There is not a whole lot I can say right now. I am exasperated after this extended election season. The wind changed direction today and tonight as I was walking around campus I could smell the sea. The wind felt good on my face. Kind of like sailing but without the responsibility.
The Christian life just doesn't change. Let me pause right here and say that I hope the word "change" does not have a stigma attached to it now. Leave it to evil to ruin good words like 'gay' and 'change' and 'diversity'. I still have the promise of John 3:16, I still have the Great Commission directive, my lamp is still on the lampstand.
Last night I was reading the "Schleitheim Confession of Faith"[a] and that is a chapter in the book I'm reading about the Reformation Movement. This effort on the part of Swiss Christians was called to differentiate themselves from brothers and sisters who began taking on more liberal ideas, as conservative as they were compared to now. This essay of doctrinal beliefs forms the basis for the Mennonite denomination. It covers the idea of expelling an immoral brother in order to restore him/her. It covers the topic of communion and so on. There is one topic I am finding both easy and yet difficult to swallow or comprehend and that is pacifism.
The Schleitheim Confession reinvigorates the idea that defense of community and country with the "sword" is not an ideal of Christ's for our lives. You saw this in the massacre in Pennsylvania a couple years ago. The brethren (Amish) came forward and publicly forgave the criminal and then hired a bulldozer to demolish the school house where it had all taken place. At once this underscores the terribleness of punishment in the afterlife for some reason. Is this weakness or strength to be a conscientious objector when it comes to defending your family, community, your town, your state, your nation?
Murder can be forgiven but have you ever thought of the sin that cannot be forgiven? Some call it the unforgivable sin other sources call it blaspheming the Holy Spirit. This sin is something both our new president and Oprah Winfrey have committed publicly. By being shown the basic truths of Christ, supposedly accepting them, and then with haughty authority declaring there is more than one way to Heaven is the unforgivable sin. Making laughter out of scripture in public from Deuteronomy to Matthew with the intent of pointing out error in the Bible as it applied to BO's doctrine of change. This is very serious and now he is our President?
I have 7th grade home-schooled boys in my class that understand things that this law school graduate cannot believe in. A man who spent at least 20 years X 35 weeks in a Chicago church who has availed himself to so little Bible reading and studies that he cannot comprehend the most basic truths? That if he had just read a Bible commentary it would've explained what confuses him. I wonder how many books BO has actually read in his life and whether the Bible is one of them. This is exalting yourself above God, something Lucifer did before there was a plan of salvation.
That is why Barack Obama is a doomed man and that is why Oprah Winfrey is lost and doomed for all of eternity. Those that are like them too, their disciples if you will. Very very sad depths. On that fateful day when the grave claims their shells his soul will hear "I gave you all the luxuries of life, you have been in comfort but now these people whom you have ridiculed will receive my comfort and peace and you will long for a single drop of water forever and not get one."
That is why the Westboro Baptist Church deserves credit, though they are human and full of faults and frailties, they stand and declare the truths of God, their greatest love. I was washing my 3 dishes in the big stainless steel sink of the campus kitchen tonight. On the marker board where the chef normally writes down ingredients and supplies needed to be ordered was this algebra problem. I have no reason why it was there. Maybe he was trying to help his daughter. Maybe the salad people, though retirees were trying to help a grandchild over the phone. But the problem was an expression of truth in long form starting with knowns like A=B, and 2A=B. Step by step it went on a few lines until the solution was B=1.
The problem has two solutions- B=1 or B=0. Step by step logic plainly concluded that '1' was the answer. Maybe I'll post an article about logical fallacies commonly made. For now the solution is binary. you are either with Christ or without Christ. Find a way quickly to own the truth that saves your soul or thank God right now for His indescribable gift!
[a] prepared at a conference of Anabaptist Swiss Brethren, 1527 Translation by Dr. John C. Wenger 1945
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