¶ A Redding pastor sticks his neck out by daring to criticize not only same-sex marriage but homosexuality itself. Obviously not going for big TV ratings. Surprised that the Danbury newspaper ran it, actually.
They pray for safe classrooms. They pray that bullies will be caught. They pray for an end to the illnesses that sweep through schools, and the homework tantrums their kids throw.
They even pray for Mastery Test scores.
“We pray for anything and everything that’s affecting our schools,” said Mary Beth Lawrence, a Marlborough resident with five children who has been the state coordinator of Moms In Touch International for the last three years.
The organization, which operates groups in every state and in 120 countries around the world, was founded by a Canadian mother in 1984. In Connecticut, Lawrence said, there are 107 weekly prayer groups covering about 10 percent of the state’s schools.
The joyous crowds of rosy-cheeked, Andy-Williams-listening shoppers have given us our first trampling of the year, thus marking the official start of the “holiday season.”
But what about those slightly less perilous hazards you are likely to encounter this Christmastide, namely your atheist brother-in-law and his smart aleck son, who’s completed one whole semester of college and is wearing his newfound agnosticism with a little too much confidence for your liking? How about the major news magazines or the TV networks, always ready to debunk the historical accuracy of the Christmas narrative? And what about those helpful souls who are against all Christmas traditions? (As if we didn’t know He wasn’t born on December 25th.) Be of good cheer! There’s help available.
God, The Bible and all that
A nice free e-book is available for you here from the Why Faith? website. It’s a 44-page PDF on the historical reliability of the New Testament. It will give you some good ammunition. Got more time to read, or got an atheist who’s more intellectually honest? Try F. F. Bruce‘s venerable but still very valuable The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?. Or perhaps his The Canon of Scripture for all the people who read Dan Brown. Timothy Keller, described as the most successful evangelist in New York City, has a well-received and well-selling book called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.
Darwin, blah, blah, blah
They didn’t know a lot about biology back in the 1860′s. For crying out loud – they were just learning to wash their hands before surgery. Have you ever read anything that shows what we now know about the complexity of biological systems or the unique conditions on our busy little earth that make it all possible? Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution will help you drive atheists nuts.
Other religions – which usually translates to: Christianity is awful!
Gosh, we’ve never heard this one before, either. You mean there are other religions? People who don’t know about Christ? Come on! Anyway, you may want to tell your friend that it so happens not all of these religions actually are the same or think the same thing about God and humankind. Did you know that? Maybe your workmate doesn’t. Christianity is special, it seems (no jihad commanded by founder of religion for example), and has been a great boon to people. Get someone a copy of Dinesh D’Souza’sWhat’s So Great About Christianity.
What about people who are more kindly disposed?
Have a friend who wants to know more and has no real ax to grind? You may want to try Rick Warren‘s new book The Purpose of Christmas.
How about Christian spoilsports?
There’s always one guy ready to call your tree a Babylonian Bush, or remind you that the Puritans (who were smarter than we are and prayed a lot ) banned the whole thing altogether. <sigh> When it comes to this I can refer you to two sources your believing friend may see as a tad secular. First, give him a copy of the 1951 version of Dickens‘s A Christmas Carol. If that won’t work, then by all means go for the big guns and make him watch Charles Schulz‘s A Charlie Brown Christmas. We can all see so much of ourselves in it.
It’s good to have a reason for the hope that lies within us – and we’re commanded to in any event. But the best advertisement for Christ at Christmas is a real Christian.
The unabashedly pro-life LifeSiteNews.com tells the story of country music superstar Kenny Chesney’s song There Goes My Life and how it’s touching people’s hearts by making them re-think abortion in cases of “unwanted pregnancies.”
The song’s deeply human story deals a devastating blow to the abortion mentality, which casts an “unwanted” child as a mere disruption in its parents’ lives. It’s pro-life message has evidently resonated deeply with its audience: “There Goes My Life” spent seven weeks as #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart the year it debuted, and its YouTube video has over 1.4 million hits to date.
For many, the song cast into relief the absurdity of choosing abortion, and many gave vent to how the song made them painfully aware of their regret for an abortion, or relief at having chosen against it.
“This song came right on the radio as my wife told me she was pregnant and wanted an abortion,” one commentator wrote on the Youtube page. “It’s been a year and now our lovely baby boy is the most important thing in both our lives, and I can’t help shed tears every time I hear this song.”
The Youtube forum has been flooded with comments from mothers and fathers who saw a reflection of their own lives in the bittersweet song, and those of frightened young parents who were strengthened by the song’s example of courageous fatherhood.
Another commentator wrote, “I recently found out that I am going to be a father, and this song describes exactly what was going through my head. I am starting look forward to it and every time I hear this I cry.”
“I can relate,” wrote another commenter. “My birth parents were unmarried college students. I was adopted at 2 months old and have always considered my adoptive parents better than a kid could ask for. I thank God and my birth parents for making the tough decision not to abort me, and maybe even the tougher decision to give me up after I was born.”
Perhaps the most beautiful Thanksgiving Proclamation was that of Lincoln in 1863. How natural it was for men of that day to view and speak of God publicly as a real actor in the life of the nation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
May we always, as Lincoln counseled, gratefully acknowledge our national blessings as the gift of God.
The Verichip Corporation has created a stir of late through its marketing of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips which can be implanted into animal tissue, even human beings. On its website, the company markets these wireless services as helpful with “patient identification, infant protection, wander prevention, and asset tracking.” Its VeriMed system is a poster child for the benefits of RFID implantation:
Unlike traditional forms of identification, the VeriChip can’t be lost, stolen, misplaced, or counterfeited. Because it’s inserted under the skin, it’s always there when you need it regardless of where other kinds of identification might be.
Using a handheld reader, healthcare professionals are able to securely access a patient’s unique VeriChip ID number which can be looked up in a designated secure healthcare information database, allowing them to immediately take the safest course of action.
Indeed, the potential of RFID technologies in business and many other fields is enormous – and so is the controversy. The idea of being implanted with computer technology is a step too far for many. Many privacy advocates and Christian prophecy students alike see the RFID chip as, well, creepy and sinister. There’s no shortage of theories linking the chip to world dictatorship and even the Mark of the Beast. Take a peek:
But is this the real “Mark of the Beast” prophesied in Revelation 13? For those who may be unfamiliar with the language or even the and topics the Bible predicts a mark associated with a “beast,” language which is commonly thought to be symbolic of a world dictator called the Antichrist, a title meaning one who stands in opposition to Christ.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six (666). (Revelation 13:16-18, KJV)
There are several things here which should prevent undue panic among Christians that RFID is the Mark of the Beast, at least in its current form. First, the Mark of the Beast is something that the Antichrist causes people to receive or at least offers to them. It is therefore connected to a particular person, the Antichrist. Thus: no Antichrist, no mark.
Second, no one is allowed to buy or sell without having the Mark. Thus, this mark will supersede existing currencies.
Third, the Mark is also connected and is perhaps an additional option along with the name of the Antichrist or the number 666.
Finally, the word “mark” comes from the Greek charagma, a word which has to do with etching or carving. Some Bible scholars therefore would deny that something implanted under the skin meets the qualifications. It could be something more like a tattoo, perhaps with magnetically readable ink, if you will.
In any event, if there’s no beast on the scene, you can’t have a mark of the beast. So until there is a real, live Antichrist it’s probably premature to say that RFID is the mark, or anything like it.
I would also add that in my opinion the Mark will be very overt and visible, as people will be all too happy to flaunt their devotion to the Antichrist and his reign. Scriptural passages such as Psalm 2, Rev. 6:15-17, and others demonstrate that at the end of days there is a very conscious and very willful rejection of the God of the Bible.
Of course, that’s just my opinion. What do you think?
There will a Pastoral Leadership Breakfast for pastors, church staff and lay leadership on January 22, 2009 at 8:00 am at the Danbury Holiday Inn. The keynote speaker will be City of Danbury Mayor, Mark Boughton. Come and enjoy fellowship, prayer, a good breakfast, meet other pastors and hear about some opportunities your church can take advantage of.
For more information contact Mission Danbury at 203-798-8346.
Dinesh D’Souza continues to hammer away at the pretensions of atheism. The author of What’s So Great about Christianity is wondering what happens “When Science Points To God:”
If you want to know why atheists seem to have given up the scientific card, the current issue of Discover magazine provides part of the answer. The magazine has an interesting story by Tim Folger which is titled “Science’s Alternative to an Intelligent Creator.” The article begins by noting “an extraordinary fact about the universe: its basic properties are uncannily suited for life.” As physicist Andrei Linde puts it, “We have a lot of really, really strange coincidences, and all of these coincidences are such that they make life possible.”
Too many “coincidences,” however, imply a plot. Folger’s article shows that if the numerical values of the universe, from the speed of light to the strength of gravity, were even slightly different, there would be no universe and no life. Recently scientists have discovered that most of the matter and energy in the universe is made up of so-called “dark” matter and “dark” energy. It turns out that the quantity of dark energy seems precisely calibrated to make possible not only our universe but observers like us who can comprehend that universe.
Even Steven Weinberg, the Nobel laureate in physics and an outspoken atheist, remarks that “this is fine-tuning that seems to be extreme, far beyond what you could imagine just having to accept as a mere accident.” And physicist Freeman Dyson draws the appropriate conclusion from the scientific evidence to date: “The universe in some sense knew we were coming.”
Oddly enough (another coincidence?) the Bible speaks of those who would in the last times unrighteously suppress the truth of the Creator. We’re well on our way there. How rational or “scientific” is it admit that there is something there in the make-up of the universe that points to God and yet deny the obvious conclusions because they are unpalatable? With apologies to Al Gore, it’s God Himself Who is the inconvenient truth.
I have to confess that I haven’t spent much time on Beliefnet lately, although at one time, back when the Web was newer and shinier, I used to get in some discussions on their forums. At any rate, Beliefnet seems to have undergone a makeover and has a new community setup for discussions and such. Someone there picked up the item we ran about gay activists invading a church service and wondered why there was so little coverage of it in the media. Check it out here.
You may notice that someone seemed troubled by my use of the term “queer.” For the record, I referred to the protestors as “queer activists” because that is how they referred to themselves. Some activists have taken that term, meant as a term of abuse, and used it as an expression of pride and defiance. Not all gay people would feel comfortable using that term in that way, of course.
The Christmas story comes alive in the original ballet Ahavah – a Christmas Mystére, to be performed December 5th at 7 p.m. & December 6th at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Morgan High School, 27 Killingworth Turnpike (Route 81), Clinton, CT.
The Christmas story comes alive in this original ballet as it is told through the eyes of a young girl searching for the meaning of Christmas. Ahavah is an artistic display of classical ballet, acrobatics and other dance styles. Professional guest artists add to the breath-taking drama of the stage. Created by Elisa Schroth, the Artistic Director of The Christian Academy of Dance, Ahavah will warm the hearts of the young and old alike. This is a wonderful Christmas production that the entire family will enjoy.
FOR TICKETS: To purchase tickets online or to obtain a mail order form go to www.theahavahstory.org or call 860-663-2069, Ext. 15. Preferred seating available for early ticket sales.
. Or perhaps his 
for all the people who read Dan Brown. Timothy Keller, described as the most successful evangelist in New York City, has a well-received and well-selling book called 
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will help you drive atheists nuts.
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. If that won’t work, then by all means go for the big guns and make him watch Charles Schulz‘s 
. We can all see so much of ourselves in it.
and how it’s touching people’s hearts by making them re-think abortion in cases of “unwanted pregnancies.”
is wondering what happens “When Science Points To God:”