Paul Washer

Somtimes we need a challenge. Sometimes we need a swift kick in the rump. Consider the words of this sinful man preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I dare you, no, I challenge you to sit and listen to him speak. Feel free to take out your Bible and compare his words to God's Word. One of two things I believe will happen: 1. it will cause you to think and glorify the Lord, 2. turn it off. The truth will make us free...but it will hurt first. But no fret, joy will come.

Up and Running

I am back now. I have a computer and internet access. I also have a new job (teaching new Air Force trainees how to blow up the bad guys). Hopefully I will be writing soon, as being in a new city brings different thoughts and challenges. Be blessed people and thank you for your prayers, also if you are looking to buy a house in AZ let me know!

On Matters of Race....

A few weeks ago I was invited to write for Arizona Christian Worldview Institute's blog. I sent something in and it was recently posted. So please take skip on over there and check out what I wrote concerning Obama, Wright and some other thoughts. Also check out the other contributors to ACWI. They are a sincere group of believers who place Christ above all else! And don't forget to pray for the presidential candidates and that the will of the LORD be done, regardless of who wins.

Godspeed,
Chermone

Curse God and Die

“7So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.8And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”10But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” [fn1] In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” Job 2:7-10

One the hardest times in the life of a human being is the death of someone close. Whether it is the loss of a best friend or cousin, brother or sister, father or mother, or child as in the case of Job, it is a heart wrenching ordeal. Daily I see the ravages of a death and the sorrow that follows it in the news. Recently I read a report by CNN that spoke of a young man about 17 years of age walking home in the early evening as he was instructed by his father. Just down the street from his house he was approached by gang members and then for no apparent reason- fatally shot. Upon hearing the gun blasts the father immediately phoned his son to warn him to stay away from the house for the time being. When the son did not answer the father knew something was not right and immediately set out to find him. What pain and agony the father felt as he distinctly recalled the promise that he made to his son "I guaranteed 'Jas.' That's why it hurts so much -- because I told him, 'I promise you, if you sacrifice these years, I'll sacrifice with you.'" Oh the heartbreak for someone to endure. What an excruciating ordeal for this father and mother to lose their son. It cuts up the innermost part of us all as the loss of a loved one can be most destructive to the soul. Yet in all this, there is hope.

For the wife of Job, her loss was exponential. Not one of her 10 children survived that dreadful day. She mourned seven sons and three daughters who held her heart as children always do. And shortly after she loses the blessings that God had given to her, her husband is stricken with boils. It is at this point that she begins staring at the possibility of maybe even losing her husband. Perhaps caught up in the frustration of losing the last person that she had, at her verge of collapse she blurts out of her misery, “Curse God and die!”

Job however, neither gratifies her request nor does he scold her for it. He simply discerns her reaction and tells her how she is behaving. He follows it up with an all-embracing view of the sovereignty of the Lord- “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” He neither denies God’s mercy to man nor does he strip God of it. Job knew that God was in control of all things and that all of his life was in the Lord’s hands. Job’s response is a response of contentment in the Lord- though undoubtedly filled with pain. Nevertheless, the Lord shows us that, “in all this, Job did not sin with his lips.”

Oh what glory that God received when we read of Job’s loss and later gain. The Westminster Confession declares that the “Chief end of man is to glorify God.” Job did not sin with his lips, but what about his wife? She often gets caught up in the story, coming in and out at opportune times. We rarely consider that what became her trial initially had little to do with her and more to do with Job. It was Job who was to be accosted by Satan, not his wife (maybe because the Lord knew she would curse him). Maybe, just maybe, the Lord wanted to provide a resounding instruction for her as well. I would lean to that mode of thought because in the end, the Bible says that Job had seven more sons and three more daughters (the prettiest in the land). It never says that he divorced his wife, that she died and he remarried, or that he had any other wives or concubines. She had benefited fully being hand in hand with Job. The wife of Job who bore him his first seven sons and three daughters in the end bore him seven more sons and three more daughters. The woman who lost almost all that she had gained more. No the latter ten do not take away the burden of sorrow for the loss of the first ten, but she was blessed- again. The Lord could have simply taken her life when she spoke as the ungodly did. But he refrained. Though she suffered and did not handle the pain as well as Job did, God had compassion for her. Who knows what conversations they could have had that the Lord in His wisdom decided not to share with us. Whatever the case, I do believe that she did learn more of God- just as Job did.

So where does that leave us today? Well firstly, we must remember that God is sovereign over all creation. He is omniscience and omnipotent and that He is God all by Himself. Whatever trials come our way will always be unexpected for us, but not for God. He establishes every hardship that we go through. Still, we must learn and have the fortitude of Job, “though He slays me, yet will I trust Him!” We do not know how our trials and tribulations will come, but we know that they will come. Like the father who lost his son, he rested and reassured himself in the resurrection of Christ. He knows that his son was a believer and his joy is upheld by the power of Christ. When we suffer loss, we must remember the glorious truth of Christ- “…I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” John 11:25-26

Pains will come and go. So will life. Though we suffer, either by personal loss, sickness or by persecution, we will reap if we do not faint or give up hope. We must remember that God is a righteous and just King. That He is the sovereign Lord over the entire universe. And we must remember- “Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.” And, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 8:35-39

Either Way I Vote, Someone Dies

As we approach the final stretch in this voting season many things come to mind. All of the candidates claim "Christ." Some do so more than others, but they all claim they are Christians. From the Democrat side Clinton and Obama are the ones in the forefront. For the Republicans, McCain and Huckabee. No big news there. My concern is what "Christ" they claim. For me, it is a matter of conscience on whom I vote for. The book of James 1:27 says this: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world." It is no secret that I utterly abhor abortion. I always ask the question to its supporters, "You don't have a problem with 'you' being born or staying alive now do you!" To which most respond that "life begins when it's outside of the womb." However, even scientists have come up with a list of seven items that identify something as having "life." And guess what? A fertilized egg meets all of the scientific prerequisites! So where do the "Christian" candidates stand in regards to this? Both Clinton and Obama are highly pro-abortion, McCain has flip-flopped and Huckabee is very pro-life. Oh what to do?

Another big issue is still the war in Iraq. I served in Iraq a few years ago. It definitely had its moments. One of the craziest things for me was to see empty caskets stacked 20 ft high waiting for bodies to fill them. Some pictures never leave your mind. I truly feel awful for the Marines, Army, Navy and AF cats who go over there time and again for 1-2 years at a time. I share with them the pain of hearing your children cry because you are not home and the worry in their voices when they watch the news. But I know that there is a 'just' reason that we stay over there and fight. I volunteered to come in the AF and I volunteered to go to Iraq. Same with a lot of those guys and gals there right now. But we choose knowing what we were in for. We choose knowing that it really could cost us our lives. We choose to do what we do because we believe it is the right thing to do. Do we wish things were better over there by now? SHhh yeah! Would we rather be home? You know it. But we also know that there are things far beyond us like the safety of our families and the defense of this country we have all come to know and love (despite its inherent evils). John McCain knows first hand about fighting in a war that we probably shouldn't be in. And honestly, I think all the candidates would probably want to bring the troops home. But right now doesn't seem to be the best time. Clinton and Obama would probably bring everyone back home within a year of being elected President. McCain and Huckabee would probably wait some years to see how things work out.

I guess my biggest problem with all this is the fact that Clinton and Obama will fight to bring "voting" Americans home to spare their lives, but won't fight for the life of an unborn child. And again, they call themselves Christians. It seems so easy to fight for someone who may seem angry about something and get on their side, but who sides for fatherless? Who sides for the victim? Where else do they look to protect those who need help? Honestly, all the candidates have failed in that area. But as for me, I have to side with the conscience of my faith. Not one of these candidates is going to make all of America better. However, maybe one can speak for the lives of those who don't have a voice. Our airmen and soldiers know what they're in for. Let them voice their opinion just as much as they fight for it. But let us not forget the fatherless who need us to speak up for them.

As the title goes, this election campaign will not be easy. Someone will die as a result of how we vote. The big question is who will we give the fighting chance to- The unborn child or the Soldier?

MELVINITE T-SHIRTS FOR SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love going to Pulpit-Pimps.Org. I enjoy it sooo much that I thought the benevolent dictator should get his own t-shirt to sell. After all, he doesn't charge anyone to go to his site (unlike anti-Bishop Noel Jones). I am doing this short post in an effort to encourage others to visit his site and look around at the different posts he has to expose the liars and thieves that are destroying God's people. Although the shirt is a joke, his site is far from it. The seriousness of the fallen state of the church must be inspected by those that are Christians. We must contend for the faith once delivered. Daily there are religious icons popping up merely to make money for pastors and evangelists who want nothing more than to financially rape the children of Christ. As Christians, we must preach the truth of Christ and stand for the holiness that God has called us to.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST IN THE BLACKEST OF DAYS

As I read Anthony Carter’s book entitled, “On Being Black and Reformed” one thought (of many) in particular stood out. Carter consistently and accurately makes the case for God ultimately being behind the trials that we go through. The actual idea lies staunchly within the reformed faith in its propensity to give God the glory by recognizing who He is in His supremacy. The fact that He is omnipotent, omniscience and all in all allows us to gain a better understanding of the things we go through in this life. Regardless of our trials, if we take into account that the LORD is squarely in control and that He knows the numbers of hair on our heads, then we can have full assurance that He knows what is best and that we ought to look to how we are to glorify Him through our mess.

Isaiah 45:7, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”

As the LORD is making known His power to Cyrus in the first 7 chapters of Isaiah 45, He points out something crucial for all of our understanding culminating in verse 7. He begins by pointing out that it was He that had anointed and called Cyrus (who was not a Jew) to be king. Then He tells Cyrus that He upheld him, using terminology that is just as often applied to feeble individuals being assisted. Next our LORD declares that He would be the one to destroy and straighten out so that Cyrus would know beyond a doubt that it was the doing of the LORD GOD OF ISRAEL. Furthermore, He lets Cyrus know that before he ever knew he existed, that the LORD had already purposed him to do His will. In the next few verses GOD lets Cyrus know that He is God alone, speaks in verse 7 something peculiar.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things. One word that stands out amongst the rest in this verse is the word “evil.” The word ‘ra’ from which “evil” is translated also means ‘calamity.’ As most Lexicons and Bible commentaries would agree, the “evil” spoken of in this verse is not indicating morale character, but condition. Contextualizing the verse also shows the “positive and negative” structure of it. In this case calamity most suitably applies in this situation because the LORD is referring to a ‘circumstance.’ Thus calamity is a suitable opposite to peace. So if we were to use “calamity” instead of “evil” it would look like this: I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create calamity: I the LORD do all these things. This is important because we see that God is telling Cyrus (and eventually us) that it is He that brings about distress or calamity just as much as He brings about peace. Without fail, the LORD makes known that all that comes to pass (whether we are Jew or non-Jew) is His doing, be it good or bad, loving or unloving (in our eyes), the Lord has created it.

I bring up Isaiah 45:7 to point out a biblical truth that Mr. Carter expounded upon in his book. The situations that we go through in life happen for a reason. The slave trade into the Americas wrought a purpose in Christ that would eventually glorify Him. As heinous and egregious as it was, it glorified God in that it re-Africanized Christianity for the sole purpose of glorifying God. No other group of people since the Hebrews in Egypt have been afflicted as much as Africans were during the days of slavery and on into the present.

Likewise, it was because of this situation that things available to Blacks in America today were made because of the faithfulness of the Black Church (which was the purpose of God to begin with). Yes indeed, it was upon the shoulders of our spiritual forefathers and in the arms of our spiritual mothers in the African American community that Church played the powerful role that it did (through Christ) to dispel the notion that man can be the sole master over man.

In His infinite wisdom, God chose out a people and caused them to suffer. It was His will when the nation of Israel suffered at the hands of the Egyptians and it was His will when Africans were made slaves to Whites in the Americas. It was also that same wisdom of the Father concerning the Son that said in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…” And shall be said to contest that? If suffering was good enough for Christ to endure for our salvation to the glory of the Father, isn’t the sovereignty of God just as wise to do to us as what seems fit to being Him glory? Now, do not for one second think that suffering is the only way God is glorified, but He is glorified most often when we recognize His sovereignty in our dilemmas and seek to praise Him regardless of the circumstance.

So what do we say of all this? We must resolutely decree that regardless of what life brings our way, whether good or bad, blessed or lacking, peace or calamity- we give glory to God. We glorify the LORD knowing that it is He who has made us and not us ourselves. We glorify the LORD when we pray knowing that as Christians all things work together for the good of those who love Christ and are called according to His purpose. So brothers and sisters of the true holy faith, recognize that the holy wisdom of the LORD is bound up in the majesty of His dominion over all things. And that whatever weeping may endure for a night, the joy of the LORD comes in the morning!

A little fun

I was looking around and found this neat little map. So if you sign my guestbook and leave a picture or note, that would be pretty cool (at least to me anyhow). So uh, sign my guestbook if you please. Thanks

Really, this is probably the only way I get to see who actually visits the blog. Peace

Prosperity Gospel and Hip Hop

I found this over at Independent Conservative's site today. Hee hee hee, I laugh. I laugh because the alternative would be to scream at the top of my lungs. But... since I don't have Dr. "cashflow" dollar, Junie B, or any other pimp to yell at I have to suppress because I don't want the wife to get a headache (because I love and respect her;)). I thank God for the medium to expose the false prophets in the manner given. Their benefactors talk about how great these folk are, but they fail to truly teach the people of God what is right in God's sight. They will however teach about the money they get and flaunt it like they made it. Then they make others recite mantras that are supposed to be a blessing... vain repetition is what Christ says. You all have minds, hear their words and search the scriptures...

Fix that Scripture!!!! p1

What I am going to do from now on is a continual segment called "FIX THAT SCRIPTURE!!!" What's going to happen is when I come across a scripture that someone has preached upon incorrectly, I am going to point it out and fix it. I think at this point I am not going to give you the individuals' names because I am not sure if it is going to be of use (but that might change). The main point is to correct the teaching so that you can truly learn biblical exegesis (allowing the scripture to speak for itself). Sadly, in today's prophetical (read: hear it preached from someone else without doing any study for yourself to verify that what was said lines up with the Word) atmosphere a lot of individuals are taking the scriptures and making them say what they were not originally intended for. Sometimes the stretches are small, sometimes the stretches are as far as the east is from the west. Nevertheless, we have a duty to present the Gospel of our Lord without error. Before we get started, let's go over some ground rules:

1.) Scripture must be viewed in light of -

the context that it was written in

to whom it was written to

why the author wrote it {the meaning} (already understanding that it was the Lord who

directed it)

2.) Scripture must be interpreted by scripture.

Scripture never contradicts scripture, it is on us to search diligently to find out why

some things may seem that way and correct our understanding

Great, let's begin.

I just heard an emergent preacher speaking on the "Prodigal Son." [Luke 15:11-24 pull out your bible and read along or you can open up the link to the BLB verse] Now for years, I too believed the way he interpreted this particular scripture to be correct. However, I have since learned that it was wrong. In fact, the way that it was presented (and also by most folk that preach it) is very man-centered. Here is the way it was presented.

"The greedy son goes to his father and asks him for his inheritance. the father concedes as the young man hurries off to live his life without a care in the world. After some time has passed, all his money is gone and he is working a menial job where the pigs are eating better than he is. Sitting in his state of bewilderment, he has an epiphany. He realizes that his father still has plenty to eat and the servants are much better off than he is at that present point. In realizing his foolishness in wasting his inheritance and spurning his father, he resolves to go back home to ask for forgiveness (and food). Upon returning home, his father rushes out to meet him and because the son came back there is rejoicing because now all is well!" But it isn't.

You see, the problem with this retelling and flawed focus is that all of our eyes become fixed upon the son. In the man-friendly telling of this parable, everything revolves around the son instead of where the attention should be- his father. Had the father not shown mercy to the son, there would not have been a happy ending. Had the father refused to even hear him, his trip would have been in vain. After I first heard that the "father" was the focus of the story, I couldn't see it. Then I too had an epiphany. If we look at the scriptures in Luke 15 leading up to vs 11, we see Christ alluding to why He would eat with the unscrupulous folk. The pharisee were livid with Jesus for entreating the sinners and publicans. In their eyes, Jesus should have ignored them so as not to be bothered or contaminated by their presence. However, the exact opposite happens as Jesus begins the parables of the "lost sheep" and the "lost coin." Both of these were set ups for the "Prodigal Son" in that it was the owners of their lost things that were searching them out. The sheep didn't go looking for the Shepperd and the coin didn't look for its mistress. Likewise, it is the father looking to reconcile with the son that gives the story merit. It is through the desire, love and mercy of the father that the son was not punished further than what he had already dealt with. In fact, the son realized this as well when he vowed to repent before the father and acknowledge that the father had the full right to deny him son-ship. The son knew full and well that he did not even deserve to be a servant in his father's house. It is when we look at our own sinfulness in the light of the sovereignty of our LORD, that we can then understand that it is God through Christ Jesus that has searched for and brought us out of our rebellious ways. We must never forget the never-ending and immutable omnipotence of God. It is through HIS sheer pleasure alone that any of us have come to salvation. This is the same thing that Paul speaks of in Romans 9:15-16. For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. Furthermore, before folk jump up and cry about man "deciding" to come to Christ, Jesus himself says in John 6:44, "No man can come to me, except the FATHER which hath sent me draw him..."

The preacher that I heard made the error in placing "the return" on the son when in fact "the return" rested squarely on the shoulders of the father. How magnificently that parlays into our finite understanding. By focusing on the son in this parable he effectively went contrary to scripture and lessened the supremacy of the Father in our eyes. Friends, our Father in heaven reigns supreme and we must not allow any thought otherwise to enter our minds. Likewise, we should exalt HIS Holy Word high above our vain imaginations. We must continue to strive for Sola Scriptura because a proper understanding of the nature of God rests on it!