If It Walks Like A Duck, Quacks Like A Duck...

If It Walks Like A Duck, Quacks Like a Duck……

Have you ever been haunted by a foul smell that just won't go away? You spray air freshener, open windows and try to discover its source but for some reason it still lingers.

One of the greatest political events in my lifetime was the fall of The Berlin Wall. Not a shot fired, not a drop of blood shed. Reagan lifted his finger to the Soviet Union and declared, "This wall must come down" and in November of 1989 it surely did. George H.W. Bush boldly announced to the world that the Cold War had ended and we were now entering a new age. "We live in a time when we are witnessing the end of an idea -- the final chapter of the Communist experiment."

Bush launched policies that decreased defense spending from 6.2% to 2.9% between 1989 and 2004. This 'guns to butter' policy increased entitlement spending from 28% to 40%. Americans have been known throughout their history as being 'fiercely independent'. Not so anymore. Nearly 50% of Americans get checks from the government.

It's alarming that such prominent politicians could be so easily duped. The Marxist ideas of the former Soviet Union just won't go away. Our own country seems to be lurching toward socialism. Mikhail Gorbachev supported a peaceful transition toward socialism in his own country. They called in Perestroika. The Russians are so good at playing chess. To win that game you have to be able to predict how your opponent will react if you move into a certain position. Naïve minds of the west thought the Russians were converting to Democracy because Reagan lifted his fist. Was it not all a deception? Were the political minds of the west being outmaneuvered on the political chess board?

Russia is now free to roam about and reclaim former satellites. Georgia thought we would come to their rescue but we passed them by like a motorist who pretends he doesn't see the stranded damsel in distress along the roadway with a flat tire. We've decreased our defense spending so much we are now no longer capable of fighting two major simultaneous contingences (MSC) like we did in WWII when we fought in Europe and in the Pacific.

Obama played into the Soviet deception when he withdrew defense missiles from Poland and the Czech Republic. The fact that Iran hates us and refers to us as "The Great Satan" is common knowledge. It is also well known that the Soviets are helping Iran develop its nuclear facilities. Only a fool would believe those facilities are for domestic use only. Why would we be so trustful of the country that is assisting Iran? If we don't have the right people playing the game we may soon find ourselves check-mated.

I'm not into conspiracy theories but I certainly would like to have some answers. Where did all that stimulus money go? Why all the panic about swine flu? Lenin once said, "A revolution s simply impossible without an overall national crises." Another hater of capitalism, Rahm Emmanuel, said earlier this year, "You never want to waste a crisis." I don't know if the economic crisis we are enduring was manufactured or not. I do know that politicians are using the crisis as an opportunity to promote policies most Americans disagree with.

I've been criticized for referring to Obama as a socialist. Socialism is taking away the ownership and control of the means of production from an elite group of owners and giving it to the working class. It is unifying the working class against the elite of society. Obama walked into General Motors, fired the CEO (elite of society) and turned leadership and control over to the unions (working class). 89% of General Motors now belongs to the unions. 55% of Chrysler now belongs to the unions. “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck" !!

A crucial question to ponder: How far leftward will the Blue Dog Democrats allow the Progressive Wing to take their party?

What Does It Mean To Be Saved?

What Does It Mean To Be Saved

The great dilemma of the gospel is this: How can God be just and also save us from our sins? (Proverbs 17:15) "He who justifies the wicked is an abomination to God." Yet we boast daily of how this just God regenerates us and saves us from sin. If God is truly just and men are truly wicked then a just God must necessarily condemn a wicked man. To solve this problem, our God, in his great love, sent forth his son who walked on this earth as a perfect and sinless man to become a sacrifice for us on a Roman cross.. He bore our sin and became a curse for us. A just God could now maintain his justice and save us still because his Son took upon him all our guilt and shame. Christ redeemed us from the curse of sin by becoming the curse for us.

Christ was able to redeem us because he was crushed under the justice of God. He is empowered to save us because the divine justice of God is satisfied. God may now justify the wicked. Charles Spurgeon made this message of salvation the central theme of his preaching career, "Greater men with greater minds than I have approached this doctrine of the Second Coming, but to no avail. It is a great and mighty doctrine. I will set myself to this: seeking to comprehend something of Jesus Christ and him crucified."

Abraham obeyed God when he was asked to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. He lifted his flint knife to complete this act of obedience when his hand was stayed. He was told that God would provide a ram for the sacrifice. That wasn't the end of the story, it was simply an intermission. The end of the story takes place thousands of years later when God the Father carried his only begotten Son to a cross and refused to stay the knife of his crucifixion.

Sin is what separates us from God. " But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." (Isaiah 59:2) Salvation is the remedy to that separation. If man does not avail himself of that salvation he will be separated from God for all of eternity. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." - (Matthew 25:46) We can avoid our deserved punishment for sins through the reconciliation made available through Christ.

Being saved or being born again involves our confession of sin. We are born a second time as it were into the family of God when we humble ourselves before him and confess that he is Jesus the Christ. We are adopted and become joint heirs with Christ himself according to the promise of God. We can now call him our Father and we have all the rights of a natural child. We are beneficiaries of his love and the security he can provide.

This is the beginning of a long journey. Our total salvation includes a journey into the sanctified life. We find that we now hate passionately the sin we once loved. Growth in the grace of God will eventually lead us to a state of glorification acquired in the life yet to come.

The True Nature of Man

The True Nature of Man

Wesley was quick to point out that the people of his day regarded human nature as being essentially good, and “a little less than God.” He was troubled that men considered human nature as generally being very “innocent, and wise, and virtuous.”

It is interesting to observe as an educator how our culture differs very little from the culture of the 18th century in this manner. The emphasis in American’s public schools is to make the self-esteem in every child a priority and perhaps teach them something along the way. As a result, we are graduating a whole generation of students who are very confident. Many inner city kids who play basketball are very cocky that they will one day be the next Michael Jordan. We have students who are convinced they are going to be brain surgeons even though they have failed Chemistry class. These kids are being taught that their innate nature is essentially good and they are taught to ignore their faults and failings.

Sin is deceptive. If you think you can become a doctor while playing video games throughout med-school instead of hitting the books then you may also think you can get to heaven without dealing with your corrupt and sinful nature. Wesley points out that the Bible does not teach that men are essentially good, it teaches that we are all “dead in trespasses and sins”, “without hope, without God in the world.” In contrast to the teaching of our modern culture the Word of God teaches that the “wickedness of man was great in the earth” and that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

The Bible teaches that God is patient and tolerant but that there is an end to his patience and a time for justice. Men were utterly sinful and depraved in the generations following the fall of man. God’s grace was finally overcome by his justice and he destroyed the entire earth with water with the exception of Noah and his family. He did not call forth his justice until he saw that this evil in the heart of man was continual. Every moment of every day the heart of man rebelled against an Almighty God. God had to answer this rebellion with justice lest he cease to be God.

The unregenerate heart of man is still evil. Indeed, there is “none righteous, no, not one.” The quickening of the Holy Spirit is the only remedy to the perpetual blindness in the heart of evil men. They are in a state of extreme depravity but somehow they have convinced themselves that they are essentially good. We cannot possibly know God in our natural state. We must have the light of his Spirit to shine into the darkness of our mind and soul before we can perceive Him.

We cannot not know him in our natural state and we cannot love what we cannot know. Therefore, we can only love him when he reveals himself to us through his Spirit. We cannot love God in are carnal nature, we can only love him after he has revealed himself to us and changed our nature.

There is within every man an intrinsic desire to worship. Even an atheist worships something. Usually we worship our own idols, not idols of wood or stone but idols we’ve set up within our own hearts. We generally worship ourselves through pride. Because pride is the vehicle through which many men lose their own souls, God passionately hates it.

We often worship our sinful appetites. We allow our flesh to dominate our lives. Men who think they worship nothing when they refuse to worship God are often worshippers of their own flesh; pornography, gambling, alcohol and drugs, along with all sorts of sexual perversity. They are worshipping idols that will take them to an eternal hell unless God providentially intervenes.

The great hope of all men in regard to the terrible malady that besets them is found in the Great Physician. He has devised a way to cure our bent toward sin. Through the shed blood of Jesus Christ sin can be forgiven and conquered

Two men were having a discussion about living a pure life.

The first man said, “It is impossible for a man to live pure and holy?”

The second man asked if he thought Christ had lived a holy life?

“Oh, yes,” replied the first, “that is clearly taught in the scriptures.”

“Did Christ live a holy life everywhere, all the time?” asked the second man. “Yes indeed. “ replied the first.

“Do you not think that Christ can live a pure life in and through you?” answered the second man as he ended the conversation.

We can be more than conquerors, not through our own efforts, but through Christ who strengthens us with his own power and presence.

Last Line of Defense Against Islamization

Last Line of Defense Against Islamization

The airways are full of talk about Islamic nations acquiring nuclear weapons. We have heard threatening diatribes from the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Muammar Gaddafi. Another facility for manufacturing nuclear material has been discovered in Iran. Anxiety between nations has risen as threats are mixed with teases for negotiation. Is it all really a distraction? Is Iran really a nuclear threat to anyone?

While we fuss about who gets to be the next member of the nuclear club the Islamic peoples are quietly invading Europe. A study at San Diego University recently projected that the Muslim population in Europe would reach 25% within 12 years. France seems to be an especially favorite destination to Muslims where the history of Hitler’s killing of the Jews can no longer be taught in their schools because of the sensitivity of the Islamic peoples who live there. School teachers in The Netherlands no longer mention a farm because every farm has a ‘pig’.

While Christian churches in Europe are emptying at alarming rates, thousands of Muslim mosques are rising up throughout the continent. Muslim fanatics control the Islamic ghettos where their women walk three paces behind the men and Western women are taunted as “whores”. Millions of Muslims who are invading Europe have no desire to assimilate. Most of them feel a stronger loyalty to Islam than they do toward the country in which they live. Clearly, the strategy is to overtake the western world by sheer numbers. The strategy for overpopulating is to immigrate by the millions and procreate large families. Meanwhile, Europeans, especially Jews, are migrating away from the prevalently anti-semitic areas and their families remain small as a result of birth control and abortion.

These Islamic peoples claim to come in the name of peace but their founder, Mohammed, was anything but a man of peace. He was a warrior, a murderer and a despot. Islamic religion is a set of rules forced on a society by a theocratic government. If you refuse to convert to their way of life your deserved destiny is death. The reward for your death is heaven along with 72 virgins. Their government is much closer to communism than it is to the democratic governments under which many of them choose to live.

It is most troubling that these people are in love with our president. Qaddafi declared his loyalty to Obama at the United Nations saying he wished he could be president forever and referred to him as a son, a son of Islam, I presume. My father told me growing up that a man is known by his friends and the company he keeps. Why is Obama so friendly with Chavez, Castro, Qaddafi and other self-proclaimed haters of America?

This Islamic worldview hates the western world. Israel has been on the frontlines of that war for decades now. Europe has silently fallen to the Islamic masses who are moving in to overwhelm their populations. America is the last defense against this Islamic onslaught on western civilization. The decisions we make in regard to the assault on our own country during the next few years will set the stage for a final showdown. Try to imagine the America’s task of preserving western civilization after Europe has gone Muslim and Israel has been defeated. We have had very little terrorist activity within our borders because Israel has been there to take the brunt of it.

Mr. Obama, members of Congress and the peoples of America…don’t abandon Israel. If we do we’ll be the last man standing.

Indoctrinating the Next Generation

Eze 14:3 "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?" Is our next generation being indoctrinated? "We are all equal in his sight"! The word 'his' is not capitalized. Can we can sing a song of adoration to Obama but not to Jesus? Are we are being carried away by our idols and we have not enquired at all of the one true God!?

America….You Are Not Racist!!

America….You Are Not Racist!!

We dehumanized millions because of it. We fought a brutal war to resolve it. 600,000 lost their lives to purge it. America's greatest sin was slavery. Slavery is the ultimate expression of racism. Our national government opposed it and some southern state governments supported it. The anti-slavery proponents in the Federal government won the war against slavery and power centralized and shifted to Washington, D.C. It has been growing out of control ever since.

Racism wasn't eliminated when the slaves were set free. Our nation continued to discriminate until Martin Luther King and others fought for civil rights in the 1960's. Laws were written and rights were granted and most of America embraced Martin Luther's King's dream of a color blind society. Slavery has been eliminated. Discrimination has been addressed. What remains is guilt, an overwhelming amount of guilt. Some would even argue that Obama was elected, not in spite of his race, but because of it.

Manipulative and crafty individuals have learned to use our guilt complex to perfection. The most feared of all the guilt inducing accusations today is to be called a "racist". The racist accusation is like the magic key that will unlock any door. Massive organizations and powerful individuals have been brought to their knees under a false accusation of racism. All of our congressmen tread in fear daily of a career ending racist accusation accept Mr. Byrd from West Virginia. He was actually a grand wizard in the KKK and unlike his colleagues, he was immune to the career ending blunder of using the 'n' word by the liberal shield that protected him. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIBJt-c2o0)

Our national guilt over slavery and segregation runs so deeply in the veins of conservative Americans that it becomes an extremely affective tool in the hands of their political opponents. I witnessed this national guilt in another venue when I visited eastern Germany many years ago. The people I met there believed they would never earn a place at the international table because of their sin against the Jews. That stigma runs very deep and Nancy Pelosi tried to capitalize on it by referring to the town hall attendees as "swastika-carrying angry mobs" out to "destroy Obama".

The assumption by the master manipulators of intimidation is that there is no forgiveness and guilt is everlasting. As a father I can't answer for the sins of my offspring nor am I responsible for the sins of my forefathers. I am responsible for my own behavior only. "A son is not to suffer because of his father's sins, nor a father because of the sins of his son." (Ezekiel 18) My question for those who would accuse our country of perpetual racism is: upon whose moral code do you base your accusation? If your standard for racism is the Holy Bible then must not we embrace the whole truth of the Bible. Racism is a forgivable sin. When it is repented of, expunged and eradicated we are no longer accountable. If the accusation is not based on Biblical truth, then on what basis does anyone have the moral authority to call another a racist? This accusation is so lethal it utterly destroys the lives and families of the accused and yet it is used freely, carelessly and spontaneously with no regrets or repercussions.

I am not suggesting that all racism has been eliminated from our society. Of course it has not. But I am firmly declaring that the United States is NOT a racist country. We just elected a black president. Those who oppose the far-left, socialist agenda must be free to complete their mission. If they are bound by the fear of being accused of racism then they have been rendered ineffective by their opponents underhanded manipulation of their own guilt.

America, you are not racist. Conservative America has little hope of winning this contest if they fail to disarm their enemy of their most effective weapon.

What We Believe About Sin

What is Sin?

Scripture reveals clearly to us what sin is and explains clearly how sin entered the world. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the garden. He explicitly commanded that they not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16-17) This seemed an easy one to obey but Adam and Even fumbled and now we find ourselves in the mess we’re in.

When Eve succumbed to the temptation to disobey she yielded to the lust of the flesh because the fruit was “good for food” and she succumbed to the lust of the eyes because the fruit was “pleasant to the eyes.” (Gen. 3:6) Sin is simply a separation from God. I learned a more detailed definition in Bible college: Sin is a voluntary transgression of the known law of God. Adam and Eve knew what the law was but they chose to violate that law. Sin is disobedience. Sin is choosing our way over God’s way.

Salvation was certainly delayed for Adam and Eve because they failed to claim responsibility for their sin. Adam blamed it all on Eve. Eve blamed it on the Serpent. It even seems at one point that Adam is blaming it on God himself when he refers to the “woman….thou gavest me.” There is salvation available to all who have “sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. Repentance is being accountable for our own actions and ceasing to blame God for our failures.

Along with sin come consequences. The “wages of sin is death”. Adam’s body began to deteriorate and die. His once perfect body was subject to disease and decay. His heart began to wear out and his mind weakened. Had he not sinned he would have lived forever but eventually he died. The word ‘death’ means separation. Three specific consequential deaths resulted from the sin of Adam. Physical death is the separation of man’s soul from his body. Spiritual death is the separation of man from God caused by his sin. Eternal death is the result of refusing the salvation offered by God, it is separation from God that lasts forever.

God graciously offers solutions to these sin consequences. Physical death is answer by the resurrection of Christ. We who are Christians have a hope that we will be resurrected after death. Christ made regeneration possible so that we can overcome spiritual death but eternal death is final and it can never be fixed.

All of mankind inherits the sin nature from Adam and Eve. All men have sinned because we have a sinful nature. “Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” – (Romans 5:12) Modern man likes to blame sin on the environment instead of the true nature of man. But Adam lived in a perfect environment and still sinned. Judas walked three years with the very Son of God and still sinned. Lucifer was an arch-angel in heaven and he still sinned. It is not our environment that causes sin, it’s our nature.

Jesus declared that we must all be born again and scripture teaches we can be transformed from a nature of sin to a nature of holiness and Christ-likeness by being set apart and sanctified. By his grace we can be conquerors.