John 3:30

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Love

Rape, Incest and Abortion

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On Facebook, someone posted “Can a Christian be pro-choice on the abortion issue?” The ensuing responses were varied.

I ended up in a bit of an argument with one of the commenters. Here’s the comment thread if you want some background to my comments. Clicking the screenshot will take you to the Facebook post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What you see here is my response to Donald’s final comment with Donald’s comment included.

OK. Donald. I hate to have to do this, but maybe for the benefit of someone who will read this, if not you as well.

You wrote //** Ted, I love God as my Father and and His Son Yeshua (Jesus) as my Lord and Friend. I am sorry about my last response but that was the mentality of the logic being offered in the discussion that turned to Michael’s condemnations, assumptions and judgments. **//

1. Then you are not sorry. True apologies aren’t followed by excuses. Just stand by what you said.

2. I made no assumptions. I simply believed what you said. You said it is OK to murder a little baby in some situations, the situations you define as it being OK. I also cannot condemn, but I can warn you of God’s condemnation on those who approve of wickedness, promote wickedness or participate in wickedness (murder is wicked, BTW, child murder even more wicked maybe).

3. I am not ashamed of judgement. You are saying evil things, should a man of God sit by quietly when evil is spoken in the name of our Lord who you claim to represent?

You wrote //** I love God but to force a women to suffer continued injuries after being raped by stranger of family is unreasonable to me. **//

1. Here’s a tip – if you start a sentence with “I love God,” don’t include “but” in that sentence. This is my fear for you Donald, that you don’t really love God. Because God demands devotion above and beyond our apparent care for other people. (Luke 14:26)

2. And here’s the real point, Donald. You say you don’t want to force a woman to suffer continued injuries after being raped…this is noble. The problem is that becoming a murderer is actually the WORST thing for the woman. Abortion is a terrible thing to do TO a woman. So if you really don’t want woman to suffer further injury after rape or forced incest, encourage them to trust God, respect life and find healing in Jesus Christ rather than simply murdering an innocent baby. Nothing will be more detrimental to a woman in that situation than the belief that ending the pregnancy will make them feel better only to realize that ending the pregnancy NOT ONLY does not make them feel better but it will add the guilt of murder for the rest of her life on her conscience.

If you love women – tell them abortion is absolutely sinful and point them to Jesus Christ.

You wrote //** My point to Michael is that the sin needs to be stopped at it’s beginning! With sex deviants getting little to no time, many of those with wealth not even being approached for their indecencies, we instead continue the assault on the victim! ALL other abortions I detest and consider murder. Can I possibly be any clearer? **//

1. Logic is important. God is logical. He doesn’t change. He cannot deny Himself. So we, made in his image must be logical.

2. There is simply no logic to this statement. The post is about abortion. Do I really need to tell you I oppose rape? I do. But does the fact that I stayed focus on the topic of discussion somehow mean you can imply I am not against rape?

3. No you cannot be clearer, Donald. You have made it clear that murdering babies is OK if you think the baby’s conception was the result of some other sin where the mother was the victim of the sin. << This is actually what we are arguing about.

You wrote //** To Michael, it is more important as to the exception to my stance on abortion while ignoring the new Oregon gender abortion law that allows abortions for gender choice as late as 9 months pregnant! Michael did not seem to care about that one word worth! Shame .

1. Now what’s really interesting is how you try to twist everything with your final statement. You imply that I don’t care about an Oregon law regarding abortion when, in fact, my stance from the beginning has been anti-abortion entirely. If you did this intentionally, it is sin to misrepresent me in this way. If unintentional, then I guess I can overlook it.

2. You seem to be arguing that abortion for gender selection at a late age is unacceptable, but abortion for the reasons you gave, presumably at a younger age is OK. This is a sin and a logical fallacy. The age of the human being being slaughtered by abortion is irrelevant to the fact that it is murder. Reasons may seem more or less barbaric or irrational, but in the end, I’m not here to judge the apparent motives of the murdered, I’m here to judge the action of murder. In my view, I don’t need to play with these distinctions, I think abortion is murder all the time.

This is why I asked you when it ends, Donald. Can a woman who was raped have a baby then look at the baby, be reminded of her rapist and kill the child? Why not? Why would you force her to suffer again? By your logic you could not prevent that, unless you just want to play the “we can kill babies before they have faces or have formed hands” young gestational age argument.

Donald, your soul is important. You are either a sinner deceived into thinking he knows Christ or you are a seriously in error, immature in thinking, Christian. I challenge you to consider these things because I care about your soul. You are important too, just like raped women and babies.

If your response to this is just that I’m hateful and judgmental then you’re not reading. The entire post was written for your benefit, that you may see clearly. Are you offended that I say you do not see clearly? I’m sure you are. But faithful are the wounds of a friend. I care too much about Jesus, babies, women who are victims and you, Donald, to not tell you these things.

P.S. In case this needs to be said (which is really sad if it does) – I also believe rape to be wrong. And incest is wrong. And incestual rape is wrong. I do not think it is logical to say that because I oppose abortion I in any way endorse sinful acts which could result in pregnancy. If you read my anti-abortion arguments and come away believing I am defending rape you are seriously mistaken and likely misinterpreting intentionally to fulfill your own agenda or just lacking in some basic skills of reading and logic. I do not mean to be harsh or mean about this, but we need to be grownups who can have a conversation on one topic and not misrepresent the things people say.

Divine Revelation? Wisdom? Intuition?

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The good folks at The Domain for Truth have let me post on their blog again.

This post actually got some comments for discussion.

Receiving divine revelation has become so blasé that people who normally would affirm sola scriptura don’t even bat an eye when someone proposes to be hearing from God. Now I know a lot of people use various forms of language when describing their feelings or senses or intuitions, often ascribing revelatory meaning behind them unintentionally, but there are still many Christians today who believe God does, in fact, divinely reveal things to some folks apart from the Holy Scripture.

The following two anecdotes are opposite sides of the same coin which I hope will demonstrate the danger and seriousness of this kind of thinking and speaking, and show the irrationality of at least some instances of people who claim spiritual gifts such as prophecy.

Here is a link to read the entire post. Don’t forget to add to the comments and see the interaction. It is edifying.

Ultimately, ministering alongside anyone can be fraught with difficulty for a variety of reasons such as immaturity, or if someone has an anger problem, for example. But to minister alongside someone who is open to the sign gifts requires an extra level of prudence and comes with inherent difficulties due to the nature of denying sola scriptura either in word in in practice.

2017 Arnold Report – 1

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The Arnold Classic is an annual athletic event held in Columbus, OH which attracts a large number of people from all over the world. For several years in a row we have gone to the central location for the event and preached Christ crucified, handed out tracts and engaged people in conversations.

Here is a multi-part post where I will share with you some of the stories from this weekend’s evangelistic outreach. I am hoping to make this series educational for others.

Allow me to introduce you to our team of evangelists. From left to right in the front row Pam, Kenton, Alexandra, then me. In the back row are Dave, Luke, Nick and Kurtis. You will notice that our team has 4 teenagers and one almost teenager! Praise the Lord for giving these young people a desire to see souls hear about Christ.

The day started long before March 4. We spent days and weeks praying, announcing the event at church and studying the Bible so that we would be ready. The night before and morning of the event I was charging my speaker, packaging tracts, finding DVD movies and watching the weather report!

We met at our church at about 11am on March 4. Due to there being 8 of us, we borrowed a generous brother’s van which seats 8. Right before leaving the church for downtown Columbus, our pastor prayed that the Holy Spirit would go before us and change hearts, something we cannot do.

On one sad note, two dear brothers who were scheduled to go with us could not make it due to illness. One of them was sick and the other couldn’t come because of how that affected him. This is very common! Pray for your outreaches and those of folks you know.

Click to read part 2..

Google & International Women’s Day

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If you visit Google.com today (go ahead and click the link to open a new tab), you will see that for today’s doodle they have a nice representation of women who have done wonderfully heroic and academic things from all cultures. This is in celebration of International (Working) Women’s Day which is March 8.

A few quick thoughts:

  1. Watch the Google Doodle and you will notice that in almost every picture the woman is pictured with a child. It is as if Google cannot deny the importance of motherhood (which the good people at Google cannot).
  2. You will also notice that there isn’t a single depiction of a heroic, brave, woman having an abortion, going into an abortion clinic nor performing an abortion. It is as if this vital, empowering act of womanhood isn’t really something people celebrate when it is considered seriously.
  3. Finally, absent from the doodle are the woman who have risen up against the patriarchy to prostitute their bodies for men, display their talents in pornography or shake “what their momma gave ’em” at a strip club. What the doodler reveals to us unintentionally is the worldview that we are all born with written on our hearts (God’s law) which reveals to us the importance of women and their inherent value as made in God’s image, rather than what they can do for us sexually.

Even the average heathen has a conscience, one they cannot violate without consequence. Today is a day that many people celebrate the good contributions women make to our world – and a day many others celebrate their anti-God attitude toward a woman’s true, high calling from the Lord Jesus Christ.

So dear Christian, do you celebrate woman as God would have you? Do you want to tell others the good news that God Himself sent His only Son, Jesus Christ into the world to die for women who are sinners?

International Women’s Day is a cry for help. This isn’t a day that people finally have risen up to “stick it to the man” as so many are so certain. This is a day when women everywhere are being told their significance, their worth and their value are in how they contribute to a society, rather than found in another, Jesus Christ.

Women who pursue virtuous endeavors are to be lauded to the extent that they obey Christ’s commands for their lives and in the context where God has placed them, and this is righteous judgement for praising the accomplishments of a man or woman. Don’t get caught up in the social justice of it all.

I appreciate any comments you may want to leave for discussion. I have more to say, but want to keep the post under 500 words.

Church Attendance ’16

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In 2016 I decided to keep track of my church attendance. I have been impressed by sermons and posts online about the importance of local church membership and attendance. I hope that this does not become some type of legalistic standard for any to follow. My intention was to measure my church attendance in 2016. I don’t actually know quite how to interpret the results, but here they are if you are interested.

My church meets Sunday morning for Sunday School, then again for a service, then again Sunday evening. We also have a Wednesday night prayer meeting.

All that being said, with the various cancellations in 2016, my church offered 205 opportunities to hear God’s Word and pray with the brethren.

I attended 84% of those services or 172 times.

I attended another church 10 times when it was at the same time as my church, bumping my total attendance to 182 meetings or 89% of possible time. Or seen another way, I attended my church 88% of the time after “excused absences.”

If I subtract out family matters which kept me from church, my overall attendance rises to 94%.

I don’t know if that is good or bad or whatever. It is just what it is. I do know that if a person just attended my church on Sunday morning for one service, they’d have a 25% attendance rate so it is better than that. If I only went to 3 of those services each week, I’d have a 75% rate.

I also taught or preached 25 times. That is about 5 months of teaching once a week. This was spread all throughout the year. But out of 205 “services” I ministered 25 of them, meaning I teach about 12% of the time, or every other week on average.

So how are you doing? It is early enough in 2017 for you to start keeping track and seeing how you do. What would your commitment be if you bought season tickets to a sports team? Better than 94%? I think this is a thoughtful way to try to measure yourself without condemning yourself or finding your hope in your church attendance. If anything, I hope it would help you in some way.

I’m Not Ashamed

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Jonathan Edwards resolved “never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can and “never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.” 1

I’m Not Ashamed, from Pure Flix, teaches the same concept. I strongly recommend you see this movie if you are able!

I'm Not Ashamed

Let’s start with the positive elements:

I’m Not Ashamed is “based on the inspiring and powerful true story and journal entries of Rachel Joy Scott- the first student killed in the Columbine high school shooting in 1999.” 2 Rachel Joy Scott’s story is about far more than her stand for God she is known for taking at the end of her life, though. This movie is raw emotion!

Watching the film, it seems like a random array of chopped up scenes. The scenes do not always have the best transition from one scene to the next. But when you realize you are viewing events as described in a teenage girl’s private journals, it makes sense. It is Rachel’s story you are viewing, and it seems the move makers kept things true to her journals. For this reason you will be taken down the emotional valleys that Rachel really experienced. I’m not sure you could make a movie like this up. The emotions are too raw.

When we make Christian movies or stories, we usually highlight the good things. We make heroes out of men and women. When, in reality, I’d argue that most of the history of Christianity has been filled with average men and women who simply serve a great God. Rachel Scott’s account seems to have very little whitewashing. She is caught up in sin, doubt, and a lack of affection for God at times in a way that many other Christians have experienced but are afraid to talk about.

The insight this movie gives into the pressures and difficulties facing a young Christian lady in 1999 are startling. I can only imagine it is even harder to walk the Christian talk in 2016! Praise Jesus for His saving grace.

This movie really shows the reality that none of us really lives as if it could be ours or our loved one’s last day. The depiction of the events of April 20, 1999 prior to the Columbine High School shooting will leave you wanting to kiss all your relatives and tell them you love them. And the reality that people young and old may be standing before God, even today, is enough to motivate me to more urgently dispense the gospel.

I really hope you will see this film about Rachel Scott. Her life is worth hearing about.

A Word of Caution

Unfortunately, there is an aspect of the film I must criticize. I can overlook the bits of bad theology. I can accept that a recently converted 17 year old girl who didn’t appear to have solid discipleship espoused some errant ideas about God which are depicted through the story. I hope you, too, can overlook bits and pieces of things that aren’t perfect teaching.

What I can’t understand is why a movie that is supposed to be about Christianity would have young men and women locking lips to act out kissing. I understand it is a biography and not everything in this girl’s life was ‘holy.’ But you can depict beer drinking without actually drinking beer; you can depict an argument without having a heart full of anger. You can depict lots of types of sin in a story without actually sinning against God in the process, since sin starts in the heart.

But you cannot depict sexual acts by actually performing them and say, “it is just acting.” My heart aches for the people who gave away a piece of themselves in the name of acting, in order to make this move. And, aside from that, the depictions were more than a bit sensual. I fear that someone who is weak in the area of fighting temptation to lust could easily be led into sin, even if only in their mind, as the result of the sensuality displayed.

I will make a plea. A final argument that if you are performing a play or a movie or whatever it is: you can find a way to show that someone kissed without actually compromising the purity of the actors.

In Conclusion

The little research I’ve done has yielded wonderful faith that the movie really was an accurate depiction of real life events. I have to be careful drawing assumptions about Rachel or other characters in the movie who the movie wasn’t about because, as well done as it was, the movie is only a part of the story.

I do believe that a discerning Christian can enjoy this movie for what it is, a biography of a young lady who, amidst struggles and temptation, was kept faithful by our Father in Heaven, and by our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. It is truly by faith alone that we are justified and by God’s Spirit that we are sealed. Rachel’s private struggles-made-public teach us that even the faintest of us will be made strong for the day of battle by His grace.

John 10:27-28 [Jesus speaking] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

[1] http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-resolutions-of-jonathan-edwards

[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4950110/?ref_=nm_knf_i2