Archive for Fallen World
I took the time to write Rick Warren’s media personnel about his comments on Larry King Live. Here was there response. This is information I thought you needed to know in order to follow up on things. I still think Rick Warren should have been more vocal on this topic. “To whom much is given, much is required.” Rick Warren is a leader with great influence. God’s truths need to be clearly stated in a loving way. It is still my opinion that he was not a forward as he could have and should have been.
Thank you for taking the time to express your concerns, thoughts, prayers, and questions regarding Pastor Warren’s stance on Proposition 8 and marriage. We hope that the following information will clarify the issue.
Pastor Warren has responded to media interpretations of the April 6 appearance on CNN “Larry King Live” by reconfirming that he remains committed to the biblical definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, for life — without exception — a position shared by most fellow Evangelical pastors. He has further stressed that for 5,000 years, every culture and every religion has maintained this worldview.
The letter of apology Pastor Warren referenced sending to gay leaders whom he knew personally was not with respect to his statements or position on Proposition 8 nor the biblical worldview on marriage. Rather, he apologized for his comments in an earlier Beliefnet interview expressing his concern about expanding or redefining the definition of marriage beyond a husband-wife relationship, during which he unintentionally and regrettably gave the impression that consensual adult same sex relationships were equivalent to incest or pedophilia.
A. Larry Ross Communications
Media Representatives for Pastor Rick Warren
Miss California Carrie Prejean did not win the Miss USA crown because she answered a polticially motivated question to the dislike of the judge who is a gay activitst. The question of whether or not gay marriage should be legal, is a legitimate question, but it should not be held against her if she answers it to a judges dislike. I have watched the pageants before, but I confess I did not watch this one. But I have watched the interviews and this invent. It seems clear that this question alone lost her the pageant. Was this right or wrong? What does this say about our culture? What does this say about her and all Christians in America?
Miss California answered the question by her convictions. She clearly believes that the country and family she was raised in does not support gay marriage. She said everyone has their choice or opinion and that she did not mean to offend, but that she believes in marriage being between a man and a woman. She later said it was Biblical and she does not regret her answer. I applaud her for that. Way to go.
It is ashame that this happened. It was wrong, clearly wrong. However, I believe this is a good thing. It is showing just how divisive this issue is to our culture and it shows who is causing the division…not Miss California, but those who do not care about anything but their own agenda, not the good of society! Hopefully, good citizens and Christians will rise up for the good of our culture and fight to preserve the sacredness or tradition of marriage for the good of society, not to be mean toward gay people. That is what she did by answering this question this way. She stood up for what is right! Praise the Lord! Her loss was wrong, but her statement was a victory.
She clearly suffered persecution and discrimination as a result of her answer. Yes, you read that correctly. She was discriminated against because she held to her moral and religious convictions. I do believe that is our first amendment right!? Where is the ACLU when you need them? Where are the alarmists? Where is the media? The truth is the liberally minded people or people categorized as lef in our culture and the media will never be seen calling this discrimination, but that is what it is! If someone lost the Miss USA pagaent because they answered in support of gay marriage, could you imagine the response? Why does it only go their way on their one way street? But it is the truth, she suffered discrimination and our constitution was violated at the Miss USA pageant. Perhaps we should have a recount? (My attempt at humor…sorry!)
The response of the audience shows that a majority still agree with her answer; however, there is a growing minority sympathic to the homosexual agenda to redefine marriage. What this tells us about our culture is that the traditions and values that have made our culture and nation great will be pushed and pushed until there are no traditions or values left…yes we will have new ones, but not the ones of our forefathers or from those who worked hard to make this nation great.
America is on a path of destruction and the coming moral collapse of our culture is right before us. We are beyond the crossroads in my opinion. The Miss USA pageant paints a picture of what America will become – an anti-God, anti-Bible, anti-Christian society that will allow the Persecution of those who hold to Biblical and traditional values. We all witnessed it during the Miss USA pageant…this is only the beginning I do beleive. Discrimination against Christians or traditional values will not be called discrimination by those on the left or with this type of agenda. You see those who have this agenda don’t truly want equality, they want it their way and they will do anything and everything to promote their agenda and force it upon our culture.
Thank you Miss California for your courage to speak the truth. It cost you something you work for all your life. Great will be your reward in Heaven. But the price was worth it for the whole world to see that you would not compromise the truth. That was refreshing and bold. I wish you the best of life and God’s blessings always!
I walked into the office this morning and my secretary had a tea bag attached to the cabinet above her desk and that got me thinking. I have no idea what many of you think about the tea party’s going on around America tonight, but I think they are a good thing personally. It caused me to go back and look at the history of the Boston Tea Party…those guys were patriots and risked it all. I thank GOd that we live in a nation in which we can have a tea party in freedom, but sadly I don’t know if the tea party’s will make a difference.
Before I proceed let me get one thing out in the air…can a pastor speak on taxes…should a pastor speak about taxes…isn’t this political and on and on go the questions…so what should a pastor do? Taxes are a reality in life and they impact our families, our communities, our commerce and much more; therefore, a pastor should bring proper perspective to these matters. A pastor is called by God to bring His truths to all matters…even taxes. It is sad that in our culture there are those who have tried to compartmentalize life so that common folk don’t view all of life connected to the Creator…but our forefathers knew better (read the Delcaration). But life is life and God is a part of our lives…this is a fact; therefore taxes and all other issues are to be spoken on from a biblical persepctive unashamedly. You cannot put God in a box, nor can you put your faith in a box. Our faith should impact our view of taxes…to let others tell you otherwise is a lie, deceptive, and harmful to the good of society.
Enough said…so what about tea party’s? First, I agree that the approach of the leadership in America today is to spend money we do not have and this should be protested becasue it is is not biblical. I am not saying the church protest it, but we as citizens have the right to protest it. Secondly, we must realize that Jesus said we should pay taxes “Give to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” We need to pay taxes for the good of society. So from my biblical perspective we are not saying taxation is wrong, but that the way government is spending is wrong and we pay too much in taxes already. SO I say let’s throw the tea bags in the harbor…there is nothing wrong with that. We need to stand, we need to be involved, and we need to say enough is enougy. Our Governemtn has got to get our priorities straight and as Christians we must speak Godly wisdom to this situation. It is not biblical to spend money you don’t have, it is not right to reinforce bad commerce through bail-outs, and it is not biblical to not balance a budget…and there is more I could say, but will stop there.
God intended government to be for our good…the good of all of society (Romans 13). However, when you have a President and Congress who are bailing company’s out for mismanagment and spending money we do not have and then not balancing a budget and on and on and on it goes…it is not for our good. We may get through the economic crisis, but someday we will reap what we have sown. Then you add on all the morality issues that our judical branch is creating…we have a mess…we are already reaping this and it will only get worse. I think the tea party is long over due. I am not sure we can trun back the core issue which is our values and morals. I beleive that taxation has a value/moral base to it. Sadly I think we are so far down stream that we missed the harbor opportunity.
Regardless, I also think the tea party is a good idea even though I believe it will have little effect for the politicians and the judges will continue to do what they want and the American people continue to loose ground morally and value wise each day. I don’t know if the voice of the people who care really matters and I don’t think a lot of people really care or know what is going on. It is a sad reality. We are kind of like Jeremiah…he was the weeping prophet. He came with a message that no matter what you do you are going down, but you still need to return to God anyway. In other words God turned them over to the results of their own doing and allowed Jerusalem to fall. He still loved them and wanted them to return to Him and His ways, but the consequences would not be altared. That message didn’t sit well with the people of Jerusalem and I am sure it doesn’t bring us a lot of hope either.
Regardless I think it’s tea time and that we have the GOd-given right to take such action as Christians and as citizens for the glory of God and the good of society. I can only hope and pray that it has some impact.
Following up on my blog from last week about Rick Warren and his position on Larry King Live about the gay-marriage issue.
After the dust has settled a little I still have some issues. It is not neccessarily what Rick Warren said, but what he did not say that is troublesome to me. I still believe that the Purpose Driven LIfe has great merit, is Biblically solid and God has used this work to accomplish some great things and transformed lives. I also still beleive that Rick Warren is a good man and that he does love the Lord. However…
Let me first applaud Rick Warren for clearly defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I can also understand him trying to not be associated with the anti-gay movement. For we as Christian’s are not anti-gay people. So what is the however? THe however, is that Rick Warren is involved in many cultural aspects. The mere fact that we find purpose from God (as he espouses in his book) means that we need to promote God’s purposes. Rick did promote the definition of marriage. In his mind he probably believes that he did enough. But the problem is that when asked about the Iowa Supreme Court decision he said he was oblivious to that and then went on to say that is not on his agenda. THis is the problem. It is GOd’s purpose to establish God-honoring homes…homsexual marriage is not GOd’s purpose. How can we live a purpose driven life when we cannot defend the purpose of marriage. Rick had an opportunity to stand for truth…in my opinion he fail short.
So now what? First, I believe my initial reaction was too strong. Looking over the actual footage…not what others have said or written about it reveals that Rick does hold a Biblical view. So the real issue is that there are many who beleive Rick did not take a firm enough stand and dodged the issue. This is something that still bothers me, but it is not something that I can reject Rick Warren’s ministry upon. I hope and pray that in the future Rick will not be oblivous to culturally relevant issues that the Bible clearly speaks about. I also pray that Rick will be more forthcoming and supportive of pro-marriage issues instead of taking a back seat and declaring he never attended or supported them. Lastly, may we realize that people who speak in public are allowed to make mistakes. Rick lost an opportunity in my opinion. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and say that I believe his intentions were good and that he does desire to glorify God…but along the way all of us that desire that sometimes fall short of GOd’s glory (Romans 3:23). But in the end thanks for Jesus who gives us the victory (Romans 6:23).
* I had told everone that in my assessment as more information came out I would be humble enough to change my position if neccessary. That is what this write up is about. If things change I will post more in the future. God bless – PC
Just in case there was any doubt…Jesus is awesome!
Jesus Saves!
Jesus Loves!
Jesus Heals!
Jesus Forgives!
Jesus Creator!
Jesus Wine Maker!
Jesus Carpenter!
Jesus Judges!
Jesus Mends!
Jesus Sends!
Jesus Eternal!
Jesus Immanuel!
Jesus Son of Man!
Jesus Son of God!
Jesus Prince of Peace!
Jesus lover of my soul!
Jesus Friend!
Jesus Forever!
Jesus Fabulous!
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Jesus Worthy!
Jesus Glorified!
Jesus Good!
Jesus Best!
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Jesus Happy!
Jesus Mercy!
Jesus Possible!
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Jesus Perfect!
Jesus Terrific!
Jesus Super!
Jesus Suffered!
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Jesus Sacrificed!
Jesus water walker!
Jesus Cried!
Jesus Splendor!
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Jesus Victorious!
Jesus Baptized!
Jesus Crucified!
Jesus Died!
BUT Jesus Lives!
Jesus is Awesome!
I just thought I would let you know several reasons why!!!!!
I think that over the last three months everyone has been educated in economics! All of us have been touched by the economic hard times that face our nation. Most of know people who have lost jobs and know that things are pretty serious. In fact I would say America is in a panic right now.
Think about it. President Obama says he inherited this wrapped wiht a bow. The democrats are adding pork like crazy to what is supposed to be a stimulus bill to create new jobs…I am wondering how polar ice cap exploration is going to create jobs for the people I know? I see business begging for money or they will go under and tank the economy. I see us printing and spending money we do not have. I see all kinds of blame and not responsibility. I see know one saying…we knew this was comgin and I see no one saying we need to consider what we do today for the future, all we care about is now. We need to stop this recession now. We need to stimulate our economy now. We need…now, now, now, now! We sound like a little baby.
What I have not heard is what is God trying to say to us? Are we ever going to learn that the economy belongs to God? Will we ever realize that we have overspent ourselves? Will we ever realize that we can only go so far into debt? Will we ever realize that we need to stop and focus and truly pray about our future?
I am not an economist. I have bee hit by the economic pinch…we all have. I could be out of a job as easily as the next guy…I realize this. But I cannot go out a write a Chris McCombs stimulus check to stimulate the McCombs fourtune 500. That is absurd. I have to work hard. Make srue I pay my bills. Make sure that I have more money left over at the end of the month than what I pay out. I have to be responsible.
God tells us to be good stewards…we are reaping what we have sown right now. Sadly some people are being hurt…I believe more will experience the pain. I don’t think the Government is our answer…but God’s ways. Our government through this panic may end up putting a bandaid on a huge bleeding wound. But only God can heal our economy by each of us changing the culture of materialism, debt, and greed that we all live by as American’s.
We are so blessed…never forget that. No matter what happens may we never forget to remain calm as believers knowing that God provides and that it is the economy of God that I am banking on.
I hope you enjoy my rambling…but I really needed to get that off my chest.
For a good book on this pick up the “Economic Earthquake” by Larry Burkett.