This week, we are up to 1 John 3:16. Now, this is absolutely straightforward of itself:
1Jn 3:16 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.
Easy peasy, tune in next week, right? But we learn nothing that way, so let me expand our view out just a bit:
1Jn 3:13 Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you.
1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
1Jn 3:15 Everyone hating his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him.
1Jn 3:16 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.
1Jn 3:17 But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?
1Jn 3:18 My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
1Jn 3:19 And in this we shall know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him,
1Jn 3:20 that if our heart accuses us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
A lot of quick points I'd like to make from this angle.
First, don't be surprised if the world hates you- but you CANNOT hate back. Sunday, we talked about the immigrant situation. If you are in favor of the proposed wall, border security, anything to make the process safe and legal, you have been labelled a racist or a fascist by the media and members of that certain party. But are you? There you have to ask yourself, WHY you don't want them in- really. Like I asked Sunday, is it a logical desire, or a NIMBY thing for you? If you want to keep repeat offenders and drug cartels OUT, you probably are okay. If you just don't want YOUR neighborhood to become a barrio, you may have a problem right here.
Second, love requires action- But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother having need, and shuts up his bowels from him, how does the love of God dwell in him? ("bowels" here indicative of "pity or sympathy", where we might rather say, the heart). My children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
This is why Sunday I added that "religiously affiliated" households are 16% more likely to give of their goods, and those that give give twice as much. Take THAT, John Lennon! But it also means we have to examine our motives on things we take for granted, such as our political leanings. Too many of us, either side, just "follow the party line" without looking at real consequences. For example, the 45% of "Christians" who believe abortion should be legal in most circumstances. They feel a woman may well encounter circumstances that make raising a child difficult, or weren't willing participants, or the latest excuse, "Trauma associated with birth makes her want to terminate at the last extremity."
Real Consequence: Last time CDC released full stats (2015), 638,000 babies murdered, over 8,000 past time of viability.
Fun fact: Of the nations with a greater abortion rate than the US, according to the UN, 9 of the ten- Bulgaria, Cuba, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, China, and Ukraine- are former Communist countries- nations with a past of "official atheism". (The other? Sweden.)
Where does all that leave us on how this all applies to the immigrant thing? Like I said Sunday- what if the guy being deported because his character is suspect, God is leading him to be saved, and he has to come to the US to do so, because we won't get off our butts and come to him, since 51% of adult churchgoers don't even know Jesus COMMANDED them to?
I'm not making a judgment here, I'm not telling you what to think. I'm telling you TO THINK. And having thought, to consider where love comes in.
When I went upstairs a bit ago to get a shower, I suggested to Scrappy he save his legs and stay downstairs. "Tell Mommy a story," I said. "Tell her about the time you fell in the river. Either one."
A lot of Scrappy's time with us has revolved around water. Shortly after Scrappy joined our household, he made apparent one of the two big differences between himself and our dear departed Fred. The one we learned later was that where Fred was shy of cameras, Scrappy was and is photogenic. The first, though, we learned on out first walk down to the creek at Meadowbrook. Where Fred went out of his way to avoid water, be it a river or a puddle, Scrappy waded right into the creek, and began a long love affair with running water.
One of our first water based discoveries was The Spot- a hidden little beach on Stony Run Creek.
It was our "You have to know where to look" hiding place, and over the years it has changed as much as we have. It is one of the handful of places neither one of us are real adept at getting to. The biggest one of those we dubbed the End of the World.
This is the point of land that juts between a inlet from the river and the Stony Run "delta". It is surrounded by marsh, and you have to wait until they close the dam upstream before it's passable enough to get to the high backbone. And there on, it's thick brush with no trail to get to a point where you can overlook the river. We made this journey exactly once, to see if it could be done.
Move about a millimeter left of the copyright symbol, and that's where we were.
Back when Laurie was hanging with this one friend of hers, we used to walk in the rivers for fun. Scrappy came with us one time (I believe it might have been at Metea, thus we were in violation of the law), and Scrappy learned that a) he liked swimming, b) he didn't much care for the current, but it was okay, until c) he had to swim IN the current, and then it wasn't so fun. One of the three times water made him come close to panic. Don't worry, I got him to a rock and he was back to adventure in no time.
Now, the two falls in the river- which I just killed an hour or so looking for pictures of that apparently do not exist- were both lapses of judgment on his part. One was in the woods along the river, in the fall, and he thought a floating raft of leaves was solid ground. I quickly sprung into action. First, I threw myself down on the ground on top of his leash so it wouldn't move while I took a picture of the incident. (In the meantime, he's clinging to the bank with his front paws, and with the way the bank was worn below the water line, he had no place to brace his back legs.) Then, I crawled over and got ahold of his collar and drug him back up. He was soaked and not impressed; I was calling Laurie, saying, "Guess what your dog did now?", and laughing my butt off.
The other was shortly after we moved here, and sometime after the "swimming in the current" ordeal. It was just spring, the IPFW footbridge was just completed, and the stone workbridge they used was still there, halfway out into the river. Scrappy didn't stop to think it might be deep in the middle of the river, and soon found himself wondering why there was no bottom.
I sure wish I could have found those pictures. Those were little bits of heaven when we could do anything and not really get hurt. Now water is top on his list for another reason. And the legs that once could swim in current now swivel across the hardwood as if he's a marionette on very loose strings. Right now, I just thank God for whatever time we have. And he does, too. He still has to sleep with me, even if he can barely get up the stairs, much less onto the bed. And walks are only really enjoyable when there isn't some form of damnable precipitation on the ground.
I remember another time, We got caught in a SEVERE thunderstorm, about a quarter-mile or so from shelter. We ran full speed for the fence row between the Plex (where we were) and the apartments. Well, I TRIED to run full speed, what with pouring rain, lightning, 40 MPH winds, etc. Scrappy would run 40-50 feet and STOP to sniff something. By the time we made the fence row, the wind was coming in enough different directions that no place was safe. So we caught our breath and just walked on home.
The aftermath
Sometimes I feel like we spent our prime together, and now our prime is over. Sometimes I don't think heaven will be much of a heaven without me, Scrappy, a woods, a river... and maybe a pocket full of BabyBels.
Saturday morning prayers included for me the concept: What if the immigrants (legal or illegal) coming to the USA are being brought here BY GOD because we are too lazy to get off our duffs and go to them? Think about this just for a second. Even intellectually honest liberals can think of multiple reasons to say NIMBY to immigrants. And logically, if all you are asking for (as most of us do) that they come in legally, that they be vetted, that CAN'T be a sin. But... what if the guy who won't get in any legal way because of who he is NOW is being led to come here for OUR witness, which we aren't bringing to him? Does this change the dynamics for you?
I gathered up a set of statistics from a variety of sources, and many of you have heard the damning stats on Christianity of late:
Absolute certain belief in God by those identifying as Christians- 76%. (18% "fairly certain").
Belief that concepts of right and wrong are situational, among Christians- 59%.
Abortion in almost any circumstance should be legal, among Christians- 45%.
Belief that the Bible IS NOT the Word of God, among Christians- 18%.
Pct of Evangelicals "Not sure" that Jesus rose from the dead- 25%.
To me these are "then why are you here?" statistics. But that just shows the cracks in the definition of what makes a Christian. The trouble is, you can walk into any church and CLAIM to be a Christian. But let me give you a set of three stats that show you WHAT being a Christian involves:
55% of people attending Church at least once a month have not been Born Again. That will make the next two make sense.
50%+ of attendees 18-24 YO not certain God is real.
50%+ of Evangelicals believe that there are more than one way to heaven.
Now to be sure, it is better to be "religiously affiliated" than not. At least the religiously affiliated share with the poor. The amount of religiously affiliated household who give to charity is 62%, to the average tune of $1590 a year, while households calling themselves "unaffiliated" only have 46% charity giving, to the tune of $695 per annum. But what is the job of the Church on earth? The Great Commission:
Matt 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And here is where the Church is falling flat:
In 1993, a study was done that asked, "Do you believe there is an individual responsibility to share the Gospel?" The response was 89% yes.
The same group redid the study last year, 25 years later. Response? 64%.
A 25% drop in 25 years.
Another study said 70% of those who attend at least monthly NEVER share their faith.
And 70% of unchurched people have NEVER been invited to come to church with someone.
And most damning of all:
51% of U.S. churchgoers say they’ve never heard of the term, “The Great Commission”.
The State of American Theology, Lifeway Research, 2016
Never heard of the Great Commission.
In trying to look up "% of churches that teach from the Bible" I hit an article that from its sheer wrong-ness makes my point. In it, the author, who claims we should "run-from 'Bible-believing' churches", cites the following:
It contains within itself many disagreements about the nature of God and how events unfolded. For example, did Noah take two of every animal onboard his ship, as Genesis 6 claims, or did he take seven of every animal, as Genesis 7 claims?(How about you actually read it and see it was seven pairs of the CLEAN animals, 2 of all the rest.)Does God require sacrifice, as Leviticus suggests, or does God require mercy and not sacrifice, as the prophet Hosea claims? (God had to teach obedience first- and that obedience had to be hand in hand with love of God. By Hoshea's time, the were fulfilling the requirements- and barely that- but no love was there.) Does God punish children for their parents’ mistakes, as Exodus claims, or is each generation responsible for itself, as the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah state? (Read what you said- the children are punished, meaning face the consequences of their parent's mistakes, but the RESPONSIBILITY for the sins is still personal.) Did Jesus overturn the tables in the Temple at the end of his ministry, as the synoptic Gospels claim, or did he do it at the beginning of his ministry, as the Gospel of John claims? (Actually, he did it twice. One time in the first year of His ministry- when His brothers teased Him about going up- and once in the last week of His life on earth.)
If you had any doubt about so-called teachers of the Word teaching it RIGHT, there you go. That is why you should NOT be among the 33% of Christians who NEVER read the Bible, the 9% who say they pick theirs up "several times a year", or the 12% who do it "once or twice a month". Proverbs says those who seek wisdom, she will be found by them. Is "54% wise" good enough for you?
Tune in Wednesday where we'll kinda pick up with the original premise- how SHOULD we feel about immigrants?
Hello, everybody, and welcome to 1977! This is Barry Manilow, and on my Time Machine this week, we will get to see if I can complete the three-peat on the POTM Panel Picks! Meanwhile, Chris will be doing things a little differently this week with several otherwise unrelated stories combining in close association with the 180th week of the M10! Also...
Barry...
Yeah, oh, hi Chris! I was just warming up the crowd for you, and...
Um, Barry? "YOUR" Time Machine? You think this thing MIGHT be going a tiny bit to your head?
Well, I AM the first person ever to hit the POTM two weeks in a row, and...
Barry, you're worth an estimated $100 million. I don't break 30K a year. You really need this to be all about you?
Well, when you put it that way...
Just so long as we're clear...
Yes, sir...
Okay, finish the monologue, and I'll set us up for what's next.
Okay... anyway, Chris is also gonna throw in a trip down his personal Memory Lane, we have a new M10 debut, and I'll be back for the Panel Picks! We'll be hoppin, we'll be hoppin' today, when things are poppin', the Philadelphia way...
BARRY!!
Oh, uh, back to you, Chris...
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As Barry was just trying to let out of the bag, we have a couple of really unique occurrences this week- BESIDES his attempt at three-in-a-row... and those items led me to discover that this is, in fact, the 180th edition of the weekly M10 countdown! And as such, I also discovered a tie in, however frivolous, between the unique M10 situations and the top of this week's 6D. And so, I'm going to let you in on where two of this week's M10s are, followed by the 6D before we get back to a semblance of normalcy. The first of those situations involves the fact that a VERY fluid chart this week has led to last week's #1, the Beths with You Wouldn't Like Me...
"Uh-oh, I bet we wouldn't like this..."
...dropping all the way to #7 this week! The only other drop of this magnitude or lower was when Strawberry Runners went 1-to-9 with When We Were Good in the first week of June 2016. The other thing is a bit more common, but still a 1-in-30 occurrence... for just the 6th time, and the first since Dinosaur Jr's Hold Unknown in March last year, a song holds for a second week at #10. That would be last week's debut from boygenius, Bite The Hand. And here's where the tenuous 6D connection comes in.
You see, the FIRST time that happened was to Angel Deradoorian...
"Oh, yeah, NOW you remember me..."
... when her Expanding Flower Planet spent its second week at 10 in the second week of the M10 chart! That week, NRBQ was #1 with Riding In My Car, from 1977. And NRBQ, much later, was managed briefly by Lou Albano- you know, the wrestler that played Cyndi Lauper's dad on the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun video. Now Cyndi comes into the story because the last song on that debut lp of hers, She's So Unusual, was the #1 Time After Time. She co-wrote that with one Rob Hyman, who would gain fame as keyboardist for Philly band The Hooters, who had late 80's early 90's hits with All You Zombies (#11 mainstream rock), Johnny B (#3 MSR), Day By Day (#18 pop), and my favorite, And We Danced (#21 pop, 3 MSR). As a Philly act they had deep roots in local music, and drummer David Uosikinnen organized an annual show called In The Pocket: Essential Songs Of Philadelphia, starring both the other Hooters and several other Philly acts, like Richie and Charlie Ingui from the Soul Survivors and Patti Smyth from Scandal.
Another addition to that grouping was one TJ Tindall, a session guitarist who's been on a ton of stuff, basically helping form the "Philly sound" with the Gamble-Huff songwriting combine. In fact, a fellow session hand claims that despite the Gamble/Huff credit on the song, it was Tindall that should get credit for the infectious riff on our 6D victim, the first time this act had a hit outside of the Motown label-
Yep, the Jacksons with Enjoy Yourself, #4 on Cashbox without a Panel vote.
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Is it my turn yet?
No, Barry. Now it's time for our one debut, at #9. Another new act to the M10, I introduce to you Emile Mosseri and her band, The Dig...
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Okay, Barry, your moment has come. 37 stations, 13 contestants, and one of the tightest final fours ever! Have at it, starting with the one-vote wonders!
Thanks, Chris! We lead off with Bob Seger's Night Moves at #10 on Cashbox- boy, the competition IS gonna be tight! Stevie Wonder has I Wish at #6... The number one song this week in England, Julie Covington doing Don't Cry For Me Argentina, from Evita, was not on the American charts. Boney M's version of Daddy Cool, which was at #99 after peaking at #90... And David Dundas was dropping at #27 with Jeans On.
Okay, buddy, here's the also-receiving-votes list...
Oboyoboy! We have an English duo, who hit in Australia because the BBC banned the song for "suggestive nature"... Pussyfoot was the duo, The Way You Do It was the tune. Kenny Nolan's I Like Dreamin' was at #7... Barbara Streisand was at #11 with Evergreen, the theme from A Star Is Born... And... and...
Barry, you okay?
But... I'm on this list...
Yep, I'm afraid Weekend In New England, at #9 this week, got a 27, a 22, a 21, two 20s, an 18, a 17, a 16, two 15s, a 13, three 11s, two 10s, four 9s, an 8, a 7, a 6, two 5s, and missed the chart 6 times- but only 2 #1s.
But, I was supposed to win... I was supposed to WIN! Nobody could've TOUCHED me then! I...
Barry, chill! You wouldn't have gotten any farther anyway, since we go back to 1955 next week! And that reminds me, I'll have to start putting up with this crap from Elvis again...
"Hey, watch how you talk about me, son..."
Hey, as long as you're here, maybe you could escort Mr Manilow down to the commissary, to compose himself...
E: Sure thing. C'mon, kid... B: But I almost had it all... I was gonna be a star... E: Sure ya were, kid. Come along with me, I'll fix ya right up with some Balogna Casserole...
OKAY then. That just leaves me and the Final Four- a voting list that went 8-6-5-5 this week! Choose from...
The week's #2, Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann...
the #3, the Eagles and New Kid In Town...
25 and dropping, with a lot of "didn't get the memos", Rose Royce's Car Wash...
...and the #1 this week, little Mary MacGregor's Torn Between Two Lovers. Boy, please let it not be her, she was a little brat last time...
So before his breakdown, Barry mentioned a trip down memory lane. You see, it was in January of '77 I started my FIRST top ten countdown, one I kept for about 5 years or so, so the M10 is closing on catching it in weeks! (Don't worry, I lost those charts eons ago, right about the time Madonna and her ilk were making pop unlistenable for me.) And I noticed on the Hot 100 were several tunes I had put at #1 at one point or another! So, in the interests of fun, and with the caveat that with my memory not being as good as it was back then, I compiled the list of songs I am 98% certain hit #1 on those old charts of mine (and one I'll give a 50/50 chance peaked at #2)... and here they are!
Climax Blues Band, Couldn't Get It Right, at #96
Atlanta Rhythm Section, So Into You (the 50/50) at #60
The topic of conversation last week, David Soul's Don't Give Up On Us (Baby, for you who have to have that thrown in) at #39
ELO at #38 with Livin' Thing
Hall and Oates with Rich Girl at #29
10cc's The Things We Do For Love (which I think was the very first one) at 17
Bread's Lost Without Your Love at 12
Weekend comes in at 9, of course (and it might have been the first one too, I can't recall for sure)
Steve Miller's Fly Like An Eagle at #5
The Eagles' New Kid at 3
And Blinded at #2- though, as I think about it, this might have been a "right before I started writing them down" #1...
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Let's hit the stat pack!
I knew a whopping 70 of the 100- might be my best score ever!
The #77 in '77 was LTD's Love Ballad, which I kind of remember...
There was no bubbling under on CB this week, so we go to 100 with one I definitely remember (especially waking up on the way home from my first MLB game in Detroit, passing through the one horse bar town of Townley at 2 AM, and hearing it for the first time) , Hot's Angel In Your Arms.
ELO gets a second shout-out this week- they had the big mover, with Do Ya going up 21, from 80 to 59.
I knew 13 on the UK chart, including New Kid at 20, Car Wash at 9, I Wish at 14, and not so much Daddy Cool at #7, and Argentina at the top.
Finally, the label game draws to a conclusion this week, and the last win goes to...
Atlantic! Their strong suit was Foreigner's debut lp, with Feels Like The First Time at #34 for the year and Cold As Ice at #42. Preceded by ABBAs Dancing Queen at #3 and Crosby Stills and Nash with Just A Song Before I Go at #67.
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And now, the remaining M10 version #180...
The Decemberists take a mighty tumble as well, with Travelling On falling from 3 to 8 in week #9.
Criminal Hygiene's Greetings From A Postcard gets unstuck and moves 2 to #6.
Then come the three main movers: Santana from 9 to 5 with In Search Of Mona Lisa, Roseanne Cash from 7 to 4 with The Only Thing Worth Fighting For, and The Essex Green from 6 to 3 with Sloane Ranger.
Also, returning to an upward motion in week #8 from 4 to #2, Castlecomer's She's So High.
And the new #1- the 99th all time M10 #1...
...Liz Cooper and the Stampede with Outer Space!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And your Panel winner, with 21.6% (beating Barry by a mere 16.2%)...
...dast, it's Mary MacGregor again! Oh well, maybe we'll get the ADULT Mary this time... Find out next week, Lord willing, as we return to 1955!
This week takes us to what I believe is the second most important passage of the 3:16s we are studying, and for 3 very different reasons. As I have been doing lately, let me give you our verse with some context around it- from 2 Peter 3:
2Pe 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 2Pe 3:15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 2Pe 3:16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 2Pe 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
Actually, when you float it out like this, we can make it 4 points- and, if I leave my own "editorial comments" out for the most part, it will be quick and simple for a change:
Point 1- And count the patience of our Lord as salvation. So often we say to ourselves, "Why doesn't God come down here and do something about all this?" and here is the answer. WHEN God- as Christ- DOES come down, it will be in final judgment. Every moment He 'delays', salvation comes to more people.
Point 2- There are some things in them that are hard to understand. Boy o boy, when I first read this, I said, "At least it isn't just me!" Over the months I have learned two things: one, Paul was an intellectual beyond what he is commonly given credit for, even in secular terms the equal of any philosopher of his day or since. Two, it is "wisdom given him" by Jesus. His human gifts, already great, were amplified by the power of what Christ could then give him. Jesus had given a poor fisherman the ability to lead a Church. He gave a misguided intellectual the ability to turn the world upside down. Peter is humble enough to not only admit that, but to elevate it, as we shall see.
Point 3- Which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction...take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. To truly understand Paul, you have to be willing to look past the secular mindset. Too many times have I jousted with atheists who said, "I HAVE read the Bible, I just don't get anything out of it." Too many times I have debated co-religionists (supposedly), who use a passage from earlier in this book-
1:20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
-to say, "You are too stupid to read the Bible on your own, you need to look at what the Church Fathers say and stick to that." (That despite the commendation of the Berean believers in Acts.) What results is a flat, dead reading- if you can call it that- of the Scriptures that they can then pick nits about, or build whole false philosophies based either on the presence, or the ignoring, of one passage. I am at the beginning of Proverbs all over again for the third time (one chapter every month, and you can get a clear sense of what is wrong with this here:
Pro 2:1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you,
Pro 2:2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
Pro 2:3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
Pro 2:4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
Pro 2:5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
Pro 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
Pro 2:7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
Pro 2:8 guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
Pro 2:9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
Pro 2:10 for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
Pro 2:11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,
Pro 2:12 delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,
Understanding the Bible is an if-then- IF you sincerely seek God, He will reveal Himself in His word. If you're just a tourist, you'll find little to buy but trinkets.
Point 4- as they do the other Scriptures. Peter here is talking at a point where these letters of Paul have all made the circuit of the churches. And, they have been accepted into the "canon" at this point, and have the weight of Moses and the Prophets. Look here at Matthew Barnes' commentary:
This is an unequivocal declaration of Peter that he regarded the writings of Paul as a part of the holy Scriptures, and of course that he considered him as inspired. The word “Scriptures,” as used by a Jew, had a technical signification - meaning the inspired writings, and was the common word which was applied to the sacred writings of the Old Testament. As Peter uses this language, it implies that he regarded the writings of Paul as on a level with the Old Testament; and as far as the testimony of one apostle can go to confirm the claim of another to inspiration, it proves that the writings of Paul are entitled to a place in the sacred canon. It should be remarked, also, that Peter evidently speaks here of the common estimate in which the writings of Paul were held. He addresses those to whom he wrote, not in such a way as to declare to them that the writings of Paul were to be regarded as a part of the inspired volume, but as if this were already known, and were an admitted point.
In my recent tilt with the Catholic crowd on FB, I was given one explanation that, "After Christ ascended to heaven, Peter became the voice of the Church", and yet they will not accept Peter's word that Paul has the weight of the Scriptures! And that weight comes down on three big points:
Romans 10: 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Confession+ belief= salvation...
Ephesians 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Grace alone, a gift from God, not any ritual, any work, though good works are a necessary fruit that PROVES salvation..
And Galatians 1: 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
And that Gospel is found in Jesus' response to Satan;
Matthew 4: 4 But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
And THAT is Sola Scriptura.
This will be brief, to the point, and then I will have fulfilled my rant quotient for the day and will be satisfied. We all want to see me satisfied, right?
It starts when Rush Limbaugh read the start of an article on Politico, that bastion of (relative) truth and (social) justice, taking a stand in the divide between the merely addled (the former Democrat mainstream) and the- as Mad Jack would call them- "Batshit crazy" ( the Ocasio-Cortez wing, which call themselves "justice democrats". I really had to look up the article to actually believe what was said in the paragraph:
"Maybe you’ve heard the warning: The country is beset by a menace. A fringe conservative minority is holding Congress hostage, extracting radical policy concessions over the will of the majority. And it’s leading the nation to fiscal, environmental and moral ruin. Maybe you haven’t heard this part: These dangerous conservatives are Democrats."
Of all the stupidity contained in this world-shakingly stupid paragraph, I'd like to get to the part about where the conservatives are bringing "moral ruin".
Let's examine the current state of Democrat morality.
God established us with a moral code based on the Ten Commandments. For thousands of years, even those who had never heard of Moses lived by similar codes. Let's look at them and how the current Democratic Party is seeing them.
#1- I am the Lord Your God. You shall have no other gods before Me..
Democrats- "let's take 'so help you God' out of oaths sworn in government, because that would surely subvert the world. Oh, and get God out of our schools, our coinage, our pledge of allegiance, and off of every piece of land that can be connected with the Government."
The other day, I read an article where a school board had overruled a school principal who basically tried to ban a teacher from going to a certain church because "some of her students might go there, and that would be fraternization." That was the second time this principal had tried to limit this teacher's freedom of religion and the second time the school board shot the principal down.
#2- You shall make no idols.
Democrats: Hillary Clinton is the most intelligent woman in the world. Any criticism of Barack Obama is racism. I could go on...
#3- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Democrats: Nancy Pelosi on churchgoing Republicans: “They pray in church on Sunday and they prey on people the rest of the week. And while we’re doing the Lord’s work, ministering to the needs of God’s creation, they are ignoring those needs which is to dishonor the God who made them.”
Tell me Nancy, how are you ministering to those killed by people your city won't allow to be deported? How are you doing God's work when you stand up for abortion, for LGBT lifestyle, when your city has so many homeless it's not safe to walk the streets for human feces and drug needles? Oh, because you're stopping THE WALL. Good job, Nancy. Apparently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appreciates your charity.
#6- You shall not murder.
But if you do, and you are an illegal immigrant, a member of a violent drug-pushing gang, or are in prison for any of the above, step right into the voting booth. And you'll always have a home in OUR cities.
Oh, and just lay that newborn baby on the table over there. Give the Doc a few minutes to convince the mom, and he'll kill it and call it an abortion. At least that's what the Governor of Virginia (who CNN tried to say was a republican- 'darn, the "R" and the "D" lok so much alike') says (or said, depending on which way it's currently dribbling), and the legislature of New York says is okie-dokie with them. That shows some real moral character.
#7- You shall not commit adultery.
Bill Clinton, accused several times, caught at least once- "but that's okay". Donald Trump, makes a joke (not funny one, either) about grabbing something, "burn in hell." If #Metoo taught us anything, it's that NOBODY is safe from sexual temptation.
You see, my problem here is NOT that these people are not Christian (because believe me, Christians can be just as cruel to each other), and it's NOT that some of them claim to be "God-fearing" and are anything but. My problem is that they have had to twist their logic so far around to pursue their agenda, that they don't even make sense anymore. For example:
The largest Christian university is under fire for canceling a speech from Jewish conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. The school cited "biblical truths" and a fear that he would divide the school's "unique and united community." Grand Canyon University officials told students from the Young America's Foundation (YAF) chapter at GCU of their decision Thursday. The decision immediately drew a firestorm of criticism.
So, how much is your unique and UNITED community worth if they can't listen to a Jew make a conservative speech? What part of Ben Shapiro would divide the school? His faith? His race? His political leanings?
Your UNITY is GARBAGE. If you can't allow a reasonable, responsible speaker to present his views on your campus because some of your students might be offended, possibly causing an irresponsible scene, you don't have a unity to protect. You have a snowflake idol you bow to.
But why should I be surprised at these people? They just spent a whole article telling us Nancy Pelosi is a conservative...
So let me talk to you about the man who faced the thing he had no control over. He could neither arrest it, prevent it, or learn a way to defeat it. He was a Christian, so he knew in his mind he had to give it to God. By hook or crook, he was familiar with the "Five Guys" lesson I shared a while back, and as it was the second day of the week, he noted that today was "Noah's Day", for the guy who had to sell his entire planet, and everything he had ever known- in a way we can't begin to imagine- to God. And to trust God for the ride he was to take.
And he thought about Noah and his story. He had served God with his whole life, and thanks to 2 Peter, we knew Noah was a man who shared his knowledge of God and His righteousness. He knew that he entered the ark with all those animals and his tiny family in a box a ninth the size of the Titanic, and God sealed him in for over a year. The behavior of the animals, the handling of the waste, the provisioning of the cargo, all were up to God. And on the other side of the testing, God opened the door to a world unlike what they had known.
Yes, God was faithful- IS faithful.
But, how did Noah HANDLE it? What did he do? What did he pray along the way? How scared was he? How did he deal with the churning of the sea, the creaking of the ship, the deaths outside its walls? If Noah is to be my example, the man said to himself, WHAT WAS THE EXAMPLE?
We just don't know, he said to himself. Noah never spoke a word (save the curse on Canaan and the blessings to the other two sons). Not one bit of his preaching came to us. Not one meditation, not one prayer.
We only know three things about Noah's character: He was righteous, he preached righteousness, and he "did all the Lord God commanded him."
So, the man said to himself and to God: How do I face MY testing? How do I do as Noah did without knowing what that was? And in his heart, he knew the answer:
God had told him everything he needed.
Wait, what? What have You told me, Lord?
The Lord had told him the one thing that was necessary for him- Trust Me. Give it to Me. I will ride out the storm WITH you.
And this answer didn't seem good enough. The man didn't know enough. And all day long, he struggled with this. Time after time, he accepted the Lord's comfort... and time after time, the same objection came up: What did Noah know that he did not?
And it was a long time later, after his protests fell back from exhaustion and he praised the God into Whose hands he finally committed himself, that he remembered the end of a devotional he read just that morning:
The key to godliness is not more knowledge but more obedience. -Woodrow Kroll
And more, he finally looked past what Noah was giving up to what Noah gave up. Does that sound contradictory? But here's the thing: Noah gave up everything he knew- but what he knew was a world full of people for whom " the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. " And came into a world bright with a new-seen sun, and the potential for the Greatness of God.
And he began to realize that God never told Noah's own FULL story because the man's OWN story was different- and so is every one of ours. But the part we need to know- about God taking care of everything- the part common to us all- THAT God told.
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
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