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Showing posts from 2018

Is Halloween a Trick or a Treat? [updated 10/30/2018]

As new believers in Christ and young parents, my wife and I really struggled with Halloween and whether we would allow our kids to participate in it or not.  While growing up, Halloween was such an intriguing time of the year, with ghosts, witches, goblins, ghouls and all sorts of eerie stuff.  How fun, since I was taught all these things weren’t real.  As I got older and a little too old to travel the town looking for treats and tricks, I would help my parents by answering the door to the many “Trick or Treat” calls that came to our house.  It was fun putting candy into their bags and looking at all the clever and creative costumes.  Sometimes we even recognized neighborhood kids that were way too old to be out Trick or Treating! I also have memories of another side of the innocent collecting of candy.  Once, my friend and I were invited in by a man with the promise of candy.  He kept stalling us and discouraged us from leaving.  We were too young to suspect sinister motives,

Should We Hate Politicians?

There is hardly a time when scrolling through Facebook postings that I haven’t shuddered after reading some of the vicious, hateful posts against people, particularly American politicians.  There is no doubt that President Trump is the primary target.  Now, before anyone assumes this is political – it is not! It is about protecting the people who are doing the posting, because they may not be aware of what God thinks of their actions.     It’s understandable that we can become upset over the actions of some of our politicians because we care for the future of our nation, but there is a boundary line that we need to understand and abide by if we are at all concerned about God’s judgements towards ourselves. What is that boundary, you may ask?  We cross it when we become obsessed with attacking and condemning the person.   When we do this we set ourselves up for the same measure of condemnation and intolerance that we measure out to them. There is a spiritual law from the Bible t

You Love God But Do You Hate Evil?

“Hate evil, you who love the LORD, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalms 97:10 “Those who claim to love the Lord will be tested by how much they hate evil while living on this earth. A truly regenerated believer, made one with Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, will love what God loves and hate what he hates.  We should be vexed by the wickedness, brutality and ungodliness in the world, and grieved by the lives being destroyed by its evil; furthermore, we should be deeply distressed when sin and immorality are tolerated in God’s house.” - Donald C. Stamps Mr. Stamps does NOT mean we hate people, but that we hate the evil that people do.  This is the real challenge for today’s Christians who live in a culture where the Politically Correct police quickly try to intimidate all who do not share their views, by calling them intolerant, judgmental, and hateful.  But the Bible instructs us to not be conformed to this world

Protection from Deception

In my last article titled “WHAT’S GOING ON” I wrote about the importance of having a Biblical understanding and purposely developing a Biblical World View as a protection from deception.  It is extremely important that we become purposeful in our quest for Biblical truth lest we drift along with the busy currents of life and find ourselves in a precarious place. Here are some things we must consider: 1. Deception is real. 2. Its author is satan, who first led a rebellion in Heaven. 3. It is constantly using mankind to deceive all of mankind. 4. Mass deception will increase in the last days. 5. There will be a great Apostasy in the Last Days. (Falling away from the Church by not attending and from sound theology) 6. There will be a personage known as the anti-Christ who will be the greatest of all deceivers. 7. Jesus warned us to not be deceived or mis-led! 8. No one is immune from its clutches.   The greatest tragedy with those deceived is they do not recog

What's Going On: Understanding the Time We Live In

“Father, Father, We don't need to escalate; You see, war is not the answer, For only love can conquer hate; You know we've got to find a way, To bring some lovin' here today. What’s going on, what’s going on?” Some of you may recognize these lyrics sung by the late Marvin Gaye.   Yeah, what’s going on is right!   Just as Marvin’s generation struggled to make sense of their world, we are struggling today to make sense of ours.   Many are wondering if that is even possible, but let me assure you it is--but only if you have developed a Biblical World View.   I must warn you, if your World View has been shaped by the world’s academia, the major news media, celebrities, or just the voice of the majority, you will not understand “what’s going on”.   In fact, you will probably think I am nuts, but that’s alright with me.   As the Apostle Paul stated, “I am a fool for Christ.”   But as the late John Wimber, (Of The Righteous Brothers and The Vineyard fame) used to ask, “I a