Journalism, Opinion, Propaganda And Pastor Holick

I receive several comments every time I use the word “homosexual” in a blog.  But one individual kinda hurt my feelings by commenting that my writings were not journalism but propaganda.

If you desire journalism, read Chipper1’s Weblog.  If you seek opinion, read Montague County Moments.  If it is propaganda you want, read Al Gore.

In August of 2007, Mr Gore spoke at a forum on global warming in Singapore (must have traveled by rowboat since he wants to cut back on emissions) where he said, “This is one of the strongest scientific consensus views in the history of science.  We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion.”

What?  Did I miss something?  Propaganda is “effort directed systematically toward the gaining of public support for an opinion or course of action.”

Hmmm, global warming comes to mind!  Step outside Al — its cold…brrrr!

By the way, concerning my blog of January 22nd, and the comments, the trespassing count against Pastor Holick was dismissed at the city’s request after officials watched a videotape that revealed the pastor was conducting himself peacefully on a public sidewalk.

Homosexuals Denied Expression Of Faith

Mark Holick, Pastor of Spirit One Christian Center located in Wichita, Kansas, was arrested last summer when a homo-fest was being held in a public park in Wichita.

Pastor Holick was fulfilling his Christian obligation of sharing his faith with a group of homosexuals who were assembled on public property celebrating whatever homosexuals celebrate.  It took just a little over three minutes for the police to slap the cuffs on the Christian minister and charge him with trespassing (evidently the Wichita police do not know the true meaning of “trespass”).

I have never read anything in the Constitution that states that the exercise of ones First Amendment rights is a criminal act.  It also seemed strange to me that the elite force of peacekeepers arrested a Christian when there was a homo-sex-fest taking place on public property…(Am I missing something in this First Amendment issue?)

Pastor Mark was only attempting to express his faith — that’s all.  As a mater of fact, he had contacted the police department a full week before the festival and asked about expressing his views.  The flip-flop officers of the peace told the good minister there would be no problem as long as he stayed on the sidewalk.  But when the pastor arrived for the event he was confronted by police, asked to move to another location, then arrested [all in less than four minutes].

The arrest for trespass has been dropped by the city of Wichita – but the damage is done.  The proclamation of Scripture and prayer was silenced.  I would not want to be the one who has to stand before the judgement bar of God and confess that I was responsible for for suppressing His Word.  Pastor Mark Holick only wanted to communicate the Gospel message to a group of homosexuals whom he believes are bound for hell because they deviate from the normal lifestyle…[For those who will have negative and hostile comments, if you have to ask, "What is normal?," I'm afraid you'll never know.]

No Angel On My Tree

Mrs. Arnold, a resident at Plant City Living Center in Florida, was told that federal law prohibits her from displaying any religious words or symbols associated with Christmas in the common area of her apartment building.

According to HUD, “any religious symbols or religious words associated with Christmas” are banned.  Under the guidelines issued by HUD, the 85 year-old grandmother cannot place a small Christmas tree outside her door if it displays an angel.

If the residents want to have a Christmas party in their community room, they cannot use the word “Christmas.”  Government directive demands that they use the word “Holiday.”

Every year a Sunday School class from a church located near Mrs. Arnold’s apartment hosts a hanging of the greens and a Christmas party for the elderly residents.  She said the highlight of their Christmas party comes at the end of the hanging of the greens and the Christmas party for all the residents when someone places an angel on top of their Christmas tree.

The federal government is so afraid of the ACLU that it is banning Christianity from Christmas.  Not only that, atheists have so much influence that the National Park Service ordered the removal of the words “Laus Deo” (Latin for “Praise be to God) from a replica of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., and the VA (Veterans Administration) banned the script of the flag-folding ceremony mentioning “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” and the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” at over 100 national cemeteries.

I just wonder, has anyone in congress read the first amendment which clearly states that government shall not prohibit the free exercise of religion?

Muslims Believe In Jesus

A gentleman who read yesterday’s blog informed me that Muslims believe in Jesus because his wife saw an Islamic lady on Oprah who answered, “Yes!”, when the talk-show hostess asked, “So, Muslims believe in Jesus?”  Well, that depends on what the definition of “believe” is.

Many people think that belief and faith are synonymous — but such is not the case.  I can say, “I believe I will go to town tomorrow,” but that doesn’t mean I will definitely go to town.

John the Baptist and Jesus (‘Isa’ in the Quran) are seen as members of the righteous family of ‘Imran, among the Children of Israel.  Jesus holds a place unique among the prophets of Islam.  He is born of a virgin “purified above all women,” he is the promised Messiah, “The Word of God and a Spirit from Him,” an almost superhuman figure who spoke from the cradle and worked great wonders by the power of God.  He was a miracle worker and one of the greatest prophets.

But the Quran depicts Him as expressly disclaiming deity and emphatically denies that He ever died on the cross.  There was no atonement and no resurrection, instead when the Jews sought to crucify Him, God caught Him up to heaven and threw His likeness on Judas who was crucified, by mistake, in His place.

Christians are held to have deliberately falsified the Scripture He brought, and worship the Messiah blasphemously.

Now you know why Christians are considered infidels by our Muslim friends.

Diplomacy Not Theology

Last week, President Bush said in an interview with Al Arabiya television that he believes all the world prays to the same God — promoting the doctrine of universalism.

“I believe there is a universal God.  I believe the God that the Muslim prays to is the same God that I pray to.  After all we all came from Abraham.  I believe in that universality.”

Wrong!  There is a God of the universe but not a universal God.  There are many religions that do not recognize, much less worship, the One true God…Animism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shinto to name a few.  So what about the President’s belief that Christians and Muslims all worship the same God.

Let us compare Islam with Christianity as recorded in the “Apologetics Study Bible” — Holman Bible Publishers 2007 edition.

Doctrine of God

Islam:  No God but Allah; a unitarian monotheistic faith which sees Allah as determining every specific event that happens in the world.  Allah is virtually co-terminous with his world, part of which is found in the Koran.

Christian:  Monotheistic, trinitarian belief; Father, Son and Spirit are equal and eternal and sovereign over all; God is love and is also holy; He is both transcendent and immanent, but is never dependant upon the world; His true nature is most easily seen in the Person of His incarnate Son, Jesus.

Human Predicament

Islam:  Humans are finite in contrast to the infinite sovereignty of Allah;  they are foolish and need instruction, which comes from the Koran; they are also sinners, such sin being especially seen in violations of Muslim taboos or prohibited behavior and failure to do the will of Allah perfectly.

Christian:  In their natural condition, humans are dead in trespasses and sins; they require a specific work of the Holy Spirit to rescue them; they cannot be saved by their own goodness and efforts.

Way of Deliverance

Islam:  Embrace the Five Pillars (daily recitation of creed, prayer, giving alms, pilgrimage to Mecca, fasting during Ramadan); complete and utter devotion to Allah; final salvation is reserved only for the most diligent of Muslims.

Christian:  Receive the gift of God’s grace by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, which He purchased with His shed blood; this initial experience of justification is followed by a life of fellowship with other Christians and faithfulness to the Lord.

Ultimate Goal

Islam:  Future resurrection of the righteous unto eternal bliss in a heavenly Paradise; all of the physical pleasures that one may not have access to in this life will be available in Paradise; infidels spend eternity in a most torturous hell.

Christian:  Immediate entering into the spiritual presence of God at death for believers; future resurrection of the body at the Second Advent of Christ; new heavens and new earth in an eternal realm of peace and righteousness for believers; eternal punishment in hell for the finally impenitent

Not only do Muslims not believe Jesus is the Son of God, they don’t believe atonement for sin is necessary.

Indoctrination

A Massachusetts father was handcuffed and jailed after he objected to Lexington’s Estabrook Elementary School teaching his 5-year-old son about homosexuality.

David Parker, his wife, and another family are fighting what is described as a court order for segregation, after U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled if they didn’t agree with the school’s advocacy for homosexuality, they could take their children out of school and send them elsewhere or home school them.

Here is some of what the honorable judge had to say…

“The rights of religious freedom and parental control over the upbringing of children would undermine teaching and learning…”

“As it is difficult to change attitudes after they have developed, it is reasonable for public schools to attempt to teach understanding and respect for gays and lesbians…”

Wolf concluded that Christians who attend schools in the state of Massachusetts need such teachings to be engaged and productive citizens.

What Judge Wolf is saying is that public schools have a right and obligation to indoctrinate young children into an unholy lifestyle.

I have a few words for Judge Mark Wolf…

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:  Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  1st Corinthians 6:9  NIV

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious:  sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Galatians 5:19, 21b  NIV

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be know about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools…Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised.  Amen.  Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.  Romans 1:18-22, 24-27  NIV

I Asked

“I Asked” was written by a Confederate soldier.  It was recovered from his body after the battle of Gettysburg…

I asked for strength that I might achieve,

God made me weak that I might obey.

I asked for health that I might do great things,

I was given grace that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy,

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I prayed for power that I might have the praise of men,

I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life,

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I received nothing I asked for,

My prayer was answered.

I’ve Never Seen God

On June 23, 1973 the young lady pictured in the thumbnail (Jane Smith) gave me a birthday card.  The card has been an inspiration for these many years, and today sits on my desk reminding me of how I should live each day.  The poem written by Helen Steiner Rice is entitled “I’ve Never Seen God.”

I’ve never seen God but I know How I feel,

It’s people like you

who make Him “So Real”…

My God is no stranger,

He’s friendly and gay

And He doesn’t ask me to weep when I pray…

It seems that I pass Him

so often each day

In the faces of people I meet on my way…

He’s the stars in the heaven,

a smile on some face,

A leaf on a tree or a rose in a vase…

He’s winter and autumn

and summer and spring…

In short, God is Every

Real, Wonderful Thing…

I wish I might meet Him

much more than I do,

I would if there were More People Like You.

How Should We Live?

The Old Testament predicted that Jesus would come, sacrifice Himself as an atonement for sin, and that He would return.  The New Testament book of Revelation reminds us (assures us) that He is indeed coming again.

In fact, Revelation 22 quotes Jesus saying (three times) “I am coming quickly.”

“And behold, I am coming quickly.  Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”  Revelation 22:7

“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.”  Revelation 22:12

“Yes, I am coming quickly.”  Revelation 22:20

How do we conduct our lives while we wait?  Verse 7 says we are to “heed the words of the prophecy of this book.”

In chapter 1, verse 3, John wrote, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near.”

While we await His return we are to follow the guidelines of His instruction manual (the Holy Bible).  It is helpful to read the books of great theologians, commentaries, Bible notes etc., but the Bible is the Word of God (God speaking directly to us) and we should immerse ourselves daily in its content.

Every true believer should diligently study the Word of God and seek to apply it to his life.

Don’t pay any attention to the thumbnail.  I am experimenting with a new way to post pictures.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to meet Bob and Sylvia Jordan and hear their music and experience their ministry, you have really missed something.  Bob and Sylvia (neither pictured above) sang at Jean’s Mens Bible Class this past Sunday.  They travel throughout the U.S. singing  for the Lord, charging nothing for their appearance, and give away free CD’s.  If you would like to learn more about their music ministry, download free mp3’s, donate, or check their calendar, click on Bob and Sylvia Jordan under blogroll at the right.