What should we do.....

I am at home and I click on my email and see I have "367" spam messages. Personally I usually look to see if I recognize names in the spam section before opening the site. As I scroll down looking I notice not one not two but about half a dozen times the same spam is showing up. It is a site that says something like this, "Russian Brides". I was not expecting what I was about to see. It wasn't nudity but it was as close as you could get legally. I immediately hit the delete forever button I have on my computer. I got to thinking and I know how Satan works. Are you quick to hit the delete button or.....

When times are rough in your home life, guys, do you feel you have a right to just tease yourself with these sites that satisfy a visual sinful lust that attacks us all. When you are alone in a hotel do you say to yourself - Hey no one will ever know and look at the ads and follow it up with a search of the Internet for other more provocative sites. I am finding that more and more of us Christian young men and men are falling prey to suggestive emails initially but which leads to much more. We are victims of the justification for ourselves and so we give ourselves a free pass. Hey I deserve this or that because of my circumstances.

I have always felt strongly about two things only because when growing up I saw just the opposite of what was right when it comes to how you should treat women and especially if it applies to your wife. I have, I mean zero tolerance, for a man who will hit his wife. That is the most atrocious thing a man can do (women should not hit men either by the way). I also have no respect for men who look at pornography and call it a need. I have had two youth pastors in the last 31 years I am aware of who actually told their wives that they had to have the pornography to satisfy their needs physically. Ladies if that is the case, you need to pray, and give the ultimatum it is either me or the screen and if you choose the screen that means the highway until you get help and "change" happens.

This is a "loaded gun" we are playing with and we think no one should speak out boldly and call men to righteousness and name the sin and call for change. The only way we are going to see homes restored is for us to stop the sin of lust and change to love for God. It is all about how much I love God. It is not about how much I love my wife even. How much I love God determines how I treat my wife as a Queen or not. Now, is it easy not to give into temptation. No. We all battle the daily barrage of television, the Internet, the printed page and so much more, but a real man for Jesus will stand up and be counted as a man that will not give in. I, you, our brother, could fall tomorrow if it were not for the powerful grace that we have to have to say no to temptation. Say no if you have been saying yes. Clean up your mind with Bible verses, read it, clean up your computer and press the delete for ever. If you don't you are a two timing weasel, that is in danger of the justice of God if you don't change. My "Russian Brides" site is deleted every time now that I know what is happening. How about you. REAL MEN LOVE JESUS. I speak the truth in love.

The Power of the Church

I am so proud of our President for his stand on religious freedom around the world. While in Beijing, China, President Bush attended worship services at a state sponsored Christian Church. Yes, it was a government registered church but it was a church of worshipping people. The children's choir sang Amazing Grace and an American President was there to participate. Several years ago had I even hinted at that this would be a possibility I believe we all would have said "not in this lifetime". However, it did happen and Amazing.

If that church has problems like we all do. I mean all churches have some type of problems. When you leave our church, that is not perfect, you can go down the street and there will be another church that is not perfect and it sure won't be if we join it, because we are people and people are not perfect. I wonder if that church has problems with space, the kind of space problems like where to put people. We have that problem. Since we are in a building program it causes people to get nervous and squeamish and not sure if they want to be a part of a big church. I have seen it happen for years in other churches when churches begin to expand. I wonder if that church has the right Pastor. Since it is a state sponsored church it may very well not have any say in the matter but if it did does everyone like the Pastor? I wonder if that church has the problem of constantly maintaining the buildings and cleaning the floors and making the essentials available for every child and teenager who comes in the door. I wonder if that church has the problem of gossip? Surely not in a church where there is no freedom of speech anyway they probably don't know what gossip is.

The plain truth of the matter, one in six people in America change churches every year. One in six! I have a feeling you can't do that in China. The church of America has been altered to a level of modernism and a lack of commitment. The church in China, the real churches that meet underground and are probably the most biblical founded, are just glad to be assembling together "as the manner of some is and so much more as you see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25 We really have reduced the power of the church in America from "220" power capabilities to "110" power output. We are shopping around to find the best fit for our needs and the problem is the Bible never calls us to shop for a church to meet our needs but if we were faithful to serve in a unified spirit we would charge the gates of Hell and have demons shaking in their boots. Instead we struggle with tithing and "I can trust God with my soul but not my wallet". If everyone in the average church would tithe there is absolutely no telling what could be done to grow the Kingdom of God. We are playing games with church and the Rapture is on our heels. We are jumping around from here to there and trying to find a place to have needs met and the Great Commission is left undone and no one is fulfilling it.

The Power of the church is in the hands of the faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who hold up the hands of their Pastor like Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses. Where there is unity and love within the body and these believers are doing all they can to reach people for Christ before it is too late. I have seen way too much already of people who call themselves committed and are not. I'm committed to my wife and that means I am staying with her til we die. I am committed to my church to the day we die and I will do all I can to reach people and if it means doing the thing that shakes some "Baptists" up like risk taking Faith so be it.

The problem as I see it is, we don't believe God. If we believed God there would be a sense of urgency, To all our endeavors. To have Power in a Church only comes one way but by "Prayer and Fasting". Matthew 17:21

Is Faithful Involvement in Church that Big a Deal?

There are as one old preacher put it, speculators , spectators, agitators, gravitates but what the church needs is Faithfulness. Why go to church is one of the questions being asked by not just the people outside the church but many inside the church and especially young people. I could make this a short article with one smooth stroke of the pen and just give you the verse that answers the question and move on. Hebrews 10:25, "Forsake no the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is but so much more as you see the day approaching."

That could be faithfully interpreted that the local "ecclesia" the church is a meeting place for people of faith and that with the approaching return of Jesus for His bride we should be in the church faithfully worshipping , studying and praying more than ever before. I have some to understand that it is not as much a conviction as it used to be . The importance is gone. The seriousness with which the verse speaks of the return of Christ soon is not there. You know by now after reading some of my articles I enjoy humor and this subject reminds me of the little girl who had listened for what seemed like an eternity to her as the preacher was preaching and she turned to her mother and said, "if we give him our money now will he let us go". Church has become one of the things that is not high on the priority list of many believers. At least if you go out and ask people do you believe in Jesus and have you accepted Christ they would answer in the affirmative but when you ask them do they have a church where they regularly attend church that is a different story.

Is faithful involvement in church that Big a Deal? It is if you want to obey the Bible. It is if you want to do as the early church did and meet regularly to learn , study and worship. It is if you want to make friends with other believers. It is if you want to have spiritual needs prayed over and a place to unload the cares of this world. It is if you have a Pastor you can share your heart with and let them pray for you. It is if you want to teach your children the Bible and have them grow up learning the truth of the Bible and teach them how to live and make godly decisions. It is if you want to do what God says, "Forsake not the privilege to assemble together…."