Last night I had the wonderful privilege to share a meal with a Pastor from Liberia. He is visiting American for the very first time and is enjoying the time here. Me, my wife, and all three children loved getting to know him and learning about his ministry and family. As I reflected on our visit with him, there was one part of our conversation that disturbed me greatly.
Someone at the table asked the Pastor how his country (Liberia) viewed homosexuality. He proceeded to tell us that it was viewed negatively and not looked on as a good thing. The individual who asked the question said this; "Our President and society are making it legal and acceptable. However, we as Christians in America do not agree with it and do not accept it as right." Now what he said next is what really disturbed me. The Pastor said, "Your current president contacted our president and offered financial assistance to our country if we would accept homosexuality. Our president and leaders told him he could keep his financial assistance."
About a dozen thoughts and emotions immediately began running through my mind and continue to do so even fourteen hours later. I could type for hours addressing all these but I will only discuss a couple. What type of leader would try and purchase morals from another person/country? The days of our nation having a Godly Leader are gone. Does that mean we should give up and quit? NO!! God's people better wake up, pray to our God and ask Him to do something that only He can do. God created the vast galaxies, created mankind, and split history in half with His birth. I believe He's big and powerful enough to change our nation and it's leaders. God's people must pray. Will you join me in putting more emphasis on praying for our nation and leaders? The morals of our nation will get back to Godliness only if we do.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
True or False
Throughout my entire education years I have despised true or false test or quiz's. I think they are of the devil (sarcasm tone). I don't actually think they are of the devil, however, I do despise them and hate them. Let me share one of many reasons why.
I have never been accused of being the smartest person in school. In elementary school I was in classes referred to as SLD (Student Learning Disability). Not sure why or how I got there but that's where I was. In seventh grade I began going to all regular classes and when I graduated High School I was no where near the top. Instead of being in the top 10%, I was in the bottom 10%. I never gave school work my all. I did just enough to get by. In 1993 I started college in pursuit of a B.A. in Theology. During my first year I almost failed out of college. I had no real idea how to study. I remember turning in assignments to professors thinking I had done a great job only to receive a 57% on one of them. I was devastated because I thought I had done great on the paper. Immediately I realized I must surround myself around people who knew how to study. All my roommates were great students who studied hard and applied themselves. One of my roommates was taking the same Old Testament class I was and we would study together. One time we knew we had a big test coming up and we decided to start studying early for it instead of waiting until the night before. I personally spent about twelve hours total time studying for this one test. We arrive to class and discover our test is fifty questions all true or false. I began to panic. I was the last one done because I was taking my time reading each question carefully. Upon completing the test I told my classmates I feel I did pretty well. A week later the professor passes our test grades out and I made a 79-a big fat C. My roommate, I had studied with, made an A. I was frustrated. As I began to look over the test to see what I had done wrong I noticed there were several questions I felt I had gotten right. I approached the professor after class to discuss these questions. He informed me that I had indeed gotten all those questions wrong. One word in the question makes it false. Here's what I was doing...I was looking to ensure the main idea of the question was true or false not things like names, places, dates, etc.
The longer I live I'm discovering many Christians are doing the same thing. They don't know if what they are reading is true or false. I'm not necessarily talking about the news, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I'm talking about this idea of many Christians reading books, articles, and blogs by people who are teaching false things. Please don't think I'm trying to be arrogant and say, "My way is the only truth." What I am saying is this; there are many prominent preachers and teachers on TV, on the web, and on social media teaching things that are simply false according to the Bible yet many people claiming to be "Christians" are thinking it's true. Jesus warned His early disciples that many false teachers/prophets would rise up. He further admonished them to test the spirits to see if what these teachers/prophets are saying is true. I do not want to call anyone out by name because the name is not as important as it is to know if something is true or false. The Apostle Paul encouraged his young mentee, Timothy; "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." Don't fail the test. Know if what any preacher/teacher says is true or false. There are wolves out there and many are in sheep's clothing.
I have never been accused of being the smartest person in school. In elementary school I was in classes referred to as SLD (Student Learning Disability). Not sure why or how I got there but that's where I was. In seventh grade I began going to all regular classes and when I graduated High School I was no where near the top. Instead of being in the top 10%, I was in the bottom 10%. I never gave school work my all. I did just enough to get by. In 1993 I started college in pursuit of a B.A. in Theology. During my first year I almost failed out of college. I had no real idea how to study. I remember turning in assignments to professors thinking I had done a great job only to receive a 57% on one of them. I was devastated because I thought I had done great on the paper. Immediately I realized I must surround myself around people who knew how to study. All my roommates were great students who studied hard and applied themselves. One of my roommates was taking the same Old Testament class I was and we would study together. One time we knew we had a big test coming up and we decided to start studying early for it instead of waiting until the night before. I personally spent about twelve hours total time studying for this one test. We arrive to class and discover our test is fifty questions all true or false. I began to panic. I was the last one done because I was taking my time reading each question carefully. Upon completing the test I told my classmates I feel I did pretty well. A week later the professor passes our test grades out and I made a 79-a big fat C. My roommate, I had studied with, made an A. I was frustrated. As I began to look over the test to see what I had done wrong I noticed there were several questions I felt I had gotten right. I approached the professor after class to discuss these questions. He informed me that I had indeed gotten all those questions wrong. One word in the question makes it false. Here's what I was doing...I was looking to ensure the main idea of the question was true or false not things like names, places, dates, etc.
The longer I live I'm discovering many Christians are doing the same thing. They don't know if what they are reading is true or false. I'm not necessarily talking about the news, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I'm talking about this idea of many Christians reading books, articles, and blogs by people who are teaching false things. Please don't think I'm trying to be arrogant and say, "My way is the only truth." What I am saying is this; there are many prominent preachers and teachers on TV, on the web, and on social media teaching things that are simply false according to the Bible yet many people claiming to be "Christians" are thinking it's true. Jesus warned His early disciples that many false teachers/prophets would rise up. He further admonished them to test the spirits to see if what these teachers/prophets are saying is true. I do not want to call anyone out by name because the name is not as important as it is to know if something is true or false. The Apostle Paul encouraged his young mentee, Timothy; "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." Don't fail the test. Know if what any preacher/teacher says is true or false. There are wolves out there and many are in sheep's clothing.
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