A big day for many fellow Christian (public) students — is coming up. The Day of Truth was established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective.
In the past, students who have attempted to speak against the promotion of the homosexual agenda have been censored or, in some cases, punished for their beliefs. It is important that students stand up for their First Amendment right to hear and speak the Truth about human sexuality in order to protect that freedom for future generations. The Day of Truth provides an opportunity to publicly exercise our free speech rights.
Participating students are encouraged to wear T-shirts and pass out cards (not during class time) with the following message: I’m speaking the Truth to break the silence.
True tolerance means that people with differing — even opposing — viewpoints can freely exchange ideas and respectfully listen to each other. It’s time for an honest conversation about homosexuality. There’s freedom to change if you want to. Let’s talk.
The Day of Truth is scheduled for April 28, 2008. This is three days after GLSEN (The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) will sponsor the “Day of Silence.” GLSEN’s Day of Silence encourages students to remain silent throughout the day. It is part of their overall strategy to change how our society perceives homosexual behavior. But the Day of Silence is a misnomer, because what is truly being silenced is the Truth.
A local Christian radio station has just challenged their listeners to read the Bible in 90 days. I have decided to read each night, to my boys, this requires– I put them to bed a little earlier, but they are excited about this:) If you have never read the Bible cover to cover, you should, it will change your life. You will see things you never thought were in the Bible. You will see God’s warnings and promises to help you through tough times. Most of all, you will start to understand how God thinks. How can you please God if you don’t understand how He thinks? He knows you are not a mind reader. That is one reason, He gave you the Bible, so you could begin to understand what God expects from your life.
I promise you, the time you spend reading the Bible cover to cover, will be the most important time of your life. I cannot emphasize enough, the importance of what I am challenging you to do. Start at the very beginning. That way you can see God from the creation of our world, to the very end. It is better than any book or movie you have ever read or seen.
The Bible is our final authority for all matters concerning this life. In this day of being politically correct, accepting everyone’s beliefs and ideas, we are in the mess we are morally and spiritually because we have gotten away from the black and white truth of God’s Word. Go to Bible in 90 Days
Forgiveness would be simple if we only had to grant it to those who come asking for it in sorrow and repentance. The Bible tells us that we are to forgive those who sin against us, without condition. Refusing to truly forgive a person demonstrates resentment, bitterness, and anger – none of which should be the traits of a Christian. In the Lord’s Prayer, we ask God to forgive us our sins, just as we forgive those who sin against us. Jesus said, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” In light of other Scriptures that speak of God’s forgiveness, it is best understood to be saying that people who refuse to forgive others have likely not truly experienced God’s forgiveness themselves.
Whenever we miss the mark by disobeying one of God’s commands, we sin against Him. Whenever we wrong another person, we not only sin against them, but also against God. When we take a look at the enormity of God’s mercy to forgive us of ALL of our transgressions, we realize that we do not have the right to withhold this grace from others. We have sinned against God infinitely more than any person can sin against us. If God forgives us of so much, how can we refuse to forgive others for so little? God promises that when we come to Him asking for forgiveness, He freely grants it. The forgiveness we extend should know no bounds, in the same way that God’s forgiveness is limitless.
This morning my Pastor’s sermon covered the story of Jacob and Esau. The sons of Isaac and Rebekah and the first twins mentioned in the Bible ( I have special interest in this story because of my own Twins). Even before they were born, they were struggling together in the womb of their mother. Their prenatal striving foreshadowed later conflict.
The twins grew up very different: Jacob was “a plain man, dwelling in tents” and his mother’s favorite. Esau was “a cunning hunter, a man of the fields” and his father’s favorite. One day, Esau returned from hunting and desired some of the lentil stew that Jacob was cooking. Jacob offered to give his brother some stew in exchange for his birthright—the special honor that Esau possessed as the older son, which gave him the right to a double portion of his father’s inheritance. Esau put his temporary, physical needs over his God-given blessing and sold his birthright to Jacob.
When the time came for Isaac to bestow his blessing on his sons, Jacob and his mother contrived to deceive Isaac into blessing Jacob in Esau’s place. When Esau found that his blessing had been given to Jacob, he threatened to kill his brother, and Jacob fled. Years later, Jacob and Esau met and were reconciled.
Both Jacob and Esau were fathers of nations. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and he became the father of the Hebrews’ 12 tribes. Esau’s descendants were the Edomites. Edom was a nation that plagued Israel in later years and was finally judged by God.
In the New Testament, Esau’s choice to sell his birthright is used as an example of ungodliness—a “profane person” will put physical desires over spiritual blessings. By his negative example, Esau teaches us to hold fast to what is truly important, even if it means denying the appetites of the flesh. You alone God can help me do that.
Ben Stein, the TV personality, writer, actor, lawyer, economist, and speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford has a new film out called Expelled. In it, he talks to various academicians who say they were punished for taking positions doubting Darwin and promoting creationism or Intelligent Design.
The film won’t be released until April, but it’s been setting fires for months. Last year several advocates of the theory of natural selection (including Richard Dawkins, the author of “The God Delusion”) were interviewed. Dawkins thought he was to appear in a documentary called “Crossroads,” from Rampant Films, and only later did it morph into “Expelled,” from Premise Media. I am looking forward to seeing this documentary.
The description “first-born of all creation” speaks of Christ’s preexistence. He is not a creature but the eternal Creator. God created the world through Christ and redeemed the world through Christ.
Note that Jesus is called the first-born, not the first-created. The word “first-born” (Greek word “prototokos”) signifies priority. In the culture of the Ancient Near East, the first-born was not necessarily the oldest child. First-born referred not to birth order but to rank. The first-born possessed the inheritance and leadership.
Therefore, the phrase expresses Christ’s sovereignty over creation. After resurrecting Jesus from the dead, God gave Him authority over the Earth. Jesus created the world, saved the world, and rules the world. He is the self-existent, acknowledged Head of creation.
Finally, the phrase recognizes Him as the Messiah: “I will make Him [Christ] My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth”.
Six times the Lord Jesus is declared to be the first-born of God. These passages declare the preexistence, the sovereignty, and the redemption that Christ offers.
Thus, the phrase “first-born of all creation” proclaims Christ’s preeminence. As the eternal Son of God, He created the universe. He is the Ruler of creation!
Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself. The Apostle John affirms this in 1 John 4:8: “God is love.” God does not merely love; He is love itself. Everything God does flows from His love. But it is important to remember that God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental love such as we often hear portrayed. God loves because that is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable and the unlovely (us!), not because we deserve to be loved, but because it is His nature to do so, and He must be true to His nature and character. God’s love is displayed most clearly at the Cross, where Christ died for the unworthy creatures who were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), not because we did anything to deserve it, “but God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The object of agape love never does anything to merit His love. We are the undeserving recipients upon whom He lavishes that love. His love was demonstrated when He sent His Son into the world to “seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10), and to provide eternal life to those He sought and saved. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for those He loves.
In the same way, we are to love others sacrificially. Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of sacrifice for the sake of others, even for those who may care nothing at all for us, or even hate us, as the Jews did the Samaritans. Sacrificial love is not based on a feeling, but a determined act of the will, a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own. But this type of love does not come naturally to humans. Because of our fallen nature, we are incapable of producing such a love. If we are to love as God loves, that love – that agape – can only come from its true Source. This is the love which “has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us” when we became His children (Romans 5:5). Because that love is now in our hearts, we can obey Jesus who said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another” (John 13:34). This new commandment involves loving one another as He loved us – sacrificially – even to the point of death. But again, it is clear that only God can generate within us the kind of self-sacrificing love which is the proof that we are His children. “By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16). Because of God’s love toward us, we are now able to love one another.
