On this day (Dec. 15) in 1791 the Bill of Rights was ratified. Originally written to appease the Anti-Federalists, these first ten amendments were written to ensure that the Central government did not take authority beyond what the Sovreign States had delegated to it — as well as to protect the rights of the people from Congress & the Federal government.

These amendments did not apply to the states, to local governments, etc but were designed to strengthen the Constitution’s ONE original function — to “chain down” the beast in Washington by severely limiting & clearly defining its powers.

Since that time the Bill of Rights (like the rest of our Constitution) been twisted, misrepresnted, perverted, and literally used in the EXACT OPPOSITE WAY that the Framers intended (quite Orwellian).
The

1st Amendment,

for instance, was written to give Christians protection & liberty of concious by preventing Congress from trying to enforce a single, official denomination
AND to guarantee that the people had the right to criticize the government & assemble to protest/ speak out.

Now the 1st Amendment is used to silence Christians, to promote idolotry, and to enshrine every perversion under the sun as sacred ( and to protect it in law).

All the while the things that the 1st Amendment was written for is tossed aside — the right & ability of people to speak out is being steadily ignored & eroded. . . . things like the Hate Crimes Bill, the “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances”, so called “Campaign Finance Reform”, and WORST of all the “PATRIOT ACT” are direct violations of the 1st Amendment. These laws are not only wicked and stupid, they are also illegal.
Those who pass such laws are not to be excused as merely misguided — they are wicked & idolotrous.
Any Congressman who voted for even ONE such bill is either too ignorant or too rebellious to hold any office. They are traitors & oath breakers & need a taxpayer funded orange jumpsuit rather than a taxpayer funded limo.

As to the the mainstream press (liberal or neocon) that supports these measures. Do not trust them any more than you would a neighbor who stole your chickens when you had asked him to guard your henhouse.

Over the last 50 years,every President (Republican & Democrat) and every Congress and most Court has ignored & perverted the Constitution & the Bll of Rightd worse than the last .

Happy Birthday Ellie-Bellie

(*this is the only picture I had on this computer, hopefully RileyMom will post some on her blog)
Wow ! Do I feel old. 18 years ago today, my beloved wife was having an emergency C-section and I was praying in the hall of the Baptist Hospital, Desoto — tears rolling down my cheeks.

After a healthy, full term pregnancy & with a healthy full sized “normal” baby we got a shocking reminder of how fragile our lives are & that the events of our life are in God’s hands. Within 30 seconds a rare birth complication turned a relaxed conversation in the delivery room into a rushed chaos and a life hanging by a thread. Ellen was actually born with a ZERO “apgar” score (no signs of life) and had to be revived and rushed to the newborn center at the Med. Since thenshe’s been full of life & brought joy to everyone she knows.

My little baby girl, my Bellie-boo with the infectious smile, sweet disposition, bright eyes, killer sense of humor, an incredible love for Jesus & children and servants heart as wide open as the Great Plains is now a “legal” adult. Those who know her love her. Those who don’t are missing a tremendous blessing.

Whether fixing plates for two little ones at church while holding a third on her hip, waiting with them until all the other adults have been served; petitioning for the Personhood Amendment; praying at the abortion clinic; underlining EVERY verse on the page in some books in her Bible when she’s reading (“they’re all good, Daddy”); begging/ bargaining to go to Ethiopian orphanges with Trey or on a tour with the Faithful Soldiers; telling us the special thing she wants for her 18th Birthday is for us to adopt another little one; sewing one of her amazing creations; or simply hanging out with family & friends her love for Christ shines through in everything she does.

My favorite memories of Ellen are more personal, though. The way she cried on my shoulder when Abby died or her Mom was in the hospital for 90 days; digging in the garden with me; sneaking up with me late at night for two cold glasses of milk we had stuck in the freezer while putting the little ones to bed; nailing me with a comeback with her lighting quick wit when I try to make some smart aleck crack.

Best of all, both her testimony & her life shows that she is not only my daughter but my sister in Christ. Simply put : Ellen loves Jesus intensely.

Last night Scott Duley was preaching from Phillipians & he reminded us that the love of Christ should compell us to be outgoing, loving, & serving towards others. He said that it is important for those who are reserved to overcome this through “rejoicing in Christ” and for those who are naturally gregarious & outgoing to remain grounded & let our joyous love for Christ inform & fuel our actions — not just our gregarious personality.

I know of noone who better exemplifies this than Ellen. She has always been sweet, giving & kind hearted — but this has grown more zealous & focused as she is conformed more & more to the image of Him who loves her soul more even than her earthly father loves her.B
(* a girl who is a godly lover of Christ with a keen mind and full of love & zeal — the gates of hell are not gonna know what hit ‘em !)

If you know Ellen — tell her how much you love & appreciate her today. If you don’t know Ellen — you’re missing out
To Ellen : Happy Birthday, Ellie-Bellie ! Daddy loves you ! You are a gift from God to our family & to everyone who knows you. I am excited to see the work that Christ is/ will do in you and for His Kingdom through you !

Abortion, fatherlessness, & socialism will not end until God sends a revival. God will not send a revival & hear the prayers of His people until we stop the shedding of innocent blood, deliver the fatherless, and speak out against idolatry. Which is true ? THEY BOTH ARE !
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A couple of weeks ago, we were petitioning at a Flea Market & came across a table with several very unique books — CHEAP. Being rank bibliophiles, the Riley’s indulged.
I walked away with rare finds like Industrialization and Southern Society 1877 – 1984 and “Revolutions of 1848” for ONE BUCK each.

But my most prized find was the 800 page tome “The Christian Almanac” by George Grant & Gregory Wilbur. The book contains a couple of pages of readings for each day of the year, plus and introduction, vast index & footnotes. On each day, the suggested passages from McCheyne’s daily Bible reading calendar is at the top (designed to help you read through the Bible in a year). This is followed by two pages of important events, people, anecdotes, quotes, etc from the last 2000 years of history. Some of them you wonder why they were included. Most, you are excited & encouraged to learn of.

A couple of entries from the last two days (Dec. 3 &4) caught my eye, excited me, and prompted me to write this.

Dec 3 — 1846 Leslie Printice was a young widow in New York City when she became active in the pro-life movement. A member of Gardner Spring’s congregation at the prominent Brink Presbyterian Church, she was encouraged by his sermons on child-killing to take a bold and active stand. She organized several meetings in her midtown Manhattan brownstone of . . . community leaders to hear the facts about the abortion trade. Under the auspices of the church, she set up the New York Parent & Child Committee. The committee established prayer networks, sidewalk counselling shifts, and even alternative care programs with Christian doctors. It also organized regular protests in front of Ann Lohman’s five area abortion franchises — known professionally as “Madam Restell. Lohman as the boldest, richest, and most visible child-killer. Tenacious and unrelenting Leslie Printice led a rally outside Lohman’s lush home on this day that was by turns emotional, physical, and fierce.
When Loman went to trial for the first time the next year Leslie was there — despite innumerable threats on her life by a number of the gangsters on Lohman’s payroll — to testify with several children “saved from the butcher’s knife”. Nearly half a century later, her efforts were recognized in Albany by Theodore Rooselvelt as the primary catalyst for the state’s tougher laws & stricter enforcement.

For the sake of space — and in hopes that you’ll read the rest of this, I will not post the entire entry fromDec. 4. But it was about a man named Samuel Taylor — a mild mannered, Methodist small town Midwestern pharmacist; quiet with an aversion to controversy. On this date in 1856 the daughter of one of his customers was poisoned by a dose of a mail order abortafacient pills. He discovered that the abortafacient business was booming across the United States — completely unrestricted. He began a one man educational crusade about the child-killing trade– starting with his fellow pharmacists and then moving to the general public and elected officials. Taylor eventually testified before legislatures in three Midwestern states and wrote model legislation to ban abortafacients that was adopted by fourteen states.

As Dr. Grant documented in his work “Third Time Around” abortion has been legal & culturally acceptable before and Christians have turned it back every time.

The Almanac entries above caught my eye for a couple of reasons.

As we go out petitioning for the Mississippi Personhood Amendment & speaking on behalf of the cause of life across the state, I have heard some form of two dismissive objections repeatedly from liberals, libertarians, and well meaning or cynical Christians. One “abortion has always been around” and two “ abortion is entrenched legally & culturally in our day that you are never going to get rid of it”.

The first, I think is meant to shock me. The second I think is aimed to make me give up, or at the very least to get me to shut up & leave them alone.

On the first point, they are somewhat right. Abortion has always been around, with a few exceptions. Just like rape; the slave trade; child sacrifice, abuse, & exploitation; sexual degeneracy & family/ moral breakdown; tyrannical governments; war & police state tactics killing people; theft & corruption by the government or private entities; the trend towards centralization and away from freedom in the public & private spheres; worship of the state or political leaders as demigods by leftists who want welfare & right wing hawks; and every other form of selfish explotation man’s sinful man can come up with — along with millions of orphans, broken lives, slaughtered & tortured people.
All these evils have “always been around” except where Christianity flourished and became the dominant influence in the culture. When worship of the “one true God” in “Spirit and in Truth” prevails social evils subside. Conversely, since Old Testament times, in periods of Spiritual decline — in cultures that had been blessed by God’s favor — social evils, tyranny & human suffering increase. As the Spiritual decline and apathy grows along with personal sins among God’s people idolatry inside & outside the Church increases along with it come child sacrifice & abortion, sexual perversions, broken homes, orphans, tyrannical government leaders/ programs/ police/ armies.

Does this mean that we need to repent, cry out to God, and pray/ labor for revival — a real move of God as our only hope ? Yes. Absolutely, I say YES !

Does that also mean that we should “just preach the Gospel” ? Or just concerntrate on personal Spiritual growth & pietistic, introspective (me-centered) sanctification ? Or should we, at least, focus on reforming our churches and families — knowing that the culture will not be reformed until revival & repentance in the church comes ?

The answer to that, I believe can be found in the same place as the answer to the second objection above :
One “abortion has always been around” and two “ abortion is entrenched legally & culturally in our day that you are never going to get rid of it”. And the answer to the charge that the orphan crisis is too big (150 million plus) so we can’t do anything effective but wring our hands and pray. And the answer to the common belief that idolatrously big government that involves itself in everything cannot be turned back (and it is wrong to even speak out). And the answer to the hopelessness of 70% multigenerational fatherless ness in places like the Delta & inner cities that has spawned incredible levels of crime and recreated dependant slavery to a much more harsh master (the government). And the answer to the worldwide industry of sexual slavery & human trafficking so large that there are more people in slavery in the world today than during the entire 400 year history of the Transatlantic slave trade. And so on . . .

Social evils & human suffering are reduced, families restored, and cultures reformed when revival comes. BUT that does not make praying/ labouring for revival our only task or make the Spiritual & the temporal mutually exclusive.

A careful study of the Scripture and of Church history will prove this to be true. When God begins to stir His people, He will work both in the Spiritual realm & give people a new earnestness in their Spiritual hunger/ prayer & zeal for personal holiness & evangalism of the lost. BUT He will also stir the hearts of many of His people to fight idolatry, tyranny, aleiviate human suffering, etc.

Sometimes this manifests itself when God simultaneously raises up a great preacher & a great. Godly political leader or social reformer — Ezra & Nehimiah; John Newton & William Wilberforce.
Sometimes the godly preacher IS the social reformer or political leader — Spurgeon or Whitfield or Mueller with their orphanages; Rutherford speaking out against the idea that tyrannical government must be obeyed by godly people no matter what.
Sometimes (rarely) it is actually the political leader that is the agent for Spiritual renewal and the reform of society/ government in accordance with God’s Word — King Josiah; Abraham Kuyper.

But most often, societies are changed, social evils are turned back, tyranny overcome when the hearts of common people are stirred. Athiestic Communism was on an uninterrupted march across the globe for most of the 20th Century. It was believed by all Marxists and most of the academic world that this was destiny.
That was, of course, until unknown pastors in Romanian underground churches preached the Gospel in the face of unrelenting persecution and peasants with pitchforks in places like Poland & Ukraine overcame a global Superpower.

Likewise, in the stories above we are reminded that abortion has been overcome in the past by common people with an uncommon God. Widows and mild mannered pharmacists stood down the abortion industry & their allies in government 150 years ago. It can happen again !

Abortion, the orphan crisis, the growth of homofacism, human trafficking, socialism, etc will end when God stirs the hearts of common people like me & you.
BUT it’s not going to happen because we hide our heads in the sand, Spiritualize our own self centered apathy, and hide behind theological platitudes while a suffering world collapses around us. IN other words, the gates of hell are not coming to your Church any time soon.
Gates are defensive structures. The captives of hell are “out there”, outside our comfort zones. However, as the Church continues Her retreat into irrelevance, partisan politics, worldliness, or pietism — the dominance of hell-on-earth grows. And the gates of hell get closer to the doors of our church buildings and our neat little sanitized, isolated “christian” sub culture. No matter how tightly we cram our fingers into our ears the cries of the fatherless get louder. No matter how hard we cover our eyes (or turn them towards a clean Vanity Fair or read lots of poetic books & listen to emotional praise songs about Spiritual things) the ugly truth is creeping through the cracks in front of our very eyes.
Eventually, it becomes more and more difficult to be able to slip our of our churches, and go to our Christian homes, and to our soccer games, and social events with our Christian friends, and go rent our G-rated movies without bumping into the gates of hell & smelling the foul stench of death. The gates of hell are at the church door and engulfing the world around us. The jaws of the pit of hell that our culture has become are wide open waiting to devour us, our children, and our neatly ordered lives. Just as this culture has devoured the lives of millions of unborn children & scarred the souls of many more.

Will you not speak up ? Will you not cry out to God — “here am I, send me” ?

It’s easy to agree that “abortion will end when God moves” or the global orphan crisis or human trafficking or welfare dependency or sexual degeneracy or broken homes or socialism will end when God moves AS LONG AS IT DOESN’T COST US ANYTHING.

It is much more difficult to love your unborn neighbours when gansters threaten your life like they did Leslie Printance in 1846 or crazy people shoot at you like the man that killed pro-life martyr Jim Poulian in Michigan earlier this year.
It is difficult to care about orphans when it might mean standing in the face of incredible Spitiual and cultural opposition like Amy Carmichael faced; or it might upset our neat little world’s or mean no nice house, new car, & latest electronic gadget in our time.
It is difficult to stand for God & against tyrrany when it might cost you your freedom like Knox & Rutherford or your life like modern Christians in Communist or Islamic countries.

Do we not believe the promises God makes to those who overcome the world ? Do we not believe that Jesus’ assurance that anyone who follows Him must “die to self” & “take up his cross ? Do we think we live in a time when the warning that we must “count the cost” has been suspended ?

I do not know if God has called you to get involved in Personhood or other pro-life work or adoption or other things we are involved in (I think He is calling more of you than you think). I am not your judge or the Holy Spirit. But I do know that God has not called any of His people into a life of comfort, ease, and sloth. He delivered us from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His Dear Son. These kingdoms are at war until our King claims the final victory. He has called you to the fight. Life is a battleground, not a playground. RUN TO THE FIGHT !

My friend Kevin Thompson posted this on his blog
www.understandingourtimes.com
I thought it might be worth sharing (reposted in full with permission) :

Death of a Dispensationalist

By Kevin Thompson

I suppose that I have needed to write this article for quite some time now. I guess for me, it’s not easy. This is an area I have struggled with for quite some time. But I believe now is the time to declare – I no longer consider myself to be a dispensationalist, at least not in the way I have always considered myself to be. Allow me to explain.

Most of my life, I have believed that God has had two distinct peoples with two distinct plans – Israel and the Church. Human history may be divided up into at least seven distinct periods of time in which God dealt with His people using a particular test requiring a particular response and resulting in a particular failure on behalf of man. For most of my life I would distinguish between the Rapture of the Church and the Second Coming of Christ. They are two separate events with a literal seven year tribulation in between them. Life is to be lived with the conscious awareness that the Rapture could take place at any second.

While these were my stated beliefs, secretly for quite some time now, I have been harboring some doubts. For example, why is it that verses concerning the rapture and verses concerning the Second Coming sound very similar and almost identical? How can there be such a sharp distinction between Israel and the church after reading Galatians 3 or Romans 9-11? What about church history? If dispensationalism is the correct way of interpreting Scripture, why was this whole system of theology only brought to light in the 1800’s? How could God’s people have missed something so obvious for so many years? I understand that doctrine does come about through process and is refined and systematized as years pass. But just how many theologians, preachers and men of God before the mid 1800’s preached or taught that God had two distinct peoples? These doubts have never been answered fully or satisfied in my mind. (I am open to the idea of further research answering these questions if anyone would like to point me to some good references on the topic.)

I think more than anything else, what has really concerned me about this system of doctrine is the results I see from it. When I ran for congress two years ago, I received most of my criticisms not from secularists, but from my fellow believers. They insisted that I was wasting my time. Christian have no business entering into politics because this world is just going to burn up anyway. Jesus is coming back soon and all my work will be for not. Though they often preach against the evils of modern culture and society, they have no plan to engage, challenge or change said culture and society. Their only battle plan is retreat, excuse me, rapture.

This fact was hit home for me this past weekend. I attended a worldview rally in Rockford, IL. One of the speakers was David Reagan of Lion and Lamb Ministries. His comments absolutely shocked me. He declared there was no hope for America. He then proceeding in telling us just how bad things have got here in our nation since the 1960’s. We are clearly headed to destruction as God has already began to judge this nation for its terrible sin (the worst of which seemed to be our lack of complete support for the nation of Israel). In fact, things are so bad here that Dr. Reagan announced that the only hope Christians living in our country have is the rapture.

After this presentation, Brannon Howse spoke on how secular and ungodly philosophies have crept into our educational system and our national way of thinking as a whole. An interesting lecture. One point that stuck out is that these evil men (such as Karl Marx and Tom Dewy) decided to advance their agenda “not by revolution but by evolution.” In other words, they had a long-term plan that actually worked.

Soon after this presentation, I had the chance to speak with Dr. Reagan and ask him the following question, “If a secular humanist agenda is successfully advanced by a long-term plan, how can Christians counteract with a long-term plan if they are all convinced Jesus is coming any minute and have abandoned any hope?” His answer was that we are to live as if Jesus were coming back tomorrow, but plan as if He were not coming back for a thousand years. If I had the chance to talk with him further, I would like to have asked how successful it is to live for one thing and plan for another.

Many modern dispensationalists (of the ilk of Ryrie and others) would have us curse the darkness, but a candle is out of the question. We cannot engage our culture, only preach against it. But, the natural question that arises in my mind is why would we expect anything but complete depravity of our culture if Christians are completely removed from it. Darkness exists when light is absent. But because Jesus is coming any second, we just don’t have the time…

What I fail to see in such line of thought is any mention of the sovereignty of God. The imminent destruction of America and other doomsday scenarios do sell books, but whatever happened to a God who is in control of all things? A common theme of dispensational thought seems to be the worsening of not only the world, but of the church. They seem at times to be joyful at the thought of God’s church being defeated and the world getting worse as these are signs of the end times. To me, this makes the church to be weak, God to be on defense, and the world to be winning. Now, we are told that in the end God wins, but we have to endure till then. This does not seem to fit with the picture we see in Romans 8:31-39 of a victorious people conquering through Jesus Christ our Lord. Is God in charge or not?

That night, Sunday night, I believe the dispensationalist in me died. It was clear to me that I am not the person I once was. I think differently and even pray differently. I can no longer accept what I do not belief to be Biblical or practical.

This does not mean I have an agenda now to crusade against dispensationalism or dispensationalists. I have great respect for many dispensationalists. I will still buy their books and listen to their sermons. This is not an issue I will break fellowship over.

So where does that leave me? I have yet to embrace covenant theology, though I am beginning to lean in that direction. I would like to look more into progressive dispensationalism to see if there is a happy, Biblical median there. I have still not settled on a historic premill, amill or post-mill position. To be honest, I am just a student of Scripture who is wrestling with some difficult questions.

Pornography is not simply about pictures. At its core, pornography starts with:

1. A desire to use people as self-gratification machines
2. A preference for man-made reality and man-made people over the real thing.

These hold as much temptation for women as for men, though romance novels often feed their fire better than pictures. (It has been found, however, that pictures of Robert Pattinson don’t put a damper on anything.) [4]

R.J. Rushdoony asks, “Why should an unreal female be exciting, and a far better and real woman not be so? The key is the essence of imagination: the fantasy woman is totally the creation and creature of man, whereas the real woman is God’s creation and creature. It is essential to imagination to create a man-made world and a man-ordained decree of predestination. It is the essence of sin to demand such a world.” [5]

Why should Edward, Mr. Darcy and other romantic heroes be more interesting than “far better and real” men? Because these men are the creations of women, tailor-made just the way we want them… rather than the way God made them.

We who feel “the urge to escape sometimes” should ask ourselves why a world apart from God’s character, God’s laws, and God’s created order would be a world a Christian would desire to live in? [9] What would make us want to run, like Jonah, from God and His presence? “Escapism is only medicine to one who views the reality of God and His creation as a disease.” [10] The answer for those in need of “escape” from life’s hardships is running to God – not away from Him.

Here is the ultimate question for those of us who delight in being titillated by unbiblical violence, unbiblical death, unbiblical spiritualism, and unbiblical romance – even when it’s “just pretend”: Are we are of the spirit, or still of the flesh?

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I had never given much thought to the movie Twilight until Sat night. I had heard of it in passing, but little else. Christy and I wanted to go see the pro adoption movie “Blind Side”, but when we got to the theater there was a line all the way wound the building and into the parking lot.

Still, it hasn’t crossed my mind much since then — I just thought — more shallow, American trendy nonsense.

However, I read this article that Ben Botkin posted on FaceBook this morning and got my eyes opened. I still have not seen (nor do I intend to) Twilight, but we mus be aware of cultural phenomena this far reaching.

However, my real interest in the article did not have anything to do, per se, with the film itself, but rather the broader thrust that I think is a compelling picture of the the cultural view of love & romance and a challenge all Christians need to soberly consider.

I thought about the view of “love”, romance, “feelings”/ emotion, and matters of the heart that dominates the thinking & actions of most people I know (me included). I especially thought of the young people I know who are either preparing for marriage, recently married, or of age to begin considering marriage — and all the unbiblical, emotion/ fear driven, culturally derived “counsel” they receive from “Christian” books, web sites, churches, and older Believers.

Please brothers, sisters, young folks, & parents consider :

Do we want a Biblical view of love and romance or a pornogrpahic, flesh drivien one ? I have long held that Romance novels & films are little more than mental pornography for women. So, would especially recommend the section of this peice on “Emotional Pornography”

I urge ALL women , most young men, and even some older Christian men read and soberly consider this article. Even if you have never or would never see the movie “Twilight :
1) it is dramatically effecting the culture you live in;
2) many of these things are true of the worldview of most Americans — even — Christians. Oh, God, please deliver us this unbiblical view of “romance”, love, and “following your heart” that has infected women and men as well.
http://visionarydaughters.com/2009/11/how-twilight-is-re-vamping-romance

I had a fellow who wants to run for Congress in District 3 call me and ask to take me to lunch to see if I’d support him. This prompted the following to all the announced & potential candidates in my district. I will publish the responses if I get any. Please let me know if there are any questions you think I should add in the first round

First District Congressional Campaigns & concerned citizens :

Since I serve as the sponsor of the Mississippi Personhood Amendment & we have 23000 signatures of pro life voters and hundreds of active volunteers in the first district (BTW, we will not be using these signatures to help some candidate; but most candidates assume we will) ; I have been involved with pro-life, pro-family, & pro-liberty causes; I have served as chairman of the Mississippi Constitution Party & ran for Ag Commissioner: and I have family that has been politically active in DeSoto County for 100 years I have had a number of folks who are seeking our support and/ or want to know my opinionon on the race.

First of all, allow me to be very frank. I know at least three folks who have either announced or hinted that they are running for Congress in Mississippi’s 1st District in the Republican Primary; one person has contacted me about running on the Constitution Party ticket; and I met Wally Pang from Batesville at a TEA Party and he said that he was running as an Independent.

Also, I have had more than a few people ask me to consider running. I’m sure that Travis Childers is running for re-election — but I am inclined NOT to support him based on his voting record. I do not know if he will have any Democratic opponents or if the Green or Libertarian Parties are going to run anyone.

This e-mail is being sent to all three Republican Candidates; to the gentleman who mentioned running on the CP; to some of their supporters & to Constitution Party members, pro-life activists, TEA Party leaders/ speakers, and to other parties who MIGHT be interested.
** If any of you have an e-mail for Wally Pang or any other candidates who are running or considering running, please let me know

If any or all of the candidates (or their representatives) answer these questions I will publish the answers as broadly as possible (also non answers will be published). Also if any or all of the candidates (or their representatives) would be willing to further interact by :
meeting me for lunch,
answering other questions that folks e-mail or follow up questions,
participating in a candidates forum

Thanks for your time
Les Riley
662-760-8695

Questions for Congressional Candidate — Please answer thoroughly & honestly.

1) Why do you want to Run ? If elected, what would be your top priorities as a congressman ?

2) Do you meet the basic Biblical & Constitutional qualifications ? Explain, What are your other qualifications ?

3) What/ who is the ultimate authority & source of rights. Are we accountable to that source & in what way ?

4) Do you know, love & fear Jesus Christ ? How do you know ? Does He have any claims on you as a citizen and public servant ? How does/ will this manifest itself in reality ?

5) What is government’s role ? What things should government NOT do ?

6) What does the oath to the Constitution mean ? What will your duties & LIMITATIONS be as a Congressman under the Constitution ?

7) You say you are pro-life. What does that mean ? What have you done to end abortion ? What will you do ? Where would you fit in this “Pro Life Profile” ?
http://prolifeprofiles.com/

8 ) What do you think of the Federal Reserve ?

9) Describe the role of the Federal government, the role of the States & the relationship between the two. Please be specific

10) Explain your view of foreign policy

11) What do you think of the Patriot Act ? What about the Federal government’s role in crime control in general ?

12) What are your views on gun control ?

13) Explain your views on the 1st Amendment ?
* to whom does it apply
* what do the terms “separation of church & state” and “freedom of religion” mean to you
* when the framers mentioned freedom of speech do you think their intent was to include pornography ? child pornography ? What about you do you think these things are convered under “free speech” ?

* Warning, this is a bit long for a blog post If you want to see where this diatribe began, read part 2 — http://rileydad.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/rutherford-pt-2/

“We don’t discuss politics & religion”
Then you will leave your children tyranny & imorality and damn them to hell.

I have said for a number of years that the most evil phrase in the English language was possibly
“I know the Bible says, BUT . . .” because whatever comes after it is the “wisdom of this world” or a lie straight from hell.

However, a couple of years ago our pastor said something in a sermon that I think much more fully makes this point . He said we must love, obey, follow, seek, & trust in Christ alone. For us to have any hope , for us to be a true follower of Christ — not a deceived professor — we must HAVE CHRIST ALONE.
NOT “CHRIST, PLUS . . .” or “CHRIST, BUT . . .”

In other words : we cannot come to God with Christ, plus our own (self) righteousness, dead works, sacrifices, “decision for Jesus”, “sinner’s prayer” etc. We must trust in Christ alone

AND we cannot come to God with conditional obedience to an adjusted Christ.

Last Sunday we had a powerful sermon on I. Cor. 16:22 “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” (Anathema means cursed or set apart for destruction; Maranatha means “Come Lord”)
No matter what our profession, we can know our Spiritual condition and will be judged based on whether or not we “love Christ”. And unlike the world’s deceitful idea of love, “Loving Christ” means more than emotion or sentimentalism, or nice words or flowery prayers or even sound doctrine. Our love for Christ is shown in our obedience to His word. Our love for the Brethren. Our service to the helpless (Spiritually & physically) and our taking captive every thought & every area of our life/ culture to His revealed will in His Word.
He tells us repeatedly what love to Him is. And He also warns “many will come in that day & say ‘Lord, Lord’”.

Equally important to “loving Christ” is loving the right Christ. Or the right God. Not an idol of our imagination/ invention, even one called “Jesus”. We must be sure that the God we are following is the one true God, as He has reveald because every church (even the most liberal, unbiblical ones) say they “love Jesus” and even most cults revere Him as a prophet, great teacher, etc.

An adjusted Christ — even one who bears a close resemblance — is an idol & will damn its followers. An adjusted Christ offers no hope to anyone temporally or eternally. “We know an idol is nothing in the world” I cor. 8:1. An adjusted God cannot hear our prayers & cannot help us — no matter how sincere we are (do we think that Muslims praying are insincere ?) Idols, God’s Word tells us, have “eyes but donot see, ears but do not hear, arms but cannot save”.

But how do we, people who really love Jesus & really want to believe & follow God’s Word adjust God ? I don’t think it’s anything that we set out to do. Adjusting God is an incremental, unconscious slippery slope. We make little choices, little decisions, day-by-day, hour by hour.

And I think that we are all guilty (myself especially) of adjusting God & His Word based on either our circumstances, our preferences, our pet sins, our “good works” (or areas that we are particularly strong– and others struggle) or just plain personality quirks.
“This is not me“, you say ?

Well. Let’s take it a step further. Be more clear.

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. ” — John 4:23

“Spirit AND Truth”. Don’t we all tend towards one or the other ? The emotional & Spiritual. Or the doctrinal & practical ? Don’t we all emphasize the experience or the obedience ? Isn’t this based on our particular bent or our situation at a particular time? Don’t all we tend towards legalism or pietistic spiritualizing away everything — sometimes both ?

Is this acceptable if we are truly seeking to love & follow Christ; to take every thought captive ?!?!?

None of us (me included) want to look at the ugly reality that we adjust God & follow Christ as we would prefer — not as people who want to know His & follow Him as He tells us to. BUT, if we are going to truly love Him and be conformed to His image, and particularly if we want to be of some use in His Kingdom, we must learn to recognize where we are adjusting God and put these tendencies to death.

Perhaps, since Paul told us to follow him as he followed Christ, a good way to measure this — and keep it in check would be to see how we pick and choose how we “follow” some of our particular “heroes of the faith”. Since all men are fallen, sinful, imperfect and have glaring blind spots (just like us) this is an area we must approach with care, but I think it can be helpful.

The right way to apply this axiom “follow me as I follow Christ” is to not “throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let’s say, for instance, that you like to read an old writer who’s work on prayer or communion with God in the mundane or doctrine is Christ exalting & soul uplifting. Their life & ministry give you a clearer picture of who God is in some area or help you draw near to Him. But then you learn that in some other secondary point of doctrine they were WAY off base. Or they were so strict on secondary matters that they died a recluse w/o fellowship– not even attending church. Or they were weak in their families. Or they struggled with doubt and depression. (I have left particular instances out to not slander Brethren — even dead ones. All of us can find some of our “heroes” in these examples)

We still are to follow them as they follow Christ. We are to drink deeply from those things that they left us that exalt Christ and leave those things that they stumbled with.

Yes, but what does this have to do with “adjusting God”. Quite simple. When we WRONGLY apply this axiom it is a flashing warning sign that we could be tending towards adjusting God.

Let us use two saints from the past that are very popular in our little circles to illustrate this theory.
Amy Carmichael & Samuel Rutherford.

First, a short one about Carmichael then a little longer example about Rutherford.

The life & writings of Amy Carmichael are a gift to the church and a picture of how “love for Christ” is lived out. But we tend to emphasize what part of her life & ministry that we focus on based on how we have adjusted God. Remember “true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit AND in truth”. And apply it here.

If we want to adjust God (and elevate ourselves) by focusing on the pietistic, experiential, PERSONAL & emotional aspect of worship, then we drink deeply of Carmichael’s writings that are deeply personal, Spiritually challenging, and poetic. But we downplay or ignore the fact that her work was going to the ends of the earth — literally — to preach the Gospel. And that her most effective & lasting ministry was in violating the laws & customs of the nation she was in, in rescuing girls from a life of little more than sexual slavery, and in running an orphanage. It was in her cultural work and practical acts of mercy towards orphans in which she best displayed the “true religion” of James 1:27. To Spiritualize away or pietisically dismiss calls to similar service today is to presumptuously dismiss direct commands of God and adjust Him.

On the other hand, if we want to adjust God (and elevate ourselves) by strutting about with our law/culture challenging pro-life work, or evangelistic zeal, or orphan care/ adoption ministry. We tend to emphasize this parts of her work — and forget/ ignore that the source & foundation of her work was an ongoing, zealous love for Christ and deep drinking from the well of His Spirit.

Or, take Samuel Rutherford. My son just bought a book by Rutherford called “The Trial and Triumph of Faith”, originally published in 1645. Perhaps a few quotes from the “Publisher’s Preface” can explain what I am trying to say better than I.

It begins :
“Samuel Rutherford is best remembered today for the soaring eloquence and pastoral wisdom in his Letters. But he was more than a devotional writer. He was also a distinguished preacher, theologian, and political thinker. . . . A visiting London merchant said Rutherford’s preaching showed him ‘the loveliness of Christ’”

Sounds like a full orbed Christianity, taking every thought captive, built on the right foundation — love for an unadjusted Christ.

Further the Preface states that Rutherford stood for doctrinal soundness & Gospel purity to his own harm :
“First, Rutherford, himself banished from his parish for his opposition to Armininanism, used his preaching and writing to discuss theological errors and controversies at the time of writing . For example, in this book he deals at length with the Antinomianism of men like . . .”

How does this benefit us 350 years later ?
“. . .such discussions of errors and misconceptions regarding faith and salvation are still of great value today. Old errors are constantly being revived in new guises by those who are unaware of the discussions of the past”.

But what about the “political thinker” part. Isn’t this an example of a blind spot or not “focusing on Christ”.
Rutherford’s Christianity would have no room for such distinctions between secular & sacred :
“Rutherford was deeply interested in the struggle for further reformation . . . and ONGOING ATTEMPTS TO LIMIT THE POWER OF THE KING. . . .”
This “might seem to distract from Rutherford’s higher concern with the Kingdom of God and salvation in Christ. We might better understand . . . if we remember that . . . these conflicts in church and state were literally life and death struggles. It is because the leaders of this time were prepared to risk their own lives in resisting tyranny in church AND state that we have inherited many of our rights and liberties, as well as the invaluable heritage of the writings of the time.”

But again, his standing for truth, his resisting tyranny cannot be separated from the fountain that was Rutherford’s deep and abiding love for Christ. It drips from every page of his writing because it flowed through his life. He drank so deeply and often from the love of Christ in a personal way that it overflowed into everything he did.

But how does this, practically, serve as any kind of warning about “adjusting God” and in doing so endangering ourselves of being “accursed” because we show that we do not “LOVE CHRIST” ?

Simple. One of Rutherford’s two most famous & lasting books is his courageous Lex Rex (law is king). Which set forth the idea there is a law higher than the king‘s word. Earthly rulers‘ authority is limited by God and when they step over these bounds they are rebellious usurpers that are to be resisited.
This idea shook the foundations of the centuries long stranglehold tyrannical rulers held through an idolotrous heresy known as the “divine right of Kings”. The word of the king was law (Rex Lex).

This set the stage for America’s independence and has spread liberty throughout the formerly Christian West and to parts of the world that have never heard of Rutherford or even Christ.

However, there are many out there who use Rutherford’s writings in Lex Rex as a thin cover for their rebellious hearts but have little or no use for his more important, much more volumous work on the true doctrines of Christianity and the loveliness of Christ. If Rutherford’s writings about loving Christ and his letters on how to walk in that love are ignored we are doing worse than “missing the forest for the trees”, we have actually perverted his work and adjusted God to our great peril.

On the other hand, among people who revere Rutherford’s writings on love for Christ and sound doctrine. Rutherford (like Carmichael) has been used by God to show them a bigger picture of who Christ is and how we are to draw near to & love him. With Rutherford’s own glorious relationship flowing into his hand as a guide for his pen, they have begun on the path that he lived on. They have dug deeply beyond a surface reading of God’s Word and found therein a great wellspring for their soul.

However, too often –like the rebellious Lex Rex fans who have little use for Christ –the “digging deeper with Rutherford” ends with the Spiritual and does not expand to the practical. Using a different hermeneutic when it comes to relating to civil magistrates. By using passages like Romans 13:1-4 and Luke 20:25 as “proof texts” we idolatrously assign rights to government that belong only to God and unjustly accuse (in word or deed) Believers who challenge this view (or the government’s unlimited authority) of sin & rebellion.

The Spiritual descendants who still enjoy remarkable freedom because of his application of God’s Word to government that was as deep as his digging for truths about our intimacy with Christ are now a real threat to return us to “Rex Lex” all the while thinking they are taking the higher road Spiritually.

How can we tell if we are adjusting God ? Perhaps one way might be to examine how consistently we balance our reading and apply what we learn.

The above was actually prompted by finding the following. Which was prompted by some discussions we have had lately about the Christian & obedience to the civil magistrate with folks who love Rutherford’s poetic prose about Christ, but either strongly disagree with his pivotal work Lex Rex — or just flat refuse to read it because it challenges their presuppositions and comfort zones too much.

I know it is bad blog etiquette to post something this long off another web site rather than just a link, but I felt at liberty to do so, since it is merely an excerpt from a long published work. For the record, I found this on “A Puritan’s Mind”

http://www.apuritansmind.com/SamuelRutherford/SamuelRutherfordLexRex.htm

Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)
Lex Rex
A One of the greatest works on Government, the Civil Magistrate, Church and State ever written. This is an excerpt from the book, and if you click on the title (Lex Rex) at the top of the article, then you will be transported offsite to a complete book online of the work.
 
Lex, Rex
by Rev. Samuel Rutherford
 
For the lawfulness of resistance in the matter of the king’s unjust invasion of life and religion, we offer these arguments.

Arg. 1: That power which is obliged to command and rule justly and religiously for the good of the subjects, and is only set over the people on these conditions, and not absolutely, cannot tie the people to subjection without resistance, when the power is abused to the destruction of laws, religion, and the subjects. But all power of the law is thus obliged, (Rom. xiii. 4 ; Deut. xvii. 18-20 ; 2 Chron. xix. 6 ; Ps. cxxxii. 11, 12 ; lxxxix. 30, 31; 2 Sam. vii. 12 ; Jer. xvii. 24, 25,) and hath, and may be, abused by kings, to the destruction of laws, religion, and subjects. The proposition is clear. 1. For the powers that tie us to subjection only are of God. 2. Because to resist them, is to resist the ordinance of God. 3. Because they are not a terror to good works, but to evil. 4. Because they are God’s ministers for our good, but abused powers are not of God, but of men, or not ordinances of God ; they are a terror to good works, not to evil ; they are not God’s ministers for our good.

Arg. 2: That power which is contrary to law, and is evil and tyrannical, can tie none to subjection, but is a mere tyrannical power and unlawful; and if it tie not to subjection, it may lawfully be resisted. But the power of the king, abused to the destruction of laws, religion, and subjects, is a power contrary to law, evil, and tyrannical, and tyeth no man to subjection : wickedness by no imaginable reason can oblige any man. Obligation to suffer of wicked men falleth under no commandment of God, except in our Saviour. A passion, as such, is not formally commanded, I mean a physical passion, such as to be killed. God hath not said to me in any moral law, Be thou killed, tortured, beheaded ; but only, Be thou patient, if God deliver thee to wicked men’s hands, to suffer these things.

Arg. 3: There is not a stricter obligation moral betwixt king and people than betwixt parents and children, master and servant, patron and clients, husband and wife, the lord and the vassal, between the pilot of a ship and the passengers, the physician and the sick, the doctor and the scholars, but the law granteth, (l. Minime 35, de Relig. et sumpt. funer,) if these betray their trust commited to them, they may be resisted: if the father turn distracted, and arise to kill his sons may violently apprehend him, and bind his hands, and spoil him of his weapons; for in that he is not a father……The servant may resist the master if he attempts unjustly kill him, so may the wife do to the husband; if the pilot should wilfully run the ship on a rock to destroy himself and his passengers, they might violently thrust him from the helm. Every tyrant is a furious man, and is morally distracted, as Althusius said, Polit. c. 28, n. 30, and seq.

Arg. 4: That which is given as a blessing, and a favour, and a screen, between the people’s liberty and their bondage, cannot be a given of God as a bondage and slavery to the people. But the power of king is given as a blessing and favour God to defend the poor and needy, to preserve both tables of the law, and to keep the people in their liberties from oppressing and treading one upon another. But so it is, that if such a power be given of God to a king, by which, actu primo, he is invested of God to do acts of tyranny, and so to do them, that to resist him in the most innocent way, which is self-defence, must be a resisting of God, and rebellion against the king, his deputy ; then hath God given a royal power as uncontrollable by mortal men, by any violence, as if God himself were immediately and personally resisted, when the king is resisted, and so this power shall be a power to waste and deatroy irresistibly, and so in itself a plague and a curse; for it cannot be ordained both according to the intention and genuine formal effect and intrinsical operation of the power, to preserve the tables of the law, religion and liberty, subjects and laws, and also to destroy the same. But it is taught by royalists that this power is for tyranny, as well as for peaceable government; because to resist this royal power put forth in acts either ways, either in acts of tyranny or just government, is to resist the ordinance of God, as royalists say, from Rom. xiii. 1-3. And we know, to resist God’s ordinances and God’s deputy, formaliter, as his deputy, is to resist God himself,(1 Sam. viii. 7; Matt.x. 40,) as if God were doing personally these acts that the king is doing; and it importeth as much as the King of kings doth these acts in and through the tyrant. Now, it is blasphemy to think or say, that when a king is drinking the blood of innocents, and wasting the church of God, that God, if he were personally present, would commit these same acts of tyranny, (God avert such blasphemy !) and that God in and through the king, as his lawful deputy and vicegerent in these acts of tyranny, is wasting the poor church of God. If it be said, in these sinful acts of tyranny, he is not God’s formal vicegerent, but only in good and lawful acts of government, yet he is not to be resisted in these acts, not because the acts are just and good, but because of the dignity of his royal person. Yet this must prove that those who resiet the king in these acts of tyranny, must resist no ordinance of God, but only resist him who is the Lord’s deputy, though not as the Lord’s deputy. What absurdity is there in that more than to disobey him, refusing active obedience to him who is tha Lord’s deputy, not as the, Lord’s deputy, but as a man commanding besides his master’s warrant?

Arg. 5: That which is inconsistent with the care and providence of God in giving a king to his church is not to be taught. Now God’s end in giving a king to his church, as the feeding, safety, preservation, and the peaceable and quiet life of his church. (1 Tim. ii. 2 ; Isa. xlix. 23 ; Psal. lxxix. 71). But God should cross his own end in the same act of giving a king, if he should provide a king, who, by office, were to suppress robbers, murderers, and all oppressors and wasters in his holy mount, and yet should give an irresistible power to one crowned lion, a king, who may kill ten hundred thousand protestants for their religion, in an ordinary providence; and they are by an ordinary law of God to give their throats to his emissaries and bloody executioners. If any say the king will not be so cruel, – I believe it; because, actu secundo, it is not possibly in his power to be so cruel. We owe thanks to his good will that he killeth not so many, but no thanks to the nature and genuine intrinsical end of a king, who hath power from God to kill all these, and that without resistance made by any mortal man. Yea, no thanks (God avert blasphemy!) to God’s ordinary providence, which (if royalists may be believed) putteth no bar upon the unlimited power of a man inclined to sin, and abuse his power to so much cruelty. Some may say, the same absurdity doth follow if the king should turn papist, and the parliament all were papists. In that case there might be so many martyrs for the truth put to death, and God should put no bar of providence upon this power, then more than now; and yet, in that case, the king and parliament should be judges given of God, actu primo, and by virtue of their office obliged to preserve the people in peace and godliness. But I answer, If God gave a lawful official power to king and parliament to work the same cruelty upon millions of martyrs, and it should be unlawful for them by arms to defend themselves, I should then think that king and parliament were both ex officio, by virtue of their office, and actu primo, judges and fathers, and also by that same office, murderers and butchers,- which were a grievous aspersion to the unspotted providence of God.

Arg. 6: If the estates of a kingdom give the power to a king, it is their own power in the fountain ; and if they give it for their own good, they have power to judge when it is used against themselves, and for their evil, and so power to limit and resist the power that they gave. Now, that they may take away this power, is clear in Athaliah’s case. It is true she was a tyrant without a title, and had not the right of heaven to the crown, yet she had, in men’s court, a title. For supposing all the royal seed to be killed, and the people consent, we cannot say that, for these six years or thereabout, she was no magistrate: that there were none on the throne of David at this time: that she was not to be obeyed as God’s deputy. But grant that she was no magistrate; yet when Jehoash is brought forth to be crowned, it was a controversy to the states to whom the crown should belong. 1. Athaliah was in possession. 2. Jehoash himself being but seven years old, could not be judge. 3. It might be doubted if Joash was the true son of Ahaziah, and if he was not killed with the rest of the blood royal. Two great adversaries say with us ; Hugo Grotius…..saith he dare not condemn this, if the lesser part of the people, and every one of them indifferently, should defend themselves against a tyrant, ultimo necessitatis proesidio. The case of Scotland, when we were blocked up by sea and land with armies: the case of England, when the king, induced by prelates, first attempted to bring an army to cut off parliament, and then gather an army, and fortified York and invaded Hull, to make the militia his own, sure is considerable. Barclay saith, the people hath….a power to defend themselves against prodigious cruelty. The case of England and Ireland, now invaded by bloody rebels of Ireland, is also worthy of consideration. I could cite hosts more.

Who’s fault is it we’re in this mess as a nation ? Democrats ? No. Republicans ? No. Men — particularly Chrsitan fathers ? YES

Will Mississippi’s Epitath be : “Yeah, but that’s something people care about ?”

From a recent Mississippi Personhood Amednment Update

Back in the spring, we were meeting with some leaders from one of the state’s big denominations to try to get them on board to support Personhood in & through their churches. One man told us how diffficult it would be for us to gather all the signatures and pass the Amendment at the ballot box.

I reminded him that in 2001 there was an effort made to change our state flag. Grassroots people with no money, no existing organization, and no plan came out of the woodwork and gathered the signatures. Then — while being outspent about 10 to 1 they led an effort to protect the flag. I asked, “can the Christian people of Mississippi not do the same to protect the most innocent & helpless human beings among us ?!?!?”

He gave me an answer that chills me to this day.
He said :
“Yes, but that was something that people cared about.”
Do you — do we — care as much about defending the lives of innocent children as we did about defending our state flag ?
If not, when God judges America, there could be a big sign hanging over Mississippi with a picture of the state flag & a dead baby that says “Yeah, but that’s something people care about.”

NEEDS –

Ultimately, this petition drive & the vote that follows is a referendum — before God — on the people of Mississippi. Thinking “pro-life” won’t stop the killing of unborn babies. Neither will talking pro-life or going to the polls every four years and voting for politicians who claim to be pro-life, but do not have the courage to do ALL that they can to stop the killing if it might cost them the election.
Abortion will end when God’s people pray & act like they’re pro-life

We would ask that everyone on this list and everyone that you know who is a pro-life Christian would commit to at least one day a week of fasting and prayer about this. But don’t just pray that God would act pray that He would give you a burden & an opportunity to be used to stop the killing.

** C.T. Studd was a missionary from England in the 1800’s he was a nationally famous athlete who gave up opportunities for fame & fortune to serve & suffer for Christ. God used him mightily in India, China, and Africa. He was a man of prayer, but here’s what he said about prayer without action :

“We Christians too often substitute prayer for playing the game. Prayer is good; but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is nothing but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism…To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses. Enlist!”~C.T. Studd

PLEASE DO MORE THAN THINK, VOTE, OR TALK PRO-LIFE. PUT FEET ON YOUR CONVICTIONS.

Everyone who gets this who is pro-life :
1) Please commit to PERSONALLY gathering at least one more sheet of signatures (more than one sheet is not difficult).
NOT SOMEONE ELSE — YOU. Everyone who gets this message whether you are very limited and live in a very rural area or you have already gathered thousands of signatures can fill up ONE MORE SHEET of ten signatures
2) Please spread the word & ask others in your area and people that you know in other parts of the state. Send them an e-mail/ make a call. I KNOW that getting the same message forwarded to you is annoying, I know many people get tired of emails from Personhood — BUT WHAT IS THAT IN LIGHT OF THE FACT THAT CHILDREN ARE BEING KILLED IN OUR STATE ?!?!?
3) Please prayerfully consider committing to producing at least 100 more signatures — directly or indirectly — by contacting churches in your area, letting us know when an event is coming up that we can get signatures at (or plan on going yourself). Petitioning at an event may seem intimidating or uncomfortable — but it is not as hard as it seems. Our most effective & productive petitioners are a bunch of shy homeschool kids who have stepped out in faith
4) Please consider making a donation to help. If you would like, you can purchase a nice Personhood T-shirt or make a donation electronically at http://personhoodmississippi.com/. Or you can mail a donation to the address below. Even $10 would help

Beyond Personhood

— please consider getting involved in sidewallk counseling at the abortion clinic in Jackson or Memphis or New Orleans. Or volunteer at a local Crisis Pregnancy Center. Or consider adoption or foster care (or financially support those who do these things. If you would like to get involved in stopping abortion in our state in other ways, we can help put you in contact with folks that coordinate some of these worthy works. If you will step out in faith, God will honor this faith with opportunities to share His Gospel & live out His love with people who need it — and you will bear much fruit.

DOES ANY PRO-LIFE CHRISTIAN CARE ???? IF WE DO NOT MAKE IT, WILL YOU BE SATISFIED KNOWING THAT WE HAD TH…E CHANCE TO END ABORTION & YOU SPENT YOUR WEEKENDS ENTERTAINING YOURSELF FOR A WHOLE YEAR ?!?!?
I like sports and having fun as much as anyone but how can Christians spend every non working/ non school/ non church hours feeding their flesh & Spiritualizing any call to service ? Football & frisbee ? Volleyball & vacations ? Shopping & movies ? Biking & baseball ? Love ‘em all. BUT while innocent children are being dismembered ?!?
God says in Isaiah 1 that when our hands (as a naition) are covered with the blood of the innocent that our very prayers are stench in His nostrils & our acts of worship are hated by Him.
God HEARS the cries of the fatherless . Are we so enraptured with the music if vanity fair that we cannot ?