the gate

George Thorogood’s hit song is true of all of us –

On the day I was born, the nurses all gathered ‘round
And they gazed in wide wonder, at the joy they had found
The head nurse spoke up, and she said leave this one alone
She could tell right away, that I was bad to the bone
Bad to the bone
Bad to the bone
B-B-B-B-Bad to the bone
B-B-B-B-Bad                 *(compare Ephesians 2:1-3)

And here’s God’s response –

B-B-B-B-But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:4-8)

Somebody want to lead us in Amazing Grace?

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another major christian denomination has chosen to set aside clear Biblical teaching on homosexuality and voted to allow openly homosexual people to be ordained and act as clergy.  this is a steady spiral and I don’t really see this being the last of it.  this quote sums up my thoughts pretty well.  it’s a sad day for God’s Church.

“Those who have been actively campaigning for a change of this sort in the other mainline denominations will see this as a sign that they should intensify their efforts,” Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, said in an e-mail. “For those of us who have opposed this on Biblical grounds, it is bound to reinforce the sense that we are no longer welcome in the mainline.”

check out the whole article in the l.a. times

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I just read one of the best human trafficking articles I’ve read in a while. It’s written by Robin Sax, a former Deputy District Attorney. Here’s an excerpt:

With this definition we see two aspects of trafficking, both highly repugnant: trafficking involves commercial sexual exploitation of women and children (also known as “forced prostitution”) AND it involves involuntary servitude (also known as “slavery”). Not surprisingly, most Americans cannot accept the idea that a form of slavery still exists within the United States!

Shared Hope International, founded by former Congresswoman Linda Smith, is a nonprofit leading a worldwide effort to eradicate the marketplaces of sexual slavery. They have coined the term “Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking” (DMST) to refer to what is happening here in the United States. DMST is defined as “commercial sexual exploitation of American children within American borders.”

Wake up, folks! It’s real, and it’s really happening here!

Please, go read the whole article, and pray that this evil will be stopped! Will you ask God to show you how you can help stop it?

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“Learn to do good, work for justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)

As the Freedom Center blog says, “words on a computer screen fail to convey the true horrors of contemporary slavery.” Slavery is not just a problem in other countries.

Playground is a new film that portrays the horrors of the domestic trafficking of American children and teenagers. Here’s the trailer.

For more information about Playground, click here.

“An estimated 300,000 children and adolescents are the victims of domestic trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in the United States every year.” (click here to read more)

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Related posts:
National Missing Children’s Day
Pray Against Sex Trafficking/Slavery
sex + money
Prostitution Is Slavery
Craigslist Crime Network
Sex Trafficking In America
Human Trafficking: Modern-Day Slavery

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If someone thinks becoming a mature (or better) Christian requires something above and beyond the gospel, they don’t understand Christianity or the gospel.

“But by God’s doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30)

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Related post:
The Gospel Is The Whole Enchilada

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Of all I would wish to say this is the sum; my brethren, PREACH CHRIST, always and evermore. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our great, all-comprehending theme. The world needs to be told of its Savior, and of the way to reach him . . . Blessed is the ministry of which CHRIST IS ALL . . . No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.

- Charles Spurgeon

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Within the last couple of weeks, some well-meaning but seriously confused Christians told two acquaintences of mine with potentially fatal diseases that if they will fast, God will probably heal them. Also I’ve had a few people recently ask me about fasting. It’s not a topic that comes up every week, so I thought I would address it here since I’ve been having these conversations.

It saddens me to know how much manipulative and moralistic teaching about fasting exists. As I said recently, we need to practice spiritual disciplines, but we should view them as means of grace. So let’s think of fasting as a means of grace.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:16, “When you fast…”, not IF you fast. His assumption is that his followers will fast. Jesus fasted. We read about some men in the church in Antioch fasting (Acts 13:1-3), and how Paul and Barnabas fasted (Acts 14:23).

In the land of “ALL YOU CAN EAT”, I know fasting seems odd. But, really, fasting should be a means of grace we should consider incorporating into our lives.

Fasting does not wrestle from God what he is reluctant to give. God uses fasting to help us break free of those things that clutter our souls, muffle our hearing, and deaden our spiritual sensitivity. As the Psalmist says, fasting humbles our soul (Psalm 69:10). Isaiah 58 makes it clear that fasting for selfish purposes misses the point, and is in fact an offense to God.

In short, fasting is mostly about changing us, as opposed to changing our circumstances — and it certainly is not a means of prying something out of God’s hand.

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If our greatest need had been information,

God would have send us an educator.

If our greatest need had been technology,

God would have sent us a scientist,

If our greatest need had been money,

God would have sent us an economist.

If our greatest need had been pleasure,

God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgiveness,

so God sent us a Savior!

                                   -Charles R. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening

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Would you like to win a top-quality leather Bible?

Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.

Be sure to enter now for August.

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And what are you wanting them to cheer about?

Charles Spurgeon is one of my cheerleaders. Charles Spurgeon. . .a cheerleader??? I know; it may seem odd for me to call Charles Spurgeon my cheerleader, so let me explain.

Passionately serving Jesus instead of just settling for the spiritual mediocrity of the normal American life is an uphill climb. We are in the fight of our lives. So, I find cheerleaders who spur me on. Some of them are living today; and some of them are from generations past. Charles Spurgeon is one who spurs me on.

Recently I was reading something he said about much of the “Christianity” of his day. Really, it is no different today. Rather than trusting solely in Christ for salvation, we want to pitch in and help (see my last post). Speaking of the fact that everything about the Christian life hinges solely on what Christ has done, Spurgeon says:

The hardest thing in the world seems to be to keep people to this truth, for I have noticed that much of the modern-thought doctrine is nothing but old self-righteousness tricked out again. It is bidding men still to trust in themselves, to trust in their moral character, to trust in their spiritual aspirations, or something or other. I stand here tonight to say to you that the basis of your hope is not even your own faith, much less your own good works; but it is what Christ has done once for all, for “you are complete in him,” and you can never be complete in any other way.

Speaking of 1 Corinthians 15:17, he says:

Our eternal hopes do not depend upon our moral condition. . .The apostle does not say, “If you are or are not in such and such a moral condition,” but, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins.” So, my beloved, the reason of your being safe will be that Christ died for you, and that he rose again; it is not the result of what you are, but of what he did.

The hinge of it all is not in you—it is in him, and you are to place your reliance, not upon what you are, or hope to be, but wholly and entirely upon a great fact which transpired nearly nineteen hundred years ago. If he did not rise from the dead, you are in your sins still, be you as good as you may; but if he did rise from the dead, and you are one with him, you are not in your sins; they are all put away, and you are “accepted in the Beloved.”

He cheers me on to keep living with that one truth as the foundation of my daily life and my eternal hope, and to keep proclaiming that one truth instead of a “tricked out self-righteousness” that is so commonly proclaimed today.

What Jesus has done for us is absolutely amazing!!

– excerpts from “If There Is No Resurrection,” February 20, 1890

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