am still in the midst of having technical difficulties, with no hope whatsoever of my computer making any sort of miraculous recovery. It is as dead as a computer could be. So...I am currently at my In-laws house, which is why this blog will be pretty short.

bank that I worked for failed. We were seized by the FDIC, and told we would have to be interviewing with another larger bank, who was obtaining us from the FDIC, to keep our jobs. However, out of the 103 employees, only 40 have a chance of remaining...at best. With the world in economic crisis, and jobs being cut around the country everyday, this type of thing is what stresses people out. I would even think that some of my colleagues may have toyed with the idea of suicide, having lost not only their jobs, but gobs of money in stocks they held within the bank, not to mention those who had retirements based wholly upon the bank's shares lost it all...everything that was tied into the bank is now worthless.

As everyone scrambled to make a good impression in hopes of keeping their jobs, under the ever so watchful eye of the larger banks management, I noticed a few things. Underneath the shallow exterior of fake smiles and seemingly motivated go-getter's lay the base sin nature of man. I would walk the halls of our office building and overhear gossiping, backbiting and the bearing of false witness against another all in an attempt to position oneself to get one of the 40 coveted positions. Things were chaotic, and hectic, and slightly reminded me of the first week at boot camp in which we were processed into the Corps. There were a few people however, who stood out from the rest, because they believed in Christ, and their lives reflected a strong faith in the trustworthiness of His Word.

Luke 12:24-31
Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life's span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

Of course, things are always easier said than done. It's easy to come along side someone and tell them to stop worrying, and it's easy to throw some verses at someone in an attempt to exhort them back to biblical thinking. But when it's you going through the trial, and when its your family who has just lost its only source of income...things change. I looked at those who were believers around me, who were going through the exact same trial as myself for strength, but to no avail. I became increasingly upset with myself, over my lack of faith, when God graciously brought something monumentally important to my attention.

2 Corinthians 5:21
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

The weight of that truth crushed my fear and my doubt. That truth is so heavy that I found any sort of worry squashed beneath an infinite mass of God's power and absolute greatness. To really ponder the fact that God made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin on my behalf, made everything that I worry about in my day to day life seem so insignificant. I find myself echoing Paul's desperate cry, wailing, O' Wretched man that I am! For I really am the chief of sinners. I honestly know no other person who is a more wicked and depraved sinner than myself, and yet while I was an enemy of God, in the midst of my most heinous sin, He still died for me. I believe God when He says He has washed me white as snow with the blood of Christ. I praise and thank the Almighty when He says He has separated my transgressions from me as far as the east is from the west. I kneel before Christ in adoration because He mercifully took upon Himself my punishment. I believe these things wholeheartedly,  and when I think about how Christ saved me from what I truly deserve, which is an eternity of punishment in hell, how on earth can I allow myself to think that God could do such a miraculous work yet turn His back on my family in our time of need.

Christ is the victorious King of kings. He conquered death and sin, and displayed His majesty through His glorious Resurrection, and I dare doubt He will bring my family our daily provision? How could I think God powerful enough to cleanse me from my sin, yet to weak to help me in my circumstances? This is not some health and wealth teaching,  merely look to the widow who helped Elijah...YHWH did not give her an abundance of food, her cupboards were not overflowing with sustenance, but He did provide just enough for her and her son day by day, and with each passing moment He cared for them as they hid under His gracious sovereign wings. For that we should be content and continually grateful.

Today, after having read Dan Phillips latest blog over at Pyromaniacs where he mentions his New Years resolution to read at least three chapters of Scripture a day, so as to read the Bible in a year, I decided I would attempt to read six chapters a day, so as to read the Bible twice in a year. Not that I am a one upper or anything, but I figure six chapters really isn't a whole lot considering the amount of free time we Americans have in our day and age. So, I decided to start with one of my favorite prophets, Jeremiah. After having finished my allotted daily reading rather quickly, it came to mind that this coming Sunday, the Church I attend will start an exposition on the book of Jonah, so I decided to read that.

The LORD of salvation gave a message to Jonah to preach, and he preached it. Jonah even preached it reluctantly, and yet, what happened? The Word of God that is living and active accomplished it's purpose...it did not return to the LORD of salvation void, but did all that the LORD had willed it to do. Imagine that...amazing isn't it? Since salvation belongs to the LORD, and since He brings about that salvation when His Word is preached, shouldn't we be out there preaching His Word. Shouldn't we be forgetting all this nonsense about appealing to people's innate fallen natures, and just be out there boldly proclaiming judgment and repentance. Yes, I know...all the polls say people don't respond to that negative stuff, but the polls obviously do not take in to account that salvation belongs to the LORD.

I am currently reading a very good book by Pastor Steven Lawson called, "Foundations of Grace: A Long Line of Godly Men." In the preface of the book, lies a quote by Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, which at first glance comes across as quite shocking, and seems like an embellished attempt to push a pet doctrine, but as I get deeper into the book, and more importantly, as I search the various passages within the Scriptures that Steven Lawson expounds upon, the more I find myself agreeing with Mr. Warfield's statement.

"The world should realize with increased clearness that Evangelicalism stands or falls with Calvinism."

Steve Lawson rightly defends this assertion by proclaiming that, "the lofty truths of divine sovereignty provide the greatest and grandest view of God...for without the theological teachings of Reformed truth concerning God's sovereignty in man's salvation, the church is weakened and made vulnerable, soon to begin an inevitable decline into baser beliefs, whether she realizes it or not." Lawson continues by saying, "Once yielding the high ground of Calvinism, a self-absorbed church puts its full weight onto the slippery slope of Arminianism, resulting in a loss of its foundational stability. Tragically, however, the descent rarely stops there. Historically, man-centered doctrine has served only as a catalyst for an even greater fall. Rappelling down the slippery slopes of Arminianism, one is soon to find the church sinking deeper and deeper into a murky quagmire of heretical ideas. Such a descent inevitably gives way to liberalism, the utter rejection of the absolute authority of Scripture. From liberalism--given enough time--the church always plunges yet lower into ecumenism, that deadly philosophy that embraces all religions as having some part of the truth. Continuing this downward spiral, the church plummets into universalism, the damning belief that all men eventually will be saved. Yet worse, universalism gives way to agnosticism, a degenerate view that one cannot even know whether there is a God. Finally, the church falls into the deepest abyss--the hellish flames of atheism, the belief that there is no God."

I know a lot of people who would disagree with these statements, a lot of people. One major problem, and I believe the biggest reason why so many people would be opposed to the above sentiments is that the word "Calvinism" means so many different things to so many different people. Calvinism is such a loaded word; everyone has their own ideas and notions about what Calvinism is or what it supposedly espouses. Along with that, you find just as many people having varying opinions on what "hyper-Calvinism" truly is. For that very reason, I think it is best to steer away from those types of terms and badges that carry so much baggage, and really just deal with what the Scriptures have to say, because seriously, that is what it is all about. What has God really revealed to us in His Word?

Over the next few blogs I am hoping to take a closer look at the true Biblical teachings of God's sovereign grace, His predestination and election of sinners, man's total depravity, man's role in salvation (if any), God's love for the world, and anything else contained in the Scriptures related to what we typically label as "Calvinism" or "Arminianism" so that we can see clearly what God has truly told us concerning these things.

Rick Warren recently appeared on the Fox channel's Hannity and Colmes show to peddle his new book, "The Purpose of Christmas." Unfortunately Mr. Warren took this great opportunity on a nationally syndicated show, in which millions will see him, NOT to proclaim the true Gospel of Christ by which men can be saved...NO, instead this world famous, super celebrated and highly esteemed false teacher pushed the extremely popular, hippy-buddy-magical genie Jesus who is so often taught throughout America's Churches.

This false Jesus overlooks everyone's sin, and would never dream of men actually admitting their guilt and being remorseful to the point of repentance over their transgressions, because that way of thinking is so negative. Rather than all that "fire and brimstone" stuff, he’s all about love and wanting you to be happy no matter what. I mean, after all, Joel Osteen teaches that Jesus died to save you from a life of mediocrity and exists to give you an abundant life…in the material and financial sense, of course.

Furthermore, this pathetically weak and lonely false Jesus is so starved for fallen humanities love and affection that he stands outside the proverbial door of your heart knocking, waiting, and begging, like a cold and hungry puppy hoping that one day you will let him in. Deceivers like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen would have you believe that this Jesus’ main agenda is to do all our bidding and to answer every one of our trivial, selfish and materialistic prayers with an astounding 'YES'.

Rick Warren's Jesus does not even demand any sort of exclusivity of man's affections, because Rick's Jesus is willing to be put on some sort of probationary period, so that people can test him to see if he lives up to all the hype. I guess under those kind of circumstances, Rick's Jesus better start coughing up the goods real quick like, if he knows whats good for him, or he just might find himself thrown right back outside the heart's door, forced to go back to his knocking and waiting.

Is this the real Gospel? Does any of this resemble what the Scriptures really say? Is that the biblical Jesus? Does any of this accurately describe the true Christ? How is it that America as a whole has bought into these obvious heretical lies, and exchanged the Almighty God for this puny pitiful idol?

Matthew 16:24-25
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

The true Gospel is harsh, abrasive, and utterly offensive, because the true Jesus, found within the Bible, does not proclaim a message of self-fulfillment but demands from His disciples absolute and total self-denial. Why do you think that Jesus' own family, friends and neighbors tried to throw Him off of a cliff after delivering his first sermon? Or why did they attempt to stone Jesus on several occasion? Seriously, why do you think Jesus was ultimately crucified? If men like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are correct, the crucifixion of Jesus doesn’t even make sense, because who on earth would kill such a fun loving guy, whose sole purpose is to make everyone happy and give them all their hearts desire? If Jesus were going around, as those deceivers would have you believe, giving fluffy, feel good messages in which people's self-esteems were being boosted, then why on earth was He murdered?

John 3:18-20
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

Jesus was killed because He proclaimed a message that the world hated, and the world hates His messages because He exposed their true nature…that of radical depravity. Many people try to deny the inherent sin nature of man, and even within the Church itself, false teachers claim that we are not wretches, even removing that word from the old hymns, and they attempt to claim that our hearts are not desperately wicked (Jer 17:9) but those lies contradict the Scriptures. God's Word is unapologetically clear about the utter sinfulness of man and that only God alone is good...if this were not true, and we are not inherently evil and increasingly worthless, then Christ died a needless death. But the fact of the matter is that man's heart is evil from youth (Gen 8:21) and that man is totally incapable of doing good (Rom 3:12) and because of our spiritually bankrupt state, we are in desperate need of a Savior, because without the sacrifice of Christ we face the wages of our sin, which of course is death and the eternal punishment of a fiery hell.

Acts 4:12
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Furthermore, the Gospel is hated because of it's exclusive nature, in which it clearly states that many will travel the broad road leading to hell, and only a few will enter the narrow gate leading to heaven. Yet, men like Joel Osteen deny this, and they also deny that Jesus is the "only way", thus implying that Christ lied when He said that “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me (John 14:6)." Mr. Osteen, I am guessing, in an attempt to be seen as “loving,” claims that he has seen Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Mormons all love God in their own way and he says that he just can’t imagine God rejecting that. Not only does Joel's teaching make Jesus' death and resurrection totally worthless since, according to him, you can believe whatever you want and still enter the narrow gate of the Kingdom of God, but Joel once again denies the truth of the Scriptures. I guess I am curious why Joel is even a professing Christian or a "Preacher" for that matter, since truth to him is merely relative.

I will continue the various reasons why the true Jesus along with the true Gospel message is hated in the next few blogs...although I will probably have a blog or two inbetween.

e have become too familiar with God. I mean this in the sense that we as a nation and as a people no longer fear Him, as we ought to. From Christian tool sets sanctified with etched Bible verses on them, to fish-shaped breath mints, we have merchandised and trivialized His "image" to the point of nausea. We dare plaster His holy Name or a symbol associated with the Lord of lords on some piece of worthless junk and ignorantly think that we have not kindled His anger toward us? Do we honestly think He is pleased by such irreverence and idolatry...

Jeremiah 5:22
"Do you not fear Me?" declares the LORD, "Do you not tremble in My presence?"

Verse after verse, passage after passage, book after book written by the Prophets of old, warning the nation of Israel of the infinitely real dangers of treating the Lord our God with anything but fear and trembling, which we too in the Church age have recorded for our instruction so that we are also without excuse. Our lack of fear goes beyond the limitless amount of Jesus junk being peddled across our land, to the very words we speak about God in which we humanize Him, making the same mistake as those who think that the Most High can look favorably on sin like one of us. The earth is but a footstool to Him, yet we treat Him with such contempt.

Not only do we show a lack of respect toward God, but also we degrade those great men of faith He has chosen to raise up. This lack of respect shown to God's people is preached from pulpits by men who find humor in the sin of Noah's drunkenness, or laugh at the symbol of sin given by God to Ezekiel. Our land revels and parties in common costumes mocking the Patriarchs, in which the original sin...the fall of man is laughed at and scorned. Christian comedians...is there really such a thing in God's eyes?

O' yes, I take myself far too seriously, I should lighten up. After all, Jeremiah was referred to as the laughing Proph...oh wait no, it was the lamenting Prophet. Well then...Jesus, He was a man of joy...no wait, He was a man of sorrows. I do admit that Proverbs says that there is a time to laugh...but is that time now? Is that time in this day and age? A day in which God Himself in all His holiness is treated as nothing more than a cheap marketing ploy. As I have said over and over, and I will say it again, turn back to the Word of God.

Stop giving your money to those who speak lies in the name of Christ. Turn away from those who teach His Word falsely. The Church is not ours to run as we see fit, but it is Christ's, He is the Head, He is the chief Shepherd, and He has clearly and specifically laid out in His Word the orderly way it should be run. We have become adulteresses, forsaking God, the fountain of living waters, to hew for ourselves broken cisterns that hold no water. We as a people do not have the dread of the Lord God of hosts within us but have pursued the Baals. Exchanging the blessed Trinity for an idol consisting of a black woman, an Asian woman, along with a large nosed Middle Eastern man (A Shack reference for all you out there scratching your heads). This is not a time to laugh or a time to party. This is a time for serious men to man up and preach a serious message to a people who are lost and stampeding down the broad road of destruction. Warn them fervently as Paul did the Ephesians with many tears. Turn them back from their wicked ways and lament the fact that we have stood by and said nothing as it has gotten as bad as it is.

Jeremiah 5:29-31
"Shall I not punish these people?" declares the LORD, "On a nation such as this shall I not avenge Myself? An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?"