My new favorite hymn

I recently attended a homeschool conference up in the Seattle area. At the end of the conference we sang this hymn to the tune of "Be Still My Soul" (Finlandia). I wonder why I've never head this hymn before. It describes what so many Christian families have lost and must regain.

"A Christian Home"

O give us homes built firm upon the Saviour,
Where Christ is Head, and Counsellor and Guide;
Where ev'ry child is taught His love and favor
And gives his heart to Christ, the crucified:
How sweet to know that tho' his footsteps waver
His faithful Lord is walking by his side!

O give us homes with godly fathers, mothers,
Who always place their hope and trust in Him;
Whose tender patience turmoil never bothers,
Whose calm and courage trouble cannot dim;
A home where each finds joy in serving others,
And love still shines, tho' days be dark and grim.

O give us homes where Christ is Lord and Master,
The Bible read, the precious hymns still sung;
Where prayer comes first in peace or in disaster,
And praise is natural speech to ev'ry tongue;
Where mountains move before a faith that's vaster,
And Christ sufficient is for old and young.

O Lord, our God, our homes are Thine forever!
We trust to Thee their problems, toil, and care;
Their bonds of love no enemy can sever
If Thou art always Lord and Master there:
Be Thou the center of our least endeavor:
Be Thou our Guest, our hearts and homes to share.

All Faiths are Equal?

Now that's just silly.
That idea was utterly discredited and wiped out 4,300 years ago.

I turned 24 today.

Yes, the rumors are true.  As of today, God in his grace has given me 24 complete years of life.
They have been good.
Looking back, I see his faithful hand guiding me.  I continue to look forward to what he will do tomorrow.
Thank you, Lord.  I owe everything to you.

Two True Stories of Good and Evil

And a Question to Ponder at the End

In the beginning, God created everything. He created the world and created the first man and woman to rule over it. It was a good and perfect paradise because God is a good and perfect God. He is a holy God. The man and woman lived in this perfect world in perfect harmony with their Creator. There was no death, and no pain. It was beautiful.

But it did not last. One of God’s angels rebelled, and came to the man and woman, asking them also to rebel. The man and woman chose to rebel against God, and corrupted themselves. They became filthy and repulsive in God’s sight, but God still loved them. He promised he would save them – he would send a savior, one of their own descendents, who would defeat this rebel angel, called Satan – the devil. He would deliver those who trusted God from their wretched condition.

As the first man, Adam, had rebelled, so also his sons and daughters rebelled – they were born as rebellious creatures, inheriting their father Adam’s corrupt nature. Some chose to believe God and trust his promise to send a redeemer. Many more chose to continue rebelling instead, and even to make their rebellion greater, twisting the truth and believing lies.

Now, after the passing of many events, the world became full of many peoples and nations who spurned their Creator. Most of the people did not know the truth, and had grown up knowing only the lies their parents believed. Those who knew God were few, and knowledge of the Creator was disappearing everywhere. It seemed Satan was having his way.

But God had not forgotten his promise to send a deliverer. He called a man named Abraham, and sent him to the land of the Canaanites. He promised to give him this land, and make him the father of a new nation, from whom the promised deliverer would come. Now some time after Abraham died, his descendents went down to Egypt to escape a severe famine. They lived there for several generations, and grew into a mighty people. The Egyptians did not like this, and made them slaves. But God delivered the children of Abraham, the Israelites, from Egypt with a mighty display of power, and sent them back to the promised land – the land of Canaan. He revealed to them his most personal name: Yahweh, the One Who Is.

Now, the Canaanites had become a terribly evil people, worshiping idols, murdering and oppressing, believing lies about God, and exporting their lies to the nations around them. They had become so evil, they even burned their children alive, so that their false gods would give them good fortune. They were polluting the land with their evil, so Yahweh ordered the Israelites to wipe them all out – lest their evil remain in the land and turn the Israelites away from Yahweh who loved them.

But they did not completely obey Yahweh, and let evil remain in the land. And this evil influenced them. The Israelites would leave the God who loved them and worship false gods, and behave evilly, doing as the Canaanites did. So Yahweh handed them over to their enemies. The Israelites would repent for a while, and God would deliver them and bless them and give them peace – but then they turned back to their rebellion again. For centuries this went on, until finally the Israelites became so rebellious that God used powerful empires to destroy their land and take them into exile.

Yet even then, Yahweh forgave them, and brought a remnant of them back to the land. Then, the time came, and Yahweh sent his own Son. He revealed then that He is a triune God – although He is one God, and one being, He is three separate and distinct persons, each one of whom is God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Yahweh sent His Son to earth: His Holy Spirit caused a virgin to conceive Him in her womb. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, who became a step father to the Son of Yahweh. Yahweh instructed him to name the child Jesus, which means Salvation.

And so, God stepped down and wrapped himself in the ruined flesh of Adam. He grew into a man, and he went around the nation of Israel, preaching to all that he was the promised one sent by God.

Many did not believe him, especially those who held powerful positions – and they hated him for it. They devised a plan to kill him. Jesus knew their plans, and could have easily escaped. Yet, he chose not to. He delivered himself to them, and they crucified him, torturing him half to death and then nailing him to a wooden cross and leaving him to slowly die, displayed before all Israel. And as he hung on that cross, God the Father poured out His wrath on His only Son, whom He loved dearly, punishing Him as if He had done every evil thing that every descendant of Adam had ever done. As if He were the wicked rebellious creature that every descendant of Adam ever was. Then it was over, and all of the wickedness of man had been punished. Jesus died. But death could not hold the Son of God. Three days later, he rose again. He appeared to his disciples many times over the next forty days, and then ascended into heaven, to sit down at the right hand of the throne of His Father.

God sent the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples, and they preached the good news of the Salvation that Jesus had given them. Many believed, and the followers of Jesus – who became known as Christians – grew to a great number. They were persecuted for their beliefs, fed to lions and burned at the stake, tortured and murdered by the thousands by the brutal Roman Empire. Yet, their number continued to grow. Finally, there were so many Christians that an opportunistic Roman politician general, desiring to become the next emperor, declared himself to be a Christian so as to get the support of the followers of Jesus. He prevailed over his foes, and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christians suddenly found themselves with power, and like the Israelites before them, they began to adopt the ways of wickedness around them. Aiding this process, most of the pagans in the Roman Empire pretended to become Christians so that they could attain a better legal standing, yet they clung to their old pagan ways of thinking. Christianity, and the gathering of believers, called the Church, became powerful; they also became like the pagan Romans before them, and began to oppress those who didn’t believe as they did, rather than preaching the gospel. Those who dissented were persecuted, along with heretics who believed outrageous lies and Israelites (now called Jews) who did not believe in Jesus.

In addition to the above chaos, the Roman Empire began to disintegrate; it broke into an Eastern half and a Western half, the latter of which began to be overrun by barbarians.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above story is true. None of the names have been changed. The following story is a sequel. It is also true, but the names of many people, places, and books have been changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, during this difficult and tumultuous time, many people fled to distant lands. One of these lands was called Terren. Terren was full of many towns and communities; most of them were native Terrenians, but many were also settlements of Jewish folk who had fled Israel, as the Romans and even the “Christians” had been brutalizing them. Many confused heretics had also fled to the land of Terren, along with people still faithful to the teaching and good news of Jesus who had dissented from what the Church in the Roman Empire was doing.

Most of the native Terrenians believed in many false gods, and worshiped idols. Yet many were turning and becoming Christians, or at least they believed that Yahweh, the God of Israel, was the true and only God. Yet truth was mixed with lies; some did not believe that Jesus was the one Yahweh had promised to send; others believed, but perverted the good news of His Salvation with lies.

In this land of confusion, where the truth lived in the midst of lies, there was a man named Nedio. Satan appeared to Nedio, disguised as a faithful angel of light named Gabriel. He told Nedio that God had chosen him to be a prophet, to tell the truth to the people. But Satan cleverly mixed lies into the truth, claiming as many of the heretics did that Jesus was merely a man, not the Son of God, and that God was only one person. He also told Nedio that he was going to be THE prophet, the final and greatest prophet of God. He told Nedio to write these things down, and so he did. He wrote them down in a book. Nedio preached this message to the people around him; he preached many years, but was only able to convert a hundred people. Nedio, thinking himself to be greater than he was, was arrogant and conceited. Many people did not like Nedio, and became his enemies. They made life very hard on him. The chieftain of his home town Shelton, whose name was Gilbert, hated Nedio and chased him out of Shelton.

Finally, Nedio had had enough. If people would not follow his teaching and give him a hard time, he would not be gentle and nice anymore. Nedio picked up his sword, and so did his followers; they began to go from village to village, forcing the inhabitants at the point of the sword to become Nedians. If they did not obey him, he slaughtered them. Many chose to be slaughtered rather than to deny what they believed to be true. Nedio, realizing that he might need the food from the crops these people grew, instituted a new law in his religion: You could remain a Jew, or a Christian, or a whatever, and not become a Nedian, and you could still live; however, you would have to pay a hefty tax to Nedio, and be a second-class citizen with no rights. If you decided to convert and be a Nedian, you would be eagerly welcomed; but if you left the Nedian faith and became something else, you would be promptly executed. Nedian became increasingly violent. He moved to attack a city of Jews; the Jews immediately surrendered peacefully, but no matter: Nedio ordered his men to execute all the men of the city, and to take the women as their slaves and their wives. In another situation, Nedio ordered his men to rape the women the captured in a village in front of their husbands.

During this time, Nedio continued to write in his book, the Holy Book of his religion. He wrote many lies about God, and many hateful and violent things about those who did not follow him. He also wrote that anyone who was a slave was that way because God had made him to be inferior. He also claimed that women were inferior to men, and that men should beat their wives if they so much as suspected that their wives had rebellious hearts. Nedio also created a harem for himself. He created a limit on his followers, telling them they could only have four wives; but after that, they could do whatever they wanted with their female slaves. Yet, finding that he himself wanted more than four wives, told his followers that God had given him a revelation, telling him that because he was such a special person he could have as many wives as he wanted. One of the wives he chose for himself was a six year old girl. He also wanted the wife of one of his sons. He had his way, with another convenient revelation.

Now, Nedio had grown so powerful, that Gilbert, his old enemy, decided to make peace with him. He came and asked Nedio for peace between them. Nedio asked, “Do you believe that I’m the Great Prophet?”

Gilbert confessed, “I still am not quite sure about that.”

“You Moron! Confess that I’m the Great Prophet before I cut your head off!”

Gilbert instantly became a Nedian.

By the time of Nedio’s death, his followers had conquered the entire region of Terren. They then turned their lustful appetites to the remant of the Roman empire, and the great Persian Empire. They pillaged and conquered, murdering thousands, if not millions of people. They conquered Africa, much of Asia, and almost conquered Europe as well.

Almost.

God stopped them. For a long time, the Nedians were mostly content with what they had conquered.

Many centuries later, the religion of Nedianism grew restless and once again desired to have its early glory, and conquer the world for its twisted god. For the god that Nedio preached was not the True, Holy, Loving God, but rather a fake god of lies, hate and wickedness.

In a land across the sea that had been settled by Christians, but was now forgetting much of the truth of God, there was a pastor. He was a rather ornery and strange individual. But he knew enough to recognize evil. He looked out at the world and saw people everywhere being murdered by the followers of Nedio. He looked at the book that Nedio had written, and read all the perverse and hateful things that Nedio had written. He read the books compiled by his early followers describing all the evil things Nedio had done. This pastor was revolted by the evil, and wanted the whole world to know just what he thought of Nedio and his evil teachings.

So, the pastor decided to publicly burn copies of Nedio’s book.

Now, this pastor was probably not wise in the actions he took.

But I ask you now this question.

Is he not justified?

The LORD vs. Allah: Marriage Rolls

From the Quran

Sura 4:31-33

"(31) And covet not the thing in which Allah hath made some of you excel others. Unto men a fortune from that which they have earned, and unto women a fortune from that which they have earned. (Envy not one another) but ask Allah of His bounty. Lo! Allah is ever Knower of all things. (32) And unto each We have appointed heirs of that which parents and near kindred leave; and as for those with whom your right hands have made a covenant, give them their due. Lo! Allah is ever Witness over all things. (33)Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great."

Summery: Just as Allah is greater than man, so man is greater than woman. If man disobeys Allah, Allah beats him up. If a wife disobeys her husband, the husband beats her up.

And now, from the Bible.

Colossians 3:18-21

^"18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. ¹⁹Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. ²⁰Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. ²¹Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged."

Summery: Wives are told to submit to their husbands. This is something they are commanded to give, but not something the husband can demand from his wife. Husbands ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BEAT UP their wives. Tsk tsk, Muhammed. Tsk Tsk.

And now, more from the Bible.

Ephesians 5:22-30

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ²⁸In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰because we are members of his body.

Summery: While Allah says beat up your wife to sanctify her, the LORD says give yourself up for your wife to sanctify her.

There's a good chance that whoever equates Christianity and Islam has read neither the Bible nor the Quran. Fundamentalist Christianity and Fundamentalist Islam are two very different creatures, because the Bible and the Quran are two very different books.

Some Thoughts on Worship

I happened to hear someone today practicing a song that is usually categorized as a "worship song." The lyrics went as follows:
We bow our hearts, we bend our knees,
O Spirit come make us humble.
We turn our eyes from evil things,
O Lord we cast down our idols!
Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts,
Let us not lift our souls to another.
O God let us be a generation that seeks --
That seeks your face, O God of Jacob.
"That's a nice worship song," I thought absently. And then I paused. "Wait -- is that really a worship song?" I thought. I reflected on the following:
Worship means "to ascribe worth to." Something along the lines of confessing God's greatness with our words and actions. So, in the case of the lyrics of a song, if it is indeed a worship song, there should be a statement in it somewhere about God's worthiness.
*Que Handel's Messiah*

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood: to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever!

Sorry, I got carried away. Where was I? Oh yes. Worship. Look at the "We bow our hearts" song. Where is there a statement of God's worthiness in it? Maybe I just can't see very well, but I haven't been able to find any. I am thus forced to conclude that it's not a worship song.
"Well, maybe it's a praise song."
Um, no. Praise means the same thing. So it's not a praise song either, no matter how often people call it that.

Upon further reflection, I realize that probably 75% of the popular contemporary "praise" or "worship" songs (or choruses) are nothing of the sort. Does that mean these songs are bad? No, not necessarily. They have their place (I guess -- though I'm still not sure where). I'm just saying, if it's a monkey, don't call it a man. If we're supposed to be singing worshipful songs, then let's do it. Sing the non-worship songs later (maybe we can call them "inspirational" songs or something -- a squishy term for a squishy thing).
Here's another example:

Over the mountains and the sea,
Your river runs with love for me,
and I will open up my heart
and let the Healer set me free.
I'm happy to be in the truth,
and I will daily lift my hands:
for I will always sing of when
Your love came down. [Yeah!]

I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever. [Repeat]

Oh, I feel like dancing -
it's foolishness I know;
but, when the world has seen the light,
they will dance with joy,
like we're dancing now.

I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever,
I could sing of Your love forever....

The best part of the song is the first two lyrics: Over the mountains and the sea,
Your river runs with love for me... nice poetry, even though there's not a lot of depth. Unfortunately, that's the only good poetry in the whole song -- it all goes down hill into talking about our own feelings after that. There is no mention of God, of Jesus, of the Cross, of Heaven, of God's great and mighty deeds... none. Just some statements about how nice we feel, and then the long drawn-out 7-words-sung-eight-times chorus that never seems to end. It soon starts to feel like:
I could sing of how I'll sing of your love forever...
But in the entire song, we never actually end up singing about His love! Never! Only about how good we feel about it. If it weren't for the fact that we already know it's a Christian song, we would have no way of knowing it wasn't some song about a Teeny-Bopper Jr. High Crush.
Come on! Stand up! Let's actually sing about God's love!

The Love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the sky of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the oceans dry --
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky!

Now, that's singing about God's love. If we can really sing about God's love forever, then let's stop bragging about ourselves and actually do it!

(I think I've really stepped into it this time... a lot of you will probably disagree with my analysis, with various degrees of intensity. Well, don't be shy -- let me know where I went wrong.)

These Words Meant Death

"Jesus is Lord."
So easy to say, isn't it?

"Oh, yes, Jesus is Lord of my life."

I hesitate to use this tone, because you should indeed recognize Jesus as the Lord of your life. And mine. And everyone's for that matter. But I'm going to use it anyway.

Lord of your life, Lord of your schmife.

Jesus is Lord, PERIOD. He's the Lord of every life. It matters not whether that soul recognizes His Lordship or not. Is it not He who created us, and gives us our every breath? Is He not I AM, who forms life in every womb and snuffs out life simply by withdrawing his sustaining power? Is it not He who destroyed Egypt and delivered Israel through the Red Sea, and appeared in fire on Mount Sinai?

The question is not, "is Jesus Lord of your life?"

Or even worse, "have you made Jesus Lord of your life?"

As if it is in our power to bestow Lordship on our Creator!!

There is only one question.

"Do you confess, 'Jesus is Lord?'"

The first people who confessed Jesus as Lord lived in the Roman Empire -- a religiously tolerant regime with but one law of confession: Caesar is Lord.

To confess any other meant death.

"Jesus is Lord." Those who spoke these words were tortured, crucified, skinned alive, burned alive, beheaded, hacked to pieces by the sword...

It is an easy thing now to say, "Jesus is Lord."

But just try confessing it -- all hell will break loose upon you.

Writing Frustrations

I really want to write more often. And I don't want to write just about politics. Yet that's what I've been doing lately. Well, correction: I've been letting others write about politics. Four in a row: two videos and two articles by other people, all about politics and political ideology. And before that, three posts by me about the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, discussing politics is important; but if that's the only thing, it's woefully unbalanced. Politics is not the queen of all sciences, after all: that title goes to Theology. If America falls, if liberty vanishes, if children are confiscated to be brainwashed -- yea, even if we are all to be tortured and slaughtered -- Yahweh is still sovereign. He sits on his throne in heaven, and scoffs at the nations, the kings, the political leaders, the presidents, who say, "let us throw off our Creator's chains." He is ready to pour out his wrath on this world -- political victories by those who love what is true and right will only be temporary. Eventually, this whole world will fall into rebellion, and choose for themselves a man as their "messiah" instead of Jesus -- who is Lord --, and they will worship him as a god and spurn the True and Living God. Then God will pour out his judgment on a wicked people (from whom, by the way, all of us who trust in Jesus the Lord have been saved by God's sovereign grace -- we have nothing to boast about other than the torturous, bloody, shameful, scandalous cross).
I suppose I am getting long winded here. All that is to say: politics are relatively unimportant. Our nation (great as it is and as much as I love it) won't last forever -- but people will. Everyone on earth is marching toward a lasting eternity in hell, unless he or she believes the message of the torturous, bloody, shameful, scandalous cross, confessing Jesus is Lord.
I hate lies. I hate it when people tell lies. I hate it when people tell lies they don't believe. I hate it when people tell lies they do believe. I hate it when gullible people believe these lies. No matter what the lie is about, I hate it. Lies are everywhere, and everywhere people believe them, whether it is about theology, scripture, the life that pleases God, or politics.
I must confess: I tend to be unbalanced in the arena of political happenings. I am a citizen of heaven by the Grace of God, yet all to often I find myself consumed over the human destruction of my earthly home, my country, rapidly loosing its liberty, and any remaining vestiges of its Christian heritage -- one that used to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. I must remember this world is not my home. If I have to suffer under an ungodly dictatorship for the fifty, sixty or agonizing seventy remaining years of my life, hiding my children from the clutches of Caesar, loosing my loved ones, facing separation, torture, and possibly martyrdom, what is that compared to an eternity with my Lord, who saved me?
I will continue to post about political things, but that will by no means be the only thing I post about. A country at stake is a great matter; an eternity is infinitely more.