I was going through the canvas bag that I
keep my bible in for Lady’s Bible study, which I attend every Thursday
morning from the beginning of fall and all the way through the beginning
of summer. I was doing kind of a fall cleaning when I came across two
publications given as handouts by local Jehovah’s Witnesses. I received
them in the typical door to door fashion, we have all been accustomed to
lately. I usually skim through them briefly trying to figure out what
it is exactly they are dishing out. I guess I had done that very thing
back in 2010 when I initially received the pamphlets and then filed them
away with my study bible thinking I’d bring up some of the questions I
had during bible study, but don’t think I ever did.
I have since taken a second look and was a little troubled by what I
uncovered in these writings, one was the April 1, 2010 Watchtower which
bore the title The Man Who Changed the World: His Message and You and
the other the October 2010 Awake, with its title Whom Can You Trust?
Every time I had taken the opportunity to discuss my misgivings with the
door-to-door Jehovah’s Witness, I was surprised to learn how versed
they are at quoting the bible, but not very good at explaining how they
fit in with their theology or even what that theology was! Whenever I
questioned them about whom or what Jesus was and how he fit into the
picture of this utopian world they were painting, they became a little
agitated and basically ended the conversation.
I had a very limited experience with Jehovah’s Witnesses growing up, I
knew a guy who was in my friend’s band back in the ‘70s, the bass
player, who started dating a girl who claimed to be a Jehovah’s Witness
and she seemed nice enough. She never seemed to preach about her
beliefs. They later married and had a child, then just seemed to
disappear, that was my only real dealing with members of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses.
After rereading the two pamphlets, a couple of things stuck out in my
mind: number one is that they present God as real and trustworthy, along
with how important it is to present yourself as trustworthy in the
world and number two; they talk a lot about the Kingdom of God and the
teachings of Christ. The things that trouble me the most are those two
facts, if God is a real person as they are depicting Him, with human
attributes such as: God has a personal name, Jehovah, God is unique,
Jehovah hates bad behavior, Jehovah is a loving God and you too can be
God’s friend. Then I don’t understand why they go into such detail about
the teachings of Christ and the coming of God’s Kingdom while
presenting Jesus as nothing more than a teacher or profit, instead of
God incarnate, God’s son and the King who will rule the Utopian Kingdom
of God they are proclaiming?
If they believe that God is real and trustworthy, why don’t they believe
that Jesus is God’s only son or God incarnate? They quote the bible
right and left, but somehow they don’t think it’s the truth. I get the
impression from these writings that Jesus is viewed as just some nice
guy who taught the world about the coming of God’s Kingdom and then died
and nothing more. If they believe that God is trustworthy and real, why
don’t they believe it when God himself says from heaven “this is my
Son, in whom I am well pleased”, that Jesus’ death was the ultimate
sacrifice and He has returned alive to His Father in Heaven where He now
sits at His Father, Jehovah’s right hand? Why aren’t they proclaiming
his victory and that he is coming back ALIVE to rule God’s Kingdom on
earth, as it says in the bible?
This is the part I don’t understand, how can they paint this beautiful
picture of a utopian world, with animals and man all living in harmony,
if the Messiah isn’t around to help it along? Actually I spoke to a
Jehovah’s Witness woman who came to my door a while ago, who
acknowledged that Jesus was in fact God’s son and the King who would
rule God’s new Kingdom on earth, but thinking back on it now I realize
she never said she believed Jesus was actually God in the flesh or that
the Bible was the” inspired word of God” as Christians believe.
I’ve read several more copies of their hand outs and I find it very
disturbing that they emphasize Christ death more than His resurrection,
even going so far as to have an annual event every year called “The
Memorial of Christ’s Death”. As an explanation for this event they quote
Luke 22:19 “Do this in remembrance of me” but not the rest of the
complete reference in Luke 22:19 & 20 “And he took bread, and when
he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is
my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And
likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured
out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” I don’t read anywhere in
the Bible that this was to be a once a year commemoration of His death
only. They stress that one should believe in Christ’s work on the cross
as the end of death, but don’t spend much time on the fact that it’s
only the beginning of life through Christ. Christ clearly says in John
14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Then what about the Holy Ghost? I get this feeling they don't believe in
the Trinity either.They talk about Jehovah, but what about “the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost”? First God the Father creates the World and
everything in it and then when His most prized creation, man, rebels, He
sends His son to reconcile them through His earthly life and death on
the cross, the ultimate sacrifice. Christ does not end on the cross, He
returned to Heaven as King to sit at the right hand of His Father,
Jehovah, where He began, but He leaves the Holy Ghost or Spirit embedded
in the hearts of believers to help guide them.
Jesus is the one who intercedes for us with Jehovah God, not Mary his
mother, as some religions believe, not a Pope, but Christ, so how can
they leave Him as dead? How can you claim to follow God and totally
disregard His Son! I just can’t fathom it! Even if you acknowledge Him
as God’s son, but not as God incarnate, you have missed the whole point
of His death on the cross, the sacrifice, grace, mercy and forgiveness
given on your behalf!
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Bad Christian & Believing Lies
I’ve been hearing the term “Bad Christian”
being thrown around a lot lately. There is even a website with a blog
and podcast that is run by members of the band Emery, in which Toby
Morrell and Matt Carter discuss the idea of being a “bad Christian”. The
thought of being a bad Christian doesn’t sound right to most people but
the truth is we are all “bad” according to God. Romans 3:22-24 says
“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who
believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
When I was young my mother brought us to Church every Sunday, but she never really explained why or ever talked about what we learned in Sunday school, so I never really understood why Jesus had to die or even what his death meant. I grew up and drifted away from Church and started making some very bad decisions as a teen. I became involved in what I’ll call the “4 no no’s”, smoking cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and sex, as a result, I got myself in some very “bad” situations, I was pregnant at the age of 19 and again at 20 ( you would have thought I’d learned my lesson the first time, but I obviously didn’t) and had two abortions. I had them not because I didn’t want children, but because I was scared and believed a lie.
There are a lot of lies out there in the world and if we are not careful, we can easily fall prey to them. Now one of the lies I believed at that time was that life did not start at conception, but that up until a certain point in the pregnancy it was just a bunch of cells and not much more. So to shield myself and others, I believed this lie and went ahead with the abortions. It wasn’t until long after them that I discovered this lie. I actually saw fetuses that were as young as 3 to 4 weeks, which is the recommend time frame for the procedure and they looked like little humans with all their body parts formed! So that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to let it happen again, so I took precautions.
Much later when I was almost 29, I had met my future husband and we were talking marriage, I got this brilliant idea, that maybe I should take out my IUD, the precaution I was using at that time, so my body would be ready to have children when we got married. Another bad decision, I got pregnant again, but this time I was planning to get married, so we would just have to speed it up a little! Well, God had other plans and I had a miscarriage before we were even married! After I was married I had another miscarriage before I finally had my first child and again in between my second and third, I went on to have two other children, plus I raised one of my nieces who came to live with me just before she turned two.
After I had had my first two, a girl and a boy, I had this sense or feeling that I needed to return to the Church. I had continued to go to my mother’s church once in awhile, on special holidays, like Christmas and Easter. Through my sister-in-law, who was a Christian, I found a church near my home, which I still attend. At first I wasn’t sure I’d like it there, I picked it because I knew two people who went there so I wouldn’t feel so out of place and also because it had a nursery for my son and a pre-school Sunday school class for my daughter.
I had been raised a Protestant in my early years and then as a Methodist from about 4th grade on, until I finished high school. I had even tried teaching Sunday school at one point in my early adulthood. That’s a really scary thought, how can someone who doesn’t really know the Lord teach kids about him! I had 3rd and 4th graders, I tried to follow the lessen books and I thought things went well until I realized one Sunday that a girl in my class was a bully and her mother was worse! I finally gave up teaching Sunday school and soon after stopped going to church, except on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter. I was so put off by this woman’s behavior that I didn’t want any part of religion!
After living this dreadful life in the past, I had settled down, married and started a family, I felt myself being drawn to the Church again, but this time it was a church that used the Bible as its main foundation. The more I went, the more I learned about God and Jesus; I also realized I was a sinner like everyone else! That was something I had never considered, I just figured if I followed the rules for the most part I was ok. You know, just go by the 10 Commandments, even if it was rather loosely to say the least.
But I have now realized it was God’s plan for me to go through these lessons in life to bring me to Him. I think you have to learn to see yourself in the same way God sees you, that we are not perfect beings, but sinners in need of His help. This is the reason Christ came to earth, to take the “bad” in people and make it “good” like Him, that’s where the word Christian comes from. So yes Christians start out as “bad”, but they have learned to let Christ teach them how to be “good” Christians! I believe God wanted to show me, how He grieved when I aborted my two babies, by letting me feel how it felt by the loss of my three pregnancies to miscarriages. God is a just and loving God, merciful and forgiving, but He lets us go through trials and tribulations in life in order to draw us closer to Him! We need to start believing more in His truth and less in the lies of this world!
When I was young my mother brought us to Church every Sunday, but she never really explained why or ever talked about what we learned in Sunday school, so I never really understood why Jesus had to die or even what his death meant. I grew up and drifted away from Church and started making some very bad decisions as a teen. I became involved in what I’ll call the “4 no no’s”, smoking cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and sex, as a result, I got myself in some very “bad” situations, I was pregnant at the age of 19 and again at 20 ( you would have thought I’d learned my lesson the first time, but I obviously didn’t) and had two abortions. I had them not because I didn’t want children, but because I was scared and believed a lie.
There are a lot of lies out there in the world and if we are not careful, we can easily fall prey to them. Now one of the lies I believed at that time was that life did not start at conception, but that up until a certain point in the pregnancy it was just a bunch of cells and not much more. So to shield myself and others, I believed this lie and went ahead with the abortions. It wasn’t until long after them that I discovered this lie. I actually saw fetuses that were as young as 3 to 4 weeks, which is the recommend time frame for the procedure and they looked like little humans with all their body parts formed! So that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to let it happen again, so I took precautions.
Much later when I was almost 29, I had met my future husband and we were talking marriage, I got this brilliant idea, that maybe I should take out my IUD, the precaution I was using at that time, so my body would be ready to have children when we got married. Another bad decision, I got pregnant again, but this time I was planning to get married, so we would just have to speed it up a little! Well, God had other plans and I had a miscarriage before we were even married! After I was married I had another miscarriage before I finally had my first child and again in between my second and third, I went on to have two other children, plus I raised one of my nieces who came to live with me just before she turned two.
After I had had my first two, a girl and a boy, I had this sense or feeling that I needed to return to the Church. I had continued to go to my mother’s church once in awhile, on special holidays, like Christmas and Easter. Through my sister-in-law, who was a Christian, I found a church near my home, which I still attend. At first I wasn’t sure I’d like it there, I picked it because I knew two people who went there so I wouldn’t feel so out of place and also because it had a nursery for my son and a pre-school Sunday school class for my daughter.
I had been raised a Protestant in my early years and then as a Methodist from about 4th grade on, until I finished high school. I had even tried teaching Sunday school at one point in my early adulthood. That’s a really scary thought, how can someone who doesn’t really know the Lord teach kids about him! I had 3rd and 4th graders, I tried to follow the lessen books and I thought things went well until I realized one Sunday that a girl in my class was a bully and her mother was worse! I finally gave up teaching Sunday school and soon after stopped going to church, except on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter. I was so put off by this woman’s behavior that I didn’t want any part of religion!
After living this dreadful life in the past, I had settled down, married and started a family, I felt myself being drawn to the Church again, but this time it was a church that used the Bible as its main foundation. The more I went, the more I learned about God and Jesus; I also realized I was a sinner like everyone else! That was something I had never considered, I just figured if I followed the rules for the most part I was ok. You know, just go by the 10 Commandments, even if it was rather loosely to say the least.
But I have now realized it was God’s plan for me to go through these lessons in life to bring me to Him. I think you have to learn to see yourself in the same way God sees you, that we are not perfect beings, but sinners in need of His help. This is the reason Christ came to earth, to take the “bad” in people and make it “good” like Him, that’s where the word Christian comes from. So yes Christians start out as “bad”, but they have learned to let Christ teach them how to be “good” Christians! I believe God wanted to show me, how He grieved when I aborted my two babies, by letting me feel how it felt by the loss of my three pregnancies to miscarriages. God is a just and loving God, merciful and forgiving, but He lets us go through trials and tribulations in life in order to draw us closer to Him! We need to start believing more in His truth and less in the lies of this world!
Monday, March 2, 2015
Déjà Vu?
Taking a good look around the world these
days brings home the reality of this; it is a perfect description of the
present times, although written to a different generation:
Romans 1:18-32
God’s Wrath against Mankind
“18) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19) since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20) 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.
21) 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. 22) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24) Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25) They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen. 26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27) 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.
28) Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29) They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30) slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31) they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32) Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
This sounds as though we are in some serious trouble here; we are truly living this out right now! Woe to us!
Romans 1:18-32
God’s Wrath against Mankind
“18) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19) since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20) 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.
21) 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. 22) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
24) Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25) They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen. 26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27) 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.
28) Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29) They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30) slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31) they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32) Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
This sounds as though we are in some serious trouble here; we are truly living this out right now! Woe to us!
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Share if you dare!
The
following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on a CBS Sunday Morning
commentary.
My
confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.
It doesn't
bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they
are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of
like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy
time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on
display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a
nativity scene, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards
away.
I don't
like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like
getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God
are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the
concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find
it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I
can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship
celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that's a sign that
I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these
celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light
of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little
different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to
get you thinking.
Billy
Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her
'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I
believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've
been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to
get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly
backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if
we demand He leave us alone?'
In light
of recent events... terrorist attacks, school shootings, etc. I think it
started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few
years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou
shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And
we said OK.
Then Dr.
Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave,
because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their
self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know
what he's talking about. And we said okay.
Now we're
asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right
from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates,
and themselves.
Probably,
if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has
a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'
Funny how
simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to
hell.
Funny how
we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.
Funny how
you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you
start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how
lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but
public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you
laughing yet?
Funny how
when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address
list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you
for sending it.
Funny how
we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks
of us.
Pass it on
if you think it has merit.
If not,
then just discard it.... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this
thought process, don't sit back and complain about what a bad shape the world
is in.
My Best
Regards, Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
The Defender
On the Day of Judgment all will stand before the throne, the
Accuser stands pointing his finger, ready to spew forth a tale of sin. The eyes
of the Accused are cast to the ground; they dare not look up into the face of
the Judge, His holy eminence shines forth as a brilliant light. Before the
Accuser can voice his accusations, the Defender stands to speak “through thy
faith in me and what thou hast done for the least of these, I know thy heart;
I have shed my blood to cleanse thee and given my body to spare thee judgment!”
The Judge opens the Book of Life, He speaks “your name has been found, you are
pardoned, today you will be with Me in Eternity!”
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Another step in the right direction…
A short time ago I was at the post office in town, buying stamps and mailing a letter. I used the automated service or the machine, mailed my letter and was on my way out the door when I noticed this older woman walking with a cane. She was heading toward the door and walking with great difficulty. She would take a step, then stop and totter as though she was going to fall. I was ahead of her so I went to hold the door for her. She smiled and thanked me, it took her a very long time to get to the door and then through it with her unsteady gait, but finally she and I were outside. I asked her if she needed me to help her to her car and she took me up on my offer, she held my arm as I lead her to her car.
I told her I knew a little bit about how it felt because I had had total hip replacement surgery a year ago and had to use crutches and canes. She said hers was because of a disease and it wasn’t going to get better. She asked my name and thanked me for all my help.
It was a very simple act of kindness, but it made me feel like I had accomplished something big! I didn’t have to say anything about the love of Christ; I just had to show it!
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