The Tale of Two Men

In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus told of two men who went down to worship. One was a publican and the other was a Pharisee.

The Pharisee was so proud of his religious heritage and his legalistic achievement that he looked up to Heaven and said to God (I am paraphrasing here):

“I thank you, Lord, that I am not like that sinner, for I have done this and I have done that and I have done the other thing and I really am a good guy.”

The publican came in, bowed his head in conviction over his sin, pounded his chest in repentance and said, “God have mercy on me, for I am a sinner.”

Jesus did not leave us guessing who was acceptable to God.

He said, in effect, that the repentant sinner went home justified before God, but not the Pharisee.

This is a very different conclusion from the one so many, even those who claim to be Christians, hold when it comes to people.

No wonder the Scripture emphasizes this distinguishing feature of the Christian faith in 1 John 1:8-9 when it says that, “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.”

Why does the Scripture emphasize over and over again this whole idea of God loving repentant sinners?

First, because one of the pillars unique to the Christian faith is that we have all fallen short of God’s standard of perfection. Therefore anyone who claims to be perfect is not telling the truth or being realistic about his/her condition.

Again, the Bible says that Jesus came from Heaven to save sinners – that is confessed sinners. Jesus also said that those who do not realize that they are sick do not think they need a doctor. Those who do not recognize their sin and their need for forgiveness do not see their need for a Savior.  Only those who recognize their sin will be justified before God – forgiven and restored.

As far as the Christian faith is concerned, the ones who know how to repent are near and dear to the heart of God, but the ones who rationalize or gloss over their sin will never know true salvation.

We have a clear example of this in the lives of two kings in the Bible. King Saul was very good on paper and looked so good outwardly. And then there was King David who messed up royally. The difference is that King David repented with tears, and the Bible notes that King David was a man after God’s own heart.

In a few months, our nation will be electing a whole slew of candidates for a variety of offices. Some conservatives are making judgments similar to the Pharisees by going for the picture-perfect, storybook, glossy outward façade. Be very careful and be sure when you pass judgment that you choose those who know how to repent and not those who are self-righteous.

Tags:                 Christianity            ,                                    Faith            ,                                    Bible

Michael Youssef

Michael Youssef, PhD is an Egyptian-born American and founding rector of The Church of The Apostles. His messages are broadcast 3800 times a week into 200 countries through Leading The Way Ministries. He holds a PhD from Emory University in Social Anthropology. His blog: www.michaelyoussef.com  Follow on Twitter: @MichaelAYoussef

http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelyoussef/2012/01/29/the_tale_of_two_men/page/full/

Obama Calls It Fairness. The GOP Calls It Class Warfare. Scripture Calls It Envy

Obama, in his State of the Union address and during his initial five-state, multi-million dollar taxpayer funded re-election jaunt has stated repeatedly that his platform and policies are not about class warfare, which means, of course, that his ticket is all about class warfare—or “fairness,” as he likes to call it … or as the Scripture labels it, envy.

You don’t hear much about envy anymore, do you? We hear a lot about greed being bad, but in Obamaland envy is no longer a rank vice but a right and a virtue. However, historically speaking, envy has always been seen as a high-ranking sin. Envy, matter of fact, is second on the Seven Deadly Sins list as it lags behind pride a wee bit in being the nastiest and most common vice.

Ancient in its poison, envy forms a big chunk of the foul compost heap that stimulates the growth of human stupidity. Envy is an extremely toxic sin that doesn’t get the verbal hailstorm that other sins receive in our current entitlement culture with its totemic view of vice. Someone who has been saddled by the envy monkey will probably not make the evening news like a politician who has been caught in bed with a live man or a dead woman or who keeps his freezer stuffed with cash.

No, envy is not that sexy and doesn’t have the buzz that zings around a greedy Goldman Sachs exec. Because this sin doesn’t get MSNBC’s attention like the more juicy transgressions, we tend to see it as less naughty. But be not deceived, my brethren: This sin is disastrous once it sticks its talons into a person, party, religion, or nation.

Another distinguishing feature of the funk of envy is that it is no fun. All vices sport a momentary spice. All of them, that is, except for envy. Envy is the one sin the sinner will never like or admit. You’ll never see someone who is envious chilling out, laughing his butt off, or relaxing with his friends while this demon rules the roost. The more envy grows, the more it drives its impenitent coddler nuts.

So, what is envy? Well … let’s start with what it is not. It’s not admiring what someone else has and wanting some good stuff also. This desire will make you get off your butt in the morning and get busy. It is good to crave; a man’s appetite will make him work. Where envy differs from admiration/emulation is that envy is “sorrow at another’s good” (said Thomas Aquinas). Someone who is centered can watch another person, party, or nation prosper and not grow hateful because of it.

The whacked, petty, envious dolt, however, sees someone else excel and is slapped in the face with the reality that he just got dogged. So, instead of sucking it up and working harder and smarter, the unwise envious freak allows his pride to fuel his wounded little spirit. This sets the dejected perp down a path of disparagement of the prosperous that eventually morphs into the desire to destroy the person, party or nation that has just trumped this sad little person.

Os Guinness, best-selling author and renowned lecturer, states that the sin of envy has several common characteristics:

1. Envy is the vice of proximity. We are always prone to envy people close to us in temperament, gifts or position.

2. Envy is highly subjective. It is in the eye of the beholder. It is not the objective difference between people that feeds envy, but the subjective perception. As a Russian proverb says, “envy looks at a juniper bush and sees a pine forest.”

3. Envy doesn’t lessen with age. It gets worse as we run into more and more people of happiness and success, offering more fodder for envy.

4. Envy is often petty but always insatiable and all consuming. However small the occasion that gives rise to it, envy becomes central to the envier’s whole being. The envier “stews in his juice.” Envy begins with pride and then plunges the person into hatred.

5. Envy is always self-destructive. What the envier cannot enjoy, no one should enjoy, and thus the envier loses every enjoyment. The envier’s motto is “if not I, then no one.” As an eighth-century Jewish teacher put it, “the one who envies gains nothing for himself and deprives the one he envies of nothing. He only loses thereby.”

Y’know, there are many forces tearing at this land and many nations that would like to level our nation. That said, I believe this envious entitlement funk that’s speedily weaving its way into the fabric of our national life will destroy it faster than al-Qaeda could ever al-Hope to.

Tags:                 Media and Culture            ,                                    Faith and Family            ,                                    GOP            ,                                    Barack Obama            ,                                    Envy

Doug Giles

Doug Giles is the author of Raising Righteous & Rowdy Girls. Follow him on Twitter @Doug_Giles and on Facebook. You can see and hear Doug’s video blog and talk show at ClashRadio.com.

http://townhall.com/columnists/douggiles/2012/01/29/obama_calls_it_fairness_the_gop_calls_it_class_warfare_scripture_calls_it_envy/page/full/

Aborting Hitler

Someone once asked me whether I would abort Adolf Hitler if I knew in advance he would try to launch a Holocaust against millions of Jews. I said I would not. That is because aborting Hitler would not have prevented the Holocaust. It would have justified it. The killing of millions of innocents does not begin with the killing of one innocent. It begins with the idea that in the larger scheme of things it is permissible to kill one innocent person.

The movie Judgment in Nuremburg (1961) shows that, even in Hollywood, Americans once appreciated this important principle. The movie is three hours long. But one only needs to watch the last ten minutes of the movie in order to see how far we have fallen in just a half-century.

For those who do not remember the end of the movie, Spencer Tracy plays an American judge who sentences former Nazis for their involvement in the Holocaust. One Nazi judge who sentenced innocents to death was himself sentenced to life in prison. As the sentence is read, he stares off in disbelief. He initially believes he is innocent because he was simply following the law. He later realizes his life sentence was just.

Only a couple of days after he is sentenced, the former Nazi judge requests that the American judge visit him in his jail cell. As he faces the man who sentenced him, he makes an odd request: he asks him to keep his personal memoirs – adding that they must be placed in the hands of a man who can be trusted. It is then that he declares the sentence passed upon him was just.

After pausing for a moment, the condemned Nazi judge says of the millions of dead Jews, “Those millions of people. I never knew it would come to that.” Spencer Tracy, playing the American judge, responds with one of the most profound lines of his storied acting career saying, “It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent.”

That has been the story of the American Holocaust as well. It began in 1966 in my native state of Mississippi. Just two years after I was born, a law was passed that made it legal to abort in the case of rape or incest. But then, the very next year, Colorado passed legislation allowing abortion in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the health of the mother.

Then the floodgates were opened. By the end of the year, several states were pushing legislation modeled after the Colorado statute. Within just six years, abortion for mere convenience was not just permitted by several states. It was enshrined as a fundamental constitutional right.

Some have declared that they will not rest until Roe v. Wade is overturned. Others say that is too lofty a goal. I disagree. I believe it is too shortsighted. We must reach further back if we want to reverse our moral free fall. Pre-1973 thinking is not enough. We must go back to the time when no state authorized the killing of innocents – a time when only the rapist, not the product of rape, was eligible for a sentence of death.

Ideas have consequences. And so do exceptions. One of the consequences of embracing an evil exception is that it hardens our hearts and clouds our thinking in advance of our consideration of other exceptions. Eventually we come to a point where we cannot imagine life without that initial exception.

It is fitting that it all began in Mississippi. We have a legacy of executing innocents by denying their personhood. It happened with slavery. It happened again with abortion. Now we have learned to justify our own Holocaust. We didn’t need Hitler after all.

Tags:                 Abortion            ,                                    Pro-Life            ,                                    Hitler

Mike Adams

Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author of Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts “Womyn” On Campus.

http://townhall.com/columnists/mikeadams/2012/01/30/aborting_hitler/page/full/

New Bible yanks ‘Father,’ Jesus as ‘Son of God’

http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1326407570.html

Islam-sensitive project ignites controversy, online petition

In the world of questionable and sometimes downright silly Bible translations, one would think that it couldn’t get any worse.

After all, we’ve seen the “In da beginnin’ Big Daddy created da heaven an’ da earth” Ebonics Bible, as well as the “Apostle’s Log” Star Trek English paraphrase Bible. In a more serious effort, the New Oxford Annotated Bible was created in part by pro-”gay” and feminist scholars in order to set forth a more “gay” revisionist interpretation of Scripture.

But now there is a major controversy developing as the latest altered Bibles are being created by organizations that most would think of as being more conservative and reasonable. At the forefront of the controversy are the Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and Frontiers, all of which are producing Bible translations that remove or modify terms which they have deemed offensive to Muslims.

That’s right: Muslim-friendly Bibles.

Included in the controversial development is the removal of any references to God as “Father,” to Jesus as the “Son” or “the Son of God.” One example of such a change can be seen in an Arabic version of the Gospel of Matthew produced and promoted by Frontiers and SIL. It changes Matthew 28:19 from this:

“baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”

to this:

“cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit.”

A large number of such Muslim-sensitive translations already are published and well-circulated in several Muslim-majority nations such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia.

According to Joshua Lingel of i2 Ministries, “Even more dramatic a change is the Arabic and Bangla (Bangladesh) translations. In Arabic, Bible translations err by translating ‘Father’ as ‘Lord.’ ‘Guardian.’ ‘Most High’ and ‘God.” In Bangla, ‘Son of God’ is mistranslated ‘Messiah of God’ consistent with the Quran’s Isa al-Masih (Jesus the Messiah), which references the merely human Jesus.”

In response to these translations, many within the evangelical missions movement as well as many former Muslim converts and indigenous Christians from countries where these translations are being used, are indignant. After numerous appeals have been rejected, a petition has been launched to call for the end to the translations.

More than 3,000 already have signed up.

While the organizations that are promoting these translations are adamant that replacing such terms as Father with Lord or Master best conveys the inspired meaning of the text, many of the indigenous Christian leaders from the countries where these translations are being promoted are broadly rejecting the translations.

The indigenous believers see the introduction of these American-made translations with which they so strongly disagree as a form of American cultural imperialism or colonialism.

According to Turkish pastor Fikret Böcek, such new translations are, “an all-American idea with absolutely no respect for the sacredness of Scripture, or even of the growing Turkish church.”

According to the testimony of one leader from a church in Bangladesh, one of the most problematic aspects of this development is that it gives fuel to the often-heard Muslim claim that Christians are liars who change their Bibles to deceive Muslims. Once a Bible translation is well established within any country, the introduction of such radically different translations reinforces the Muslim charge and undermines trust in the Christian community.

According to Lingel, who can be contacted at info@i2ministries.org, the crisis in translation methodology is largely due to “a postmodern literary bias” that has crept into some translation circles in recent decades. Such translations would seem to demand that the divine author of the Bible change rather than the Muslim reader.

“But Jesus demanded that many of his listeners change,” says Lingel, explaining that instead of demanding that Muslim readers change their understanding of God, these translations seem to convey that God must accommodate the religious prejudices of Muslims.

“Lingel is also the co-editor of a new book, “Chrislam: How Missionaries Are Promoting an Islamized Gospel,” which represents the first major response against Muslim-sensitive translations as well as the larger movement often referred to as the “Insider Movement” or “Chrislam.”

According to reports, of the roughly 200 translation projects Wycliffe/SIL linguists have undertaken in Muslim contexts, about 30 or 40 remove the terms father and son with reference to God and Jesus.

Lingel’s response is quite direct, “These projects need to be defunded.”

Yet according to a recent Forbes “200 Largest U.S. Charities” report, the Orlando-based Wycliffe Bible Translators USA is the third most well-funded religious charity in the states.

Proponents of the Insider Movement claim that this method of reaching Muslims is bearing great fruit. Opponents, however, point out that the so-called converts within the Insider Movement remain “hidden” within their Muslim culture, continue to attend mosque, pray like a Muslim, acknowledge Muhammad as a prophet, the Quran as inspired, and make the Muslim credal confession, known as the “shahada.”

Some now claim that there are as many as 300,000-1.2 million new “Insider believers” in Bangladesh. But one former Insider who left the movement and speaks out in Lingel’s Chrislam book reports that the number of insiders couldn’t be more than 10,000. According to this source, many of the claims are greatly exaggerated so as to bring in more funding from wealthy American missionary organizations.

“Other former Insiders have reported publicly that many Insiders are really Muslims who will do whatever it takes for the jobs and money they are offered by pro-IM ministries to feed their families,” Lingel says.

Further questioning the funding and support of well-known Christian organizations of this movement, Lingel recounts, “I have consulted with the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention on missions and evangelism among Muslims at various times… [Who] stated that there are tens of thousands of Isa al-masih jamaats, or ‘Jesus congregations,’ in northern Africa. But the members of these jamaats call themselves Muslims, do not believe in the Trinity and believe Muhammad is a prophet of God. Are they Christians or Muslims? Why talk about them in terms of missionary success?”

In response to what many Christians see as a heretical movement based on deception, Lingel’s i2 Ministries is in the process of completing a video-based university called Mission Muslims World University, with 40 of the most experienced professors from around the world teaching courses in Muslim ministries, Islamic Studies, apologetics, evangelism and discipleship.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/new-bible-yanks-father-jesus-as-son-of-god/

Encountering Jesus in Our Suffering by Mark D. Roberts

Lamentations 3:1-30

The memory of my suffering and      homelessness is bitterness and poison. I can’t help but remember      and am depressed. I call all this to mind—      therefore, I will wait. Certainly the faithful love      of the LORD hasn’t ended;      certainly God’s compassion isn’t through! They are renewed every morning.      Great is your faithfulness. (CEB)

Lamentations 3:19-23

In last Friday’s reflection on Lamentations 3, I began wrestling with the question, “What enables us to keep on trusting in God’s faithful love when our lives are stung by suffering?” In that reflection, I suggested that Scripture is one way the Lord encourages us to trust in him even when our lives are hard. Today, I want to point to another source of encouragement, the most important one of all.

I’m thinking of Jesus Christ. More than anything else, more than anyone else, he helps us to remain faithful even when our lives are filled with pain. For one thing, when we are hurting, we know that Jesus understands. He experienced the discomforts and discouragements of this life. He was, in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic vision, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Thus, he can sympathize with us in a profound way (see Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus is God’s answer to the problem of suffering. He doesn’t provide a definitive answer to philosophical questions. If anything, Jesus creates even more questions. Why would God become human in Jesus? How is it possible for God to suffer? Why did God choose to suffer rather than to obliterate suffering? We’ll never fully answer questions like these. But, we have in Jesus God’s response to our suffering. He sees it. He feels compassion. He shares our pain, even as he shared our humanness in Jesus. God is with us when we suffer. Jesus makes this clear. And, sometimes, our suffering is a path for us to walk more deeply into the life of knowing Jesus. But, even more, Jesus took on horrible suffering in order to bring about its ultimate send. Because of his death, the power of sin and death has been broken. Ultimately, God will triumph. His kingdom will pervade all creation. Sorrow and suffering will pass away.

How can we know this? Because Jesus did not remain in the tomb. He was raised from the dead, a sure sign of God’s victory. Thus, the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope when life is hard.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: How has Jesus helped you when your life has been hard? What might it mean for you to live in light of the cross and resurrection of Jesus each day? At work? At home? Among your neighbors? With your friends?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, how I thank you for becoming fully human, for entering into the pains and sorrows of this life, as well as its delights and joys. Thank you for knowing how it feels when I am exhausted, lonely, or in pain. It encourages me to know that you understand, and that you are with me always.

Yet, even more, I thank you for entering into human suffering in order to vanquish it. Your death was not the end. After Good Friday, there came Easter. After suffering, victory. After death, the fullness of life. How thankful I am, Lord, for the hope I find in your resurrection. Help me, I pray, to live with this hope today.

All praise be to you, Word of God Incarnate, Savior, Lord! Amen.

http://www.thehighcalling.org/reflection/and-he-saw-work-good

Tozer Devotional-Serving God’s Purpose in This Generation

Serving God‘s Purpose in This Generation

The life Ideal was described by the apostle in the Book of Acts: “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep.” We submit that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to improve upon this. It embraces the whole sphere of religion, appearing as it does in its three directions: God, the individual, society. Within that simple triangle all possible human activities are carried on. To each of us there can be but these three dimensions: God, myself, others. Beyond this we cannot go, nor should we even attempt to go. If we serve God according to His own will, and in doing so serve our generation, we shall have accomplished all that is possible for any human being. David was smart enough to serve God and his generation before he fell asleep. To fall asleep before we have served our generation is nothing short of tragic. It is good to sleep at last, as all our honored fathers have done, but it is a moral calamity to sleep without having first labored to bless the world. No man has any right to die until he has put mankind in debt to him. No man has any moral right to lie down on the earth till he has wrought to take something of the earth out of the hearts of men, till he has helped to free men from the tyranny of that same earth and pointed them to that kingdom that will abide after the heavens and the earth are no more.

http://www.cmalliance.org/devotions/tozer?id=444

Acting on God’s Decisions

“Your words…were my joy and my heart’s delight.”          Jer 15:16 NIV

Together they built and pastored a great church. The husband was a gifted preacher and musician who wrote songs and led worship. His wife was a Bible teacher who knew God and taught His Word skillfully. But when he died, she experienced months of depression before eventually bouncing back. When someone says, “If you really love God and walk according to His Word you will never get depressed,” clearly, they have never read the Scriptures and never been depressed. Elijah called down fire from heaven in a spectacular victory, yet he became so depressed in the aftermath that he wanted to die. “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life” (1Ki 19:4 NKJV). That’s major-league depression! When you try to act super-spiritual and allow people to think you never battle in areas like fear, failure, finances, family, or feelings, you give them a complex and cause them to walk away feeling they’re not spiritual or mature enough to be used by God. Jesus uncovered Himself and washed His disciples’ feet. Then He told them to do the same for one another. You are never more effective than when you are transparent. Knowing that leadership decisions had to be made concerning the future of their church, this pastor’s wife felt overwhelmed and prayed, “Lord, I don’t know how to make all these decisions.” God told her, “I have already made every decision concerning you and the church. My will was established in the counsels of eternity. All you have to do is decide today what I have already decided yesterday, and tomorrow you will walk in My blessings and benefits.”

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/acting-on-gods-decisions/

Creeping indecency (OneNewsNow.com)

Creeping indecency (OneNewsNow.com).

To spank … or not to spank (OneNewsNow.com)

To spank … or not to spank (OneNewsNow.com).

Time to start ‘monitoring’ mosques #OneNewsNow.com#

Time to start ‘monitoring’ mosques #OneNewsNow.com#.