A Challenge for Today and Beyond: CD!

Here is a thought for today (and every day) - maybe better a challenge: Corum Deo- to live your life each and every day before the LORD.

What does this mean? After all, God sees all things - so everything is done and lived out "before God"! Coram Deo, simply put, is to intentionally live out our lives, our decisions, our words, and our hearts with God at the forefront. It is to really grasp that God is really Omnipresent, and so we also must come to grips with the fact that not a single action or thought in our lives is beyond God's view! It is also the vivid reminder that we all must give an account one day. Whether we be lost headed for eternal judgment in Hell and the Lake of fire because we are unregenerate sinners, or we are born-again, yet living outside of our professed faith (Jesus said if we love Him, we will keep His commands! - John 14:15). All must give an account.

Living Coram Deo means to live out our entire lives, every moment of every day, in the presence of, and in submission to God and His Sovereign authority.

To live a life of Coram Deo means to live a life of integrity. It means we will recognize that our lives paint a picture to the world (I have preached it as our lives as a living epistle to the lost world).

Living Coram Deo means that we not only keep Christ's commands, but that we most importantly act out of love, and speak Truth even in the face of opposition.

Coram Deo will rarely be the easy way. Indeed, living every moment of our lives under awareness of God's oversight and authority will indeed put all of the trifles and struggles, temptations and frustrations in proper perspective.

How has my life today honored and glorified God? Are my decisions today pleasing to God? Are the words I choose to use going to point others to the Savior? Are the priorities I set, God's priorities?

Won't you prayerfully contemplate the challenge?

A Day That Will Live In Infamy

Friday is the anniversary of a day that will live in infamy for me. I remember so vividly walking in to the library at Carlisle High School, passing through to the study hall room when Ms. Vanessa Haun, with tears and a shaky voice met me and asked if I had heard about an airplane hitting the World Trade Center.

We quickly got a TV out and hooked up to the cable-just in time to see the 2nd tower hit...

I remember the feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I remember the questions that flooded.  I recall the one know-racist and anti-American student who laughed and celebrated and caused me to come unglued.

And I remember praying. Praying like I had never prayed before. 

I remember watching the towers fall in on themselves.

I remember the initial reports of possible casualties upwards of 50,000 or more. 

I remember the somber "relief" that the number was far lower.

I remember when the third plane hit the Pentagon, which actually was the event that made me feel the most vulnerable, as that represents the center of the military that is our nation's defense...

And then he news of flight 93 going down, with the revelation over the next few days of the heroism exhibited by passengers.

And I remember the sadly brief unity our nation nearly saw. Unity to seek justice. 

Yet somehow, 14 years later, we now have a nation and leadership that won't even call such at tacks "terrorism".  A nation that now is offended by everything, and is afraid of insulting those who practice the religion that is at the core of those attacks in 2001. The religion that has perpetrated ongoing attacks in a smaller scale all around the world since then.

I am no war-monger. Indeed I am tired of the loss of life,with far less of a strategy than we had post 9-11. I grieve for those who gave their lives only to have the near victory surrendered to Islamists who are far worse than the enemies we faced a decade ago.

I am grieved that we have an administration that has chosen the path of evil, the path of surrender to cultists of Satan who are Hell-bent on destroying this nation. Instead, we ratcheted up the entertainment, the prosperity "gospel", and made hollow sales pitches based on unbiblical ideas. And now we have a nation more spiritually dead than ever, so easily offended by the slightest hint of offense. 

I am disgusted that our nation has so rebelled against God that the wholesale slaughter of millions of unborn babies barely stirs more than a minority of citizens, even when confronted with the butchery and profiteering coming from it.

We have become a nation of the offended. The slightest "offense" is grounds for riots and looting. Those in highest office have fostered a spirit of hate for law enforcement, claiming that police have declared an open hunting season on Black men, while actually encouraging the daughter of police officers.

I long for the unity we nearly saw right after the sorrows of 9-11.  Many turned to God and the Bible, giving an open door for genuine Christians an opportunity to live out the Apostle Peter's instructions To "always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you..." (1 Pere 3:15).  An opportunity to draw people together in the Gospel. 

And now in the United States of America,smoke public schools are teaching the "5 Pillars of Islam", while the mention of "Jesus' Name" is forbidden. Where even a school band is barred from playing music the MELODY from a Christian hymn.

Where Christian, biblical values are the enemy, and where those who live in open rebellion against the Word of God are lifted up as brave heroes.

Come Sweet Jesus!

Freedom FROM Religion? Really?

I find it hugely ironic that organizations such as "Freedom From Religion", funded by and representing Atheists exist. Why, you might ask, is it ironic?

The answer is quite simple - you see, 100% of people adhere to a "religion" - even avowed Atheists! You see - "religion", at its simplest meaning is a system of beliefs that affect your life/how you live. Whether one is a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Animist, etc., your beliefs have an impact on your life. Atheism, the professed belief in NO God still directs how they live. Some might refer to their belief system as "secular humanism".

So, by railing against other religions (with a particular distaste for Christianity), they are actually imposing THEIR system of beliefs (aka - Religion) on the those around them.

So, remember the principal of "Freedom OF Religion" in light of the above. The Funding Fathers and the Constitution never even imagined a "freedom FROM religion" - because that is an impossibility, nor did those same Founders promote a LACK of religious expression in the public.

And a parting blow: Even the less religious of the Founding Fathers - those that many anti-religion zealots like to point at... those men were primarily Deists - they were welcoming of Christian values and did not express offense at the words and actions of their Christian fellow leaders. They worked side-by-side with them. They didn't insist on silencing the Christians. They even enjoyed Congress opening with a Christian preacher giving a sermon to open their sessions.

Be Thankful To Don't Get What You Deserve!

Have you stopped to think, even for a moment... while we make a big deal out of thanking God for particular blessings in our lives... and often even get a bit miffed when God doesn't give us what we want (or THINK we "deserve"), that maybe, just maybe we should pause, reflect, then truly fall on our faces before a totally and purely HOLY God - who indeed does NOT give us what we REALLY deserve! As sinners - we deserve nothing better than the unmitigated WRATH of God! And it is by nothing but HIS Grace, not based on any perceived merit on our part - that He withholds that wrath from us! And indeed - it is the same God who calls us unto repentance and redemption - forever staying His divine hand of judgment and wrath from us.

Dear sinners (of which I am among the chiefest), don't cry for what you don't have, or that you "deserve better" - for none of us do. But praise be to God that He gives us much better than any of us deserve!