How long O Lord?

Well it has been an age since I have posted anything. Partly due to busy-ness and partly due to busy-ness! In the next couple months I will attempt to become a little more regular which in light of the past, wouldn't be hard to do. I have a growing anxiety about using FB as my primary means of putting forth ideas and ideologies. Our government I am afraid has supplied ample reason to now fear it rather than revere it. Christ is public enemy #1 and His followers right behind. We shall see how this works!

The Season of Scurrilous Horse Pucky Has Begun

It's been underway for some time really but now the campaign adds commence with the attendant and incessant accusations of both party's concerning the lies of each opponent's commercials. How is your "get-a-grip" factor? Two adds have caught my attention currently; the first is run by Obama campaign essentially accusing Romney of killing Joe Soptic's wife. Joe lost his job at the closing of a company that was under the control of Bain Capital. The commercial contracts the time of the events and makes it sound like because Joe lost his job and his health insurance, his wife couldn't get treated for cancer and died. Since Romney was the CEO of Bain Capital in some strange view of proximate and ultimate cause, Romney killed Joe's wife. So what is TRUE? The creator of the commercial told us all we need to know. When challenged on the fabrications within the ad which he did not dispute, he replied, it was irrelevant. It didn't matter I believe were his exact words. "When the people see this they will know [Romney] is not the kind of person they want for president." What is the TRUTH? There was a 6 year time period between the closing of the plant where Joe, was not ruthlessly kicked to the streets and robbed of his benefits which included health care, Joe was given a "buy out" with which he could have under the laws of TEFRA purchased health insurance just like my son was able to do when he found himself unemployed last year. AGAIN--Truth doesn't matter; when the people see this ad they will know Mitt Romney is not the kind of man they would like for President... (Caveat--that is not an exact quote as I heard this while driving; I assure you it is an accurate portrayal of what he said and what he meant.) Now-- consider an ad by the Romney campaign about Obama and welfare reform: The ad talks about welfare reform and the strides that had been made with Democrat support and design which stipulate some element of having to work for one's welfare benefits. Obama only weeks ago gutted the Welfare Reform Act and categorically removed any requirement re: work. All of this is readily verifiable. The Obama campaign responded with calling it a new LOW in campaign advertising etc. and of course accuses the Romney campaign of lying. But this is what Obama did; I remember the day he did it! So--there you have it. I am not a Romney fan; but I would vote for anyone--ANYONE--running against this president. I believe him not to be incompetent but pointedly intent on destroying the culture of America to a view of a world he envisions; a world that is wretched and cruel. Do not let this serpent of a man have another 4 years. Mark my words.

Prepare to be offended. And then prepare to repent!

I am seeing a VERY disturbing trend in the "Church" that wears Christ's name. That trend is a movement towards a sanitized biblical theology that is seeking to make the full counsel of God's Word less and less offensive. Don't get me wrong, there have been and certainly are embarrassingly ugly responses to social evils etc. Some Christians truly need to learn to keep their mouths shut or at least learn some wisdom about when and where and how to open them. But frankly, I believe those abuses are quite aberrant if you were to review the full spectrum of all Christian responses to all of life over a long period of time. The problem is that the ridiculous or truly hateful responses to culture are the ones that get the press, make the blogs, and go viral on the internet giving the impression that they are representative of Christians and Christendom in general. This has been so effective that otherwise good thinking followers of Christ are buying into the same misinformation campaign being waged by the king of lies and the well meaning Christians are being used by him to unwittingly defeat the very Gospel they love. In my current sermon series about Christians in Culture, I am working towards dismantling the deception with the hopes of restoring the church--our church at least--to understanding the role of the church in society. The bottom line is that Christ was offensive; if He wasn't He wouldn't have been crucified, He would have been crowned. Well meaning Christians today seemed to have lost site of this and its implications for the body of Christ on earth today called the "Church." You can listen to the foundational messages already posted to our web site at fefchurch.org and clicking the sermons tab. Then right click on the sermon title and you will be able to burn a CD or make an MP3 file. A week from Sunday I will be referencing a "Christian" blogger named Rachel Evans who has posted another typical "Here's what's wrong with the hateful, always-in-the-wrong/doing-it-wrong-Church" such that we--the Church ie., Christians are losing a generation. I'll have shocking news from the only source of True Truth--God's Word--revealing the awful flaws in this latest, "sexy" assault against the one Jesus calls His bride.

Circa 1930!

On coming to Union Theology Seminary Dietrich Bonhoeffer already a PhD noted, "There is no theology here… We talk a blue streak without the slightest substantive foundation with no evidence of any criteria. Students--on the average 25 to 30 years old are completely clueless with respect to what dogmatics is really about. They're unfamiliar with even the most basic questions. They become intoxicated with liberal and humanistic phrases, laugh at the fundamentalist and yet basically are not even up to their level.


Paul tells Timothy that the believer in Jesus is a soldier with loyalty and complete focus on the mission, remembering there are rules in this endeavor of Faith,--it isn't an "anything goes," benign spirituality and through hard work and wise application of knowledge there is a payoff. (2 Tim 13-11)

But never forget:

The mission is about Jesus Christ risen from the dead; that is the foundation of it all and if that is ever lost through distraction, ever corrupted by false preachers, ever diminished through pseudo-scholarship or reinterpreted to some candy lozenge as a nicety rather then necessity, we will forfeit eternity and our promise of being with Him!

Words From One Of the Past's Greats

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran Pastor who was executed for participating in a plot to assassinate Hitler. He was a theologian in his own right. His words below reminded me--yet again--of the waywardness of the prosperity preachers and the god they have created; a god who is always there when and where one wants him to answer their beck and call. The God Bonhoeffer describes is NOT the god of the prosperites.

"If it is I who determine where God is to be found, I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in someway, who is obliging, who's connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found then I'll be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is none at all congenial to me. This place is the cross of Christ and whoever would find him must go to the foot of the cross as the sermon on the mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all; it is entirely contrary to it but this is the message of the Bible."

More Prosperity Deception

America's Pastor of positivity tweeted this yesterday: "There is a direct correlation between declaring favor and receiving favor. Declare that you are expecting "unprecedented favor!” This is the old "Name it, Claim it" theology of the hucksters of charlatans like Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagen, Paula White, and too many to list. When one wonders, "Where does this come from in Scripture," one must answer--"It doesn't."

I read the Bible through cover to cover nearly every year and have been studying it for over 30. I can say, this is NOT from the Bible and yet from the affirming tweets I read replying to Pastor Joel, people love it! And it will be the death of their spiritual life, their faith walk and perhaps even the church if it doesn't get a clue. http://bit.ly/rrXGGz

Faith AND Reason!

"God has put enough into this world to make faith in Him a most reasonable thing; but he has left enough out to make it impossible to live by reason." Ravi Zacharias (Introduction to "Why Jesus?")

Twisting the Word-- for Prosperity???

Another example of the way Scripture is twisted
Recently a local prosperity preacher posted the following on Face Book:
Poverty is not next to Godliness. In scripture it's most often associated with sin, disobedience or ignorance of the Word. I wonder why it's so strongly defended in so many pulpits?

I posted the response: I'd be surprised if poverty is "defended" in any pulpit as much as the presumption or demand of wealth is being advanced as if it is "next to godliness" or is some indicator of holiness or faith. Let's face it, He who was rich became poor... Thanks be to God!

The following comment was posted by a man from Texas:
It's amazing that just about all the Godly men of the bible were also men who God blessed with great wealth! It's also amazing that when Jesus asked his disciples about feeding the multitude.. they said they only had about 200 pennyworth of money on them.. Mark 6:37

In that day a penny was a days wages, that's 200 days wages Jesus ministry had... depending on what you set the national average... Jesus would of had. So in today's wages the average worker in America gets 16 and some change an hour times 8 hours equals 168 times 200 = 33,600.00

That's a lot of money for a ministry to carry around with them... I sure wish I had that much money in my billfold!!! So don't tell me Jesus was poor... That phrase has nothing to do with money... Just saying... ;>D

Then the original poster submitted the following:
He became poor that we might be made rich. Prosperity is no sin, nor is it achieved by scripture coercion. Prosperity is a tri level thing: Natural, Soulical & Spirit. Our spirit becomes prosperous thru the act of salvation. Natural prosperity occurs as we come into agreement with our New & Better Covenant. But, as John pointed out it hinges on how willingly we direct our soul (mind, will & emotions) to prosper in the things of God. Prosperity is never a sign of spiritual maturity any more than renouncing it is. It is simply a benefit of relationship and a tool for spreading the kingdom.


The remark about the disciples in Mark 6 is a very interesting way to read that passage.
Here is what Mark 6 says in the immediate context:

Mar 6:34ff When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, "This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat." But He answered them, "You give them something to eat!" And they *said to Him, "Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?"
And He *said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go look!" And when they found out, they *said, "Five, and two fish." And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass.
They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.
And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all.

Note, there is nothing in the text indicating the disciples had 200 Denarii with them. Rather the statement was made somewhat sarcastically showing they were baffled as to how they were supposed to feed the multitudes. In other words, "Do you have any idea what it would cost to fee such a crowd? Like we're going to come up with the 200 Denarii to feed this bunch." "The ministry" wasn't cash flush as the Texan stated. The disciples statement reflects where their own heads are at concerning Jesus. As we know, they didn't exactly have it all put together that Jesus was who he said He was.
Jesus of course had other plans.

The Texan also overstates asserting that "…about all the godly men of the Bible were men God blessed with great wealth." Some were certainly rich, at least in the Old Testament but as you move into the New Testament we see a working class pretty much trying to make ends meet as being the norm.

The sad aspect of such a prosperity emphasis is that the over whelming majority of the world, many of whom are Jesus loving people, live very meagerly to say the least. According to the precepts of prosperity gospel, this would indicate that the majority of believers in the world aren't very faithful, and certainly aren't very blessed by God.

Don't misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with great wealth in and of itself, that is why my book is called "The PROPER Pursuit of Prosperity."

Finally--The statement the original poster put up is a bit disturbing: referring to the "blessing" of prosperity he writes: "It is simply a benefit of relationship and a tool for spreading the kingdom. Implicit in this statement is that any believer who is not experiencing prosperity is somehow deficient and that outward prosperity is to be an attractor of people to want to come to Christ. THAT is troublesome indeed.

Look more closely at Osteen's use--or abuse--of the Word

Osteen's recent Tweet--
"Hebrews 4:16 encourages us to approach God "boldly" so we can receive mercy and grace. This leads to God's hand of favor."


Here is the verse in the immediate context--

Heb 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Heb 4:16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

What a difference just two verses makes! Osteen abuses the verse to be a "name it-- claim it" slogan. Osteen says--"This leads to God's hand of favor."

As usual Osteen masterfully uses a touch of truth--But the passage is not about manipulating God to get Him to do what we want. The entire book of Hebrews is about the glorious superiority of Jesus above anything and everything!

In chapter 4 there are warnings about "trifling with God" or dancing around the real issues of Lordship in light of the greatness of our Savior. The point of Hebrews is that we are utterly helpless and hopeless on our own so any thought of approaching God--on our own--with the expectation of Him forgiving us is out of the question.

BUT--because of who Jesus is, Because He is worth everything and has done everything on our behalf giving us his very own perfection, "THEREFORE" because of Jesus, we can boldly approach God's throne of grace with complete confidence that we will not be thrown out of His presence but will be embraced by Him. We will be seen in the perfection of Christ Himself and not our ugly sin! It is all about Jesus' GREATNESS not about giving God our wish list and expecting Him to jump!

The PROPER Pursuit of Prosperity explains this practically and beautifully to the glory of HIS praise!

Practical Wisdom for Occupy Wall Street

I find it providential that the release of my book, The Proper Pursuit of Prosperity, (http://bit.ly/rrXGGz) coincided with the protest movement called "Occupy Wall Street." As a Christian whose values and morals are ruled by what is good, right and true according to the dictates of the Bible, I have a difficult time taking the protest seriously. Not only is prosperity not inherently wicked, but many of the patriarchs of the Bible were 1%ers to use today's vernacular.

Personally, my expansive review of our nation's history has never lead me to the delusion that I have a guarantee of prosperity; only the guarantee of the right to strive to prosper. So when I was saddled with the reality that I could not afford to attend a four year college, I had the freedom to choose insurmountable debt or matriculate at a community college obtaining my core requirements for a fraction of the cost of attending a four year school. The thought of begrudging those whose parents were able to send them to a university never entered my mind.

When it was time to think about a four year school, I refused to amass a mountain of debt so I traded three years of my life to military service in exchange for the G.I. Bill. Not only was my time in service outstanding for my personal maturation, but it enabled me to obtain my first degree and later paid for half of my Master's. Both my undergraduate and graduate education were accomplished with a family in tow and a boat load of responsible diligence. I would not trade it for anything.

So if I seem insensitive to the djembe beating, obscenity shouting, hissy fits of those occupying Wall Street, so be it. Considering their demand for some ridiculous guarantee of a livable wage--however that is defined--and release from the consequences of their financial decisions, it appears their "education" has not served them well. It is everyone's constitutional right to pursue one's dreams through sweat and hard work; there is no constitutional guarantee of success.

Our system of capitalism is flawed, that is beyond cavil. That one of our nation's besetting sins is greed is equally strong. But what the protestors choose to ignore is that greed isn't defined by net worth, but the condition of one's soul. The single mom in a trailer park abusing whatever forms of relief she can pilfer through lying and deceit is no less greedy than the dad who is single because he carelessly exchanged love of his family for the sparkle of corporate acclamation. Both have greedy hearts and the answer to greed is not legislation but transformation. Charity issues from a thankful heart, not by legislated mandate.

At the end of the day one's net worth is not proportional to satisfaction with life and is often a detriment. So the only proper pursuit of prosperity is found when one orders their life according to Heaven's priorities. It surprises most people when I inform them that money is not the root of all evil but rather the Bible says, "The LOVE of money is…" (1 Timothy 6:10)

The issues of our nation's economy are complex and cannot be dropped in any one institution's lap. The whole foundation of our culture is floundering and the pernicious mindset of entitlement emanating from places of higher learning needs to be challenged for the resolute counsel of God's word admonishes, "…if anyone is not willing to work, then he ought not to eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10) That one passage imparts much practical wisdom which if applied would clear the parks and protests in short order.

The Proper Pursuit of Prosperity continues to get rave reviews!

Here's what Ves Sheely--Superintendent of the New England District is saying about The Proper Pursuit of Prosperity!
"I found Bill's book to have wonderful insight into the proper pursuit of prosperity. Bill calls out well the charlatans of today who preach an unbiblical Prosperity Gospel. He also lays down principle upon principle from Scripture of how obedient discipleship leads to real blessing and needs being met by God in our life. Illustrations from Bill and Barb's life together really made the book riveting for me. Bill also has a real gift for writing and is able to weave stories and personal illustrations into principle and insight into many of the real critical issues of life. Problems of pain and suffering are dealt with within the book while integrating Biblical response to pain into good stewardship and Biblical lifestyle being lived out in a fallen world." To view samples at Amazon go to http://amzn.to/pklBbo

Hurricane Irene and the prosperity gospel

It would be the fool who sat in his rocking chair on his porch in his home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina enjoying a crossword puzzle as the storm approached. "Mabel what's a five letter word for a person who ignores obvious danger? It begins with I D blank O T?"

I believe that perhaps the biggest reason for all the mystery and lack of specificity in the book of Revelation is precisely so that we don't know that the END is 7 years away, or 20 years away, or will not be in out lifetimes! Because God wants us living on the edge of urgency so that HIS purposes for mankind will be accomplished.

I say it without apology--that one statement is the wrecking ball of the growing sky scraper called the prosperity gospel! WE EXIST FOR GOD AND HIS PLANS FOR US, HE DOES NOT EXIST FOR US TO BRING ABOUT OUR PLANS! Joel Osteen and so many others just don't get that!

Joel O. vs. the Bible

Joel Tweets--"Decide today that you are not going to settle but instead you're going to believe God to pour out His goodness and favor on every part of you."

Paul writes--
"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11-13

Some want more and more and see God as the instrument to that end. It is not biblical but utterly self-absorbed. Sometimes--often times?--Jesus wants us to "give up" not "gain more."

Paul writes more--
"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ..." Philippians 3:8

Jesus said--
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 16:24-25

"The PROPER Pursuit of Prosperity" is in the printing phase! It can't be long now!

For Rob Bell, Love Wins And Truth Loses

After hearing the buzz--the negative kind--on the release of mega-church pastor, Rob Bell's latest book, "Love Wins," I reluctantly obtained a copy to read it for myself. I have been previously mislead by reacting to and even quoting respected Christians and Christian leaders taking their word for critical thoughts and accusations of such things only to regret it.

As a syndicated columnist, I know first hand the frustration of being misquoted, taken out of context, or someone making an unfair generalization of something I supposedly wrote when it seemed doubtful they even read the entire piece. So I sat down and read Bell's controversial little book in just a couple sittings--and I am not a fast reader.

It is a short read packed with mind boggling, exegesis-defying, systematic theology-ignoring assertions, sarcasms, and non-sequiturs. Bell's favorite method is to take what are clearly aberrant beliefs of "some" Christians and normalizing them to be what "many Christians" believe, especially evangelicals.

He is understandably critical of the speculations that occur from the pulpits of evangelical churches, especially when they pertain to heaven and hell, but then promptly offers his own speculations as to the "proper view" of the same subjects.
My wife asked one evening what Bell's book was about. I stared and just said, "I don't even know where to start." He is basically offering a brand of universalism--positing that everyone ever born ends up in a place, or state of mind, or participation in a good life, that goes on and on which some call "heaven." He likens it to a party where everyone attends but, like a party here on earth, some will not enjoy it as much as others due to whatever issues they bring to the party. In Bell's opinion, one problem with evangelicals is that we talk about entering heaven whereas Bell asserts it isn't about entering--everyone enters--it is about "participation." So over time--Bell's heaven (which reminds me of a "quasi-purgatory-like environment") gives everyone time to see what they are missing, jettisoning their issues, thus participating in the benefits and joys of heaven.

Hell is even more obtuse than Bell's conception of heaven. He writes: "We do ourselves great harm when we confuse the very essence of God, which is love, with the very real consequences of rejecting and resisting that love, which creates what we call hell." It strikes me as a repackaging of the old, "Hell is what you make it." Bell adds, Hell is also, "our [personal] refusal to trust God's retelling of our story." Attempting to paraphrase what he means--Hell is the consequence of living out what WE believe about ourselves rather than what God declares about us.

It is a solid point to consider if we are talking about orthopraxy or the value of walking in practical godliness in this life, by faith, rather than by sight. But Bell's hell is an utter bastardization of the etymological, theological, scriptural and historical understanding of "Hell." At the end of the day, Bell stumbles over a God who can be both loving, while also being just.

His use of the Old and New Testaments are generally spoken of in terms of "story" marginalizing any real connection to anything in our day and never approaches any semblance of a systematic theology. His interpretation of the sacrificial system of Judaism, for example, is a product of culture, space and time to which we cannot relate. After all, when, he asks, was the last time YOU slit the throat of a goat or killed a pigeon and laid it on the altar?

Bell has a very low view of inspiration and the bulk of the Bible is more metaphor and lesson rather than history connected to a loving--yet just--God who came to redeem us from our sins. Bell sees the whole progression of the evangelical "gospel" as one contrived, confusing package of thou shalts and thou shalt nots. Admittedly he hits on some deserved criticisms of a simplistic faith which is sometimes--oftentimes?--presented in a very formulaic fashion. No problem there, but his "correction" is far worse.

Finally everything always falls or stands on one's Christology. What is Bell's? It would be hard for me to articulate it, since I had difficulty pinning it down. What I can say with some certainty is that it bears little resemblance to the Immanuel--who came to save us, not from God, as Bell charges is the message evangelicals present--, but from ourselves; from our sin which condemns us before a God who also happens to be holy.

In any book of this variety, there is generally some value in straining out the dross and taking to heart the valid weaknesses of our beliefs or at least the weaknesses of our way of explaining our beliefs. For the scripturally astute, Bell's book is worth reading because Thanks to the level of biblical illiteracy today, I do believe (myself generalizing) he expresses what many people really do think about God, heaven, hell and judgment; even many in our Sunday morning worship.

But this is an exceedingly dangerous book for the masses as it appeals to the base instinct of man to assess God on the basis of the delusion of one's self-determined omniscience writing off any aspect of God's nature which one might find disagreeable or indefensible. As I stated in a recent sermon, it is profoundly arrogant for anyone to precede justification for their particular belief with the statement, "I can't believe in a God who…For in the moment they make that declaration, they have lost any reasonable basis from which to argue. Such a statement presumes that defining God, what He is like, what He thinks, what He might do, is entirely up to them. In short, it presumes that THAT person is in fact God. In the Bible, Love Wins--to be sure; but in Bell's book, TRUTH loses in a big way.

Is It Wrong to Celebrate Bin Laden's Demise?

It was nearly a day later that I learned world enemy #1 was permanently restrained from orchestrating anymore death, and despair on innocent men, women and children. My first words were, "Thank you Lord" and frankly, I was happy.

As the day progressed I was following threads on Facebook from Christians who stated they were "okay" with the military use of force, but were struggling with the appropriateness of "celebrating" Bin Laden's demise. I determined more than a Facebook sound bite was necessary.

Since God has revealed Himself to us through His word, we come to know what God is like; not in totality of course, God is too big for that. Still, we become acquainted with what pleases Him as well as what angers Him and we begin to adopt His values.

This means that in the life-long process of learning His values, we will "like" what He likes and "dislike" what he dislikes. This is the inevitable outcome of having been created in His image and likeness.

In the glimpses of His personality and character, we see a God who despises injustice, and abhors wickedness. He is clearly angered by the wanton destruction of those who bear His image and likeness, decreeing that anyone who so defiles the "image of God" must pay for it with their own life. This is why the decree of capital punishment--even while applied imperfectly--is not the result of a vindictive Deity, but a merciful one who knows that there are certain brands of wickedness that cannot be placated, or rehabilitated, only removed.

As I monitored Facebook throughout the day, the comments became increasingly grating suggesting that any expression of relief, gratitude, or thankfulness were equivalent to the celebrations which took place in the Middle East after the Twin Towers fell. Some sanctimoniously insisted we should even be mourning.

Then, in predictable fashion, of the more than 31,000 verses in the Bible, 2 verses were posted bearing little relevance to the news concerning the demise of the world's most notorious murderer.

The verses were Proverbs 24:17-18: "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; or the LORD will see it and be displeased, and turn His anger away from him."

Unfortunately, with equal validity, someone else could have posted-- "The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance…and men will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth!" (Psalms 58:10-11)

Confusing? Not really--"Truth" by cherry-picking verses here and there is rarely truthful. God did not throw a mass of unrelated sentences onto the pages of a book saying, "Now make sense of them however it happens to be convenient." As I state frequently from my pulpit, you have to let the Bible interpret the Bible.

On balance, what we know is that God prompts the faithful throughout the ages to long with anticipation; to embrace a day of justice when every wrong shall be righted and yes, to celebrate. It is one of the promises of the Christian's future.

So if one insists it is improper for people to experience joy through an earthly taste of heavenly justice, then one must insist it is improper for people to experience remorse when they taste earthly injustice, and that simply is not consistent with the revealed character of God.

So while it is true that the news of Bin Laden's death prompted some demonstrations of emotion that were probably not honoring to a God of mercy and love, impugning everyone who says, "Thank you Lord, I am glad he is gone," only demonstrates one's failure to understand the whole counsel of God's word, and perhaps worse, denies the very heart and mind of God.

Unveiling My Cover!

I am learning that publishing is a fairly slow process. No wonder when it comes to technical manuals or even history that by the time the book is actually in print, some of the information may be obsolete already.

Fortunately when it comes to God's word, it is timeless. My book may be ready for distribution perhaps in 8 weeks or so. I can't wait; it is a desperately needed work about the invasiveness of the "prosperity gospel" which is taking over in what have been historically orthodox churches.