Preaching and praying the Bible far more effective than sending them

Heard a report that Houston's mayor got something over 500 Bibles sent to her in protest of her subpoena of the writings of Houston pastors.  Also heard that it wasn't just Mike Huckabee who made the call for this form of protest but also Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck.  Well, Ted Cruz is a Protestant, at least he belongs to a Southern Baptist church according to Wikipedia, so he can put out a call to pastors for such a purpose. 

But not dear Glenn Beck, smart lovable solid patriot conservative Glenn Beck the heretic.  He's also calling for revival but this is just another way revival is hindered because a Mormon can't call us to genuine revival.   If people responded to his call to send  Bibles that is NOT a good sign.

There are some great conservative Catholics we have to leave out too. I think first of Alan Keyes and Allen West, but there are lots of others. Can't include them if we want genuine revival.

But I don't really think sending Bibles or sermons does much to deal with what we are facing in such unconstitutional actions as taken by Houston's mayor.  It's a good sign that the Church is paying attention and cares enough to try to do something, but it isn't the something we need.  Michael Brown's suggestion would have been more effective in my opinion: that pastors across the nation preach that following Sunday on what the Bible says about homosexuality.  And the reason it would be more effective is that it would be an act of boldness that pastors are likely to be intimidated out of these days, and it's a spiritual action that could get God's ear.  Whereas sending sermons and Bibles is just human action.  Preaching and prayer are a much better direction for the Church to take, and especially in bold declaration of God's word, and I wish those who called for the sermons and Bibles had instead followed Michael Brown's lead.

The headlines are hard to take again today.  Some of the stories I can't even get myself to read because it will just upset me.  Islam encroaching further, more stupidity in high places, or is it malice, more evil for good and good for evil.  And a story about a study of beliefs of evangelicals that shows a lot of confusion about major doctrinal issues, especially concerning the Trinity.

I'm going to put up a permanent page on the possibility of revival, collecting my recent thoughts on it.  It's the only solution possible, nothing we do at a human level will accomplish anything which ought to be pretty apparent to us by now.   And we've been doing something wrong in our attempts to reach God too, which is my main concern.  God must act or we're lost.  We need revival, we need His direct revitalization of the Church.  And yet in the current situations we're facing nothing could be less likely.  Still, God is the God of the impossible, sovereign over all things.  And if we make a concerted effort to honor His conditions...   well, I haven't given up yet.

Right politics, bad history

Just ran across this video of Pat Robertson denouncing gay activists as terrorists and felt like posting it because I agree with him about that, but also because of what he says about the Inquisition.  He repeats the error that so many hold these days, treating the Inquisition as OUR heritage, as something we need to apologize for, the heritage of the Protestant Church as well as the Roman Church.  The ignorance of history is depressing.  Protestants, pre-Reformation Protestants, were the VICTIMS of the Inquisition. 

He also of course thinks it can never happen again.  I'm not so sure, but if it does, again Protestants will be its victims.  And since there is such ignorance about history the chances that it could occur again are thereby increased enormously.  Nobody is looking at the source from which it would arise. 

So here's Pat:



Oh, by the way, some pastors from across the country, and even Canada and Australia and Germany have sent sermons and Bibles to Houston's mayor as Mike Huckabee suggested they do.

I guess this is a good thing, at least it's some kind of action in response to her outrageous attempt to violate religious freedom.

Daydreaming about a committed and powerful Church that can take down this upstart Philistine culture by faith in God

I don't know how many pastors preached against homosexuality today as Michael Brown suggested they should and I was hoping they would, in support of those in Houston being harassed by the Gay Agenda.  I haven't seen any news on it, though maybe it's just early.  I hope a good number were involved. 

 

I'm wishing as usual that this could be a trend, and thinking of it as the only hope we have to actually do something against this tide of evil that's been flooding the land.  This is the work of Satan and we're his greatest enemy, supposedly, but here we sit as if gagged and bound.   I don't think I can stand any more analysis, we need action.  But what action?  We're paralyzed, and it's not completely clear why.  Just sitting around waiting for the end times prophecies to manifest as we see them developing all over the place. 

 

How I'd love to see the churches unite to preach down the issues of the day in one voice as a regular thing, from time to time, or since the times are so emergently bad drop everything else and preach and fast and pray in the same unison more often than that until God hears us.  Great revivals came about with daily prayer but just praying for revival now isn't going to do it because there's too much wrong that has to be faced down first.

 

Weak Church, divided Church, compromising apostasizing Church.

 

Well, Gideon didn't need big numbers, just a small number, and God.  Samson destroyed the Philistine temple bound and blind and all alone, with God.  David felled the Philistine giant all alone, with God.  I'd even point to the little state of Israel who, surrounded by giant Arab nations who want her dead, defeated them in the wars they started against her.  I have no doubt that was with God too.

 

So OK, a remnant of churches. we don't need big numbers, just the purest of the churches
Start with self-examination and repentance, strip down to essentials.

 

Keep hearing how tax-exempt status conferred by Big Brother has a stranglehold on the churches, so GIVE IT UP.  Without freedom to preach the truth it's not worth it.

 

Pray for the churches, against the apostasizing, against fear and weakness, pray for strength of faith

 

Concertedly, systematically, consistently Preach and Pray down:

• The Gay Agenda
• Push back against the sexual sins that are undermining the nation and led to the gay agenda, unmarried cohabitation, "sex education" the "freedom" of pornography, easy divorce and of course abortion; pray to restore respect for God's Law.
• Marxism and Political Correctness in general. Take a few weeks on this one
• Islam. A few weeks here too. Pray for the salvation of many Muslims out of that murderous satanic religion. Pray for strengthening of laws against such a subversive "religion."
• The Roman Church. Take a few weeks on this one too. This will divide the sheep from the goats.  That eyes would be opened to false doctrine, that Catholics be saved.
• Against all the cults, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Emergent Church, all of them, that eyes would be opened, people saved.
• And let's pray against the twisting of the Constitution and for some kind of reformation of the Supreme Court which is a major conduit for all these evils.

Keep up the self-examination and repentance, that's fuel for the work.

The list could grow quite a bit from here of course, and it may need to be rewritten, it's just meant to be an idea for how we could approach the problems.

Individuals can participate up to their ability even outside the church sessions.  Fasting helps.  Some can't do a complete fast, but just cutting back counts as fasting, cutting back on food but also on all the other comforts of life.  Turn off the TV except for the news programs, spend the time praying or reading up on the issues of the day that we're focusing on.  Eliminating specially loved foods and eating simple foods just for nourishment is a fast, you can do it as a version of Daniel's fast in Daniel 10:3 if you want, and that's one you can keep up for a long time.  If there's one thing I've discovered about fasting it's that it's important not to turn it into a hard and fast set of rules or deprive yourself of things that are only going to make you rebel and give up too soon. It's supposed to be a sacrifice but there's no point in pushing your limits or you can defeat the whole purpose. Eating half of what you'd normally eat at a given meal counts as a fast.  Make a sandwich, cut it in half and save half for another meal.  Do it for as many meals as you can;  do it for a few days in a row and you'll feel quite hungry.  But when you have to, go back to normal eating, then do it again when you feel you should.  Remember to pray though, the point of fasting is to clear the channels for prayer and especially for hearing from God, who will give wisdom for dealing with these issues we're praying about.

Just my daydream for today.

Update:

 Can't believe I forgot to mention that since revival could very well be the result of such a concerted effort by the Church, we need to pray that the phenomena the Charismatic Movement embraces won't dominate such a revival. Andrew Strom (see link top right of page) did a good job of proving that they are not Christian phenomena but commonly occur in Hindu settings, even under the evil guru Rajneesh. John MacArthur's Strange Fire Conference last year effectively debunked the claim that such phenomena have anything to do with the gifts of the Spirit given to the New Testament Church.

Nevertheless, such phenomena have often occurred in genuine revivals, even under Jonathan Edwards, Whitefield and Wesley, so they probably can't and shouldn't be totally suppressed. But they should be treated as aberrations, kept to the sidelines and not made the center of attention as if they are the whole point of the revival, which has often been the case in the "signs and wonders" charismatic fiascos such as the "Toronto Blessing," the Brownsville "revival," the Lakeland "revival" and whatever it is that has been going on in Redding California.

We want a Church full of people who resemble Jesus, and that is salt and light to the culture, not a Church that is breathlessly awestruck by physical manifestations.

Black-Robed Regiment model?

Maybe I'm being pollyanna -- Me?? Pollyanna? Me?? Well, sort of, or maybe on the upswing of bipolar, not that I've ever been classified as such. I'm talking about really really hoping a great number of pastors and their churches will see the value in rallying together on the issues of the day, starting today in preaching God's word against homosexuality. The more the better to stand in support of the Houston pastors who are under attack by their Gay Agenda-driven mayor.

Individually they all get picked off one by one. There should be some strength and safety in numbers. That's what I'm hoping. I'm sure I'm putting so much hope into this because the evil that has been growing around us has been getting me down, and especially the sense of helplessness. Then the thought comes, God's Church helpless? Don't we have the power of the omnipotent God behind us? WHAT IS GOING ON?

I was just listening to Alex Jones from a year ago where he has two pastors on talking about the government tyranny against the churches already well underway, and the main message is the WIMP FACTOR, the COWARD FACTOR, how many pastors out there won't stand up against the tyranny. They've got tax-exempt status and they don't want to risk it by speaking out. Getting in debt building huge churches, trying to live the prosperous American Dream.

THIS IS NOT THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH!

JESUS SAID: HE WHO WOULD SAVE HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT, BUT HE WHO WOULD LOSE IT FOR MY SAKE WILL FIND IT.

WHERE IS OUR FAITH?

I found the Jones program by looking for some preaching on the Black Regiment. It's mentioned on Jones' program, one of his guests wrote a book on it.

I wanted to hear something on the Black Regiment because of what Larry Kutzler had to say about it in his blog yesterday on the Houston situation.

The Black Regiment is the model we need today, the clergymen of the Revolutionary War period who preached war against the tyrant and took their guns to church, ready to use them. And they did use them, they fought in the war when it came. A model of a pastor who is the complete opposite of the pastor who doesn't want to make waves.

A great need in the church today is to raise up courteous leaders who are not afraid to tell the truth and fight for what is right in our society. Too many pastors end up compromising their calling in being silent about the issues that are controversial.

If you contrast what we see in the pulpits today with the pulpits back in the Revolutionary days, you will find a stark contrast.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube%EE%80%81+black+robe+%EE%80%80regiment&FORM=VIRE4#view=detail&mid=6FAAB8781CEF9C02E2A86FAAB8781CEF9C02E2A8

Preachers were not only religious leaders, they understood that their religious duty was to serve their country by defining the Constitution of the United States. Beneath those black robes they wore as they preached, was a soldier who willing to defend the country with his life.

It was that kind of courage that forged this great land, and we are now on the brink of losing everything our foundering forefathers fought and died for.

The last radio program I heard from Chris Pinto was his discussion of a book he'd recently discovered on the preachers of the Revolutionary War period, Sacred Scripture Sacred War that I'm hoping I'll be able to get eventually.

The United States was born from the pages of the Bible, despite the fact that some of the big name Founders were anti-Christians.

What will it take, Lord? Is it possible? Have we gone over some line we can't return from? Will the Church wake up or not? Will the pastors come out of hiding and stand for Your truth or not? If building projects must be abandoned and tax exemption lost and we have to meet in a warehouse isn't that better than letting the evil powers overrun us? If we have to go to jail for telling the truth, far far better than cowering. Will we call down the evils that are destroying America and the west or not?

Have mercy on us, Lord, give us the wisdom and the courage we need to rid ourselves of everything that keeps you from blessing us and restoring the American church and the American nation. Amen.

Gay Agenda Preach-It-Down Sunday

I'm hoping pastors all over the country are getting the word out about Michael Brown's suggestion that they preach on homosexuality tomorrow, in solidarity with the Houston pastors whose Constitutional rights are being threatened by their current mayor, for preaching and otherwise promoting God's truth about homosexuality.

While any individual pastor might feel intimidated in spite of himself because of the aggressive tyrannical litigiousness of the Gay Rights people, it should help if a majority dedicate a Sunday to a concert of preaching on the same subject all at once, not to mention that that much concentration on a single issue could reach God's ear in a very effective way.

This is the first idea I've heard that gives me any hope whatever for dealing with the horrors of the times we are living through. The Church has seemed to be helpless to do anything about any of it. Our individual voices get muffled in the roar of Political Correctness, and of course intentionally suppressed as well.

AND LOTS OF PRAYER TOO: Although Christians pray about all these things, as individuals, in prayer meetings, in Bible studies and so on, nothing much has been happening.

THROW OUT THE ECUMENICAL ABOMINATION!

Why is nothing happening? I've written on what I think is a major dampening effect on our efforts to move the nation to repentance and move God to give us revival, and the main one is Ecumenical Prayer Gatherings in which Christians pray together with members of other religions, with Roman Catholics for instance, with Muslims, Jews and any other groups traditionally understood to be anti-Christian in their beliefs. George W Bush included Romanists, Muslims and Jews in his prayer for the nation after 9/11 held in the National Cathedral, which could only have increased God's judgment on the nation. All ecumenical prayer gatherings since then on behalf of the nation can only have added to it, and yet these are absurdly continued year after year after year despite a glaringly obvious lack of success, and even obvious negative effects. The most doctrinally perfect gospel-oriented prayer by a member of such a group can't stand up to the God-denying effect of including unbelievers in the group. He won't hear us. We need to throw out all the idols and that means scrupulously NOT praying with unbelievers.

Some wonder why on earth Islam's popularity and influence keep rising after their attack on us, but we still go on practicing exactly the sort of thing that is guaranteed to bring God's judgment on the nation, and Islam is most certainly one of God's instruments of judgment. Where in scripture does God approve of the People of God praying with the followers of Molech or Dagon or Baal? It is hard to understand why Christians don't recognize this problem.

That's the first thing we need to repent of in my opinion. We need to be purified of all such idolatrous deviations if our prayers are to reach God's ear.

Then we need to acknowledge the other sins we are guilty of and the nation is guilty of. With a sincere desire to clean up our act God will also show us individually what we need to repent of, and as we obey individually and corporately the channels of prayer will get clearer and clearer. I know whenever I make a serious effort to pray more, one of the first things that happens is that He shows me where I am not faithfully obeying Him.

One thing I particularly like about this idea of pastors preaching in concert across the nation is that it gives us a powerful way to focus on the sins that are crippling the country and bringing down God's judgment. It could be the answer to our felt helplessness as the devil just keeps rolling on and over us all. If we want revival we have first to finger the sins that need correction, and good solid preaching backed up by prayer against each of the sins we are able to identify. What a powerful voice we should have if thousands of churches join together in one voice, one mind and one heart. He is in the midst of us when we gather together in His name.

I know it's a wild daydream that the churches could agree to a preaching and prayer agenda to deal with all the sins of the nation, but I'm going to let myself hope and pray for such a wild blessing anyway.

But first how wonderful it would be if some churches followed Michael Brown's advice just for tomorrow, and preached on God's view of homosexuality in one impassioned voice. Just for tomorrow. I'll write more about my daydream eventually I'm sure.

I do want to highlight this blog by Larry Kutzler , whom I know from Jan Markell's ministry, who calls for the resignation or impeachment of the mayor of Houston, and on good grounds. She's shown she doesn't have the interests of her constituency at heart, but her own personal private interests and those of a small contingent who share the same narrow interests, as she works to deprive a large segment of the population of Houston of their right to freedom of religion. This is one way the preaching and praying could go for what I'm calling Preach-It-Down Sunday.

The Gay Agenda Aims Its Guns at the Church in Houston and the Church is Called to Respond to it this Sunday October 19th

Eric Barger of Take a Stand! Ministries sent out a newsletter yesterday about the lesbian mayor of Houston Texas ordering the pastors of the city to turn over everything they've said or preached about homosexuality.

American Family Association's One News Now reported the following:

"Mayor Annise Parker and two homosexual city council members pushed through a non-discrimination ordinance that protects homosexual men and lesbians. The proposed 'bathroom bill' ordinance passed 11-6 in May despite vocal opposition by the Houston community, which was led by local churches and their pastors."

The Houston Chronicle reported opponents of the ordinance launched a petition drive that generated more than 50,000 signatures - triple the 17,269 needed to place a referendum on the ballot. However, in August, City Attorney David Feldman invalidated the petition's pages citing "irregularities," effectively ending the citizen-led effort by killing the possibility of the referendum making the November ballot.

Next, opponents of the bathroom bill filed a lawsuit; the city's attorneys responded by issuing subpoenas against several key pastors who were part of a coalition of some 400 Houston-area churches that opposed the ordinance. The city is demanding that select pastors now turn over any and all communications - including sermons - that dealt with homosexuality, gender identity, or Annise Parker herself! Just let that sink in for a second and then ask, "What country is this, anyway?"

He goes on to report that

Commentator and radio host, Dr. Michael Brown, commented, "I urge every pastor in the city of Houston to address the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism this Sunday, announcing this for the entire world to hear but at the same time, refusing to obey the unrighteous decree of Mayor Parker's office to turn your sermons over for government scrutiny."

Here's Brown in the Christian Post:

In light of this egregious example of gay activist bullying – the very kind that I and others have documented for years now – I urge every pastor in the city of Houston to address the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism this Sunday, October 19th, announcing this for the entire world to hear but at the same time, refusing to obey the unrighteous decree of Mayor Parker's office to turn your sermons over for government scrutiny. (This should be done respectfully, in the spirit of Acts 4:19-20; 5:28-29.)

I also urge every congregational member in Houston to tell your pastors that you are standing with them, encouraging them to stand up for what is right in the face of bullying and intimidation.

To my fellow-leaders in Houston and around America, let's seize this moment and use it for the glory of God, preaching His love for all people and His real interest in those who identify as LGBT while at the same time proclaiming that His ways are best, that marriage is the union of one man and one woman and that gender distinctives are not to be discarded or despised.

Good for Michael Brown! I don't support his charismatic theology but I support his call for unity of the Church on issues like this. It would be wonderful if churches all across the nation responded to this call.

Barger rightly adds in his newsletter that the Church needs to respond to this and respond now, that too many younger church members are being persuaded that gay marriage should be accepted and that there won't be time to respond if we wait.

Hey Church! We're all tired of watching the devil triumph in this world lately, aren't we? In this nation and this world, and even in our churches. He's been coming in "like a flood" as scripture describes it. A lot of us are feeling helpless and maybe even scared at what we see happening around us, as evil is put for good and good for evil, as God's judgments are coming down on the nation.

There are lots of us but how do we get our act together as the formidable force we should be?

What are we, Church? Are we the army of the Lord or not? Are we called "Terrible as an army with banners" for no good reason? Are we called The Church Militant for no good reason? Do we have it in us to fight at all? And of course I mean fight with the Lord's weapons, not carnal weapons. I mean praying, I mean preaching, I mean speaking the Lord's word into all these situations where the evil one has dared to raise his ugly head against the Lord.

I love this recommendation that churches all together in one voice dedicate this Sunday's service to calling down this Houston mayor's unrighteous challenge to the people of God, even against our Constitutional rights but mainly against God Himself. Who are we if we don't stand in the power of our God for His honor?

Sure, be polite as Brown suggests, but there's also a place for declaiming and denouncing when it comes to being salt and light and calling down sin. I think of the late Ian Paisley's denouncing of the Pope as the Antichrist in the European Parliament, and in fact his style of preaching which could startle you out of your seat listening to him, not that I recommend it as a general thing, but the point is there is a place for shouting down the devil from our pulpits.

Quote all the scripture references against homosexuality, quote God's judgments. If they're going to call us "haters" and "homophobics" let them call all the churches in the nation "haters" and "homophobics" as we implore God to rend the heavens and act against this unrighteousness.

The angel of the Lord encamps about them that fear him and delivers them.

What a glorious idea.  Concerted preaching and prayer across the nation for a whole Sunday service against this offense against God and all the other offenses we could name in their turn.

Remember, it doesn't have to begin and end with this Sunday either; we have lots of challenges we're facing and lots of Sundays to do it in if the Lord tarries.

 Please inspire Your people to this, Lord.