Executive Unbound

In his Breakpoint column today, Chuck Colson warns of the gradual institution of an Administrative State in America. The Administrative State is one in which the Executive branch of government is all powerful and is not constrained by other branches. The liberal elite in America are embracing this shift in power, arguing that the checks and balances in the U.S. Constitution are obsolete, and an all-powerful executive is necessary in these times of complexity and rapidly changing circumstances.

One of the greatest lies that Satan has ever sold to humanity is that there can be a "benevolent dictator." Even King David, a man after God's own heart, and King Solomon, the wisest man the world has ever known, went astray and abused their power. Why? Because man is a fallen creature (Genesis 3) and totally depraved (Jeremiah 17:9).

It never ceases to amaze me how arrogant man is. Every generation has seen itself as the wisest, considering its ancestors to be somehow intellectually inferior, morally naive, and infinitely less stressed than itself. Satan loves this arrogance. He uses it to tempt man away from reliance on God and toward self-reliance. (Proverbs 3:5)

Are we truly intellectually superior to our ancestors? I offer you Plato, Socrates, Jesus of Nazareth, the Apostle Paul, Galileo, Michelangelo, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Pasteur and a host of others.

Are we truly morally superior? I offer you abortion; rampant divorce; rampant child abuse; a federal government bent on bankrupting our nation; a federal judiciary bent on obliterating Christianity and establishing secular humanism as the state religion in violation of the First Amendment; sexual perversion; Wall Street shenanigans; rampant adultery and fornication; rampant drug abuse; and on and on.

Are these times really more complex and stressful? I offer you the Hebrew captivity in Egypt; the Roman domination of Europe and the Middle East; the Visigoths and Ostragoths; the black plague in Europe; European colonialism in Africa and the new world; the American Revolution; the War Between the States; the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia; the Nazi holocaust; Stalin's purges of 20 million Russians; and on and on.

We are a legend in our own minds. Satan has got us believing that we are pretty hot stuff, when in fact, we are just as depraved, just as inept, just as fallen as every other generation before us.

Christian soldier, it is time to wake up and smell the sulfur. Satan is gaining ground, as he deceives and deludes us. Put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20). Be salt and light in your sphere of influence. Our brothers and sisters are dying for want of truth. The liberal elite in this country offer their lies; we need to counter it with the Truth of God.

Battle stations.

Radical thinking

Can't sleep. The Holy Spirit has got a hold of me tonight. He is keeping me awake and filling my head with ideas that will rock my world. I mean that in a good way. Here are some of the things He has been bringing up...over and over again.

Television is a waste of time...and money. Well, not all TV, but the vast majority. I found a plan on the internet for a fractal TV antenna that I can make for about $5 (that is, if I don't already have enough stuff in my shop to do it for free). I could eliminate the $82 a month I pay for satellite service. That is nearly $1,000 a year I could spend on feeding the poor or providing heat for a widow.

Our church recently did a book study of "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. Many of our body were moved by this book to reconsider how we spend our time and money. As I lay awake in my bed this morning, I was thinking of how I might spend my resources differently. Here are a few of the thoughts that came to my mind:

1. Use my skills with tools to provide a free handyman service for people in my church (and possibly in the community at large).
   
2. Put together a group of men from the church who would be available to do the same thing. At a church where my wife and I were once members, there was a men's Bible study group that called themselves the "Wild Men of God." I like that. It reminds me of John the Baptist, who lived in the wilderness and wore camel hair clothing and ate locusts and wild honey. Maybe we could call our group "Crazy Men of God."
   
3. Scale down the landscape plans I have for my own home, in order to save money that I can spend on helping others.
4. Sell a car and spend the money I would have spent on gas and oil and upkeep, not to mention what I could get for the car, on helping the poor.
5. Start buying a bag of groceries a week to give to the food bank. Maybe even volunteer at the food bank.
   

Lest you think I have booked some kind of guilt trip and would do these things to curry God's favor, let me assure you that I know there is absolutely nothing that I can do to put God in my debt. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) But whenever I hear these verses quoted I think it a shame that verse 10 is so seldom tacked on: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

The modern church in America has retreated inside the sanctuary, where we feel safe from "the world" and from Satan. Nothing could be further from the truth. Satan is a spirit being; mere walls of brick and mortar will not keep him at bay. What does Scripture say? "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of God and He will lift you up." (James 4:7-10)

How do we resist the devil? It's right there in the next sentence: "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." Have you ever seen a vampire movie, where the hero is repelling the vampires by carrying a cross? Well, I am not sure the devil (d evil) cares about a physical cross. He is a spirit. But Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." (Luke 9:23, emphasis added) It appears that our Lord wants us to draw near to Him, but there is a price: "deny himself...take up his cross...daily...and follow Me."

Denying self is a thoroughly un-American thing to do in the 21st century. We deny ourselves nothing. We spend more each day on soda pop than half the people in the world have to subsist on. And what do we have to show for it? We are overweight, physically sick, morally bankrupt, emotionally drained. Consider the following:

1. "An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year."*
   
2. "In 2009, only Colorado and the District of Columbia had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%." (Most states have a rate of 25-30%)
   
3. "Estimates for the year 2006 are that 81,100,000 people in the United States have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD)."***
   
4. "The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world."****

If NOT denying ourselves leads to these kinds of statistics, perhaps denying ourselves would have a positive effect.

The cross was, perhaps, the most grisly form of execution ever devised by the depraved mind of man. It was designed not only to kill, but also to torture and humiliate its victims. What does Jesus mean when he invites a man to "take up his cross?" I suppose He means ultimate denial of self: humility, sacrifice and complete disregard for self. In Matthew 22, quoting from the Pentateuch, He told his disciples: "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’" (vv.37-39)

Notice where "yourself" appears in this passage. Self is dead last, after God and your neighbor. Do you think Jesus was kidding around? Perhaps, He meant to get a big laugh by making this statement. I don't think so. He said, "The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works." (John 14:10) Denying self is the only way to draw near to God. Just as you cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24), so I cannot serve God and Tom. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other."

Finally, Jesus gives us the frequency with which we are to deny ourselves: it is "daily." We cannot draw near to God on Sunday morning and every other Wednesday at Bible study and expect to keep the devil at bay. "[T]he devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8) The text doesn't say he only does this on Sunday mornings and alternate Wednesdays.

"Cleanse your hands, you sinners." That is, desist from doing that which is displeasing to God. "[A]nd purify your hearts, you double-minded." Jesus told us, "blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Being wishy-washy about taking up our cross is not going to cut it. Jesus said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad." (Matthew 12:30) "Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom." I do lament and mourn and weep, when I think how much God has done for me, and how little I have done out of gratitude in return. "Humble yourselves in the sight of God, and He will lift you up." No more bootstraps, please.

In this spiritual war, we have a formidable enemy. And yet he is already defeated. We fight not FOR victory, but FROM victory. Resist the devil AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU! You have the power of the Holy Spirit living in your body, which is His temple. Satan wants nothing to do with that. But we must draw near to God as outlined above. The wonderful thing is He has promised that, when we do, He will draw near to us. A mighty fortress is our God! "I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18) Take that, Satan!

*http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml#Intro
**http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
***http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4478
****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

"Equal" is not "the same"

The "sly ways" (2 Corinthians 2:11, The Message) of Satan, who is always "[prowling] around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," (1 Peter 5:8, NKJV) are foiled by Christian soldiers who do not bow to his deceitful teachings. Secular humanists are fond of saying that men and women are "equal." What they mean is they are "the same." There is a vast difference between two things being equal and their being the same.

For example, an ounce of lean meat and an ounce of refined sugar have roughly "equal" caloric content, but I don't think anyone would say they are "the same." A ton of bricks and ton of feathers are "equal" in weight. If they are "the same," I am sure you would just as readily agree to having a ton of bricks dropped on you as a ton of feathers.

The fact is that men and women are "equal" in value in God's economy. "There is neither...male nor female; for all are one in Christ." (Galatians 3:28, NKJV) But men and women are not "the same." Beyond the physical differences, there are recognized differences in brain chemistry, not to mention readily observable differences in temperament. God tells us that women have "...the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:4, NKJV). He tells us that husbands are to "...dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life..." They are not "the same."

Desmond Morris, in his book "Intimate Behavior," (Random House, 1971) wrote about the universal sexual progression that he observed in many diverse cultures worldwide. That progression from recognition to sexual consummation, according to Morris, universally follows this pattern:

1. Eye to person. (He notices her)
2. Eye to eye. (Their eyes meet. Magic in the air.)
3. Voice to voice. (Getting to know you. No overt sexual overtones. Happens in group setting.)
4. Hand to hand. (We are a couple. This is the first “sexual” contact.)
   
5. Arm to shoulder. (This is the first signal that “I want to protect you.”)
6. Hand to waist. (Vision, deeply held beliefs, values and life goals are shared. This is an opportunity to know one another rather intimately without sexual pressure.)
7. Face to face (Mouth to mouth. Kissing occurs for the first time.)
8. Hand to head. (This signifies complete confidence. Whom do you allow to touch your head? Only those you trust completely.)
9. Eye to body. (This is not sexual in nature. “I’ve grown accustomed to the tent you live in.”)
10. Hand and mouth to breast.
    
11. Hand to genital.
12. Genital to genital.

As you can see, Morris designates the first "sexual" contact to be holding hands (step 4). I seriously doubt that secular humanists consider this to be sexual. Why? Because it fits their agenda which is expressed succinctly by a Planned Parenthood staff member:

...the goal of Planned Parenthood is to help “young people obtain sex satisfaction before marriage. By sanctioning sex before marriage, we will prevent fear and guilt.” (Faye Wattleton, “Reproductive Rights for a More Humane World,” The Humanist, July/August 1986, p. 7.)

This is very different from the Seventh Commandment : "Thou shalt not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:14, KJV) God knows that sexual union is more than a mere physical experience. It is the engine that drives the biblical family. It makes a man and woman "one flesh." (Genesis 2:24) It creates an emotional bond that is real, no matter how much the secular humanists try to deny it.

All of the above is about bringing me to the point of this post. As reported by Jim Daly of Focus on the Family:

Last week, Cassy Herkleman was scheduled to wrestle Joel Northrup in the first round of the Iowa state high school wrestling tournament. But as you may know by now, Joel refused the match, walked off the mat and forfeited the round and his chance at a state title.

Why?

"As a matter of conscience and my faith,” he wrote in a statement, “I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner."

Joel, who is home-schooled, is also a pastor’s son. His father, Jamie, was strikingly blunt when speaking with the Des Moines Register about his son’s decision:

"We believe in the elevation and respect of women, and we don't think that wrestling a woman is the right thing to do. Body slamming and takedowns -- full contact sport is not how to do that."

[ESPN reporter] Rick Reilly was not convinced. He wrote that Joel was “wrong” to refuse the match and that “If the Northrups really wanted to ‘respect’ women, they should've encouraged their son to face her.”

Why? Because men and women are "equal," according to the prevailing cultural view. By refusing to wrestle Cassy, Joel was essentially saying, in the secular humanist view, that they were not "equals." In fact, by standing for the biblical view, Joel was not saying Cassy was not "equal" to himself, but rather that she was not "the same" as he is.

In our sex-saturated culture, the idea that two teen-agers of opposite sex should roll around on a mat, with their bodies in intimate physical contact and covered with sweat doesn't even raise an eyebrow. But given Morris's culturally universal observations about the power and meaning of physical contact between persons of opposite sex, I wonder if the secular humanists are not overlooking the obvious. Couple Morris's observations with the biblical assertions that men and women are indeed not "the same," and I think there is every reason to think that Joel did the right thing, no matter what your religion.

Did Joel disrespect Cassy, because he stood his ground where biblical truth is concerned? Or did he, rather, show deep respect for her in protecting her from making a spectacle of herself through inappropriate touching for unwed people of the opposite sex? The secular humanists, who by definition choose to value human wisdom above the divine (just as Eve did in the garden, at the behest of Satan), surely will have different answers to those questions than Joel did, standing on biblical truth. Chalk up one more for a soldier of Christ.

You can't have it both ways.

There is a cost involved with failing to take up arms against the lies of Satan. According to Chuck Colson, on his Breakpoint broadcast this morning:

In its 2003 Lawrence decision, the Supreme Court overturned Texas's ban on sodomy. Critics, I among them, warned that this precedent would open the floodgates to gay marriage, polygamy, incest, and a whole host of horribles. Justice Antonin Scalia issued a blistering dissent, charging that Lawrence "effectively decrees the end of all morals legislation."

Colson goes on to say that critics of Scalia's dissent at the time said that such a position was hysterical and homophobic. Well, now the Court is having to revisit the Lawrence decision. Why? According to Colson:

The occasion for revisiting Lawrence is the revolting case of Columbia University Professor David Epstein. Epstein is charged with third-degree incest for having a sexual relationship with his daughter. What made this case stand out, apart from Epstein's Ivy League credentials, was that his daughter was 24-yers [sic] -old and, by all accounts, a consensual partner to this repugnant union.

This fact prompted William Saletan of Slate to ask a question many people desperately wanted to avoid: "If homosexuality is okay, why is incest wrong?" Saletan isn't trying to justify incest-he's merely trying to get people to articulate a reason why, in light of Lawrence and similar arguments, society should distinguish between the two.

My question is a bit different: "Where were the Christian soldiers who should have stormed the Court demanding that the wisdom of God's Commandments rule the day, rather than the politically correct nonsense that seems to have a strange hold on our courts?"

Ideas have consequences. Morality is inextricably tied to theology. We either agree with God's design for sexuality, or we abandon all pretense of any sort of moral outrage, no matter how repugnant we find a given perversion.

Spiritual warfare is not an academic exercise; it is not a battle to be fought by clerics; it is not someone's fanciful imagination. It is real. Satan's primary weapon in the war is deceit. In the case of the Lawrence decision, a majority of the members of the Supreme Court of the United States were deceived into believing that we can allow a little bit of perversion, without opening the door to every kind of perversion that the totally depraved mind of man can invent.

Soldier, it is up to you to be salt and light within your sphere of influence. Get informed about what is going on around you. Understand what the consequences of ignoring God's precepts are, so you can winsomely engage in apologetic discourse with deceived unbelievers.

It is my belief that bombarding unbelievers with Scripture references to refute their worldly views is about as effective as reading them a few lines from the phone book. But understanding God's reasons for the boundaries He has graciously provided to protect us from the consequences of our total depravity, will allow you to argue irrefutably against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.

Failure to be thus prepared may result in your being put in the same untenable position as the SCOTUS finds itself in currently. According to Colson:

Epstein’s lawyer, Matthew Galluzzo, said [as] much in a television interview: “It’s OK for homosexuals to do whatever they want in their own home . . . How is this so different? We have to figure out why some behavior is tolerated and some is not.”

While defenders of Lawrence purport to be appalled by such arguments, this is exactly what Justice Scalia predicted in his dissent. According to Justice Kennedy in Lawrence, the fact that the majority “has traditionally viewed a particular practice as immoral” isn’t sufficient justification for outlawing the practice. This kind of disapproval doesn’t justify an “intrusion into the personal and private life of the individual."

As a result of one bad decision, compromising with moral absolutes SCOTUS faces this dilemma:

If Epstein raises the Lawrence decision in pre-trial motions or on appeal, judges will be caught in a dilemma: apply Lawrence and sanction perversity or tie themselves into knots trying to distinguish what, under Lawrence, is indistinguishable.

It’s a dilemma of the Supreme Court’s making: It usurped the prerogative of the people and their elected representatives and created a hole so big that any kind of perversity could drive through. (Colson)

Remember, soldier, put on the full armor of God, including the belt of truth; the breastplate of righteousness; feet shod with the gospel of peace; the helmet of salvation; the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; the shield of faith; and above all, intercessory prayer. Know God's precepts and the implications of ignoring them, and then, sergeant, get into the fray.

Dismissed.

Planned Parenthood advises "pimp" on abortions for his underage sex slaves

If you think there is no evil our there, watch this video of a Planned Parenthood office manager advising a "pimp" about how he can have his underage prostitutes get abortions without their parents being notified.



Planned Parenthood, "The nation’s largest abortion seller received $363 million in government funding during fiscal year 2008." (Source) Your tax dollars are being used to murder innocent unborn children, and now we learn the same organization is aiding and abetting sex-traffickers who enslave young teen girls.

According to President Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, here's how this video came to be made:

The undercover operation was organized by Lila Rose of Live Action, a youth-led movement dedicated to building a culture of life and ending abortion. Ms. Rose, a student at UCLA, founded Live Action in 2006.

When the news of the sting operation broke, Planned Parenthood dismissed it as a hoax. The video of the incident had been edited, they claimed, and didn’t properly reflect the full context of the discussion.

Yet, as the news began to spread and spiral downward, Woodruff’s employment was terminated.

Here is some more information about Lila Rose, a Catholic and pro-life activist, who is obviously engaged in the war against Satan and his minions in a meaningful way. Are you ready to engage the enemy, soldier?

Arrows in the hands of warriors.

The Patriot Update reports today that:

Twenty years ago, the world had about 1.1 billion Muslims. Twenty years from now, it will have about twice as many – and they’ll represent more than a quarter of all people on earth, according to a new study released Thursday. That’s a rise from less than 20 percent in 1990.

Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as home of the largest number of Muslims, as its population pushes over 256 million, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life projects.

The number of Muslims in the United States will more than double, to 6.2 million, it anticipates.

Afghanistan’s population will nearly double, to about 50.5 million, making it home to the ninth largest Muslim population in the world.

Meanwhile, The Center for Bioethical Reform reports:

Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as "Born-again/Evangelical".

Birthrates in Europe have fallen below the replacement rate, and America is soon to follow. God has told us:

³ Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
⁴ Like arrows in the hand of a warrior,
So are the children of one’s youth.
⁵ Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them;
They shall not be ashamed,
But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.(Psalm 127:3-5)

And yet Born-again/Evangelical women, soldiers in Christ's army, represent 18% of the women who are killing their own children. How has Satan managed to deceive so many of us? When will we turn back to God? When will we confess our iniquity and repent of it? When will we start living for Him and take up our arms and march as to war? Or will we continue to kill our offspring, while the followers of a successful, violent, false religion take over the world by force and reproduction?

If children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior, shouldn't Christian soldiers have a quiver full of them and hone their points and preen their feathers and make sure their shafts are true? Think about it, soldier?

Satan's lies are beginning to catch up to him.

More information comes in almost daily, it seems, confirming that America is sliding down the slippery slope, which was first provided by Roe v. Wade, at an alarming rate. Chuck Colson's Breakpoint, this morning, reports:

The statistic has everyone reeling: According to a recent survey, forty-one percent of pregnancies in New York City end in abortion. Forty-one percent. Nearly half.

Now that is a shocking and sickening statistic, but the interesting thing about Colson's post is that it goes on to say:

But pro-choicers weren't too excited about this news either. The New York Times-hardly a pro-life bastion-reported, "No one is exactly celebrating. . . . Even abortion rights advocates expressed some concern about the numbers, trying to change the conversation to a broader one on reproductive health."

Colson makes the point that, when the pro-choice camp becomes alarmed at the statistics that their war on life have produced, it is a sure sign that they know instinctively that killing babies is wrong. In spite of the ongoing efforts of the pro-choice movement to tell us that a "woman's right to choose" is more important than the human being, imago Dei, that they are so interested in getting rid of, God has written on every human heart the message that human life is, in fact, sacred.

Satan and his minions, have had a heyday telling American women (and the weasely men who use them for their own pleasure, and are only too happy to pay for an abortion, instead of child support) to believe that the human being growing in that womb, is not really a human being at all. It is "fetal and uterine debris." Well, soldier, we know that Satan's primary tactic in this spiritual war is deceit. Oh, how willingly we swallow that deceit, when we want to indulge in a forbidden pleasure.

A woman has a right to choose, without doubt. But some choices are irrevocable. Once a woman has chosen to have sexual intercourse with a man, she had better be ready to accept the fact that the outcome could be a new human being (Psalm 139:13), a sacred being made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). That's why God has instructed her to remain chaste until she is married to the man and they are ready and willing to take responsibility for nurturing that new little imago Dei. Otherwise, she may find herself contributing to the statistics that are now beginning to alarm even the pro-choicers. And she already knows, in her heart, that that is wrong.

(There are instances of rape and incest, in which the woman has not made a choice to have intercourse, and which may result in pregnancy. These cases present a moral dilemma, of course: should the woman be required to carry to term and rear a child who is not born out of love and responsibility, or should she be allowed to abort the pregnancy? The fact is that such cases account for only 1% of abortions in this country, whereas 93% of abortions are performed because the baby is "inconvenient." Another 6% are performed because of "health problems" of the mother or the baby (Source). According to AbortionTV.com these health problems leading to abortion break down as follows:

Risk to maternal health: 2.8%

Risk to fetal health: 3.3%)