Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pelosi on abortion

This is what Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had to say when she was asked when human life begins.......

Pelosi on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" was asked when human life begins.

She said:

I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition … St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose.

According Pelosi, she has 'studied' this issue for a long time but still doesn't know when life begins. She even makes an attempt to show that the Catholic church doesn't even know when life begins by quoting St. Augustine who said three months.

Augustine? The same Augustine who lived in the 5th century? That's her expert within the church on when life begins?

Funny she doesn't quote someone in the 21st century like.........

"To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion ... it is plain experimental evidence." The "Father of Modern Genetics" Dr. Jerome Lejeune, Univ. of Descarte, Paris

"By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception." Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman, Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic

Actually, Pelosi, we do know.........we have known for a long, long time. You do not care what the truth is because, you say, "the point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on a woman's right to choose."

That's what it all comes down to. To rid a female body of an inconvenience...to have the control to end a life because she damn well chooses to.

This is an evil of the worse sort.

As our nation’s founding documents make clear, the right to life is God-given and inalienable. The right to live cannot be legitimately usurped by men. No man, no government has the right to deprive one of life or liberty without a trial by jury, regardless of skin color, age, stage of development, level of dependence upon others for survival, or place of residence.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

What would you do for your faith?

Thinking she was drugged because she could not talk coherently, police in Baqouba say a 15 year old girl was forced to wear about 33 pounds of explosives and told to wait outside a school for further instructions.

What kind of religion forces teen aged girls to be strapped with bombs to kill as many children as possible?

Where are the followers of the religion of peace when it comes to condemning these acts of terrorism?

Is this the desperate act from a small sect of violent Islamic terrorist who take their Qur'an literally? Or, is this what all Muslim's should be doing but aren't because they don't take their Qur'an literally?

Hard to tell because I don't hear the greater 'peaceful' Muslim population condeming these acts of violence.

Click Here for full story and pictures

Tears streaming down her face, she is confronted by police - a teenage girl apparently planning to blow herself up in front of an Iraqi school.

The officers handcuffed her to a metal balustrade before moving in with extreme caution to uncover a vest full of explosives hidden under her colourful robe.

The dramatic scenes were captured on a video shot by the police.

The girl - thought to be around 15 years old - later said that she was given the bomb and told to wait outside the school for further instructions.

In the footage, she denies trying to stage a suicide attack, and appears dazed, even drugged. She gave her first name as Rania and said she was born in 1993.

Her exchange with the police offered a rare glimpse at a teenager allegedly recruited by insurgents.

However, it was not clear to what extent her answers were given out of fear - of the police, or even of her own family.

Police in Baqouba, where the girl was caught on Sunday, said she was fitted with the vest by female relatives of her husband, whom she married five months ago.
They also claimed that the girl's father was a suicide bomber, and her mother and one of her sisters were later arrested.

However, U.S. sources said that the girl turned herself in after being hooked up to the explosives against her will.

The police footage begins with Rania standing on the street. Her arms are already behind her back, where they have apparently been tied by an officer in an attempt to restrain her.
A policeman is shown opening her robe, and later frames show her wearing what appears to be a suicide vest, containing about 33lb of explosives.

The officer said the girl led the police back to where she was given the explosives and that they found a second bomb belt in an empty apartment in the Baqouba area.

Many Iraqi women wear long robes, ideal for covering bulky suicide vests, and Iraqi policemen hesitate to pat them down at checkpoints because of cultural taboos.

The police footage of the girl's arrest begins with her standing on a Baqouba street, next to a metal structure.

Her arms are behind her back, apparently tied to the structure, as police surround her.
Later, a policeman is shown opening her robe, and subsequent frames show her wearing what appears to be the suicide vest.

Police later said the vest contained about 33 pounds of explosives.

Monday, August 25, 2008

False Converts

False Converts

Who was it that added Judas, and Ananias and Sapphire, and Simon Magus, and Demas to the church?

Who was it that stole forth by night and red tares among the wheat? That evil spirit is not dead, he is still busy enough in this department, and continually adds to the church each as are not saved.

His are the mixed multitude which infest the camp of Israel, and are the first to fall a lusting; his the Achane who bring a curse upon the tribes: his are those of whom Jude says, "certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation."

These adulterate the church , and by so doing, they weaken and defile it, and bring it much grief and dishonor.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The damned in Hell would be most penitent

The damned in hell would be most penitent

(Thomas Watson, "The Doctrine of Repentance")

"Unless you repent, you will also perish." Luke 13:5

There are several counterfeits of repentance.

A man has gone on long in sin. At last God arrests him, shows him what desperate hazard he has run—and he is filled with anguish! But after a while,the tempest of conscience is blown over, and he is quiet. Then he concludes that he is a true penitent because he has felt some bitterness in sin.

Do not be deceived! This is not true repentance!

Both Ahab and Judas had great trouble of mind.It is one thing to be a terrified sinner—and another to be a repenting sinner. Sense of guilt is enough to breed terror in the conscience. Only infusion of divine grace, breeds true repentance. If pain and trouble were sufficient to repentance—then the damned in hell would be most penitent, for they are most in anguish.

"Men gnawed their tongues in agony, and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done!" Revelation 16:10-11

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Please repent of your sins against God and trust Christ to save you before it's too late. The Bible says that 'it is appointed men once to die and then the Judgment.'

When you die it will be too late for your repentance.

Repent of your blasphemy; of your stealing; of your lying; of your coveting; of your disobeying your parents; of your failing to put God first in your life.

If you die in your sins God will punish you for breaking His Commandments. The price to pay is eternity in the Lake of Fire. This does not have to happen.

Repent with a godly sorrow for sinning against the Creator and put your trust in Christ to save you from God's wrath. If you do this, you will have forgiveness of your sins and eternal life in Heaven.

Do it today.

Your enemy

Your enemy!

(Joseph Alleine, "Alarm to the Unconverted" 1671)

"I myself, the Sovereign Lord, am now your enemy!" Ezekiel 5:8

Unconverted sinner! You are not only against God--but God is against you! As there is no friend like Him--so there is no enemy like Him. As much as heaven is above the earth, omnipotence above impotence--so much more terrible is it to fall into the hands of the living God, than into the paws of bears and lions, yes, furies or devils! God Himself will be your tormentor! Who or what shall deliver you out of His hands? Sinner, I think this wouldgo like a dagger to your heart--to know that God Himself is your enemy! Oh where will you go? Where will you shelter yourself?

The infinite God is engaged against you! He hates all workers of iniquity. Man, does not your heart tremble to think of your being an object of God's hatred? "As surely as I live, when I sharpen My flashing sword and begin to carry out justice, I will bring vengeance on My enemies and repay those who hate Me!" (Deuteronomy 32:40-41)

The power of God is mounted like a mighty cannon against you. Sinner, the power of God's anger is against you--and power and anger together make fearful work. There is no escaping His hands--no breaking loose from His prison.

"O consider this, you who forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver!" (Psalm 50:22)

Submit to mercy. Let not dust and stubble battle against the Almighty. "Woe to him who strives with his Maker!" (Isaiah 45:9)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

McCain and Vietnam

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It was September 1967, and Lt. Cmdr. John McCain was back from Vietnam on home leave. He invited Chuck Larson over for dinner, and during a late night game of bridge, McCain pulled his buddy from the U.S. Naval Academy and flight school aside.

Larson recalls being stunned at what he heard.

"You know Chuck, I might have to get out of the Navy," McCain told him. "And I said, 'Why is that John?' and he said, 'Well I want to be a serious naval officer. And when I go places now, people tend to not take me seriously. They hear all the stories, they look at the early days and if they can't take me seriously, I don't know how I can perform.' And I said, 'John, you're going back.' "

A few weeks later, McCain reported for duty on the USS Oriskany and, as he did on his previous assignment on the USS Forrestal, began flying bombing missions over North Vietnam.

October 26, 1967, was McCain's 23rd mission. His target was a power plant on the outskirts of Hanoi.

"I was still in the dive, I had just started to pull out and got hit by a surface-to-air missile, and it basically took the wing off the aircraft," McCain told CNN in one of a series of conversations for "McCain Revealed." "And so I was gyrating very violently, almost straight down, so I had to eject very quickly."

Retracing McCain's steps in Vietnam was a fascinating experience. On the shores of Ho Truc Bach -- White Bamboo Lake -- we spent time with Nguyen Dang Doanh, who said he was on the far side of the lake that morning when he saw a parachute splash down in the water.

McCain was "stretched out -- he was lifted by the life jacket," Doanh said. "Then we all pushed him here [to the edge of the lake] and the security forces surrounded him. .. At that point everyone in the village was here. Everyone came down to see the American pilot."

Nguyen Thi Tranh was a nurse on duty at a neighborhood first aid station that day. Its purpose was to treat local residents hurt in the American bombardment, but Tranh remembers the day more than four decades ago when police came in carrying a white-haired American pilot.

Tranh, now 82 and living in a modest home not far from the lake, told us she bandaged McCain's arms and one leg. She said she "hated the American pilots" because of the deaths and destruction caused by their bombing runs, but she viewed it as her job and her duty to help treat him.

She would later learn that the man who was in her care for 15 or 20 minutes that day became a politician after he returned to the United States. "Would you like him to be president of the United States?" we asked Tranh.

"That depends on the U.S. people. I don't know," Tranh said. See McCain campaign photos »

Another Vietnamese official who had close contact with McCain in those days did express hope the Arizona senator wins the election.

Tran Trong Duyet was the director of the Hoa Lo prison, known as the notorious "Hanoi Hilton" to American POWs, from 1968 to 1973. He has kept track of McCain's political career, and said he admires the man once in his custody because of his work to push the United States, during the Clinton administration, to normalize relations with Vietnam.

As for his prison days, Duyet said in his conversations with McCain, "He would never admit the United States made a mistake in the war. ... Therefore I say John McCain is an extremely conservative man. He was loyal to his ideology."

The low point for McCain came in 1968, before his transfer to the Hanoi Hilton. In his own accounts of those days, McCain wrote that after four days of beatings -- including a re-breaking of his left arm -- he signed a confession admitting to war crimes.

"I wasn't as tough as I had hoped to be and I certainly wasn't as strong as some of my comrades," McCain said.

The Vietnamese knew his father was the admiral commanding U.S. forces in the Pacific, and they offered McCain early release. But he refused, on grounds the code of conduct instructed that prisoners be released in the order in which they had been captured.

"There was a correlation between my refusal to accept early release and my treatment," McCain told us. "Because after it was clear to the Vietnamese I would not do that, then the treatment got very much worse."

As for his father, who knew from U.S. intelligence that increased bombing could result in harsher treatment for his son, McCain said: "I think in many ways it was harder on him than it was on me."

Duyet grew animated and agitated when pressed about accounts by McCain and dozens of other American POWs who said they were beaten and tortured, including being hung from the ceilings of their cells with their hands bound behind their backs.

"This is not true, because our nation is civilized and humanitarian and you do not understand the Vietnamese nation," Duyet said. "We never beat anybody."

Ernie Brace is among the many who tell a different story of their time as a POW, including time at Hao Lo when McCain was there.

"I had my front teeth knocked out, I had my cheekbone broken, I had my nose broken," said Brace. He described other inmates who were, among other things, "beaten with a fan belt for three of four days." He said the captors would "put your elbows behind your back and tighten up the rope around your elbows until your shoulders dislocated."

Many of McCain's friends said he rarely brings up his POW days in their conversations, and won't discuss details of his treatment unless pressed.

"It's just a chapter in my life that I'd rather remember the good parts than the bad parts," McCain said. "I don't know what the point is of going through all that."

It was while in the cell next to McCain that Brace said he first got a sense of his neighbor's politics -- communicated through taps on the wall using an alphabet code developed by the prisoners.

According to Brace, when Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, McCain was "elated."

"He said, 'Nixon will get us home. Nixon won't sit there. He'll listen to the generals and get, you know, no more running this war from the basement of the White House.' "

"Well, it didn't happen," Brace recalled recently. "We thought we'd be home for Christmas of '69 and there we were. And there we were for three more Christmases -- '70, '71, and '72."

And his take on his neighbor's politics back then?

"He was a conservative. He was an archconservative," said Brace. "And his theory on the war at that time was 'Do it. Do it right, and get it over with.' "

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I would unmask the devil!

I would unmask the devil!

(Talmage, "The Abominations of Modern Society", 1872)

"Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light!" 2 Corinthians 11:14

Sin, crawling out of the ditch of poverty and shame, has but few temptations.

Poets and painters have portrayed Satan as a hideouscreature--with horns and hoofs. If I were a poet, I would describe him with . . .

manners polished to the last perfection,
hair flowing in graceful ringlets,
eye glistening with splendor;
hands soft and diamonded;
step light and graceful;
voice mellow as a flute;
conversation articulate and eloquent;
breath perfumed until it would seem that nothing
had ever touched his lips, but balm and myrrh.

But his heart I would encase with the scales of a monster, then filled . . .

with pride,
with beastliness of lust,
with recklessness,
with hypocrisy,
with death,
with damnation!

In my next portrait--I would unmask the devil--until his two eyes would become the cold orbs of the adder; and on his lip would come the foam of raging intoxication; and to his feet, the spring of the panther; and his soft hand would become the clammy hand of a wasted skeleton; and in the smooth lisp of his tongue, would come the hiss of the worm which never dies; while suddenly from his heart would burst in all-devouring fury--the unquenchable flames of hell!

But, until unmasked, I would describe him as nothing but myrrh, and balm, and ringlet, and diamond, and flute-like voice, with pleasant and mirthful conversation.

"So that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are very familiar with his evil schemes." 2 Corinthians 2:11

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

All we can do.........

According to Oliver Tickell at the Guardian, because the Earth is going to rise another 4 degrees Celsius, all we can do today is prepare for extinction.

Tickell says, "Global warming on this scale would be a catastrophe that would mean, in the immortal words that Chief Seattle probably never spoke, "the end of living and the beginning of survival" for humankind. Or perhaps the beginning of our extinction."

Listen up folks, no matter how we are going to die, whether it is by global warming, car accident, cancer, a tower falling on top of us, plane crash, drowning, random act of violence or whatever the cause, the fact is this; we are going to die.

Tickell is right on when he says we need to prepare.

We need to prepare before we die where we will be after we die.

If you die in your sins (sin defined by 1 John 3:4 as transgressing the Law) God's wrath will crush you on the Day of Judgment where He will find you guilty of breaking His Law. He will then cast you into the Lake of Fire where you will spend eternity paying for your sins.

There is an alternative though.

God, in His infinite wisdom, made a way for you to avoid paying for your own sins. God took the form of a man, Jesus Christ, came to this world and walked a perfect sinless life. He allowed Himself to be taken by sinful man and was brutally tortured and then hung on a cross. Jesus died on that cross bearing the full weight on your sin, my sin, the sins of the world. He was taken down from the cross and buried in a new tomb. Three days later, God raised Jesus from the dead so that you could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Heaven.

It's like this; you broke the Law and Jesus paid your fine.

The Bible says to receive this forgiveness of sins you must repent and trust Christ to save you.

By repenting of your sins and trusting in Christ to save you on that Day of Judgment you are preparing for the day in which you will stand before the Creator of the universe.

Prepare now before its too late.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Law and Gospel

"The law sheweth us our sin; the Gospel sheweth us a remedy for it. The law sheweth us our condemnation; the Gospel sheweth us our redemption. The law is the word of wrath; the Gospel is the word of grace. The law is the word of despair; the Gospel is the word of comfort. The law is the word of unrest; the Gospel is the word of peace.The law saith, Pay thy debt; the Gospel saith, Christ hath paid it.

The law saith, Thou art a sinner, despair, thou shalt be damned; the Gospel saith, Thy sins are forgiven thee, be of good comfort, thou shalt be saved. The law saith, Make amends for thy sins; the Gospel saith Christ hath made it for thee. The law saith, Where is thy righteousness, goodness, and satisfaction? The Gospel saith, Christ is thy righteousness, thy goodness, and satisfaction. The law saith, Thou art bound and obliged to me, to the devil, and to hell; the Gospel saith, Christ hath delivered thee from them all."

—Patrick Hamilton (1503-1528)

Hat tip to The Boroean

Friday, August 08, 2008

Preach on Lawman!

From Tony Miano's blog The Lawman Chronicles

I was blessed to spend a few hours this afternoon on Hollywood Boulevard, with Leon Brown and Anthony English. Together, they made the 3-hour drive from San Diego to Los Angeles. As you can see by the above photo (the very distinct prop belongs to Leon), we went to Hollywood Boulevard to preach the Law and the Gospel.

The crowds were moderate in size, but we found it difficult to draw and keep a crowd. Trivia for cash didn't seem to be too effective so the three of us took turns stepping onto the box, reading Scripture, and heralding the Law and the Gospel. At first, most of the hecklers did what we call "hit and runs." In other words, they would walk by, hurl an insult or make a blasphemous comment, and continue on their way.

They didn't have the courage of their convictions to stop and engage in conversation. They just wanted to spew a little hatred to make themselves feel as if they accomplished something, and then walk away with a silly grin on their faces.After Leon preached for the second time, I climbed onto the box. This would be my third and last open-air of the afternoon.I began by affirming the crowds probable belief in John 3:16. Then I challenged them to have integrity in their belief in the Bible, by reading John 3:17-19 to them and asking them if they believed the verses that followed John 3:16.

Things began quietly enough. But within just a few short minutes, all of that would change.As I walked the crowd through the Ten Commandments, I could see a young man approach from my left. It was obvious to me that he was intoxicated, as evidenced by his unsteady gait and slurred speech.

The 5th Commandment (honor your parents) hit a nerve with this young man. His level of agitation went from zero to ten in about two seconds. Considering his intoxicated state, I had no intention of engaging the young man. But my sovereign Lord had other plans.

As I moved from the 5th to the 6th Commandment (Do not murder), the young man walked over to the heckler mike and proceeded to use it for field goal practice. The mike stand fell to the ground, with the microphone flying through the air. A person walking by picked up the microphone and handed it to me.I told the young man that the hatred he just expressed was tantamount to murder in God's eyes. He didn't like that.

He stormed toward the box, threatening to beat me. With my Bible in my hand, I calmly assured the young man that that would not happen. He looked at the Word of God and then grabbed at it with a swiping, tearing motion. He was able to get enough of a grip on the Bible to tear John 3 from the Book. He threw the torn page to the ground in disgust. Another passerby reached into the nearby gutter, picked up the torn piece of Scripture, and gently handed it to me.I returned my attention to the angry young man in front of me.

The situation continued to deteriorate, culminating in the young man spitting phlegm on my chest.When he spat on me, I admit that for a brief moment I shifted into deputy sheriff mode. I had been the victim of not one, but two assaults at the hands of the young man.I stepped off the box toward the young man. He immediately raised his fists. He was ready to fight.

I quickly read his stance and anticipated that the first blow would likely come from his right fist, and in a downward trajectory. I played out in my mind how I would either dodge or deflect the first blow, and then render the young man, shall we say, harmless.By God's amazing and totally unmerited grace, the young man did not try to punch me. Instead, he tried to grab the microphone from my hand (assault #3), which caused loud distortion in the amplifier.

I quietly told the young man that I would not fight him, that I loved him, that He wasn't a Christian(which was one of the first proclamations he made when he approached me), and that my hope for him was that he would repent and believe.He turned and walked away; and I returned to the box to continue to preach. For whatever reason, I couldn't get the feedback in the amplifier to stop; so I turned it off and preached without it.

I admit that I was shaken by the incident. I was also angry with myself for getting off the box. The frustration for what I considered to be a momentary lapse in judgment, the anger over a drunk man tearing a page from my Bible, the sorrow over the mockery of the gospel that came from the crowd, and the apparent enjoyment they derived from seeing a preacher assaulted and a Bible torn brought me to tears. (I think I've shed more tears than usual this week, over the depravity of man and their mockery of Christ and His gospel.)And I was upset about something else. My first thought was not to count it all joy.

My first thoughts were not of Paul's Words to the Church in Corinth. "When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things" (1 Cor. 4:12b-13).My first thoughts were not of the words of Jesus Christ to the multitudes. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matt. 5:11-12).

These should have been my first thoughts; but they weren't.Having not seen what had transpired, Leon was a bit surprised and confused by my countenance when he walked up to me. My beloved brother in Christ had to bear the brunt of my venting.

We prayed together. I asked the Lord's forgiveness for the weakness of my faith and my sins against Him. I sought my brother's forgiveness for venting my frustrations toward him. My poor brother, Leon--I do think there are times when I leave him wondering if I'm becoming a bit unhinged. :-)I thanked God for allowing me to be persecuted for His name's sake. And I thought of His Word, which says, "More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom. 5:3-5).

By the time we finished praying together, it was about the time I had planned to head home. So, we said our good-byes and I made my way to my car.On the way home, I was blessed by another dear brother in Christ, Bart McCurdy. I debriefed with him on the phone, as I made the hour-drive home. He listened patiently and encouraged me greatly.

Looking back on the eventful afternoon, I give glory to God and thank Him for my best worst day.If you would like to listen to the open-air, please click here.

Tomorrow's a new day. I can't wait to get to Brand Boulevard in Glendale, to preach the gospel.


Thank you for your faithfulness to preach the truth Mr. Miano!!!!!

Monday, August 04, 2008

Finding the right church

Finding the Right Church

If you wait for a perfect church, you must wait until you get to Heaven; and even if you could find a perfect assembly on earth, I am sure they would not admit you to their fellowship, for you are not perfect yourself.

Find out those people who are nearest to the Scriptures, who hold the truth in doctrine and in ordinance, and are most like the apostolic church, and then cast in your lot with them, and you will be blessed in the deed.

Charles H. Spurgeon