America's Choice

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"]↩}

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 -

Learning About St. Nicholas Day

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas day!!  I'm just learning about this for the first time this year.  Apparently in many places around the world and even certain locations here in the U.S. this is a big deal - almost another "Christmas" for the kids.  As most (?) people know, Our Christmas legends & traditions derive from the real 4th century person named Saint Nicholas (=>"Santa Claus") who died on this day (6 Dec) in A.D. 343 and was later sainted by the Catholic church.  Below is some information currently being passed around regarding his legend and associated customs.

Regardless of how you interpret the various stories & legends surrounding Nicholas, we can be sure that he was in fact a very real person and a great man at that.  His reputation for compassion, helping those in need, and defending the Gospel is quite literally "the stuff of legend".  Personally, I consider it a very good thing to remember those who have gone before us that distinguished themselves by their example.  These are the men  and women who deserve to remembered as "heroes" and their stories passed on to our children.  And while I personally have no problem with the tradition of telling our children that Santa Claus visits us on Christmas Eve to leave presents, I also think it's important to distinguish between these fun festivities and the Real Reason for the Season ... which also happens to be the very basis for who the real Saint Nicholas was and why he did the things he did as well.  I find that discovering and emphasizing the connection between the two in this way has really helpful in establishing my own opinions on the proper place and appropriateness of "Santa" in conjunction with Christmas.  Admittedly, our modern U.S. celebration of Christmas is an enormously complex hodgepodge of different traditions and even different religions from around the world and more than 2000 years of history.  Some of it has decidedly non-Christian origins and an increasingly large portion in the U.S. is decidedly secular and (amazingly) even anti-Christian.  But I've made my own peace with how my family and I celebrate at this time of year and I hope each person will study these things enough to arrive at your own conclusions as to what you feel is appropriate and what is not.    I hope to find time this season to write a lot more on this topic, but then, it's already December 6th isn't it!?

However you choose to celebrate, I wish you all a very happy Christmas!

I believe the text I've included below to have originated at the following website - and though I am not Roman Catholic, I found the text to be well-written, very informative, and thought it worth sharing.
http://www.fisheaters.com/customsadvent3.html

Additional information about the historical Saint Nicholas can be found at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas.
    and:
http://www.cantius.org/go/liturgy_devotions/liturgical_seasons/advent_extraordinary/saint_nicholas/

The historical work quoted in the text below titled The Golden Legend can be found, as a free ebook here:
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=UesOAAAAIAAJ&rdid=book-UesOAAAAIAAJ&rdot=1
   Or in HTML format, here:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/golden000.htm

Enjoy!

- Tim -

St. Nick is the Saint better known as "Santa Claus" (Sinterklaas in the Dutch whence "Santa Claus" comes). His image in America has been mixed up with a lot of traits and imagery from sources as disparate as the poetry of Clement Moore, pagan Norse mythology, and American advertising. In real life, though, St. Nicholas was a beloved and wonderful Bishop of Myra (in modern-day Turkey). He was born in Asia Minor in A.D. 260 and orphaned at an early age.

As a young man, he made a pilgrimage to Palestine and Egypt, becoming a Bishop upon his return. He was imprisoned during the persecutions of Diocletian, but was released after Constantine came to rule. According to legend, he was present at the Council of Nicaea and became so incensed at Arius -- the heretical Bishop whose denial of the two natures of Christ spread through the Church -- that he slapped him across the face. He intervened twice in cases in which innocent men were accused of crimes they did not commit, once appearing to Constantine and the local prefect in a dream, encouraging them to do the right thing in their regard.

Many stories about his life indicate his kindness and reveal miracles. The Golden Legend, written in A.D. 1275 by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, tells us how the Saint threw bags of gold coins to a man in order to provide dowries for the man's daughters and save them from lives of lechery:

"And it was so that one, his neighbour, had then three daughters, virgins, and he was a nobleman: but for the poverty of them together, they were constrained, and in very purpose to abandon them to the sin of lechery, so that by the gain and winning of their infamy they might be sustained. And when the holy man Nicholas knew hereof he had great horror of this villainy, and threw by night secretly into the house of the man a mass of gold wrapped in a cloth. And when the man arose in the morning, he found this mass of gold, and rendered to God therefor great thankings, and therewith he married his oldest daughter. 

And a little while after this holy servant of God threw in another mass of gold, which the man found, and thanked God, and purposed to wake, for to know him that so had aided him in his poverty. And after a few days Nicholas doubled the mass of gold, and cast it into the house of this man. He awoke by the sound of the gold, and followed Nicholas, which fled from him, and he said to him: Sir, flee not away so but that I may see and know thee. 

Then he ran after him more hastily, and knew that it was Nicholas; and anon he kneeled down, and would have kissed his feet, but the holy man would not, but required him not to tell nor discover this thing as long as he lived."

Another tale from the Golden Legend explains how St. Nicholas saved sailors from a tempest:

"It is read in a chronicle that, the blessed Nicholas was at the Council of Nice; and on a day, as a ship with mariners were in perishing on the sea, they prayed and required devoutly Nicholas, servant of God, saying: If those things that we have heard of thee said be true, prove them now. 

And anon a man appeared in his likeness, and said: Lo! see ye me not? ye called me, and then he began to help them in their exploit of the sea, and anon the tempest ceased. 

And when they were come to his church, they knew him without any man to show him to them, and yet they had never seen him. And then they thanked God and him of their deliverance. And he bade them to attribute it to the mercy of God, and to their belief, and nothing to his merits. "

The Golden Legend also gives us the story of a Jewish man who was robbed, and how St. Nicholas used the event to imitate Christ, thereby not only bringing the Jewish man to Christ, but causing the thieves to repent:

"Another Jew saw the virtuous miracles of St. Nicholas, and did do make an image of the saint, and set it in his house, and commanded him that he should keep well his house when he went out, and that he should keep well all his goods, saying to him: Nicholas, lo! here be all my goods, I charge thee to keep them, and if thou keep them not well, I shall avenge me on thee in beating and tormenting thee. 

And on a time, when the Jew was out, thieves came and robbed all his goods, and left, unborne away, only the image. And when the Jew came home he found him robbed of all his goods. He areasoned the image saying these words: Sir Nicholas, I had set you in my house for to keep my goods from thieves, wherefore have ye not kept them? Ye shall receive sorrow and torments, and shall have pain for the thieves. I shall avenge my loss, and subdue my madness in beating thee. 

And then took the Jew the image, and beat it, and tormented it cruelly. Then happed a great marvel, for when the thieves departed the goods, the holy saint, like as he had been in his array, appeared to the thieves, and said to them: Wherefore have I been beaten so cruelly for you and have so many torments? See how my body is hewed and broken; see how that the red blood runneth down by my body; go ye fast and restore it again, or else the ire of God Almighty shall make you as to be one out of his wit, and that all men shall know your felony, and that each of you shall be hanged. 

And they said: Who art thou that sayest to us such things? And he said to them: I am Nicholas the servant of Jesu Christ, whom the Jew hath so cruelly beaten for his goods that ye bare away. 

Then they were afeard, and came to the Jew, and heard what he had done to the image, and they told him the miracle, and delivered to him again all his goods. And thus came the thieves to the way of truth, and the Jew to the way of Jesu Christ. "

Another famous story, this one not contained in the Golden Legend, tells how three children were killed by an innkeeper and put into a tub of brine. St. Nicholas, by the power of God, brought them back to life.

"When the great Saint died, he was buried in Myra, but the town was later taken by the Saracens in A.D. 1034. The Italians rallied to gather and preserve his relics from desecration, and in 1097, sailors brought them to Bari, Italy. A lovely church -- the Church of San Niccolo -- was built to house them, and tere they can be found today. A curative Oil of Saints -- "Manna di San Niccolo" -- is said to exude from them to this day."

St. Nicholas is the patron of children, sailors, and bakers, and is represented in art as a bearded, older man -- usually mitred -- holding 3 gold coins or a bag of coins, or three orbs. He is also often shown with children, and/or a ship.

Customs:
Today is, for many Catholics, the day for gift-giving (some do this on Christmas, some do this on the Feast of the Epiphany in memory of the gifts the 3 Kings gave to Baby Jesus, and some spread the gift-giving out on all these days). In some places, especially in the Eastern Catholic churches, "St. Nicholas," dressed as a Bishop, will show up and hand out presents to the little ones, and children put their shoes in front of the fireplace to be filled with candy and presents by morning. Because coins are one of the many symbols of St. Nicholas, chocolate coins are a perfect thing to put in the childrens' shoes. One can use Christmas stockings instead of shoes, or one can buy adult-sized wooden shoes, paint and decorate them, and bring them out for use just on St. Nicholas's Day.

In any case, an icon -- even a nice Holy Card -- of St. Nicholas should be visible today if at all possible. Surround it with greenery and candles, and tell your children the story of the Saint Nicholas behind the "Santa Claus."

On St. Nicholas's Feast Day, it is customary to serve Speculaas cookies, a spicy Dutch cookie, cut into shapes relevant to the life of St. Nicholas (coins, mitres, ships, balls, money bags), and painted with colorful icing:

Speculaas Cookies 
(makes 3 dozen depending on size)

Cookie:
1 Cup (2 sticks) sweet butter, at room temperature
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 eggs
Grated rind of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg or mace
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Icing:
Powdered sugar
Water
Lemon juice
A little beaten egg white for consistency, if desired
Food coloring

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, blending thoroughly after each addition. Stir in the lemon rind. Sift the spices and salt with the flour and baking powder, and stir gradually into the butter mixture. Wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill for several hours or overnight. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch, or for larger figures to about 1/4 inch. Cut into shapes (Bishop, Bishop's staff, Bishop's mitre, ship, coins, etc.) and bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned (don't overbake). When cool, mix together icing ingredients and paint cookies as desired.