Reaching for the Golden Calf, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture:  Exodus 32:1-14

32:1   When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
32:2   Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."
32:3   So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
32:4   He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"
32:5   When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord."
32:6   They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
32:7   The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;
32:8   they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"
32:9   The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
32:10   Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."
32:11   But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
32:12   Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
32:13   Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
32:14   And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

          This is a fairly well known portion of scripture.  Moses, through the assistance of Almighty God, has broken the Israelites free from bondage to the mighty Egyptian Pharoah.  Through signs and wonders, and finally through the example of death, Pharoah has been convinced to let God's people go.  God has used the Egyptians to punish the 12 tribes of Israel, but the time of punishment is over and God determines His people will return home.  At first, the Egyptian Pharoah doesn't see it that way, but God has ways of changing his mind.

          Even after this great horde of people are released, Pharoah changes his mind and sends his mighty army after them in pursuit.  But the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not to be trifled with, and Pharoah loses his great army at the bottom of the Red Sea.

          The once enslaved people of Israel, being the object over which Pharoah challenges God, have been witness to all this.  They saw the miracles God put at Moses' hand, they saw the bloody devastation Pharoah caused when he challenged God, they knew the freedom of being on their own in the desert, slave to no man.  And yet, even though they were free, they complained to Moses because they no longer enjoyed the niceties of the Egyptian civilization.  Freedom had its price and they were not happy about doing without.

          Throughout their many years as slaves to the Egyptians they have continued faithfully their worship of God.  They did not abandon Him in the faith that He would not abandon them, even as slaves.  So how, we wonder, do they suddenly stray off into false gods and idols when Moses does not return immediately from the mountain?  And it isn't as though Aaron has led them astray, he merely responds, in the vacuum of Moses' leadership, to the demands of this huge demanding group of people.

          As a parent looking back on the misbehavior of a child, we wonder, did they not adhere close enough to the customs and traditions they knew from childhood?  Was God not strict enough with them?  Did Moses not pay close enough attention to them?  Perhaps Aaron should have had more training before he was left in charge of them? 

          Even knowing Moses was atop the mountain, meeting with the God that freed them, they became impatient.  They demanded of Aaron "a god" to follow, to lead them, something they could see whereupon they might lavish their worship, to which they might make their traditional sacrifices.  No, they were not abandoning the traditions of their religious activity, they just wanted to get on with it.  Their wants and desires were more important than whatever Moses was doing on the mountain.

          They had seen the God of the universe in action.  What happened?

          Consider with me for a moment the similarities between this nation today and the that ancient nation of Israel.

          We have recently been freed from being tied to the industrial revolution.  Like those before it, this trend of human activity and survival had its purpose, in its time in the same way God's punishment of captivity had its purpose for the Israelites, in its time.  But that time passed.

          Built into the industrial age heralded by Henry Ford's assembly line was also the end of the industrial age.  Each employee came to work each day and performed specific tasks that meshed with the tasks of other employees to produce a product, which was then marketed, and everyone got paid.  We bought homes, raised families, worshipped in our churches.

          Americans were good at this assembly line business.  In fact, we were so good at it that our excellence in production helped us win the First and the Second World Wars.  We out-produced our enemies, allowing our armies to move and maneuver more effectively, react more quickly, and with deadly impact.  We were blessed of God to be able to protect His precious gift of freedom, and to share it with the world.

          But it was inevitable that we would get so good at it, and with sharing it, that we would move on to more effective and efficient ways of operation.  Technology became the next logical step, and again, we were blessed of God and we were good at it.  However, technology of itself makes unnecessary previous procedures.  And with those lost procedures jobs were lost.  What was once done by 100 people earning salaries could be done by ten, and then by one with the latest technology.

          Commentator and best-selling author Seth Godin has written of this era, "This represents a significant discontinuity, a life-changing disappointment for hard-working people who are hoping for stability but are unlikely to get it. It's a recession, the recession of a hundred years of the growth of the industrial complex.

          "I'm not a pessimist, though, because the new revolution, the revolution of connection, creates all sorts of new productivity and new opportunities. Not for repetitive factory work, though, not for the sort of thing ADP (automated data processing) measures. Most of the wealth created by this revolution doesn't look like a job, not a full time one, anyway.

          "When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory. Instead of coming together physically, we have the ability to come together virtually, to earn attention, to connect labor and resources, to deliver value."

          We are freed.  But we don't know what to do with our new-found freedom.  We find ourselves in the desert of poor planning, outstripped job futures, resulting in people out of jobs, lost incomes, repossessed homes and cars, missed opportunities for education and family support.

          Gradually, over time, we had begun to believe our own press releases, that man is evolving into a better, more efficient being, and it is man that is important.  It is what man wants and needs that must be given paramount attention.  Oh true, God was a great help in getting us here, and so we still have our familiar touchstones of religious practice.  But when progress and success are too long in coming, too long on the mountain, we feel compelled to take things into our own hands and make for ourselves those compelling decisions for our future -- we reach for the golden calf.

          Which brings us to our uncomfortable situation today, populated with a next generation that believes their god is in the almighty dollar.  The almighty dollar can give mankind what it needs, it can assure daily sustenance, it can provide for a comfortable future.  It has become the golden calf.

          However, it is the golden calf that must have precedence in our lives, not its high priests of CEOs, company and corporate presidents, and other leaders of business.  It stands to logic that if we don't have enough access to that golden calf, it is their fault, and they must be punished.  And so those who neither participate in leadership roles nor yet have a stake in the religion of the golden calf are demanding "their fair share" of what they have not yet earned.  They mass in Wall Street in New York City, and in major cities across the nation, demanding the free market system be trashed, their bills be wiped away, credit cards be paid off for them, and the savings of those who have worked hard and earned their money be distributed among those who have not.

          There is a very telling CBS-TV video of a union demonstrator being interviewed in Sacramento, where the reporter asks why they were there.  The official said they had a committee meeting to come up with talking points.  The reporter asks, in so many words, if then they were there while others were coming up with why they were there.  The response was stony silence.

          In New Orleans protestors chanted, "Kill the cops!"  On Wall Street the female protesters pranced about topless telling the media to stop paying attention to what they were doing and listen to what they were saying, in apparent ignorance of their basic biology classes. As they were yet student age, I had to wonder what their parents, or their pastors, would have thought.

          The free market system of the God-blessed United States of America has long given all comers an equal chance at the level of success for which they are willing to work.

          Presidential candidate Herman Cain has said, " "Don't blame the banks. Don't blame Wall Street. If you don't have a job, if you're not rich, blame yourself."  This comes from a man with several degrees of education, successful careers in three separate fields of endeavor, and a successful lifetime as a business CEO and leader in economic problem solving.  He might well have echoed the guy who said, "Don't abuse the rich, the poor aren't hiring."

          Up on the mountain with Moses, God knew what was happening below.  He knows now, what is happening among the people of the United States of America, where greed is the denomination of choice, not love.  Not worship of the Christ and a commitment to live out His words from the Sermon on the Mount.

          Just as the Israelites had forgotten the miracles, the power, the determination of an Almighty God who freed them, we have forgotten how we got here.  Greed, me-first, and the sins and abominations of a self-centered people are bringing judgment on America when we should be following God's guidance to the next level of human endeavor.  The very foundation of God's love and "do unto others" is in danger of being lost in this nation. Thanks to riots and protesters the light of law and logic are going out all across America.   And this nation's enemies wait with baited breath for that to happen.

          Those who follow the Christ in more than name only, now is the time to step into positions of leadership with love-based problem-solving solutions and innovative programs.  This nation's problems are far from unsolvable, although not all will agree with the obvious solutions.  But Almighty God has given His people the gift of logical thought and creative processes, and we should be bringing them to the fore right now, supporting those who are Christians by virtue of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  This is not the time to hate, but the time to plunge ahead in action on behalf of love for our fellow men and women, to support what is right and just, to protect children as the delicate future they are, to institute long-range plans for ensuring that the God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness remain available to all who will become citizens of this great nation.

          In the final analysis, God need not wreak further punishment on America, He need only remove His arm of protection.  We who claim the name of Christ must give Him reason not to do that.  Pray hard.  Time is short.  Amen.

Unseating 'That Kind of Spirit', by Pastor Ed Evans

Unseating 'That Kind of Spirit'

by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Mark 9:21-29

Mark 9:21 "Jesus asked the boy's father, " How long has he been like this?"  "From childhood," he answered.

Mark 9:22  "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him.  But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.

Mark 9:23  "If you can'?" said Jesus.  "Everything is possible for him who believes."

Mark 9:24  Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

Mark 9:25  When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, He rebuked the evil spirit, "You deaf and mute spirit," He said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."

Mark 9:26  The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out.  The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead.

Mark 9:27  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

Mark 9:28  After Jesus had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"

Mark 9:29  He replied, "This kind of unclean spirit can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

          There is an old story about a politician on the stump for a coming election, speaking to a group of farmers out in middle America.  And as the politician is handing them his best lines about why he is their political savior, he has to keep swatting at a huge fly that keeps trying to land on his face.  Exasperated, he pauses, and an old farmer down in front, allows as how that's one of their local horse flies.

          "Horse fly?" exclaims the politician.

          "Yes siree, that's one of those horse flies that you always find around a horse's rear end."

          The politician sticks his finger in the air to begin his next point, and suddenly stops.  He fixes the old farmer with an angry glare and says, "Wait just a minute.  Are you saying I'm a horse's rear end?"

          "No sir," says the farmer, "not on your life.  But you can't fool them flies."

          Jesus' disciples in our scripture today have seen their Master do many miraculous things, and as His followers they know the look to assume, the words to say, but this time it didn't work.  They could not bring this harmful spirit out of the boy.  Was it because they were just faking it?  Had they not enough commitment and prayer?  Were they standing there acting in the form of Jesus, but not through the spirit of Jesus?

          No sir, I wouldn't say that at all.  But you can't fool them spirits.  "This kind of unclean spirit can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting," Jesus said to His disciples in Mark 9:29.  Praying being communication and closeness with the God of all; a continued concentration on Jesus Christ.  Fasting speaking to discipline and sacrifice.

          There was a very similar case in Acts 19:15, where the seven sons of the Chief Priest Sceva attempted to assume the mantle of Jesus Christ, demanding an angry spirit come out of a man "in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, and they got a very dangerous reaction.  The spirit addressed them directly and replied, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" It went very bad for them after that and they left hurt and bleeding.  

          Identity, in this world and the next is a very big thing.  If we are not completely identified with Jesus Christ, Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33 he would disown us before His father in heaven.

          There's a little doggerel from the 1738, from when poet Alexander Pope gifted Frederick, Prince of Wales with a little dog that was kept at one of the four castles at Kew Gardens.  Around the dog's neck Pope placed a collar with this poem: "I am His Majesty's dog at Kew.  Pray tell me sir, whose dog are you?"

          Whose dog, indeed?

          Many of us are working like dogs right now just to get by, much less to have anything extra to spend on amusements, or to lay aside for our children, or for our retirement or even to support the work in this world of Jesus Christ.  Times are tough right now, for everyone.  It used to be  a saying that the business world was dog  eat dog.  It's no longer just an old saying.

          There is a spirit of degradation, a spirit of loss, a spirit of humiliation that lays across this nation of America and beyond.  And it affects everything we do.  For some its merely an excuse to steal from those who have simply because we have not.  It's an excuse for irrational anger to lash out, to hurt, to murder.  An excuse to badly use other people for our own fulfillment, amusement and advancement.

          It's an evil spirit, and it's been growing stronger because we feed it with our ignorance, with our greed, with our feeling that while others have what we don't have, we didn't get ours, and we should.  Yes, that's called greed.  It's not our right, not a denial of our inheritance, not a justified reaction that we've been trodden down.  It's greed.  A spirit of greed.  And it reigns from the highest levels of our government to the lowest panhandler on the street corner, and all of us in between. 

          Why shouldn't we have the best, the newest, the most labor saving?  Haven't we worked hard for it all our lives?  Are we less deserving than the man or woman who lives in a mansion and sleeps on a silk pillow at night, drives that sleek red sports car.  Are we not the children of the King of Kings, and have right to all we can accumulate?

          The story is told of the 1920's when a missionary couple were returning home by ship.  They had served all their lives among a heathen people, among poverty and disease and ignorance, bringing them the good news of Jesus Christ.  Now, elderly, crippled and tired, they were returning home by ship.  As the ship docked in New York City, the aviator Charles Lindberg, who had just flown the first solo air trip from New York to France, was returning home to a hero's welcome.  There were huge crowds, balloons, confetti, the news media with popping flashbulbs, all welcoming this lone man home to a parade down Broadway.

          The old missionary watched from the railing, and bemoaned the facts that for one lone event, this man was being honored in such a way, and for their lifetime of sacrifice ... nothing.

          His sweet wife patted his arm and reminded him, "We're not home yet, dear."  Surely they will have a joyful reception in heaven, but until then, the Bible tells us in Job 5:7 that mankind is meant for trouble just as surely as the sparks fly upward.

          Christians are under attack all around the world.  As you read this, families are mourning the loss of beheaded Christian daughters in India, an Iranian Christian pastor sits in prison, awaiting his death sentence for refusing to deny the Christ he knows; in China a pastor is recovering from being a forced organ donor because he leads a Christian "home church".

          The entire world, not just America, is under the spirit of fear, of anger, of a greedy and voracious hunger that sets all else aside in pursuit of self fulfillment.  It has become so bad that even as we listen to wolves in sheep's clothing declaring that if we just support them God will give us all our material desires, even as our ears are tickled by those having a semblance of the Christ, but not the Christ, even as we lust for the latest electronic toy, new car, bigger house, we cannot ignore that the world has become mired in desire, envy, and greed.  The spirit of evil reigns over the entire world today and sets the stage for prophetic events.

          What can we, the people of God, the bride of Christ, what can we do in the face of such enduring evil?  How can we confront such a destructive force?

          I guarantee you it will not be done with force of arms.  It will not respond to new laws.  And this spirit of evil which pervades our lives, our nation, and our world, will pay no attention to attempts at angry reprisal, shallow platitudes, well-meaning sympathy for the victims.  Such misguided attempts will only reinforce our powerlessness.

          Just like Jesus' disciples in our scripture today, we can remain powerless, attempting to do the work of Jesus Christ without concentrating on him, relying on the methods and answers we draw from our own nature.  Oswald Chambers points out in his classic "My Utmost for His Highest," that "We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him."

          How can that possibly happen?  Has anything come between you and Jesus Christ?  Have you left your first love, the Christ who loved you first, and replaced it with the admiration of things?  Do you see yourself still in the mountaintop experience with Christ, glorying in what He has done for you, neglecting to go down into the valley so as to avoid the realities of sin, oppression and humiliation that drew Jesus Christ to the cross?  Are you still gazing at that cross and refusing to pick it up and go with Him to Golgotha?

          As followers of the most real person ever to set foot on this earth, we need to face things the way they really are, and not the way we wish they were.

          Many Christians read Paul's writings in Philippians 4:13 -- "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me," and believe Paul was talking only about the power we have to accomplish great things through Christ.  And he was.  But he was also talking as much about getting through the difficulties, the problems, the evils we face, as much as doing anything.  Jesus told His disciples in John 15:18, and Matthew 10:22 that because the world hated Him, the world was going to hate them.  Life is, indeed, full of problems, oppression and humiliations when you stand up for what is right before God, for what is full of unspoiled beauty, for what is just.  For this flies right in the face of that spirit of evil that challenges the people of God.

          But we cannot stay on the mountaintop.  That was an inspirational experience, but we have from Almighty God a precious give of love that finds its greatest fulfillment in sharing, in giving it away.  And the spirit of evil doesn't want that.

          And old favorite song written by J. J. Cale says, "Momma don't allow no guitar playing 'round here, but I don't care what Momma don't allow, going to play my guitar anyhow..."

          We who have a heritage of everlasting life, through the Great I Am, through the God who created us and loves us, we must not give sway to what the spirit of evil don't allow, we are going to fly in the face of all that the spirit of evil lusts after, in the name of God Almighty.  But we are also going to be mindful of Jesus' words, "This kind of unclean spirit can come out by nothing but by prayer and fasting."

          Want to change the world?  Change yourself first, in the name of God.  Then set about unseating that unkind Spirit, in the name of the Living God, under the instructions Jesus gave His disciples, by constant contact with Jesus Christ, living a disciplined and sacrificial life.  Against such the spirits that fear the Christ have no power.

          Amen.

Be Reconciled to God, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: 2nd Corinthians 5:17-21

2nd Cor. 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!

2nd Cor. 5:18  All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

2nd Cor. 5:19  that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

2nd Cor. 5:20  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

2nd Cor. 5:21  God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

          The elders shook their heads as they gathered together, asking one another what they were going to do about their elderly preacher.  He had just preached the same sermon as he preached last Sunday.  One of them was appointed, and he went to see the preacher, gently asking, "Pastor, are you aware you just preached the same sermon twice in a row?"

          To which the preacher replied, "Yes, I am.  And when I see some evidence that you understand it, I'll move on.

          As you read today's sermon, you may get the feeling we have stamped around this ground before, even though the facts and the setting are different this time.  And you would be correct.  For we are talking here about a life and death matter, a matter of eternal life and eternal death, and there is not enough that can be said about it.  I didn't write the rules, but I read them, and I pray you are willing to live them.

          Returning from a recent trip to Great Britain, I brought back a love of local Irish music.  Specifically, a group called Celtic Woman.  They sing what many considered Irish tunes, but actually some of it is Scot and some is Irish.

          The Celts were in Britain long before the Romans arrived, long before there was a division of Scotland and Ireland; just rolling moors and hills and tribes.  They were known for being fierce warriors.  If you saw the movie "Braveheart," those were Celts.  The only thing the movie didn’t show was that the women were as fierce warriors as the men.

          The men were stout, built like fireplugs, muscle from head to toe.  And when they went into battle, they painted their faces blue and charged in stark naked.  So here you are, recruited by your tribal chieftain to make war on the Celts.  You have your sword and shield, and all of you are proceeding down the hill to the battlefield.  When suddenly an army of naked, hairy men, faces painted blue, armed with swords and spears come running across the battlefield and up the hill toward you.  And they are screaming, screaming bloody murder!

          I think that would get my attention.  Some of their enemies simply turned and ran.

          But getting back to the singing group Celtic Woman, I tell you about them because of one song they performed that would not leave my mind.  It has a chorus that goes, “Valpariso, when will the wind blow me back there again.”

          “Valpariso, when will the wind blow me back there again….”

          As I listened to it, I was reminded that many people live their life like that, blown about, here and there, by every passing wind of societal mores and the newest peer pressures, even though Ephesians 4:14 warns us, "... we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming..."  Such people are led about by their desires, their curiosity, their hungers, their emotions.  Just whatever happens to them is fine with them.  No planning, no purpose beyond feeling good right now, and no thought for the future. 

          But it is a truism that those who will not plan will serve those who do.

          I remember a certain summer in Woodlake, Calif., as a youth.  A tall grassy mountain loomed over Woodlake and someone had placed a "W" of white stones high up near the top.  On a beautiful California morning several of us climbed up that grassy incline to sit in the wind among the white stones, drink our Cokes, play tag, King of the Mountain, and sit around with flowers in our hair telling stories.  It was a memorable time of peaceful fun and innocence.

          But there came a time when, as the Bible says, I put away the things and the times of children.  In fact, the whole verse of 1st Cor. 13:11 says, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

          There are many among us now who, although adults, have not put away childish things, who bend life to their own selfish, personal desires, who sell virtue short for satisfaction, and though they find little, continue to pursue their own course to the detriment of themselves and all about them.  They live blinded lives, shielding themselves from the harsh realities of this world with artificial pleasures.

          That might be acceptable if we were once again on that grassy hill in Woodlake, where the sun always shone, where the world was much kinder and innocence abounded.  But we are not.

          I noted earlier the truism that those who will not plan will serve those who do.

          There is a force in the world planning for the death of Christians, of Christianity.  Blunt, but true.  In fact, Christians are dying all around the world even as you read this, have been since this war began a very long time ago.  The time to sit around playing games with flowers in our hair is long past.  We will serve the Living God, or we will serve a dead idol propped up by the forces of Satan.  Where is the love in that?  The love is only in the God we serve, but it is not in the enemies of Christ, who call Jesus a prophet but deny His deity, and are bound and determined to see exterminated those who follow the Christ.

          We who serve the Living God have been born into a stretch of time when the actions of a war begun long ago are beginning to close in on us.  Those who follow the false religion of Islam have been at war with "the people of the book" -- Jews and Christians -- from the beginning of Mohammed's Islam.  It first impacted America following the Mideast Six Day War in 1967, when presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy promised if elected to send 50 fighter jets to Israel, and on June 5, 1968 Palestinian Sirhan Bishara Sirhan executed Kennedy in the middle of his campaign.

          Over the last 35 years, 3,094 persons have been killed in America by Muslims in 66 terror attacks.  That includes the 2,752 murdered, with another 251 wounded, in the attack on the twin towers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.  35 years; 3,094 killed; 66 terror attacks.  (http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/AmericanAttacks.htm)

          So what is the message here?  Go and kill Muslims?  No.  Absolutely no.  That may be someone else's message, but not mine as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

          The message is get to know the Living God, because this is a war of evil against good.  You have read in Ephesians that in the end this is not our war, but a continuation of a battle begun in the heavenlies long ago.  The men and women of evil are human and their weapons manmade, but Ephesians 6:12 reminds us, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

          And here is the difficult part, they are human beings, with souls.  They are part of the mission Christ gave us.  "He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."  Even those who worship false gods are part of God's creation.  Later, in verse 24, Paul writes to Timothy, "The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them."  But in writing to the Romans, chapter 12, verse 19, Paul tells them, "Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord."

          As God said to the Jews in Isaiah 43:18-19, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" 

          In 2nd Corinthians, 5:20, we read, ‎"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."

          Those who follow Jesus Christ, the church that calls itself Christian, the very bride of Christ, must draw near to God, especially in these turbulent times when all over the world Christians are under attack, even here in the United States of America.  God given freedoms are under attack all over the world, the very nature of truth, ethics and morality are under attack.  We must be reconciled to God if we are to carry the gospel message, if we are to be His ambassadors, if we are to survive the onslaught of evil that comes even now.

          Unfortunately, there are those who believe you can replace Judeo-Christian values, standards, guidelines with secular self-centered worship as the new morality, and relativism as the new ethical standard. They are correct. You can. And you see where America stoops with it today.  You see where those who call themselves Christians depart from the gospel message and stumble along, dragging the innocent and the unsuspecting with them.  They may know of the Christ, but they cannot know Him or they would still be with Him.

          As an example, although in Exodus 20:25 we see that at one time God directed His altar not be made with "dressed stones", but with stones never having had a tool on them, yet today those who arrange our meeting places build into them such finery of sculpted stone and stained glass windows as to be very nearly edifices to be worshipped for their manmade beauty.  How far the exalted religionists have led us from what God intended in our worship of Him.  We fashion the Christ in our own modern world image, we downgrade other Christians and other churches so that we and our church appear to be the only true church worshipping Almighty God.  There is such danger in that, and we don't even see it when God decides to leave us in our own self-made confusion.

          There are those who claim that our current collision with the Islamic culture is also self-made, of our own arrogance and interference.  And there is undoubtedly some truth to that.  The only remedy for that is to follow the directions Jesus Christ gave us long before Islam and Christianity met head-on; to love our brother and tell them of the Christ.  If we must defend ourselves from religious extremists in the meantime, Jesus never said we should commit suicide or allow the innocent to be slaughtered.  But in the end, only the gospel of Jesus Christ will change lives, and that will change hearts.

          May God grant us the wisdom and the strength of faith to live up to the claim of 2nd Corinthians 5:20: ‎"We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God."   Even as the battle continues between evil and good, even as we strive for more love as more terrible times approach, let us be reconciled to God that we may stand on His ground in His name.

          Amen.

God Might Well Ask, "Where Are My Christians?"

     Randall C. Stufflebeam responds to another's response: "It makes more sense to me to just not participate in the argument."  The argument had to do with a young boy sent home from school because he voiced his opinion to another schoolmate that homosexuality was wrong.

     God might rightly ask, "Where are My Christians?"  Those who believe in Christ, those who serve the Living God belong in the marketplace, their influence should be felt in economics, societal decisions, and in politics.  We cannot abandon the world to the forces of darkness and expect God to reward us for watching our brothers and sisters walk among the lost.

Randall C. Stufflebeam 

“It makes more sense to me to just not participate in the argument.”

Apparently this has been the attitude of the majority of Christians since the early 1960’s. I believe that is EXACTLY why this country has fallen into such moral depravity – Christians have abdicated their role of being a voice in the market place. It’s convenient to hide in churches and private schools. What other explanation could there be if the large majority of people in this country were Christian, how is it possible that a generation of children has been slaughtered in the womb?

What American Christians fail to recognize is that when God judges the nation for the horrific sins it has committed, we Christians will be here as a part of the judgment right along with those who perpetrate the evilness. Surely I don’t need to remind everyone of the many, many times throughout the Old Testament where God used other nations to chastise Israel for their turning away from Him. And surely, I don’t need to make that the righteous along with the unrighteous felt the consequences. Do I really need to bring up the names of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

I suspect that it won’t be very long into the future that Christians will be forced back to the catacombs. And when that day comes, you’ll indeed get all the suffering that you ask for. In one way, I somewhat long for that day because in that day, there will be no such thing as a nominal Christian.

HOWEVER… That day is NOT today.

While I concur that the call of Christians is to [Love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength and with all their mind; and, Love their neighbor as themselves], this posting is not about “judging” anybody, but about the complete and utter violation of our “God Given,” 1st Amendment protection of our Freedom of Religion and the FREE EXERCISE thereof.

Regardless of your position on homosexuality, the fact of the matter is that a young man was punished because he voiced his opinion that as a Christian he felt that homosexuality was wrong.

But alas, if Christians don’t start taking a stand against the incursion of evil that is so prevalent in our world, the catacombs is exactly what we deserve.

I WILL NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT. I WILL NOT HAVE MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH, MY FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF TO BE INFRINGED!

Interestingly, the Apostle Paul demanded that he be treated as a citizen of Rome and accorded the privileges and rights of Roman Citizenship, yet Christians of today suggest that we just ignore the argument of the day.

I, like Paul, demand my (and every other Christian’s) right of American Citizenship be recognized and to stop infringing on our freedom of speech, our freedom of religion, and our freedom to exercise that religion here in America, where the 1st Amendment is supposed to guarantee protection of our God Given Rights.

Regrettably, because Christians as a whole will continue to just hide in the pews and do nothing and just simply ignore the argument, this country will continue in its moral decline.

Lastly, I will say this: “While there are many who are called into spiritual ministry, there are others who are called into the civil arena.” I know that I am where I am called to be doing the things that I am called to do. I will do it to the best of my ability, SO HELP ME GOD!

Satan Will Not Go Away, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture:  Philippians 1:21-30
1:21  For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.
1:22  If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer.
1:23  I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better;
1:24  but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.
1:25  Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith,
1:26  so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again.
1:27  Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel,
1:28  and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation. And this is God's doing.
1:29  For He has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for Him as well--
1:30  since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

          The apostle Paul had a problem.  Actually, he had two problems, and we just don't know how much one problem had to do with another.  In 2nd Cor. 12:7-10, Paul talks about having a "thorn in the flesh," something he chose to deal with by turning it over to Christ so that he could say, "when I am weak, then I am strong."

          His other problem, and perhaps his first problem played into the second one, was that he desired to leave this life, to go home and be with Christ.  And yet, while his desire was is to depart and be with Christ, he knew that it was necessary "to remain in the flesh."

          If you have ever had a really bad day, been terribly embarrassed, or done something wrong and everybody knew about it, then you might have wished that God would just take you, right then.  But God didn't, and you had to suffer through it.

          The alternative might be, if God won't just take us on home, maybe Satan would just go away.  No more temptations, no more sin, no more teacher's dirty looks, no more condemnation.  Perhaps the worst condemnation is from that person who looks back at us from the mirror.  We know what we did.  Satan knows what we did, and he's not going to let us forget it.  We might wish Satan would go away, but until Jesus comes, he won't.  Instead, Satan will come at us from as many different directions, in as many manifestations as he can, wrapping us up in the sin of the moment.  And as we know, sin will take you further, keep you longer, and cost you more than you ever intended.

          All throughout our life we have had to contend with the issue of sin, in one form or another.  But right now, in this lifetime where we find ourselves at this moment, there is an insidious evil that confronts the church of Jesus Christ, the nation, and believers as individuals.  One reason this evil is so dangerous is because we know so little about it, misunderstand it on many levels, and are so easily guilted into supporting the enemies of Jesus Christ.  I'm talking, of course, about Islam.

          Islam is a cult of power and control that claims Abraham but knows none of the mercy, love and worship of Almighty God.  Islam sows confusion because it uses the ancient  Arabic word for "god", Allah, to worship a false god that began as an Arabic moon god in the Baal tradition.  Let there be no mistake, those who worship Islam are the enemy of Christ, the enemy of God  The first, most basic, and most important commandment of God reads: "You shall have no other gods before Me."

          False religions and false gods are not to be supported, tolerated, or lived with.  Christ's commandment to believers in Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:19 is to go into the world and make disciples of all mankind.  Over time, Christians have missed quite a few people, because the followers of Islam have murdered more people each year than all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition, combined; killed more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the past 50 years; killed more Buddhists in Thailand since America's 9-11 tragedy than the Ku Klux Klan killed in the 100 years between 1865-1965; murdered more people in two hours on September 11, 2001 than were killed in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland; killed more innocents in those two hours than the number of American criminals executed in the past 65 years. 

          The Muslims who claim theirs is a religion of peace are responsible for the deaths of more than 270,000,000 non-Muslims world-wide.  This includes 120 million Africans through the wholesale slave trade they operated (Woman’s Presbyterian Board of Missions, David Livingstone, p. 62, 1888), 60 million Christians (David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library, 2001, p. 230, table 4-10, and  Raphael Moore in History of Asia Minor), 80 million Hindus of India (Koenard Elst, Negationism in India, Voice of India, New Delhi, 2002, pg. 34), and 10 million Buddhists (David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library, 2001, p. 230, table 4-1). 

          That's 270,000,000 people murdered, more than Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and all of the genocidal socialists of the 20th century.

          Courageous men and women in the uniform of their America have sacrificed, along with their chaplains, battle corpsmen, nurses and surgeons, sacrificed a great deal as part of this society to ensure men and women are equal, black and white are equal, the God-given rights delineated in the U.S. Constitution are still there for everyone.

          And yet, there exists a very real danger that if we who are free, if we do not confront the enemies of our God-given freedoms today, our enslaved grandchildren will not forgive us tomorrow.  And tomorrow is not that far away.

          For example, although both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee "due process" under American law, Sharia law has already been cited as an influence to decisions in several court cases this year.  It is Sharia law that sentences people to such things as stoning of women, cutting off limbs for theft, honor killing of daughters and wives.

          If the people of Christ knew and understood the inspired words of the Living God within their Bibles, the living of their very lives would be a testament to the will of God, negating the forces that would stand against us as Christians.  Romans 8:31 reminds us that if God is for us, no one could ever stand against us.

          Paul wrote in verses 27 and 28, "Only, live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent and hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel, and are in no way intimidated by your opponents. For them this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation.  And this is God's doing."

          There has been a great deal of fearful talk last year and this regarding the return of Jesus Christ, that it is closer than we believe, imminent, even.  But for those who believe in Jesus Christ, such concern is meaningless.  Our concern must be for where we are now, by the grace of God, in the world, and for the spiritual future of others.  Our place in the world is threatened by the enemies of God, as is the spiritual future of those with whom Christ has told us to share the gospel.

          In light of this, I am going to end a little differently this time, referring you to a recent speech by a man of Indian extraction, a man who grew up a Muslim, a man late in his years and in a wheelchair, suffering from cancer, Mr. Tarek Fatah.  This may be one of the most important exposures to information you have had lately, since he speaks plainly from a position of knowledge, naming names and sharing from his experiential wisdom.  Here is the link:

http://www.livestream.com/ideacity/video?clipId=flv_fd017d81-dc18-42cc-821a-18b86fdea840

          Let us say with Paul, "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.  If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me..."  For we are here, and Satan will not go away.

          Amen.