What we are seeing played out on television screens from the news rooms of the world is not a war with a clear enemy and a clearly defined sense of possible victory.

What we have is a barely defined enemy and a poorly communicated goal of victory.

Why is this the case?

First of all because people don’t want to define the enemy because they are scared of being labeled as politically incorrect or religiously intolerant.

Secondly, they don’t want to talk about victory because they don’t want to admit that there is either an enemy or a war going on. They are peace loving people and want to only tolerate the notion of peace being a possibility.

Neville Chamberlin was like that in WW2.

Neville Chamberlin was a man who could not, because of his love of the concept of peace deal with the threat of the thought of war.

He was known to the French as Mr. “I love Germany”. He admitted that there was a problem, that there was military build up in Germany taking place, but he would not and he refused to deal with the stated threat and intent of Germany to invade both France & Czechoslovakia.

In September of 1938 he arrive back for a meeting with Hitler in Berlin. He said:

“My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”

Twelve months later German invaded Poland.
As a result of this attack Chamberlain said:

“This is a sad day for all of us, and to none is it sadder than for me. Everything that I have worked for, everything that I hoped for, everything I have believed in during my public life has crashed into ruins.”

Denying the existences of war.
Denying the threat of war neither means the absence of war or the existence of peace.

It simply means that people have stopped believing in reality and forgotten to pullback the curtain and look at what is really going on.

As goes the Church, so goes the world.

We have what we have in the political arena, because we have what we have in the church.

Again:
What we have is a barely defined enemy and a poorly communicated goal of victory.

When Jesus was describing His mission He described it in these terms:

Luk 11:2
(2) And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

He under stood that:

Mat 11:12
(12) From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

The aim of Christ was to institute the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

The aim of Christ was to restore that which had been lost with the fall of man and reinstitute that which had been proclaimed since time began.

They say the kits will cost around $50,000.

The intro is pretty bad, the concept is cool

Predictions based on “scientific fact” from Earth Day 1975

“We have about five more years at the outside to do something.”
• Kenneth Watt, ecologist

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
• George Wald, Harvard biologist

“We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
• Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist

“Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
• New York Times editorial, the day after the first Earth Day

“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
• Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.”
• Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day

“Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
• Sen. Gaylord Nelson

Did my CHL yesterday, it was a blast!

It was very informative. You get in to that sort of environment and you hear people’s stories as to why they were and what motivated them to want to carry a handgun and it changes your perception on some things.

The other thing that was scary is that some of the people who got their license yesterday….”Wow…they going to give you a licence.”

Then you go to the shooting range and again….you never have to depend upon your fellow class mates to protect you!!

Anyway…..

The people who run the course have offered to come to the church and hold a Concealed Handgun Course for anyone who would like to participate.

Join the group on CLCPeople and let us know.

1. The instrument used by the reformers in the 18th Century was the old apostolic weapon of preaching
2. They preached everywhere
3. They preached simply. Luther said that “no one can be considered a good preacher to the people who is not willing to preach in such a manner that seems childish and vulgar to some”.
4. They preached fervently and directly. They believed that you must speak from the heart to speak to the heart.
5. They believed & taught the sufficiency and supremacy of the Scripture.
6. They taught the total corruption of human nature
7. They taught that Christ’s death on the cross was the only satisfaction far man’s sin.
8. They taught justification by faith alone.
9. They taught the universal necessity of heart conversion and a new creation by the Holy Ghost.
10. They taught the inseparable connection between true faith and personal holiness.
11. They taught God’s hatred towards sin and God’s love towards sinner.

Some thoughts on what true preaching is, and what true preachers should look like..