Follow up to previous Post (Below)

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Obama comes down on DOMA (OneNewsNow.com)

President Obama is at it again. I know we are commanded in Scripture to pray for our leaders. As believers we need to be aware of the direction our government leaders are taking this nation. The Defense of Marriage Act is now our president's target. You can follow the link below to see a viewpoint on this. May we pray..."Even so come QUICKLY, Lord!"


Obama comes down on DOMA (OneNewsNow.com)

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The Majority Wins!

Today we awake to the strange awareness that our country was not the same as it was last night. News has filled the air waves that our country has elected, chosen, and empowered its next Executive, Commander-in-Chief, and Leader of the "Free World." But somehow, in a corner of my mind and heart, I wonder if somehow we are getting a glimpse of the beginning of ends.

I am not a doomsday specialist, nor am I a poor looser. I am aware, however, that Christ is going to be returning. He is going to come back to a world that Scripture alerts us to. The Bible makes us aware that these end times will see sin as overwhelming and acceptable. Nations will be at war, pestilence and famines will be heard of from places where it apparently was not accustomed. We know that a man, an individual will arise to capture the hearts, minds, and ideals of the world.

Now, I am not, again...I am not....saying that Barack Obama is the ONE, but it is amazing that he is being described as a child of the world, a person whose identity has excited Africa and Jakarta. Muslim nations and now our pantheistic, pluralistic, post-modernistic society have found him acceptable. If this man can do that, imagine what it will be like to see "that one" do the same.

My only concern right now is what will the next four years reveal? We are facing strong currents against morality, or as some of the talk show hosts call it, ideological stands. Homosexuality, Abortion, and even the definition of marriage have taken back seats because our greed, materialism and self-promotion caused us to face the consequences with depressing magnitudes.

So, we have spoken. As a nation, one that is ever evolving, we have spoken. We have declared our wishes. We want "change." But what is that change and what will it look like in four years?

As a pastor, husband, father, and mostly, as a Christian man, I know we are in for some dire straights. For the first time that I can remember, a group of people who have adopted a debauched lifestyle were singled out in an acceptance speech by the next president of our country. What group is next?

We have our work cut out for us. As a pastor in one of the most liberal cities in our union, I have my work cut out for me. I live in the belly of Babylon, Rome, and Corinth. But I also know that God did a work even in those cities. May we as His people, the ones HE chose, redeemed, and saved, may we stand firm upon the integrity and solidarity of the Truth... The Word of God! May we pray for our president. May we pray for these newly elected officials and "leaders." May we honor those in authority and not get caught up in blasting the men, but instead let us expose the corruption of sin and lead people to see that God does still have an opinion. May we uphold the truth not as daggers, but as light. May the Light of His glorious Gospel shine forth through our churches and homes even brighter today.

Another Campaign Video - FUNNY!

Peace in Future Uncertainty

I did watch a bit of the debate last night between the two candidates for this year's election. Again we come to the time where fingers point and yet everyone speaks of unity and harmony. Everyone wants to prove themselves to be more trustworthy, more aggressive, more in tune with the "common folk" and more aware of the problems and their solutions than the other camp. It amazes me how politically incorrect we are becoming.

I still hold that this election is, in my humble opinion, the most important one that we have had in recent history. We face economic crisis, foreign crisis, social crisis, and religious crisis. On every front we find that our nation is being torn apart by greed, corruption, and immorality. From same sex marriages, to CEO embezzlement, we find our lives and the lives of our children hanging by fragile threads of sanity.

Now, the good news. (1 Timothy 1:17) Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. I note here that He is King, He is going to be given His glory and HE is eternally existent.

Again, Paul later goes on to say, "Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time--He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen."
(1 Timothy 6:12-16)

I have no reason to fear. I may grow weary of the debauchery and the lust that fills the hearts and lives of people all around me. I may grow angry that sin and sinners seem to gain more ground while the truth of God and His righteousness seems to be suppressed and buried, but I know my Redeemer lives, that He is coming for me and one day the Just God of all ages will stand ready to establish not only His heavenly dominion, but His earthly one as well.

Let the next president come. Let the next assault on truth be waged. May we continue to "fight that good fight." May we be ready soldiers. Not with weapons of earthly warfare, but as individuals enduring the hardness, praying steadfastly, encouraging the beloved, and standing for what is Right, what is Righteous.

Meddling with Politics

I try not to get to overwhelmed with the political sphere, but this election is, in my estimation, one of the most important ones we have had in my lifetime. Here is an article I found interesting about the "faith" of Barack Obama. In all fairness I am also going to attempt to find something as well about the other candidate, John S. McCain. Food for thought as faith and religion have become a focal point of this year's election race.



Obama: Grew up with "the Bible and the Koran" - Believes Many Paths Lead to God

Source: Editors at Lighthouse Trails

The Faith of Barack Obama

The Faith of Barack Obama written by New York Times best-selling author Stephen Mansfield was released in August by Thomas Nelson publishers. The book carries the endorsement of Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the front cover. Tutu, one of the global "Elders," calls the book "perceptive and well-written." The publisher's description of the book reads:

. . . takes readers inside the mind, heart, and soul of presidential hopeful Barack Obama--as a person of faith, as a man, as an American, and possibly as our future commander in chief.

Mansfield, says: "If a man's faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him, and it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life."

According to Mansfield, Obama is "raising the banner of what he hopes will be the faith-based politics of a new generation . . . and he will carry that banner to whatever heights of power his God and the American people allow."

Recently, when Obama was interviewed by Rick Warren, Obama told Warren that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior. Yet this "banner" Obama raises is one that has an interspiritual foundation, representing a new kind of "Christianity," one that looks more like Brian McLaren's spirituality than traditional, biblical Christianity.

Mansfield's book addresses the concern many have that Obama may be a closet Muslim, but he dismisses the possibility in the book, saying he was too young to be a "full convert to Islam"(p. 18). But what emerges from this book is a man who is New Age in philosophy, believing that all religions are legitimate paths to God, and all humanity is connected together (spiritually speaking - i.e., God is in all):

Obama does clearly believe that the form of Christianity that he committed to at Trinity Church in 1985 is not the only path to God. "I am rooted in the Christian tradition," he has said. Nevertheless he asserts, "I believe there are many paths to the same place and that is a belief there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people." He first saw his broad embrace of faith modeled by his mother. "In our household," he has explained, "The Bible, [t]he Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf . . . on Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to a church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites." (p.55 of Mansfield's book, quoting from Audacity of Hope, Obama, p. 203).

After his interspiritually-based upbringing, Obama later spent twenty years in a church, which promotes the panenthestic (God in all), interspiritual approach. In a 2006 article in United Church News, Obama stated that the teachings of the UCC (United Church of Christ), of which he was a member (Trinity United Church of Christ) until recently, are "foundation stones for his political work." Just what are those "teachings" comprised of? On Trinity's website, on the Yoga page, the following statement is highlighted:

Within each [of] us is the seed of Divinity. Each Soul is divine. I bow to the divinity in us all!

This is classic Hinduism that teaches that divinity resides in every human being. It is also the message of the New Age movement--man's divinity!

In Obama's own autobiography, Audacity of Hope, he calls himself a "progressive" (i.e., emerging or postmodern) and says: "We need to take faith seriously not simply to block the religious right but to engage all persons of faith in the larger project of American renewal" (p. 216). Echoing the sentiments of Rick Warren (a close friend of Obama, says Warren), he clarifies that partnerships between "religious and secular" will have to be built, and "each side will need to accept some ground rules for collaboration" (p. 216). He adds:

Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers. (p. 218)

Obama insists that to base national "policy" on biblical truths "would be a dangerous thing" to do (p. 220).

There is one sentence in Audacity of Hope that sums up Barack Obama's spirituality. He states:

When I read the Bible, I do so with the belief that it is not a static (stable) text but the Living Word and that I must be continually open to new revelations.(p. 224)

In other words, just as Tony Jones said in his book The New Christians, and just as other emergents consistently say, the truths in the written Word of God, the Bible, are not unchanging and cannot be looked upon as stable or immoveable. "New revelations" can bring about new "truths" . . . truth is fluid.

To be interspiritual (all paths lead to God), to be panentheistic (divinity is in all), to reject God's Word, and to embrace mysticism is to be what Alice Bailey called a rejuvenated Christian, who is one who follows "another gospel" and "another Jesus" (II Corinthians 11:4).

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

NOTE:
For more information go to Lighthouse Trail Research

Some Campaign Fun

Now there is a disclaimer attached. This is done by a secular group and has some content not exactly "Christian." So...Oh, well! It made me laugh. Sorry if that offends and I guess you might need to just pray for me!

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