Seems Simple Enough To Me

A member of my church in New Jersey once asked me about women in combat. Her dad, a good friend, said it was okay with him. I told her it is a bad idea. I'm against it.

Why? Does the Bible prohibit it? Completely! But, not explicitly, unfortunately. The Bible portrays men and women as different and with differing roles. But further, the Bible shows that men and women being different are to relate to their worlds and each other differently.

With that in mind, I said it was a sad country indeed that would ask it's women to protect it's men or would send its mothers out to do battle. Furthermore, I pointed out that it isn't practical. Men act differently when women are around. They are more apt to show off, flirt,other things (!) which will lead to morale issues. Also, men are more likely to take foolish risks in combat if women are there, for internally they are naturally motivated to protect women. Also, women are not as strong (in general --Martina Navatralova being the exception) or fast, etc. Add to that, God made women to carry babies. What could be more important to our species! We should not send them out to catch bullets. I offered many reasons like this.

Let me add that women in the military and women in combat are two different questions. Women can fulfill certain non-combat duties and be in the army. But they should not be in combat situations.

Now, this is not PC. But who cares. PC isn't very smart.

I happened upon an article today by John Piper that sounded much like my own opinion. I love it when people have opinions that support mine! So I am going to give you a little taste of that article and link to the rest.

I'd love to hear your thoughts also.

Here it is, and here it can be found.

If I were the last man on the planet to think so, I would want the honor of saying no woman should go before me into combat to defend my country. A man who endorses women in combat is not pro-woman; he's a wimp. He should be ashamed. For most of history, in most cultures, he would have been utterly scorned as a coward to promote such an idea. Part of the meaning of manhood as God created us is the sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of our women.

Along those lines...

here's the beginning of a profile of Kabeel. For the rest of the story, click here.

Like most people, I was a product of my childhood. My parents came to the United States from Nigeria. My dad, who was a Muslim, had a quiet strength. He was a strong, big man, who lived his faith, and had great integrity. He said something, and then followed through. I respected him, and wanted to be like him.

My views of Christianity came from my Dad, who said that Christians didn’t really live their faith. Those views always seemed to be played out by the Christians I knew. It seemed that Christianity was a religion that had no discipline. The professed Christians that I saw, even my mother, didn’t seem to have that same strength and discipline I saw in my dad.

Whenever I had encounters with Christians, I would ask them questions they didn’t have answers for. My goal was to cause them to stumble – to point out the inconsistencies in their faith. I went to chapel at San Diego State even though I was a Muslim just because I wanted to listen. And everything I heard confirmed the views given to me by my Dad – Christians were weak. They said one thing and did another. They were full of contradictions. Even when I started reading the Bible, I did so for one reason – and one reason alone – and that was to prove it wrong. In my pursuit to fault Christians, something else happened…

All along, I was struggling with integrity issues of my own. The very things I was critical of in the Christians I knew were the same things I was struggling with. I thought they didn’t seem to have integrity, and yet I was fighting the same battle inside myself. I did and said all the “right things”, but behind closed doors, I was no different than anyone else. I realized I wasn’t really a man of integrity. . .

Continued here

Highest Concentration of Christians

The highest number of Christians gathered in one place, percentage wise, on a Sunday afternoon is not a church picnic. No, it's the NFL. The NFL and prayer meetings go hand in hand. After every game, and sometimes the cameras catch it and sometimes they don't, there is a prayer meeting in the middle of the field for believers from both teams.

Many men convert to Christ while they are in the NFL. It annoys some announcers when such athletes want to give credit to God for everything, but I find it delightful.

Of course, not all of them live out their commitment to Christ well. Like others they can fall or have setbacks. But unlike everyone else, the whole world sees it.

Some of my favorite players have been outspoken Christians, like Chris Carter, Randal Cunningham, Kurt Warner, the other Curt Warner, Mark Brunell, Reggie White, and on and on. Some of the players I enjoyed watching lose have converted to Christ while in the game, like Emmitt Smith, Deion Sanders, etc. I still want them to lose, but not be too down over it.

Not just them, but also the coaches. Tony Dungee, Joe Gibbs, Mike Tomlin, Dan Reeves, Tom Landry, Lovie Smith, etc.

Well, it is almost superbowl time. You'll see them. They have a way of popping up everywhere. Maybe I'll profile a few right here on this blog.

By the way, the picture is of Kabeer Gbaja-Biemila. He converted to Jesus while playing for the packers. He also broke the team sack record. IF you don't like the Packers, at least cheer with Kabeer does well on an individual play. He's a brother!

Hookers for Jesus

Here name is Annie Lobert. At one time she was an "escort" or a "call girl." Jesus saved her and now she runs a ministry out of Las Vegas called "Hookers for Jesus." No, they are not prostitutes. The word hooker is used to refer to fishing, as in fishers of men, or in this case, fishers of men and women in the sex-trade industries. She is targeting women mostly, but all in the porn and strip club scene with the gospel. She goes to where they are to meet them and share Jesus with them. (She has a friend who has a similar ministry).

Here's why I like this. Although I'm sure there are many sincere Christians who would object to the name of her ministry and perhaps even the way she goes about it. But she is bringing light into the darkness, as far as I can tell.

We must go to the lost, and very few go to these lost souls and seek to capture them for Jesus. Hats off to Annie -and, of course, we'll keep the rest of the clothing on! :)

Thoughts?

Because Some Misunderstand

It shouldn't need to be said, but I guess it does. Christianity has members all over the world. It is not a kingdom made up of one people group, one color, or one nation. There are brothers in Christ all over the world. I have Christian brothers who are Chinese, Indian, American Indian (Natives), African, African American, Jordanian, Arab, etc. They come from all the nations. I have brothers and sisters that I know personally from Nigeria, Camaroon, Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, Romania, France, England, Scotland, Australia, China, Korea, Cambodia, Japan, and on and on.

When I write against Islam, it is not bigoted against any race or nation or people. To be a Christian is, and always has been to be "against" the world --contra mundum, as the ancient Christians said, "Against the World."

We believe that Jesus is the only way. We believe that all belief structures have some truth in them, but ultimately are undone if they don't have the truth of Jesus as the Lord of all at the center. I want to be clear, we know this is offensive. But we don't hate anyone. At least we're not supposed to. I know I don't. When I speak ill of Islam, I am speaking of a false belief system. I am not speaking of hating people. I don't want to hurt Muslims. I want to save them. I want to separate them from their false faith and introduce them to Christ.

I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SAY THIS EITHER, BUT CLEARLY I NEED TO: I don't want to do this by force. If someone tells me they don't agree with me and are offended that I desire that they believe in Jesus, I will not hate them, nor kill them, nor pass laws to force them to change. They are free to do as they please. I will still love them as best I can.


I ALSO SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SAY THIS, BUT I GUESS I NEED TO: geo political comments are about strategies of governments. Such opinions belong to us all. But to prefer one government over another (as I do, and most people do) doesn't mean that I hate the people of any other government or culture.

We serve a Lord who said that people from every "Tribe, tongue, and nation will worship Him." I believe that. I have seen a good bit of that in my life.

Peace.

Islam, In their Own Words

In my last post, I was lambasted by some for implying that Islam, the religion, is problematic. Please, discern the difference between criticizing a belief system and "hating" people. I do the former, not the latter. But, as I know many are ignorant of what life under Islam is like, I thought I'd let some people from that world tell you what they think. Here's one. You can find this at this site.

A Testimony from a Saudi Believer

"Born to a Saudi family, in Saudi Arabia, and living very close to Mecca, I grew up with strict principals and traditions of Islam and the Arab culture. As a teenager I went to the mosque five times a day in obedience to my parents. One night, while I was asleep, I had this horrible dream of me being taken into hell. And what I saw there brought me real fear and these dreams kept coming to me almost every night. At this point I was really wondering as to why I should be seeing hell in this manner. Suddenly one day, Jesus appeared to me and said, "Son, I am the way, the truth and the life. And if you would give your life to Me, and follow Me, I would save you from the hell that you have seen."

This came as a surprise to me, for I did not know who this Jesus was. Of course, He is mentioned in the Koran in the book Surah Mariam. He is stated as one of our prophets, but not as a Savior who could save us from hell. So I started looking out for a Christian who could give me some advise about this Jesus I have seen and possibly get one of the Christian Holy Books, which I now know is the Bible. But it was a difficult task for me to get any Christian to speak to me about Jesus. As you would know, Christianity is totally banned in Saudi Arabia and if a Christian is caught witnessing to a Muslim, he could be almost sure that he would be beheaded.

Then the Lord led me to an Egyptian Christian who was sick. I prayed for this man’s healing and this man gave me a Bible. Then I, by myself, started reading the Bible. By this time Jesus had become a close friend to me. Soon I started witnessing about the experience I had with all my family relations and friends. Soon the authorities were informed that I had converted to Christianity, and I believe this was done by one of my family members. As it states in the Koran, if someone would turn away from Islam, he is a traitor to the faith and he should be executed. So I was taken into custody and tortured. They told me that I would be beheaded if I would not turn back to Islam. But I had already made my decision that I would never turn back. So I told the authorities I’m willing to die for Jesus and that I would never come back to Islam. After much torture and imprisonment, I was sentenced to be beheaded. They gave me a date and a time and I told them, "You go ahead and execute me. I’m going to heaven to see Jesus. But I pray that what you would do to me would stay in your minds and not give you rest until you come to Jesus."

The appointed day and time came for my execution, and I was waiting with much anticipation, yet very much strong in my faith in Jesus. Generally the executions are carried out on the set time and date. But to my amazement, no one turned up. One hour lapsed, two hours went by, then it became three hours, and then the day passed by. And no one turned up. Then two days later, the authorities turned up and opened the doors and told me, "You demon! Get out from this place!" I also noticed that the main person who was determined to get me beheaded was not present when they came to release me. I asked them where this guy was. And with much hesitation they replied that his son had died on the same day they planned to execute me. Although I continue to go through much persecution, one thing I know is that the Lord’s hand is upon me.

A Brother from Saudi Arabia

The Time Is Now for Judgment to Come On Islam

Bhutto has been killed in Pakistan. What is next? Pakistan has a festering problem. It is called fundamentalist Islam --true Islam. True Islam is about politics and conquest. Saudi Arabia has this problem too. Iran has this problem. Indonesia has this problem. Egypt has this problem. Syria has this problem. Israel has this problem. Sudan and Nigeria have this problem. Uganda has this problem. Afghanistan has this problem. Turkey has this problem. Even parts of Europe are beginning to have this problem.

The time is over for saying, "this isn't true Islam, but a radical minority." The disease is too wide-spread for that. It is true Islam. Muhammed was a war-chief. His First Followers were too.

The World is being made increasingly interdependent. Money and communication (the same thing?) are making all nations more intimate with one another. And as the world gets smaller, the problem of Islam gets bigger.

The blood has begun to flow. It won't stop. The time for judgment of the world against Islam (or Islam against the world) has come.

(By the way, as far as I know, only America, in the last 6 years, have constructively and decisively dealt with the issue in at least two nations.)

China Moving Ahead

This Chart is emphasizing that Korea is the "most Christian" of the Asian nations, with 40% claiming Christian affiliation. However, look at China. Although their percentage is only 8%, they have 109 million Christians! An argument could be made that they might be the most Christian nation in the world! How? Because, in a communist country where most Christians are "against the law" you will have very few people claiming a Christian identity unless they really mean it. Where else in the world are there 109 million committed Christians?

Mitt Romney is not a Christian

I don't know how you plan on voting this coming year. That's up to you. But for reasons that are not political, I think I need to point out the obvious: Mitt Romney is not a Christian (He is also not a baseball mitt, but that's another subject).

Mormonism and Christianity are becoming confused in our popular media. Glenn Beck, the popular talk show host is a Mormon. He is not a Christian. Mitt Romney is a Mormon, not a Christian.

Where is the confusion coming in? It comes in here: Glenn Beck and Mitt Romney use the word "Christian" to describe themselves. Now, we can wrangle over the the meaning of the word, I suppose, but it is better to be historical. Historically, Christianity believes certain things about Jesus that Mormons don't believe. Likewise, past ages, who were more familiar with Christianity in general, did not classify Mormonism as Christian.

Mormonism was invented in the 1800's in America by a man named Joseph Smith. He invented scriptures which are filled with plagiarisms from the Bible, and fantastical histories of the North American continent and it's ancient peoples.

Mormonism differs from Christianity in many ways. For example, the definition of God: in Christianity, there is one God, and that God is three persons --Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To the Mormons, there are gods beyond number. All current gods were once men. Men today have the potential to achieve god-status in the world to come. This alone makes Mormonism unlike anything having to do with Christianity in any known historical form.

The other differences are many, but we don't really need to discuss them. If you have God wrong, you have everything wrong.

Mormonism is a strange American folk religion, no more. It is not Christianity.