Taylors First Baptist Church’s Frank Page heads off the stage this week at this year’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, IN. Starting tomorrow, the Baptists will be selecting a new president and deciding whether to stay on the straight paths or to leave them for the broader roads that lead to destruction.
Read the article HERE. Visit the SBC annual meeting web site HERE.
And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth [his] hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
Mark 1:40-41
As Jesus encounters a leper, we can learn some things about Him and about how those who are “Christians” should behave.
First, think about the leper. This man was probably not very appealing to look at. He probably had sores and, being banished to places outside the city, he may not have been very clean. In fact, lepers were most frequently found ostracized, wandering outside the city. Regardless, this man was sure to be unattractive and undesirable. In spite of this man’s disease and undesirable features, Jesus did what most modern “Christians” wouldn’t even think about doing: He touched him.
Then there’s Jesus. The emotion that prompted Jesus to touch this man was compassion. Jesus saw this man and did not see a leper. He did not see someone to avoid, but someone to draw near to. He had no regard for the rules of “uncleanness.” He didn’t care that this man was rejected by family and society. Jesus saw a man who had great need. Jesus saw a man who was desperate for help. Jesus had compassion. This compassion was not the kind that “Christians” of today have: Jesus’ compassion moved Him to touch this man.
Can you imagine this leper? Here was a man who likely had not been touched at all for years. Here’s a man who may not have felt sincere love and compassion for decades. Imagine how he felt when the kind, tender hand of Jesus, touched him. No wonder this man spread the news abroad… sure he was healed, but he was also cared for. He was somebody. Now he could rejoin the ranks of the living. Now he knew that Jesus was on his side.
What I’ve noticed at least here in Greenville, South Carolina, those who are supposed to be “Christians” are largely uninvolved in the lives of those who are desperate; those who are in need of someone genuinely motivated and moved; those who need a touch from someone who actually cares.
It’s nice to know that Jesus still touches people. He’s moved with compassion towards all people, but particularly to the unappealing and undesirable. The poor and the needy. The prisoners, the ostracized. But remember, Jesus is not physically present with us right now. He works through those who genuinely know Him to touch people who are in need and to show the compassion of Christ here on earth while He is away.
Go ahead… next homeless person you see, rather than mocking him or her, rather than pretending you don’t see… go ahead and let the compassion of Jesus move you to touch that person and meet a need in that person’s life. That is what Jesus would do.
Just wait one cotton-pickin’ momento! George Bush’s message at Furman University’s graduation was full of New World Order globalistic communism!
The truth is that right now we are forced to “help” by virtue of our socialist state and the robbing of our income by the government so that it can be redistributed by the government in a way that will ensure the continued entrenchment of the political elite class in politics. We are forced to support the United Nations because our assets are seized by a tyrannical government that has decided to do so. We are forced to bail out every two-bit, flea-bitten useless nation around the world because of the furtive New World Order and because of this supposed “obligation” the USA has to keep the rest of the world afloat.
Well DAMN! The responsibility of the United States’ government is to the citizens of the United States of America. Don’t believe the Bush lies and the Al Gore lies that we are responsible for the pollution and the climates in other countries! What makes America obligated to anyone? I’ll tell you: It’s these freaks that go around and say that because Americans have abundance that we should spread it around so that our country can become just as low-down and wretched as other countries. Who the fat wants to be like Bolivia? I don’t, but this “American obligation” business aims to make us just that.
OK, so what about the obligation of one American citizen to another? What’s that? How about Bush’s obligation to us to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America? What about his responsibility to defend our nation from invasion? He doesn’t seem to feel obligated to fight against the global warming fraud that seeks to tax working Americans into oblivian. He doesn’t seem to feel obligated to the Conservatives who helped secure his two terms in office. He is more committed to Mexico than he is to the USA! He’s more committed to the drunken murder, Ted Kennedy, than he is to religious freedom. He certainly has shown quadruple obligation to the Islamic Jihad that is growing within our country. Do God Bless America - El Bushé doesn’t feel obligated to us at all!!
Now let’s talk about regular people like you and me: what is our obligation to each other? Nothing. None. Zero. Nada. Now, don’t get me wrong: we should care… we should be concerned about others… but we are not obligated.The government that forcibly removes our resources from us cannot sell us on an obligation. In fact, if we as Americans would demand our freedom back, I am sure that we would willingly do a lot more to help others (but still say “screw” all the other countries). In short, the government has no authority to place any obligation upon us.
How about Christians? Christians do have an obligation. Just as Jesus came to set prisoners free, to heal the sick, to bind up the brokenhearted, to feed the hungry, and to minister to those considered unworthy by the “Holier-than-thou” crowd. Talk about failed obligations! Maybe it’s different where you are, but most churches (and church folks) care nothing about the very people that Jesus came to minister to! I dare say that most “churches” in reality have nothing to do with Jesus at all. Else the obligation would be carried out. Those who believe are obligated to meet the needs of others - especially those who share the faith, but also to those who are “without.” That’s why we feed the homeless, visit the sick, and care for those suffering from addiction. Our obligation is assigned to us by God… not by our government.
So go ahead - get all “high churchy” and “cultured.” That has nothing to do with being a Christian. In fact, it might actually show who’s not a Christian. Those who truly know God are the ones who work to meet the obligation that God has placed upon them!
1Jo 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
This verse from the Bible describes the Christian’s duty to minister to those who are in need. If possessing the means to help someone in need, a normal reaction by one who is truly a “Christian” is to help that one in need. Clearly, the Bible stipulates this reaction for one who has the ability to help a brother in need: for the one who does not have the means to assist is not obligated to help his brother in need because he is not capable of it. So we can readily accept that if you know one who has a need and if you have the ability to assist that needy person, that if you are a “Christian,” you will help that person.
This leads me to an interesting aside where one may exist whose circumstances and guardianship is plainly not responsible (as in a case where a mother allows her daughter to steal freely of her possessions and money: could we say that the love of God dwelling within another “Christian” would compel that “Christian” to give to that mother’s necessity, knowing that the gift will be looted by her daughter? Somehow I don’t think so, but the danger exists that too many exceptions will provide too much excuse too many false “Christians.” For example, if the need were food, one would be wise to give such a woman food rather than cash. If the need were electricity, one would probably do best by paying the electric company in her name rather than to provide her with cash. Other times, needs may be fabricated and not genuine. Is it our job as a Christian to judge that? I’d say probably not, unless the deception was blatant.
This leads me to the biggest problem I have with my mother: she says that she is a “Christian,” but I have never seen her be a “Christian.” Consider the brother in need (I think it’s wise also to stipulate that the Bible text would include a “sister in need” as well as a brother). I can think of probably four people (and possibly others) who were “Christians” who came to my parents having need and on every occasion my mother would not lend any assistance whatsoever. To make things worse, those who asked were treated to one of my mothers railing lectures where she points out everything she doesn’t like about that person and that if they fixed all that then they wouldn’t need help. I mean she just goes off on people in general, but especially if she senses the weakness of having a need. I grew up in her house: I know. Since I’ve grown up I’ve had a time or two when I was in desperate need. So desperate that I asked them for aid; and like all those before, she refused to lift one finger or take even small action to provide relief (for her own son) and like the others I was treated to railing and berating criticisms based on her own invalid assumptions.
I say this to support what I have always known: I have never seen one indication of God’s love dwelling in my mother (Lucille Tyson) either growing up or afterwards. You might think that she’s really spiritual, but that’s because she plays the role. She uses the lingo and she will fake you out. While growing up, many people were deceived by her only to discover over time what my brother (Bryan Tyson) and I always knew: she turned it “on” and “off” like a switch… and believe me, she never turned it “on” at home either. What we knew was that she didn’t pray. She didn’t attend church, she didn’t do anything that would make one think that she was a “Christian.” She doesn’t care about those in need and - having the means to help the need - will do nothing to help those in need.
So I want my mother to know that I am not fooled by her talk of prayer and Bible. It’s just talk. It always has been and it always will be. It’s a shame because by the very religion to which she pretends to adhere she is condemned: she fails the test.
James asked, How could the love of God possibly dwell in you? The answer is all your responsibility.
Turns out the raid on the FLDS compound in Texas was based on a caller who made up false abuse claims:
Officials say the Texas Rangers are pursuing Rozita Swinton of Colorado as a “person of interest” regarding telephone calls related to the polygamist compound in Eldorado, Texas.
Colorado Springs police confirmed that on Wednesday they arrested Swinton, 33, at her home.
“This arrest stemmed from an incident that occurred in Colorado Springs in February of this year,” according to a news release from the Colorado Springs Police Department.
During this interesting series of events, we have been eerily reminded of other attempts at government-gone-wild such as “Waco.” See, the government is using the “Tobacco” approach on restricting human rights to begin attacking religious rights as well. Just as the tobacco industry (and smokers too) generate very little sympathy among the citizens, whacked out and bizarre religious cults are not favored amongst the American public.
I say this to remind you: First it’s your seat belt, then it’s your cigarettes, and before you know it the government will take your house and other property and eliminate your privacy. Just the same with religious rights: First Waco (who cares about those freaks anyway? RIGHT?), next the FLDS, then - before you know it - the “law” is moving in on your church.
That’s right. The government has no business disrupting hundreds of lives because of one phone caller who may or may not be telling the truth. Sure, the FLDS doesn’t really represent anything I approve of, but if we don’t stand up for them, they will be raiding your religious group next.
Read more about it HERE.
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How dare some of these BJU-infatuated holier-than-thou judgmental religious people judge me or anyone else based on their own prejudices! Here’s some examples from a religious person whose religion is scented with the fire of Hell:
Heretic: “You are so far away from God.”
TIW: “Wow. How do you know that? How did you arrive at this conclusion?”
Heretic: “Just look at you with a beard!”
How does a person come to think like this? Such a proposition has no foundation in the Bible, so why would someone who claims to know God say such a thing? Easy: Ignorance, and deception. This person has no idea about what the Bible says and has been indoctrinated by lying preachers and teachers.
Heretic: “You don’t go to church.”
TIW: “How do you know?”
Heretic: “I can tell.”
This devilish person claims to know if a person attends church or not. Satan only knows how a freak like this can detect church attendance without any inquiry.
Heretic: “If you’d pray and do God’s will you won’t get into trouble.”
I’d like to know how these pseudo-fundamentalists can tell whether someone prays or not. How do these freaks think they have the power to discern whether someone is doing God’s will or not? How the FAT do these people presume that those who pray and obey God never get into trouble… seems to me that most everyone makes mistakes… after all, most of us are human.
This stuff is really bizarre. I could go on… This is the kind of freaky people that are programmed by Bob Jones churches to be intolerant, judgmental haters of all those who are not exactly like them. This kind of person gives religion a bad name.
Michelle Malkin has noted a trend of really bad things coming from black “men of the cloth.” Read about it HERE
Three men who said they disagree with how Bob Jones University interprets the Bible staged a protest today outside the school’s main entrance on Wade Hampton Boulevard.
I wonder why The Greenville News thinks that this is news. Come on! Is Greenville really that boring that the only thing to report on is three men protesting Bob Jones University? I despise Bob Jones University just as much as anyone else does, but come on - get a life!
OK, you have a point. So what’s so freaking new about having a hateful man in a pulpit? Nothing. What’s so freaking new about having a hypocrite in a pulpit? Nothing. Just normal. What’s so freaking new about having a “preacher” living head and shoulders above the average parishioner? Not a whole lot.
So this really isn’t news when I tell you how Obama HUSSEIN’s “pastor” is building a $1.6 million home. So much for being one with the people! So much for his respect and concern for the members of his church. He’s moving up and moving out on their backs… the people who he’s supposed to serve. How disgusting! - But not news. Where in America anyway is religion any different?
Folks, I’ve told you before: It’s very hard to get away from Jonsers - especially here in Greenville County, South Carolina. SermonAudio.com is nothing new, I’ve heard of it before, but now that it’s been featured in The Greenvile Pravda, I though you’d might want to read about it. By the way, Jonseism promotes heresy, so there’s no way Truth in the Word could endorse the SermonAudio website.
From the article:
The Rev. Bruce Walker preaches to a Greenville congregation of fewer than 100 that doesn’t even have its own church building.
But his sermons have been downloaded thousands of times by people around the world, via a Web site that originates from an upstairs room in the home of a Simpsonville Internet entrepreneur.
More than 1 million sermons are downloaded each month from the site, SermonAudio.com, owned and operated by Steven Lee, a Korean-born Bob Jones University graduate who started this Web venture seven years ago.
Walker is just one of 5,000 preachers who are using the site to get their message out beyond the walls of their own churches.
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