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| Church is Closed For Christmas? |
| 25.12.05 |
For all those satanic loser churches that feel worshipping Jesus and celebrating His birth cannot be done together, here's a parody of I'll Be Home For Christmas:
Church is closed for Christmas
We're not meeting here
Some are home, some alone
And Pastor's drinking beer
Christmas eve I'm shopping
And buying one more toy
But church is closed for Christmas
Sorry, Savior-Boy
(2nd verse)
Church is closed for Christmas
We're not meeting here
Some are home, some alone
And Pastor's drinking beer
Sunday's when we worship
Christmas is for Christ
But not when they're together
That is party night!
I found out that Brooksville A/G was closed for Christmas. I had respect for that church until then. I know the pastor and was surprised.
Any of you who go to a church that closed for Christmas- you need a church that celebrates Jesus no matter what is going on. If you are celebrating Christmas as the recognition of Jesus' birth, how on earth can you ignore a gathering to worship Him on that same day?! Please, any idiot- or idiot pastor- who agrees with that do not tell me to keep the "Christ" in Christmas or argue against "Happy Holidays." You cut Christ out of Christmas when you make Christmas a "family day" and forget that Jesus wants us devoted to Him more than even our families (see Abraham and Isaac in the OT and consider the following:
If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14.26 NASB)
And yes, I did tie the pastor of closed Christmas churches in to beer drinking. Those pastors might as well be drunkards, they are worthless, spineless buffoons. They are anathema. |
posted by pregador27 @ 16:46   |
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| Sick of Santa |
| 24.12.05 |
Okay, I think I have had it. My daughter came back from my father's house and could only talk about Christmas being about giving and Santa. I have taught her that Santa is pretend and we celebrate Christmas to honor Jesus and remember His birth. While I know this has it's origins in the "Christ Mass" which was the Romanist version of pagan celebrations, we do not honor Rome or Romanist theology. When my little girl came back talking about Santa and the meaning of Christmas being giving I was livid.
WHat's wrong with Christmas being about giving? IT'S ABOUT JESUS! Not about us giving, but about Him giving Himself- the King of kings humbling Himself to the point of death on the cross: "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2.5-8 NASB)
For us it will be ALL ABOUT JESUS!
Anyway, when most say CHristmas is about "giving," it really means people giving them things. I am really not liking this Santa garbage and the commercialism. THis will probably be our last Christmas in the States, our next Christmas will be Natal. It will be in Manaus, Brazil. It will not be extravagant. And Santa there is "Papa Noel." But he can burn too. I got rid of the Santa junk my father left with us while I was at work. Tomorrow we will sit as a family and I will read Luke 2 to my family as is our custom. In our house we will honor Jesus despite the pressures of the outside world to compromise- even despite the pressures of Romanist family members.
Our reason to celebrate:"Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.
When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them. (Luke 2.1-20 NASB) |
| posted by pregador27 @ 09:12 |
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| Democracy Deception? |
| 21.12.05 |
For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. (Philippians 3.18-21 NASB)
This post may be hard for many of my fellow Americans to swallow. However, I want the truth, not something to tickle my ears.
I was about to write about Democracy and our (USA) intention to spread it around the world this morning. It was tentatively entitled "Democracy: God Ordained or Opposing God?" Since Democracy and the idea of a Representative Republic are basically rule by the people, I felt that our zeal may be misplaced in promoting Democracy around the world. When the world chooses, it always chooses wrong, never what is good or right. (ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." -Romans 3.12 NASB)
I wrote the music post instead. Don Walton, however, did write about this topic on December 19, 2005. His post can be found at the Time For Truth blog and here is a teaser:
December 19, 2005
DEMOCRACY RUN AMOK
Where do we get the idea that democracy is God's favorite form of human government? It was a monarchy that God set up for ancient Israel, not a democracy. God's Son will soon return as the rightful heir to Israel's throne to rule over the whole world "with a rod of iron" (Revelation 12:5; 19:15). There will be neither polling places nor opinion polls during Christ's Millennial Reign. As absolute Sovereign, Christ will rule by divine authority, not majority consent, and will execute the divine will, not public opinion.
In the second chapter of Daniel, the Prophet Daniel interprets the horrifying image haunting the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar as a panorama of history's Gentile world powers. Interestingly, each successive Gentile world power decreases in value. Babylon, where the king was supreme, is represented by the image's head of gold. Medo-Persia, where the law was supreme (see Daniel 6:12-15 and Esther 8:8), is represented by the image's silver breast and arms. Greece, where democracy was born, is represented by the image's bronze stomach and thighs. Rome, the representative republic from which our own government was modeled, is represented by the image's iron legs. And finally, the image's feet are representative of the end time Gentile world power, which will prove insufficient for the image's support and incapable of holding together, since it consist of a mixture of iron and clay.
Clay in the Bible represents man. For instance, the name of the first man, "Adam," means "red." A fitting name for one created by God from the red clay of the earth (Genesis 2:7). In light of this, we may conclude that the end time Gentile world power will not only be a representative republic, like Rome, but also a worldwide champion of democracy and the rights of the people. Sound like any country you know?
(The article continues at the Time For Truth blog, click here to finish the article and read others!) |
| posted by pregador27 @ 00:21 |
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| "Lucifer": Choir Director? |
| 20.12.05 |
Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. (Ezekiel 28.13 KJV)
I have seen this verse used to "prove" that satan was heaven's choir director. I have seen very little Scripture in support of this, it is taught as is evolution- as theory masquerading as fact. No where in the Bible does it say that satan was the choir director- or that heaven even has a choir director!
All this is for those who disapprove of a particular musical style to have some was to rationalize demonizing the music. This may seem like a defense of Christian Rock, but it is not. It is not meant as a defense to any music. It is meant as a desire for truth. Some music may be inappropriate, but do not twist Scripture to make the point.
I still cannot tell at what point music itself becomes "evil." Is it when we play 3/4 time? 4/4? When there's no organ? If there is a guitar? Drums? A minor chord? Effects like chorus, distortion, wah or delay? Use of a non-acoustic instrument? Cymbals?
For me, the words and lifestyle of the band mean a lot. I do not listen to much "contemporary Christian" music because it is very shallow and the lifestyles are less than worldly (e.g.- Amy Grant shacks up with Vince Gill and is still considered a Christian artist- what a joke!!). Some Gospel musicians are filled with pride (I have seen it close up) and some Christian "rockers" are as filled with the world as any "secular" artist ever was. A band that is tabbed as "Christian" (such as Switchfoot) and does not mention Jesus once- not even in the "thank yous" (such as Switchfoot) are worthless. If they do personally claim to be Christians they are lame.
To sum this up, satan was no choir director and if we have a conviction against any style of music (like rock, rap, hymns, choruses, etc) we should not isogete (read into the text) Scripture to prove our point. We should stick to God's Word and conform to it as the Holy Spirit transforms us, not try to transform it to fit our point. Sola Scriptura.Labels: Bible |
| posted by pregador27 @ 09:31 |
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| It's Later, Now More... |
| 15.12.05 |
We are renting a big house for a year before we head toward Brasil. Next year at this time we will travel to Recife to see my daughter Ligia graduate and then we will move to Manaus permanently.
Unfortunately, we do not qualify to be Southern Baptist missionaries. We would not be able to choose where we would go if we went through the SBC. So, we will have to try to raise support some other way. I may work really hard on becoming fluent in Portuguese quickly and try to get a job in Manaus to support our family, but my hope is to work full-time on reaching remote areas for Christ.
The fight here about Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays seems trite when I think about those outside of Manaus who never hear the Gospel. CBN's tv signals do not reach where there is no electricity. That's probably a good thing anyway. They don't Benny Hinn and the prosperity "gospel" prostitutes spreading an irrelevant, materialistic pseudo-Christian message to the Brazilians in remote areas.
I will post photos when I am down there. I appreciate Josh's request. I would love to take a tour of the US and Canada before we leave. I would love to meet Josh, le and Doug, Rand, Michael and others with whom I have had the pleasure of reading and dialoguing.
I will pray to that end, but if not, I trust I will see many of my best blog friends at a great reunion later on. GOD is Good! |
| posted by pregador27 @ 14:16 |
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| No Place To Be For CHRISTmas: Church? |
| 12.12.05 |
I cannot fathom the mainly mega-church, emerging-church, seeker-sensitive church idea that church services should be cancelled on Christmas Sunday. What idiocy! What lunacy! If you are a pastor reading this, and this is also your idea of a good thing, I ask what are you thinking?! I seriously doubt you put this decision to prayer. If we really celebrate Christmas in honor of Jesus' birth, why would we not go to the place we meet to worship Him? Think of Christmas Sunday as His birthday party!
It seems that these MC/EC/SSC's will do whatever is politically-correct and have no fear of undermining or watering down the Gospel in their quest for NUMBER$. I will take a Sunday morning sermon over a Sunday morning (or Saturday night) seminar. And the Seventh Day Adventists do not need to respond to this, your cult is not the topic.
This Sunday I will be fellowshipping with my church family at Antioch Fellowship Baptist Church in Spring Hill, FL. |
| posted by pregador27 @ 10:54 |
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