The Entrance of Thy Words Giveth Light

Watch the subsequent parts, then share this. Everyone needs to see this.

A Savior, Who is Christ the Lord

“I’m so sick of the secularization of Christmas.”
“I’m tired of Christians being caught up in the commercialism of Christmas.”
“I can’t wait for Christmas to be over.”

Have you heard any of these over the last couple of weeks? Have you said them?

I know that, for many Christians, the struggle between having the wonderful, memorable, traditional family Christmas and keeping our eyes on Jesus can be very frustrating. We see the anti-Christian Christmas bus ads or the sign in the Washington state capitol placed next to the nativity saying that Christianity is all just a myth, and it’s easy to get distracted and angry and frustrated. I know I do.

Of course, while we can't choose the pressures that come into our life, we can choose our reactions to them. Some people decide on constructive, pro-active responses to the commercialization/secularization issue, such as The Advent Conspiracy.

I don’t mean to imply that I don’t have same kind of stress about making sure all the family is visited and bought for and all that stuff. But I have found that the most effective way of keeping my focus is to immerse myself in Christmas music. But, like everything else popular involving Christmas, Christmas songs/carols/hymns/whatever-you-want-to-call-them have become marginalized, not by the secular world, but by the church.

This year, Christmas at our church has felt different. Well, really, holidays in general have felt different. I know that our church was always unique in its recognition of the non-religious holidays such as Independence Day and Memorial Day, but frankly, I’ve always considered that a good thing. If the church isn’t going to publicly, corporately thank God for His provision and blessing for our country and for our freedom, who else will? But back to topic….

Christmas has felt somewhat acknowledged this year, rather than savored, like the in-law you’re obligated to be polite to but can’t really wrap your arms around. Oh, we’ve done the Christmas boxes and other outreach programs that usually occupy December. I don’t mean it in that sense.

Building up to Christmas this year, we sang a couple of carols (a.k.a Christmas-themed hymns) a week, except for this last Sunday, Christmas Sunday, when we sang a nice little medley and a choir special I particularly enjoy. (I still can’t remember what “Noel” means. I should google it.)

Where I sit in church places me in the line of sight of several staff members during worship, both on stage and off, and it’s really hard not be a little voyeuristic. I noticed several members of our leadership were not only not singing – they looked downright bored. Until, of course, the non-seasonal songs of their preference came up, and then the eyes were closed and the arms were raised. And then, of course, twenty minutes later we are (correctly) told we should be able to worship without regard to our personal stylistic preference.

I’m sorry, but what part of “Mild He lays His glory by/Born that man no more may die/Born to raise the sons of earth/Born to give them second birth” doesn’t absolutely thrill you, as a believer?

I know I’m just a girl in the congregation, so my words will mean nothing to the church hierarchy, but it seems like we have been so (rightly) focused on worshiping Jesus as he is today, we forget to be thankful to God for sending him in the first place.

After all, that’s what Christmas really is all about. It’s the Christian Thanksgiving, not just Jesus’ birthday party. It is to take a day or a season to focus on specifically thanking God for sending us Jesus so that he was able to reconcile us to God, as the (Christmas) song says.

And that’s what the Christmas music is about. It seems like we have pushed it to the side, as though we should acknowledge it so we don’t make anyone mad but not really focus too much on it because we like our contemporary praise and worship theme we’ve been building on.

But, unless you are singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, you are singing praise to God, whether in adoration or thanksgiving.

If the commercialization of Christmas distracts you, it’s not commercialization’s fault.

If you can’t worship God through Christmas songs, it’s not the songs’ fault.

Here are the lyrics from my favorite song rendition this year, a juxtaposition of two traditional songs. Next time you’re getting overwhelmed by the pressures of this week, recall these words, think of the men who wrote them, and the reason we sing them. It’s better than any 7/11 song you’ll sing all year.

God rest ye merry, gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember, Christ, our Savior
Was born on Christmas day
To save us all from Satan's power
When we were gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

From God our Heavenly Father
A blessed Angel came;
And unto certain Shepherds
Brought tidings of the same:
How that in Bethlehem was born
The Son of God by Name.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy
O tidings of comfort and joy

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to rein

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Worship Him, God Most High

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light

God bless us, every one.

Borrowed: Why I care...Why I fight...

Taken from a friend's blog. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the beginning of last weekend I got really discouraged. I was sick of hearing the garbage from the media and the libs. I was sick of being yelled at, called names, cut off, and generally disrespected for no other reason than the fact that I like Palin. That’s what it really comes down to, I discovered. Because I support Palin. It doesn’t matter what I think about McCain v. Obama’s tax plan, it doesn’t matter where I stand on the life issue, it doesn’t matter what I think about congress, it just matters that I support Palin. Because I hold the same ideals as Palin people are shocked, SHOCKED, that I might want someone who thinks like me being in office, yes, one heartbeat away from the presidency.

Anyway, I was feeling pretty disheartened. I’m told by people on the right and the left that it is over, Obama is going to win, and that is that. It’s just how it’s going to be. I am forced to see my wonderful country turn socialist by one of the most dishonest men in America: Senator Barack Hussein Obama.

I just kinda shut down from politics. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore, I didn’t want to talk about anything. What’s the point? If he’s won and we’re all doomed, why fight, why care about ACORN, Ayers, “spreading the wealth around”, or the media attacking Joe the plumber? You’re just going to get yelled at by a bunch of people who can’t get over the fact that life isn’t fair. These are the same people who believe that Bush is solely responsible for the fact that life isn’t fair and some will have to work harder than others.

I was sick of it, I was done. But after events on Saturday and having the weekend to think about it, I came to realize why I care so much, why these conversations with my friends yelling at me and calling me names were on my mind, why I continually research, read, and discuss even though I really didn’t want to: her name is Feruza.

Why do I care? Because of people like Feruza. Feruza is a wonderful friend of mine from Uzbekistan. She’s a little older than me and doing her first year of school at O-Trip. She was just now able to come here this year to begin studying in America. This alone is a foreign concept to me because I have no clue what it is like to desperately want to go to another country and study to get an education. Sure, I would like to study abroad for the cultural benefits, but, I think the best education is found in America.

Feruza spent the 4th of July with my family and has since fallen in love with the “real American family.” At least, she really likes my family. I asked her what she was going to do with her business degree. She said that she was wanted to stay here and own her own business because she really couldn’t do that in her country.

Think about it, a woman from another country wants to come to America so she can study, drive (which she can’t really do in her country and wouldn’t do because of some of the cultural ramifications), own a business (which she said women couldn’t really do in her country either), and just live in America.

After taking Feruza out for one of her very first birthday celebrations ever it made me realize why I care about American government so much: (I mean, aside from being a Christian and it being part of our stewardship to Christ.) because of people like Feruza.

I want women (and men, too) to want to come to my country and be encouraged to start a business. I want people like Feruza to have hope that they can have whatever life they want for themselves. I want Feruza and people to live in a country where if you just work hard, you’ll get to where you want to go. You’ll have struggles, set backs, deception, and hard times, but in America, you have a better chance at success from just plain old hard work than anywhere else in the world.

I care, study, campaign, discuss, vote, pray and cry for the Feruza’s who haven’t been able to make it here yet. So, I haven’t given up. Am I sick of being yelled at by emo libs? Yeah. Am I tired of the media strangling the truth? Yeah. But God is faithful. Second Chronicles is very clear on what this country needs to prosper. Repentance.

If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

So, all we Christians need to do to win this election is repent and live perfect. =)

Let me include another verse in here:

Let Your mercy be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:5-6

The word used for prayer here is where we get our word “prosecute”. And the word for petition is the concept of begging for mercy. Bro. Tom put it this way, first, you are the prosecutor making your case to God, being specific, on why you are praying for the things you are, then you crawl up into the witness stand and beg for mercy.

So, let me challenge you, don’t sit and fret like I’ve been doing, and don’t get depressed that this thing is all over. The Lord is near and he will hear our cries. Repent and seek His face, make your case to God and then beg for mercy. Do it for not only yourselves but for Feruza’s everywhere.

Grace and Peace,

- Meredith

"and let this be our motto: In God is our trust..."

Grammar and Cheese Sandwiches

I’ve been tutoring an 8th grader for a couple of months now and we just started doing grammar worksheets. If any of you had to take Dr. Caroll’s Grammar and Usage class, you know what “Cheese Sandwich” is. That was probably my favorite part of grammar class. **WARNING: GRAMMAR LESSON – but don’t skip it because it makes the rest make sense.** For those of you who don’t know, Cheese Sandwich is the example used when you encounter a particular kind of noun and adjective arrangement. Traditionally, we would say that “Sandwich” is the noun and “Cheese” is the adjective, since it is describing what kind of sandwich we are talking about. This is untrue. “Cheese” is not an adjective because it cannot be declined. You can’t have a Cheeser Sandwich or a Cheesist Sandwich. Just a Cheese Sandwich. (“Cheesy” is a different word than “Cheese,” just to clarify.) Two nouns, with one noun describing the other. “Cheese” describes sandwich, and “Sandwich” is the emphasized noun because it is the one being described. Simple, right? Cheese sandwich. I wanted to think of other examples of this for the tutoring. And while I was trying to come up with some (that didn’t involve food) I had a conversation with someone that, naturally, involved politics. And I was saying that, even though libertarians tend to be fiscally conservative, I would never describe myself as a libertarian because of the amoral implications; I couldn’t support the legalization of prostitution, for example. The person I was having the conversation with shrugged and said, “Well, that’s the price of freedom.” That’s the end of the story, because I had no response. I was shocked. The person I was talking to was a Christian. And that was my Cheese Sandwich moment. I began to wonder how we chose to define ourselves: a Christian American, or an American Christian? Does it sound redundant? It’s not, actually. Think of the Cheese Sandwich and you’ll see what I mean. Both are nouns, neither can be declined. Yet one must be subservient to and describe the other. Christian American or American Christian. I knew the answer for myself, because it has been years developing. For a long time, I too was of the opinion that, as an American, the final authority was the Constitution. Therefore, whether I liked it or not, issues such as abortion, gay marriage, prostitution, legalized drug use – they all had to be interpreted in light of our Constitution, which says that, unless specifically and explicitly prohibited, those activities should all be legal unless determined otherwise by individual states according to the will of the people. But then that changed. Slowly, probably as a result of going through college and being beaten on by liberals who told me that my faith should be kept to myself and away from the government. But I began to realize that my rights as an American existed because God allowed them to, and as a Christian, I had the responsibility to act in accordance with the Scripture, not the Constitution. Make no mistake, I think the American Constitution is the greatest creation of man, above Shakespeare, mascara and Hershey’s Dark. But it is man’s creation. It does not supersede Scripture. So I had a decision to make: Christian American or American Christian? The blog “On Civil Obedience,” explores this idea as fully as I can. And from reading that, you can probably guess which Cheese Sandwich I am. When I vote on a bill, verbally take a position or support a candidate, my first question used to be: How does this reflect in light of the Constitution? This is the wrong question. The first question we as Christians should ask is: How does this reflect in light of God’s Word? When Scripture and the Constitution cross, which they do far too often, which way are we to lean? Do we say, “Well, that’s the price of my right to American freedom?” God is not going to judge us, the voters and the rulers of this country, according to whether or not we ran this country according to the Constitution. He’s going to judge this country and those of us who run it (and yes, we still do) according to whether or not we used our authority and responsibility to bring honor to him. Example: When I was in junior high and high school and learned more about the Civil War and civil liberties, I recognized that the Civil War, or more specifically the results of it, was unconstitutional. Mandating a federal law against slavery was unconstitutional; according to the Constitution, issues such as that are supposed to be left to the will of the states, the voters. However, I came to realize that the constitutionality of the Civil War is not where my focus should be, because the result was the end of slavery and the legalized oppression of an entire group of people. Slavery did not honor God. We needed to end it, not in pockets or over a span of years as each individual state (we would hope) outlawed it, but finally, once and for all, all at once. And in this case, the Constitution and Scripture were opposed. Which side do we take? I hope the answer, now 150 years later, is obvious. So, as Christians, we must ask ourselves, which Cheese Sandwich do we want? The difference is subtle, but significant. Christian American or American Christian?

Job is My Favorite Book in the New Testament

The Compassion Farce the other night was really remarkable, not because it forced Obama and HRC to lay bare their “true” feelings about faith and religion and God and religious people. It was remarkable and unique in that we were given two solid hours of proof that Obama, HRC and leftist loony liberals in general have no convictions of faith that go further than their control of the world around them.

I’ll take it out of order and start with Obama first since HRC always complains about having to go first at these things. (“Ladies first” and other such chivalric codes are an anathema to a feminist, you know.)

Obama has made some pretty incendiary remarks lately concerning people of faith. Because I’d love to remind you, he said, "It's not surprising [people in small towns] get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them."

When confronted with this the other night, he said, “What I was saying is that when economic hardship hits in these communities, what people have is they've got family, they've got their faith, they've got the traditions that have been passed onto them from generation to generation. Those aren't bad things. That's what they have left.”

That’s all they’ve got left. But not because Jesus is our all in all.

“What people have become bitter about [is] they don't think that government is listening to them.”

What he was telling us here is that government is really god. The government is supposed to nurture us and sustain us, and when it fails to do that, we grab a gun and kill an immigrant in front of our church because we’re so disillusioned with our government. Make no mistake. He was identifying what he believes to be the true and false gods of life. Christianity or any other religion is the false religion for the bitter, the poor and the beleaguered. The government, when it is doing its job correctly, removes the need for that religion. Therefore, if we don’t really need faith, then it’s not true, is it?

Obama was then asked if life began at conception. He gave yet another vague, evasive answer.

“This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins…So I don't presume to know the answer to that question.”

He won’t presume to answer the question because he’s afraid to. If he thinks life begins at conception, how can he morally be pro-choice? If it doesn’t, where does it begin? The fact is he either can’t answer honestly (bad sign) or he really hasn’t thought it through (worse sign). He’s a liberal. He’s pro-choice. I’m not saying he’s not a gushy guy who does seem to like his kids. But do not forget, this is the man who equates an unexpected pregnancy with AIDS. (Interestingly enough, he terms them both as “punishment.” It’s a wonder the gay community has not erupted over this pronouncement since their demographic has suffered more AIDS deaths than any other. Punishment? That’s a lot worse than anything Sally Kern said.)

Another thing that’s a point of interest is the reason he became involved in church. He became involved in church because he was involved in politics.

“Some of the pastors started saying, ‘You know, you've got great ideas, Obama, but, you know, if you're going to organize churches, it might help if you were going to church.’”

This feeds the image really churchy people have of politicians and those involved in the political spectrum. And this is why: because it does happen. But it’s not that way, typically. A Christian who is genuinely involved in their church, is involved in their church prior to running for office or vying for a promotion at their job or getting visibility before a wedding or birth or anything else that takes place outside the doors of their church. If they want to do God’s work through whatever so-called ‘secular’ realm they choose (and we’ll discuss that term at length some other time) it’s because of a conviction they receive as a result of their faith. Their public service facilitates their faith and relationship with Christ, not the other way around.

On a small side note, Obama proved his lack of familiarity with Scripture when he claimed that “I am my brother’s keeper” is a “core Christian value.” As far as I can remember, that phrase was only used once in the Bible, and the guy who invoked it wasn’t exactly the hero of the story. But you can take that however you want, it just made me laugh.

Someone once said that the best actors are never on the stage. Hillary Clinton is the perfect example of that. She showed such an aptitude for putting the right phrases in the right places, much better than Obama or most other Democrats do. Of course, while she was roughing it as First Lady of Arkansas, she did pretend to be a Southern Baptist. (Hence Mike Huckabee’s plea that you not confuse him with “the other Southern Baptist from Hope, Arkansas.”) Now she says she’s Methodist. That’s neither here nor there, really. Just mentioning it cause she did.

HRC describes a very mystical, Jane Fonda-type of Christianity. “I have always felt his presence, it’s always with me, it follows me.” But when the questioners tried to pin her down and say, “Give us a specific example of a time your God showed up personally in your life,” she couldn’t answer. Actually, she wouldn’t answer. It’s not like she didn’t have choices. How about when she was confronted with her husband’s adultery? The second time? The third time? The fourth time? She didn’t feel any meaningful presence then? Or during the impeachment hearings? Or running from sniper fire? Nothing jumps out at all? I do not know a Christian of any denomination who cannot pinpoint a time where God showed up in their lives in a personal way. More importantly, I don’t know a Christian of any denomination who will not do so, as HRC pointedly refused to do so.

At one point, she said that winning or losing an election had nothing to do with the candidate’s faith. Her example: “We had two very good men and men of faith run for president in 2000 and 2004.”

These are her examples of good men of faith: Al Gore, who believes he invented the internet and that man controls the planet’s functions; and John Kerry, from whose own discussion of faith I gleaned the quote by which I titled this blog. These are who she sees as men of faith. Wow.

Lastly, because this is already longer than I wanted, I’ll deal with the one thing that was said at which I could not laugh. In fact, as I watched it on youtube the other day at work, I had to fight the urge to throw my laptop across the room. I’m having to fight it again right now.

HRC was asked about the concept of suicide as a means of relieving the suffering of someone who is terminally ill. Her response, her arrogant, presumptuous, callous, ignorant response:

“You know, the Terry Schiavo case in Florida posed that for many people. And it was one of those decisions…where there were people of good faith and people of strong feelings on both sides about what should happen to that woman's life.”

I’d call her what she is but it would unnecessarily insult a dog. This woman had the audacity to use Terri Schiavo as an argument for medically-induced suicide. Terri Schiavo, the woman the Supreme Court allowed to be killed by her greedy, adulterous husband so he could finally get his hands on her insurance money and marry his live-in girlfriend. Terri Schiavo, whose parents had to watch her starve to death after pleading to be allowed to financially provide for her for the remainder of their lives. Terri Schiavo, who was murdered.

But this woman has no concept of the value of life if she thinks that Terri Schiavo’s death was in any way merciful or humane or just.

The Bible says that by their fruits ye shall know them. Not have a general idea of them or be able to make a good guess about them. Ye shall know them. By their fruits. Do not let two hours out of a lifetime gloss over the rest of that lifetime. Remember the fruits.

In stark contrast to this attempt to fool America, we had the arrival of the Pope this week. There was a huge ceremony at the White House, and something special happened. Let’s hear from a different political figure on his radio program about the Pope’s welcoming ceremony and God and country.

“The Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung by the US Army Chorus, and you have to hear this, particularly if you haven't had a chance to have your TV on today or your radio, and you didn't hear this…You realize, this is at the White House, and a song written in tribute to God is being played at the White House. In this country there has been such an effort, and it has been way too successful, to remove God from anything public. Not only was God present, but the largest White House welcoming ceremony ever participated in a ceremony thanking God and respecting God and offering up a tribute to God, and you just have to hear this.

"People still say to me, "I don't understand, Rush, you say you can't hear music because of your hearing loss." Well, I can hear music I knew before I lost my hearing, but also, folks, I can always hear God's music. And this is God's music, written in 1861 in the middle of the Civil War. The story of this song is, to me, evidence of divine intervention in and of itself…It is a great tribute to God, and a great tribute to the United States of America.”

Here is the song. Press “play,” close your eyes and listen to the words.

If that doesn’t move you, you’re not human.

Not Against Flesh and Blood

The political landscape of the State of Oklahoma is currently a front line in spiritual warfare.

In an unprecedented move, an openly gay man, Jim Roth, is running for a statewide office. He was previously appointed Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner by Governor Brad Henry when the position was vacated last year by the previous Commissioner. Now, that seat is up for election, as well as one other, and he could very well be the first open homosexual to be elected to office by an entire state. The fact that this is happening in Oklahoma and not, say, California is even more significant. Because of this, gay activist organizations from across the nation are pouring money into his campaign.

Next month, several major high school districts across our state are participating in the Day of Silence, an event created to recognize the oppression of homosexuals as inhumane. Students are encouraged by faculty to participate by wearing special t-shirts, taking a day-long vow of silence and handing out literature promoting the event. Obviously, the students who refuse to participate will be easy to identify.

Now, of course, this is America. As Americans, citizens have the right to live the way they want to live, promote what they want to promote and donate to whom they want to donate. They can say what they want and do what they want, and are protected by our Constitution, as they should be.

However, this is one of those times when being a Christian can conflict with being an American.

As a Christian, I take civic duty very seriously, as you know from previous blogs. The welfare of our country has been placed in our hands. And when America says something is okay but God says it’s not, the choice should be obvious. Christians, American Christians, should tremble in fear when their fellow citizens openly and publicly refute the Word of God as unnecessary, irrelevant, and untrue. And when we have the power to stop or at least resist the deliberate, militant march of organized sin, we should run to the forefront of the fight.

Are we to fight homosexuals and their sympathizers? Not really. We must realize who it is we are really fighting against. Make no mistake, sin is sin, and anyone who encourages the social acceptance of sinful living, Christian or not, will have to face the consequences.

But we are not struggling against the sinful and the hateful. We are struggling against the powers of evil, “against spiritual wickedness in high places.” That phrase has never been so plain to me before. Recognize the Enemy for what he is, the Great Deceiver, and recognize the sinner for who they are, the Deceived.

But, with that, recognize the need for truth. God is loving and merciful, or else he would not provide us an escape from our sin. But God is also just and holy. He cannot tolerate sin, and pronounces harsh penalties against those who not only practice it but promote it.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble. (Luke 17:1)

I know your works--your love, faithfulness, service, and endurance. Your last works are greater than the first. But I have this against you: you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives My slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality. Look! I will throw her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her practices. I will kill her children with the plague. (Rev. 2:18-23)

We have an obligation to proclaim the truth. To publicly recognize sin as sin is certainly offensive, but also loving. After all, if we are Christians, and we believe Hell is a real, physical place, why on earth would we be ashamed of warning those we care about away from it?

Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not give up. Instead, we have renounced shameful, secret things, not walking in deceit or distorting God’s message, but in God’s sight we commend ourselves to every person’s conscience by an open display of the truth. (2 Cor. 4:1-3)

We need to understand that the world is meant to be offended by the truth of the Gospel, because it is offensive to it. It is not unloving, but it is at odds with the world and those who cling to it. And while it may hurt and be difficult, Paul talks about the result of such offense, or “grief”:

“For although I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it…Now I am rejoicing, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed…for godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldy grief produces death.” (2 Cor. 7:8-10)

So, Christians, you must decide why you are so embittered against, embarrassed by, ashamed of, or in any way opposed to a fellow believer who stands in the public arena proclaiming the Word of God as truth. Why do so many to try and distance themselves from someone who does that, by saying things like, “she makes Christians look bad” or “I don’t really think that should have been said there/to them/that way.” Are we taking a stand for Christ when we join the world in denouncing those who proclaim his Word? Why do we make excuses for protecting those who need to be broken?

Do you remember how you came to Christ? Do you remember what it took to make you realize you needed a Savior? It took brokenness, guilt, shame, conviction, and an honest look at yourself as a sinner in need of forgiveness. And if that’s what it takes to be cleansed and made new by God, why do we try and shield others from going through that? Why do we try and let our loved ones take the “long way” to Jesus by trying to give them a feel-good version of Christianity without honestly telling them what the Word says? Why do we assume that being nice is enough to bring people to Jesus?