaneously turn their hearts toward the Church, receiving Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah, thus, becoming completed Jews. The Feasts Are Part of God's Plan of Restoration This divine plan of restoration to true worship necessarily involves a renewed appreciation for our true biblical heritage, which includes THE SEVEN FEASTS OF THE LORD (Leviticus 23):
The Feast of Passover The Feast of Unleavened Bread The Feast of Firstfruits The Feast of Pentecost The Feast of Trumpets The Feast of Atonement The Feast of Tabernacles Whether we like to admit it or not, the Gentile brand of Christianity has been corrupted with heathen influence, including celebrations like "Easter" and "Christmas." For instance, the word "Easter" is found only once in the Bible (Acts 12:4 KJV) and is incorrectly translated from a word that is always rendered "Passover" (pascha). The word "Easter" actually refers to the worship of a false deity named Eastre, the Teutonic goddess of spring. What do eggs and bunny rabbits have to do with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus? Absolutely nothing. They are symbols of fertility, which was very much a part of the heathen Spring Festival. In a similar show of pagan influence, "Christmas" (Dec. 25) is all about the winter solstice, and is filled with nonbiblical symbolism (yule logs, mistletoe, decorated evergreen trees, Santa Claus). Besides, only a small amount of research proves it would have been highly unlikely
for Jesus to be born at that time of year, especially since shepherds would have long before brought their sheep in from the fields. All Major New Covenant Events Coincided With a Feast It is extremely enlightening to see that every important event that ushered in the New Covenant coincided perfectly with the celebration of a major feast. Surely, the genius and sovereignty of God caused this amazing correlation to take place: The Crucifixion took place during the Feast of Passover. The Resurrection took place during the Feast of Firstfruits. The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place during the Feast of Pentecost. Following this pattern, it is very logical to believe that the Messiah was probably born around the beginning of Fall, when shepherds were still in the fields and when the Feast of Tabernacles was being celebrated (a feast that symbolized how God had "tabernacled" among the Israelites during their wilderness journey). How fitting it would have been for the Messiah to "tabernacle" among us in the form of a baby, during the very feast that prophetically foretold this grand event! How Should Christians React to This Revelation? There are two ways knowledgeable believers should react to this vital insight: First and foremost, I believe every New Testament assembly should celebrate the feasts. However, if these festivals are ever exalted to the point of being required ritual and a necessary part of being righteous before God, religious legalism has entered the picture and the Crucified One is robbed of the glory He alone should receive (see Gal. 2:21; 4:9-11, 5:14). We should honor the feasts of the Lord because they are replete with symbolism about the full plan of salvation, but not to the point where we give more importance to the mere natural symbols than the glorious supernatural events they symbolized. Yes, we must guard against being too caught up with the "shadow,"
Sept/Oct 2014 when we who are born again are blessed to actually possess the "substance" of what the feasts foretold. The spiritual reality is much more important than the natural foreshadowing. For instance: It is far more powerful to be washed in the blood of Jesus (the true Passover Lamb) than to eat a Passover meal. It is far more powerful to actually be filled with the power of Pentecost (the baptism of the Holy Spirit) than to learn how the firstfruits of the wheat harvest were offered on that notable day. It is far more powerful to have the Messiah "tabernacle" in your heart and life than to build a sukkah in your church or in your back yard (the traditional, small, three-walled structure that Jews erect to remind them of the wilderness journey that took place thousands of years ago). Second, do not become haughty, harsh, judgmental and super-religious about traditional Easter and Christmas rituals. Children who participate in an egg-hunt are not worshipping the goddess of fertility. They are having fun on a very special day devoted to the Savior conquering death. Families who give gifts around a Christmas tree are not honoring the "rebirth" of the sun-god. If they are spiritual at all, they use that day as a reminder to their children and the world around them that heaven's greatest gift came to the world about two millennia ago. So the continuation of some of these celebrations is really a personal choice and in many ways, is not an important matter. So the real issue is not whether or not Christians should celebrate the biblical feasts, or whether or not we continue celebrating the traditional festivals of Easter and Christmas. The most important issue is that the Son of God came and He made a way for us to have eternal life. Let's celebrate that every day of our lives!
Mike Shreve is the author of the bestselling Charisma House book, 65 Promises from God for Your Child. He and his wife, Elizabeth, pastor The Sanctuary in Cleveland, Tennessee and their church celebrates the First Testament feasts from a New Testament perspective. His new book, Powerful Prayers for Supernatural Results will be released this November.