Is Obama the Man of Lawlessness?

Posted on May 15, 2013 by
Is there injustice in Justice?

Is there injustice in Justice?

For many years when I read in 2 Thessalonians about the rising of the man of lawlessness I had only the shallow impression that ’this is a bad guy’. What’s so different about lawlessness? Don’t we see it every day?  Constant prison construction can’t contain all those making a career out of breaking the law. Why talk about lawlessness as if it were a special feature of the end times?

Then came Barack Hussein Obama II.  I must admit to not having heard of him prior to the gear up of the 2007-2008 campaign. I dismissed him as having no chance, realizing that to most others he was also a new name and face. But that wasn’t all. His campaign was Continue reading →

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Post Israel – A Prayer of Reflection, Thanksgiving, & Hope

Posted on April 21, 2013 by

Jar at QumranAfter a second trip to Israel the tragedy and complexity of life in the middle east prompted me to write this summary as a prayer.

Holy and just Father, our thanksgiving goes up to you for what our ears have heard, our eyes have seen and where our feet have walked.

We have heard the tangle of politics, the factions tugging and pulling for their right to land, jostling over the scarce water supplies and struggling to take the crossroads of power, to ‘own’ the sites of significance and the seats of importance.

We have seen the labyrinth of religions, the inheritance they claim, the prophets they extol, the writings they hold true and their spectrum of zeal from passive indifference to violent intolerance.

Our feet have walked through the clash, Continue reading →

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Government According to God

Posted on February 2, 2013 by

139971736I love this America of ours. I love the founding fathers, their tremendous awareness of history, the risk to form a new kind of government, and the courage to sacrifice everything to see the dream of freedom realized. I have been an incurable patriot, in love with the republic and the rule of law that it represents, grateful and bewildered over a group of men that would fashion strong guards against their own assumption of power. I, like so many others, revere the original documents residing in a vault in the National Archives Building that speak of the intent and establish the form of this government.

This dream, Continue reading →

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Why Should You Vote?

Posted on November 4, 2012 by

Your duty is done when you vote

It is the rallying cry of close-race politicians, hard-working campaign volunteers, party loyalists, and civic-minded keep-democracy-alive do-gooders. Especially important is this last group: the bi and tri and quadra-partisans who pitch a universal trip to the polls for the sake of the American Way.

There’s a lot of merit to it (it is hard to imagine ‘we the people’ who do not exercise the power of the ballot), a lot of good intentions (coming from the truly civic-minded), and difficult to find fault.

If there is a frailty of this approach Continue reading →

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Tears for a Mother’s Heart

Posted on October 2, 2012 by

I just want to dance with you

She had a request.  “I just want to dance with you at the wedding.”  The plans weren’t set yet.  Would the bride and groom even dance? Her son, the groom, wasn’t sure.  “But it’s tradition” she retorted. She was cautioned, “Let’s let them plan their wedding”.

The emotions of wedding plans run high.  It had been one of those weeks for the starry-eyed couple.  Continue reading →

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Ephraim Loves Extortion

Posted on July 1, 2012 by

Ephraim is a trafficker; in his hand are scales of deceit; he loves to extort. (Hos 12:7)

Before arriving in Moscow we had heard of the corruption still thriving in Russia, how those of power in the former regime, members of the Duma, the managers of government-owned enterprise, politicians in the communist party, higher-ups in the KGB, people of influence in the Kremlin, landed on their feet in the new democracy.

They grabbed hold on nearly instant wealth by Continue reading →

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Did Christ Really Die In ‘Our Place’?

Posted on June 17, 2012 by

A Substitute Does What the Teacher Can Do

Haven’t you ever wondered that if Christ died in our place then why do we still die?  When someone does something in our place we don’t have to do it. But in the matter of death we do have to do it. What’s up with that? Why do we pay the wages of sin if the payment has already been made?

In the often over-complicated theological terms ’dying in our place’  is called the ‘substitutionary atonement’ or ‘substitutionary death’.  Sometimes it seems that these kinds of expressions are meant more to cloud the subject than explain it, more to make sure we know that higher doctrinal thinking is out of our reach.  But it is worth decoding because words have meaning and meaning directs our thinking.  Let’s look at the key word in back of this idea, substitute, and test against Scripture.  Maybe the fog can lift.

When I was in school Continue reading →

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