America stands upon the brink of a decision this day with eternal consequences - whether she will openly embrace the sin of homosexuality and protect it with her laws, or whether she will hold to her Godly heritage.
But first let's be clear about a few things. True Christians - those who have given their lives to Jesus Christ and follow His teachings - do not hate homosexuals, nor do they fear them. True Christians hate homosexuality and fear the consequences to their society and nation. There is an enormous difference between the sinner and the sin itself, for each of us are sinners by nature. Christians hate homosexuality because God hates it. This is ABUNDANTLY clear and easily shown from His Word throughout both Old and New Testaments. God hates all sin, yet loves all sinners and desires deeply for us to come to Him in repentance and humility, but the choice is given to each individual.
Likewise, Christians recognize that marriage is an institution created and ordained by God - not Man! From the very beginning of Creation this has been so. It is specifically and explicitly designed to join one man and one woman in a life-long bond that produces offspring and, by its very nature reflects Who He is, who we are, and portrays deep spiritual truths about our relationship to God in ways which specifically require one man and one woman. This too is affirmed throughout both Old and New Testament and in the words of Jesus Himself repeatedly.
Human history is littered with the wreckage of nations that have abandoned God's moral laws and, specifically, His design for marriage. From the time before the Great Flood, to Sodom and Gomorrah, to Egypt, Greece, Rome, and so forth, one of ... perhaps THE primary trigger of the downfall of each of these empires was their abandonment of God's Laws - and homosexuality in particular. More specifically though, it is not the just immorality in general that portends the destruction of a nation, for there is always sin present in every nation. Rather it is the point at which the nation's leadership begins to publicly, officially, and even legally protect and promote such immorality. For THIS is the point at which the nation's leadership has openly and officially defied God, His design, and His laws.
Such a nation cannot long endure, and history bears this out.
America was founded upon God's laws and rose to greatness because she proudly proclaimed the Lord as her Source, Protector, and Light. Though children have been taught otherwise in public schools for decades now, even a cursory review of the actual writings of our Founding Fathers proves this in abundance. Yet in recent decades, America has increasingly drifted from her roots and her God. Her governing institutions have been systematically eradicating every public proclamation of her reliance upon God and set about erasing all traces of her historic roots in His Word (The Bible). Steadily, America's populace has softened to, not just the presence of, but the "normalcy" of homosexuality and begun to openly embrace and even promote it. I have watch with both sadness and horror, the percentages of the population opposed to open, legal, homosexual unions plummet. In many places, the majority opinion is no longer held by those who understand and respect God's design and Word. Not long ago every state in the Union held laws against homosexual acts, and the very idea that the legal institution of marriage could be perverted to apply to homosexual "unions" was so unthinkable that virtually no such legal definitions were thought necessary. But recent history has seen many states have to pass laws or constitutional amendments defining and protecting marriage as God designed it and requires.
Today however, even those states' efforts to protect the historical, Biblical definition and institution of marriage has come before the highest court in our land and are in imminent danger of being struck down permanently. Today, having already slidden far down this slippery slope of immorality and defiance of God, America stands upon the last precipice ... her last opportunity to turn back, or at least postpone, an official, legal embrace of defiance against God's most sacred institution. If America's government officially states that homosexuality is not only acceptable but protected and even promoted by law, we will have taken that last fatal step of defiantly slapping the face of God and daring Him to render judgment unto us as He did the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ... along with every other great nation in history in who's footsteps we now tread. I emphasize again that the downfall of Sodom was not simply the sin of homosexuality, but the open condoning of it by its leadership.
In the first chapter of Romans, the Holy Spirit, through Paul the Apostle, lays this out with precision and clarity:
"For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; ... who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them." -- Rom 1:26-32 (emphasis mine)
That last line highlights the point here ... they not only do such things but also "approve of those who practice them".
And as George Mason1 so aptly stated at the Federal Convention of 1787,
"As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes & effects providence punishes national sins, by national calamities."
This is it America. Before you lies the same choice that lay before the ancient Israelites 4 millennia ago:
"And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." -- Joshua 24:15
To paraphrase a line from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "You must choose. For whereas the true cup will give you eternal life, the false cup will bring death."
Choose wisely America. For Heaven's sake ... choose wisely.
- Tim -
1. [George Mason: Virginia delegate to Constitutional Convention, often regarded as "the father of the Bill of Rights"]↩
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Happy Palm Sunday!
A happy and blessed PALM SUNDAY to everyone!
Few Christians know the true significance of Palm Sunday in that it was Jesus' formal presentation of Himself as the Messiah to the leadership of the nation of Israel. As He rode the donkey into Jerusalem, He fulfilled multiple prophecies of the coming of the Messiah and many of the Jewish people recognized it as such singing Messianic Psalms (Ps 118, etc.) to the consternation of the Pharisees (Lk 19:39).
What even fewer Christians realize is that the exact day of this "Triumphal Entry" was given to the prophet Daniel by the Angel Gabriel more than 450 years earlier and recorded in one of the most amazing and precise prophecies of the Bible (Daniel 9:24-27). In 1894, Sir Robert Anderson (Chief of Criminal Investigation Dept. of Scotland Yard - 1888-1896) published the book "The Coming Prince" in which he detailed the calendar, archaeology, and Biblical scholarship that shows that Gabriel's prophecy was fulfilled to the exact Day on April 6, 32 A.D.
Jesus Himself confirms this in Luke 19:41-44 where He holds the nation accountable for having missed this special day of days. Even the Creation itself knew that "this [was] the Day the Lord has made..." (which is another prophecy concerning Palm Sunday, from Ps 118) as Jesus indicates that if His followers were silent, that "even the stones would cry out" in praise of the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah (Lk 19:40).
Luke 19:41-44: "Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."
Here, Jesus pronounces a national blindness ("now they are hidden") upon the Jewish people because they rejected Him on this day. Yet God has promised that He is not finished with Israel. For there will come a day, after the "fullness of the Gentiles has come in" when He will turn His face back to the nation of Israel. Paul emphasizes this heavily in Rom 9-11, but in particular verse 11:25-27 spells it out clearly:
Romans 11:25-27 "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."
Our God has always been a God who makes and keeps His promises. He is eminently trustworthy and His timing is always perfect - even when we were expecting something different or miss it entirely. Jesus is always right on time.
For more information on the 70 Week prophecy see this link:
http://www.khouse.org/articles/2004/552
Or hear Dr. Missler teach the subject personally here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PywcLTSCs60
Grace and peace to you all this Holy Week and Easter.
- Tim -
Monday, March 4, 2013
An Update From The Millers
Hi All;
It's been way too long since I've written anything here and folks have been asking how things are going. Well, things are going - sometimes it seems way too fast. Weeks and months roll by and at some point I sit up and wonder where it all went. Some of it, I'm sure is just a by-product of my new senior citizen status. There are in fact way too many of those by-products in my life right now, but I'll not go any farther down that road.
ANDREA:
Andrea has been reasonably well. Things are largely holding steady. She continues to struggle with lack of energy and "gut problems" of all types. I'll spare both her and you any further details. Her oncologist continues to blame the chemo therapy drug she takes daily. However, we know that many of these problems preceded the cancer treatments and it's been extremely difficult to sort out what's what and what we might be able to "fix" vs. what we just need to learn to live with. So we continue to try various things through our family doctor and on our own to improve what we can. She's doing her best (and succeeding) to keep up with most of the housework and Daniel's school. Her family is going through some real challenges right now and that's been stressful on all of us, but especially her. It's been a difficult situation for many years, but it appears things are rapidly building to crisis level and we're trying hard to figure out the wisest form of involvement for us to have.
Lately, she's been busily trying to plan Daniel's trip through the Children's Wish Foundation (we recently found out it was NOT the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but apparently the exact same kind of thing. Regardless, They provided Daniel with one "little wish" and one "big wish". The little one was a (rather large) Lego set early last year. And for the big one, Daniel has chosen a trip to Disney World - which is, not surprisingly, a popular choice. As he's getting much of his strength back now, we thought it would be a good time to try to get him down there. So Andrea's trying to coordinate all the permissions and paper work and timing, etc. It'll be fun to see how this all comes together. But the stories we've heard form others who have done this are just phenomenal. I think Andrea's more excited than Daniel! :-) If all goes as planned, we'll be going in early May.
DANIEL:
Daniel is also doing well. His hair is coming back in really full now and he's quite happy about that. He's NOT been very happy about the fact that it's come in very curly. Formerly, his hair was bright blond and very straight. Now it's a fairly dark brown and curly. Despite a couple of dozen people assuring him that this is going to be a big hit with the girls one day soon, he remains skeptical. We've also been glad to see him beginning to grow again in both height and weight. He's behind the curves a bit, but moving the right direction and that's a HUGE relief to me. I remain frustrated that we've never gotten any traction from the medical community as to why he was completely stunted in both height and weight gain for two to three years, but at this point, it appear we never will. Unfortunately, much of his weight gain has been the result of gaining disproportionate pounds - probably as a result of ongoing steroid treatments. Though both the dosage and frequency are greatly reduced in the current Maintenance phase, he's once again putting on quite a bit of weight. Some of it is likely from simply being house-bound in the dead of winter. I've been extremely cautious about letting either one of them out with as bad as the cold and flu season has been this year. For awhile, it seemed EVERYONE was sick and I was terrified to let either of them out of the house. But by the grace of God, we've made it through largely unscathed to date ... well until today, but I'll come back to that. Daniel has been slowly increasing his involvement again in both his weekly home school co-op and the church's AWANA program. He's doing very well in (home) school and excels at Math. Last weekend, we attended the Heroes Foundation Gala / fund raiser downtown where Daniel was invited to be a V.I.P. representative of Team Joey - a program that raises support for both cancer research and cancer patients. The Team Joey component was created in honor of Joey Keller's legacy, our friend who lost his battle with brain cancer last November. Daniel took the stage with Colts coach Chuck Pagano (who's fighting leukemia himself), radio personality and former pro football player Joe Staysniak, and Heroes Foundation founder Vince Todd during the evening and thoroughly enjoyed himself. It was his first formal event and we had to get him a suit for the occasion. He loved dressing up and proved himself a natural "schmoozer". I was in awe!! There must have been a dozen different women fawning over him afterward and telling him how special (and cute) he was. As a V.I.P. he'll be delivering toys (mostly Legos) to other cancer patients on behalf of the foundation.
His chemotherapy is still a daily routine with a few different drugs he takes daily (along with various vitamins & supplements), but the clinic visits are down to once-a-month and will remain so until we're finished in the spring of 2015, God willing. It's a 3-month repeating schedule where 2 of the 3 months include a spinal tap & injection at the clinic visit. He hates those with a passion ... and so do his mother & I. But this is the course we've chosen to follow and, right or wrong, it's the one I believe best. I remain open and often searching for any word from the Lord that would release us from continuing down this road, but until it comes, we will stay the course we're on. Yet it doesn't stop the almost daily heart-ache at having to put my son through all we've done and all that lies ahead. We rely regularly on Romans 8:28!
ME:
For myself, things have remained busy. VERY busy. I'm down to the last couple of weeks in teaching my Systematic Theology class with Water-To-Wine. It's been enjoyable, but actually much more work than I anticipated. Things at work have continued at a fairly steady pace and the job itself remains enjoyable overall. I'm extremely happy to be in a job at all, especially one with good health insurance. The fact that it's also largely enjoyable has been a huge blessing. Not having to deal with past stresses and simply dreading going into work every day in the midst of all we've gone through in the last couple years has been of immeasurable value. I thank God regularly for that!
In the past couple weeks, we've finalized plans to start up another weekly Bible study that I'll be teaching at our friends the Rikker's house. We did this for several years awhile back and it was a fantastic blessing. We still count those folks among our closest friends and we're very much looking forward to getting most of the old group together again as well as some new faces. I'll be teaching Genesis (which is actually where we left off when the group ended several years ago) which is always a favorite for me. So despite the fact of having two studies going for a brief overlap coupled with a busy work schedule, trying to keep up with the house and some remodeling projects, and several family problems right now, the next few weeks are looking a bit challenging!
Right on cue, as we finalized plans for the new study over the weekend, I came down with what appears to be laryngitis. It's like clockwork. It was the same month in which I agreed to teach with Water-To-Wine that Daniel was diagnosed with Leukemia last year. I was teaching Genesis as my first course in fact. Before that, it was while teaching this same group at the Rikkers' house that I had an eye infection that had me out of work for the better part of 4 months and ended up with corneal replacement surgery. When I got through that and eventually started teaching Genesis, the group disbanded. It's always something - especially when teaching Genesis. The warfare that comes with any form of ministry is intense. Teaching the Bible is obviously something our enemy hates vehemently ... and Genesis in particular for lots good of reasons! I believe it was Martin Luther who said something to the effect that, "anyone who doesn't believe the devil exists need only try resisting him!" Amen to that!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. So we could ALL use your continued prayers. The road ahead remains challenging in lots of ways, but we're also very relieved that it seems the worst is behind us (famous last words, I know).
2. I would like to specifically ask for your prayers for myself in the next few weeks as I try to juggle a lot of plates and keep healthy. Please pray for this throat infection in particular.
3. We could also use your prayers for several family members also going through some real difficulties right now - as well as wisdom on our part in how best to help them.
4. Lastly, I'd like to pass on a special prayer request for another family that a friend recently brought to my attention. They are a Christian family who immigrated to Indiana from Iraq last year because of the intense persecution of Christians there. Their son Lowees (Luis), who is 12, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer (Burkitt's Lymphoma) and is undergoing chemotherapy at Riley. Having been in the states for only a very short time, they don't have a lot of connections yet much less having to adapt to a new culture. Learning to navigate the medical system is challenging enough. While learning a new language, culture, living situation, and all the rest at the same time is just unimaginable. I was also informed that Lowees' father recently lost his job here and is struggling with depression. They certainly need our prayers. I'll pass on more info as it comes.
Thanks everyone for your ongoing love, support, and prayers. You have been God's hands, feet, and voice to us more times than I can possibly count or even acknowledge. And above all, we thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who's love, faithfulness, peace and comfort through these times has sustained us in every way. To Him be the glory in all things.
Grace and peace,
- Tim, Andrea, & Daniel -
It's been way too long since I've written anything here and folks have been asking how things are going. Well, things are going - sometimes it seems way too fast. Weeks and months roll by and at some point I sit up and wonder where it all went. Some of it, I'm sure is just a by-product of my new senior citizen status. There are in fact way too many of those by-products in my life right now, but I'll not go any farther down that road.
ANDREA:
Andrea has been reasonably well. Things are largely holding steady. She continues to struggle with lack of energy and "gut problems" of all types. I'll spare both her and you any further details. Her oncologist continues to blame the chemo therapy drug she takes daily. However, we know that many of these problems preceded the cancer treatments and it's been extremely difficult to sort out what's what and what we might be able to "fix" vs. what we just need to learn to live with. So we continue to try various things through our family doctor and on our own to improve what we can. She's doing her best (and succeeding) to keep up with most of the housework and Daniel's school. Her family is going through some real challenges right now and that's been stressful on all of us, but especially her. It's been a difficult situation for many years, but it appears things are rapidly building to crisis level and we're trying hard to figure out the wisest form of involvement for us to have.
Lately, she's been busily trying to plan Daniel's trip through the Children's Wish Foundation (we recently found out it was NOT the Make-A-Wish Foundation, but apparently the exact same kind of thing. Regardless, They provided Daniel with one "little wish" and one "big wish". The little one was a (rather large) Lego set early last year. And for the big one, Daniel has chosen a trip to Disney World - which is, not surprisingly, a popular choice. As he's getting much of his strength back now, we thought it would be a good time to try to get him down there. So Andrea's trying to coordinate all the permissions and paper work and timing, etc. It'll be fun to see how this all comes together. But the stories we've heard form others who have done this are just phenomenal. I think Andrea's more excited than Daniel! :-) If all goes as planned, we'll be going in early May.
DANIEL:
Daniel is also doing well. His hair is coming back in really full now and he's quite happy about that. He's NOT been very happy about the fact that it's come in very curly. Formerly, his hair was bright blond and very straight. Now it's a fairly dark brown and curly. Despite a couple of dozen people assuring him that this is going to be a big hit with the girls one day soon, he remains skeptical. We've also been glad to see him beginning to grow again in both height and weight. He's behind the curves a bit, but moving the right direction and that's a HUGE relief to me. I remain frustrated that we've never gotten any traction from the medical community as to why he was completely stunted in both height and weight gain for two to three years, but at this point, it appear we never will. Unfortunately, much of his weight gain has been the result of gaining disproportionate pounds - probably as a result of ongoing steroid treatments. Though both the dosage and frequency are greatly reduced in the current Maintenance phase, he's once again putting on quite a bit of weight. Some of it is likely from simply being house-bound in the dead of winter. I've been extremely cautious about letting either one of them out with as bad as the cold and flu season has been this year. For awhile, it seemed EVERYONE was sick and I was terrified to let either of them out of the house. But by the grace of God, we've made it through largely unscathed to date ... well until today, but I'll come back to that. Daniel has been slowly increasing his involvement again in both his weekly home school co-op and the church's AWANA program. He's doing very well in (home) school and excels at Math. Last weekend, we attended the Heroes Foundation Gala / fund raiser downtown where Daniel was invited to be a V.I.P. representative of Team Joey - a program that raises support for both cancer research and cancer patients. The Team Joey component was created in honor of Joey Keller's legacy, our friend who lost his battle with brain cancer last November. Daniel took the stage with Colts coach Chuck Pagano (who's fighting leukemia himself), radio personality and former pro football player Joe Staysniak, and Heroes Foundation founder Vince Todd during the evening and thoroughly enjoyed himself. It was his first formal event and we had to get him a suit for the occasion. He loved dressing up and proved himself a natural "schmoozer". I was in awe!! There must have been a dozen different women fawning over him afterward and telling him how special (and cute) he was. As a V.I.P. he'll be delivering toys (mostly Legos) to other cancer patients on behalf of the foundation.
His chemotherapy is still a daily routine with a few different drugs he takes daily (along with various vitamins & supplements), but the clinic visits are down to once-a-month and will remain so until we're finished in the spring of 2015, God willing. It's a 3-month repeating schedule where 2 of the 3 months include a spinal tap & injection at the clinic visit. He hates those with a passion ... and so do his mother & I. But this is the course we've chosen to follow and, right or wrong, it's the one I believe best. I remain open and often searching for any word from the Lord that would release us from continuing down this road, but until it comes, we will stay the course we're on. Yet it doesn't stop the almost daily heart-ache at having to put my son through all we've done and all that lies ahead. We rely regularly on Romans 8:28!
ME:
For myself, things have remained busy. VERY busy. I'm down to the last couple of weeks in teaching my Systematic Theology class with Water-To-Wine. It's been enjoyable, but actually much more work than I anticipated. Things at work have continued at a fairly steady pace and the job itself remains enjoyable overall. I'm extremely happy to be in a job at all, especially one with good health insurance. The fact that it's also largely enjoyable has been a huge blessing. Not having to deal with past stresses and simply dreading going into work every day in the midst of all we've gone through in the last couple years has been of immeasurable value. I thank God regularly for that!
In the past couple weeks, we've finalized plans to start up another weekly Bible study that I'll be teaching at our friends the Rikker's house. We did this for several years awhile back and it was a fantastic blessing. We still count those folks among our closest friends and we're very much looking forward to getting most of the old group together again as well as some new faces. I'll be teaching Genesis (which is actually where we left off when the group ended several years ago) which is always a favorite for me. So despite the fact of having two studies going for a brief overlap coupled with a busy work schedule, trying to keep up with the house and some remodeling projects, and several family problems right now, the next few weeks are looking a bit challenging!
Right on cue, as we finalized plans for the new study over the weekend, I came down with what appears to be laryngitis. It's like clockwork. It was the same month in which I agreed to teach with Water-To-Wine that Daniel was diagnosed with Leukemia last year. I was teaching Genesis as my first course in fact. Before that, it was while teaching this same group at the Rikkers' house that I had an eye infection that had me out of work for the better part of 4 months and ended up with corneal replacement surgery. When I got through that and eventually started teaching Genesis, the group disbanded. It's always something - especially when teaching Genesis. The warfare that comes with any form of ministry is intense. Teaching the Bible is obviously something our enemy hates vehemently ... and Genesis in particular for lots good of reasons! I believe it was Martin Luther who said something to the effect that, "anyone who doesn't believe the devil exists need only try resisting him!" Amen to that!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. So we could ALL use your continued prayers. The road ahead remains challenging in lots of ways, but we're also very relieved that it seems the worst is behind us (famous last words, I know).
2. I would like to specifically ask for your prayers for myself in the next few weeks as I try to juggle a lot of plates and keep healthy. Please pray for this throat infection in particular.
3. We could also use your prayers for several family members also going through some real difficulties right now - as well as wisdom on our part in how best to help them.
4. Lastly, I'd like to pass on a special prayer request for another family that a friend recently brought to my attention. They are a Christian family who immigrated to Indiana from Iraq last year because of the intense persecution of Christians there. Their son Lowees (Luis), who is 12, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphatic cancer (Burkitt's Lymphoma) and is undergoing chemotherapy at Riley. Having been in the states for only a very short time, they don't have a lot of connections yet much less having to adapt to a new culture. Learning to navigate the medical system is challenging enough. While learning a new language, culture, living situation, and all the rest at the same time is just unimaginable. I was also informed that Lowees' father recently lost his job here and is struggling with depression. They certainly need our prayers. I'll pass on more info as it comes.
Thanks everyone for your ongoing love, support, and prayers. You have been God's hands, feet, and voice to us more times than I can possibly count or even acknowledge. And above all, we thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Who's love, faithfulness, peace and comfort through these times has sustained us in every way. To Him be the glory in all things.
Grace and peace,
- Tim, Andrea, & Daniel -
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