Waiting on Christmas…

Thanksgiving is over, the turkey is now just a sad looking bunch of bones wrapped in tinfoil on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. The kids have all gone home… and this morning I find myself waiting on Christmas. Waiting is not something I am very good at (just ask my wife), yet it is something that is woven into the very fabric of our faith. Abraham waited for the fulfillment of God’s promise to make of him a great nation; Sarah waited on Isaac; Noah waited first for the rains to come, and then for the rain to stop; Moses waited forty years on the back side of the desert; Jesus himself waited thirty years to begin his earthly ministry; and there are many more examples we could quote. Waiting it seems is a part of God’s perfect plan.

It is important that in our fast paced world of jet aircraft, microwave meals, cell phones, the Internet, and hurrying from one meeting to the next, we remind ourselves once again that God is never rushed, He is never in a hurry, and He is never late. All things will be accomplished according to his perfect will and in his perfect time. In these four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year let me encourage you to slow down, take some time out from your busy schedule each day and from all the shopping and preparing to go “over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s house”, and reflect on what Christmas is really all about… and while we may be waiting on Christmas, we are no longer waiting on the Messiah. Christ has come, and the long wait for the fulfillment of God’s promise to save his people from their sins is now over… Salvation has come! That my friends, is why we may debate about the proper way to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus… there is no debate about the significance of this event in redemptive history.

Grace Always,

(PM)SBC Voices

Is it just me, or has anyone else become annoyed by all the whining going on over at SBC Voices lately?

If it were not for the big SBC Voices logo at the top of the page (claiming to be “open source Southern Baptist news & opinions”) one might think they had stumbled into a bad episode of the Jerry Springer show.

Here is an example of what I am talking about… it comes from an article written by Howell Scott titled “Radically Redefining Transparency in the SBC: Part 1”

Scott opens this episode of the show with this outlandish accusation leveled against the members of the Great Commission Task Force… Howell says:

”…the GCR has led to more division and distrust among Southern Baptists,… Not that they will take any responsibility for the increased level of division and distrust within the convention,”

And the show only gets nastier from there.

Scott next claims that by voting to seal the records of the meeting of the GCRTF for 15 years, in order that we not break the assurance of confidentially given to all who were encouraged to freely speak their mind about what was wrong and needed fixing in the SBC, the members of the Convention itself are guilty of voting to radically “redefine transparency within the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Let’s see now… we have been on the air for, what, 5 minutes now, and Scott has accused the members of the GCRTF of causing “division and distrust among Southern Baptists…” and the members of the Convention itself of being dishonest… all because Scott did not get what he wanted in Orlando.

”How dare you not give me what I want… I’ll come over there and scratch your eyes out… You big…

Yep, this is a bad episode of the Jerry Springer show all right… think I will turn the channel.

Humbling Election --- For the Media!

The day after a Historic Republican landslide in the midterm elections the Leftist Secular Media is having a hard time finding anything to smile about.

Gone are the jubilant smiles and laughter that filled the room after the election of President Oboma two years ago… If there was any lingering doubt about the Secular Media being "in the tank" for the Oboma administration, take a hard look at all the sad faces in the room during President Oboma’s speech today.

A Picture is worth a thousand words.

The Tyranny of the Two Party System!

The 17th amendment turned the "United States" into an "Empire" ruled by a Totalitarian Government in Washington DC. This is not what our Founding Fathers gave their lives and fortunes to establish… It is blatantly unconstitutional, and should be repealed! If you love freedom and are feed up with living under the Tyranny of the two party system… Be a voice for freedom and repost this article to your Blog and your Facebook page.

Republican Candidates Call for Repeal of Seventeenth Amendment

HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION Legal in Florida

Thanks to "Radical" Judicial Activism, and Bill McCollum, HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION is now legal in the Socialist Republic of Florida! The Florida Family Policy Council just released the following disturbing announcement.

BREAKING NEWS:

NO APPEAL TO BE TAKEN
IN HOMOSEXUAL ADOPTION CASE

Gill Decision, Which Now Appears to Be the
Judge-Made Law of the Land in Florida, Elevates the
Adult Desires of a Radical Minority Over what is Best for Children

(Orlando, FL) Today, Friday, October 22, 2010, the Attorney General of the State of Florida, Bill McCollum, announced that his office would not be taking an appeal of the Gill case, which struck down Florida’s long standing prohibition on homosexual adoptions, to the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Family Policy Council, a leading opponent and legal critic of the Miami Court’s decision, released the following statement:

We are disappointed that DCF, the Governor, and now the Attorney General has failed to take the appeal and defend Florida’s adoption law that rightly seeks to place children in homes with both a mother and a father. We have been in active communication with the Attorney General’s office on this matter and understand there are some legitimate and complex legal issues which have persuaded his office to make this decision. We also recognize that the current 5-2 left leaning make up of Florida’s Supreme Court (directly created by Governor Crist’s recent judicial appointments) would likely have not ruled to uphold the statute either. Nonetheless, for both the sake of legal finality, and the accountability of the judiciary, we believe the appeal should have been taken.
Gay-identified activists will herald the Gill case as some sort of a victory. But sadly, the decision only comes at the expense of the children who the social science research overwhelmingly demonstrates do better in every category when raised by both a married mom and dad. The Court only asked the narrow question of whether homosexual parents “harm” children. The Court never asked what research shows is best for children. Arguably, orphanages don’t “harm” children either, but this is certainly not what is best. The court’s illegitimate decision, which appears to now be the judge-made law of the land, has elevated the adult desires of a radical minority over what is clearly best for children-- namely to be placed with both a mother and a father. The official public policy in Florida is now that two dads are just as good as a mom and a dad, and yet research bears out that this is empirically false.

# # #
For More Information Contact:
Nathan Dunn, Vice President of Public Policy
850-567-8143
NathanD@FLfamily.org

I Wish You Enough

Recently I overheard a Father and daughter in their last moments, together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate they hugged and the Father said, 'I love you, and I wish you enough.'

The daughter replied, 'Dad, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Dad.'

They kissed and she left. The Father walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see he wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on his privacy, but he welcomed me in by asking, 'Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?'

'Yes, I have,' I replied. 'Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?' 'I am old, and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral,' he said.

'When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough.' May I ask what that means?'

He began to smile. 'That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone...' He paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and he smiled even more. 'When we said, 'I wish you enough,' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them. Then turning toward me, he shared the following as if he were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright, no matter how gray the day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

He then began to cry and walked away.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them; but then an entire life to forget them.

(Author Unknown)

A Plea for Help!

Everyone…

I have just received word at our Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting last night that our small local Christian School in Defuniak Springs, that is run by a 86 year old saint of a Christian Lady that volunteers her time in order to keep the doors of the School open, is behind in paying their bills by more than $6,000 dollars due to the downturn in the economy. That may not sound like much to you, but it is huge to this very small Christian School. The School is really suffering and the Children are now selling donuts to try and keep the lights on.

If anyone would like to help me keep the doors of “The Galilean Academy” in Defuniak Springs, Florida, open for our children you can send a check to [First Baptist Church, 2877 Highway 81 N., Ponce de Leon, Florida 32455] Please make any checks out to First Baptist Church and put “Galilean Academy” in the note…

Thanks,

“Doctrine - and the Face of God”

As men and women of faith; we do never hold our opinions on any matter of doctrine, or issue of life, independent and separate from our views concerning the very nature and character of God. To the contrary, our understanding of the nature and character of God underpins and greatly influences all our opinions, doctrine, and general overall worldview.

Each individual opinion, or doctrine, that we hold tells us something about our personal convictions concerning who God truly is.

Therefore, the doctrines we believe are, as it were, single threads that when woven together make up the fabric of our faith upon which a mosaic of the face of our God may be clearly seen.

This is a profound truth that many, who engage in theological debate, do never stop to consider. What do my opinions, and the doctrines I defend, say about my God?

Grace Always,

A Defense of Virginia and the South

‎"A Defense of Virginia and the South" by R.L. Dabney is a book that every Southern Christian should read carefully, and then re-read it again! I am very much aware that many of my fellow Southerners may be a little embarrassed that I now take up the cause to defend the Christian nature of the Old South, but I like Dabney do so without hesitation and without apology.

Dabney explains his motivation for writing his ‘A Defense of Virginia and the South’ by saying:

To the conquerors of my native State, and perhaps to some of her sons, a large part of the following defense will appear wholly unseasonable… But my purpose in the following pages is, first and chiefly, to lay this pious and final defense upon the tomb of my murdered mother, Virginia… The last and only office that remains to her sons is to leave their testimony for her righteous fame – feeble it may be now, amidst the din of passion and material power, yet inextinguishable as Truth’s own torch.

The most fearful consequence of the despotic government to which the South is now subjected, is not the plundering of our goods, nor the abridgment of privileges, nor the death of innocent men, but the degrading and debauching of the moral sensibilities and principles of the helpless victims… The wisest, kindest, most patriotic thing which any man can do for his country, amidst such calamities, is to aid in preserving and reinstating the tottering principles of his countrymen; to teach them, while they give place to inexorable force, to abate nothing of righteous convictions and of self –respect.

--- R.L. Dabney

Irrespective of one’s personal convictions concerning the institution of slavery in all the States (Northern and Southern) of the former United States of America no honest student of American history can point to an age in which it’s people were more deeply pious than we find in the southern states of the Old South prior to the war of northern aggression that brought an end to one form of slavery only to give birth to another in which all its citizens would eventually become indentured servants (slaves) to the government through an ever increasing and unconstitutional system of federal taxation upon the person income (labor) of its once free citizens. If the contest between the states truly ever freed any of the citizens of this nation, that freedom was to endure less than a hundred years.

I say “former United States of America” for the union of coequal commonwealth states that existed prior to the war of northern aggression is long dead, and long replaced by an Imperial and Unconstitutional Federal Government that is an anathema to the principals of a union between free, coequal, and self-governing states envisioned by the Founding Fathers of this nation. The opening words to the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’ rings hauntingly true when viewed toward the history of this nation; “Much that once was has now been lost, for there are none now alive who remember.”

Get the book ‎"A Defense of Virginia and the South" by R.L. Dabney and read it carefully for it was written by one who lived through the great disaster of that time, and it’s truths are so well documented that no historian has ever attempted to refute what Dabney writes. It will change your understanding of life in the former Free States of the Old South, and it will challenge your former opinions of the character of her people.

Deo Vindice ........."God Will Vindicate"

"Evolution? It's a Lie!"

“Evolution? It’s a Lie!”

Charles Brock put this on our Church Sign at First Baptist Church of Ponce de Leon Florida two weeks ago and people from out of state (Tennessee, Alabama, etc) have been stopping in our church parking lot to have their picture taken with our sign. I found that just a little unsettling… Have we so bought into the lie of Evolution that no one will even speak out against it in our day for fear of being labeled a religious nut?

Regardless of how you interpret the creation account in Genesis… Evolution is an insidious lie and perhaps the greatest scientific “Hoax” of all time. The falsified evidence in support of this key doctrine of the secular/atheist worldview has been fully exposed and refuted by modern molecular biology and yet we continue to “tip toe” around this issue. Please get “The Truth Project” videos from Focus on the Family and show them to your church, family, and everyone else you can get to watch them. Dr Del Tackett is just awesome in this video series!

Grace Always,