What If A Restaurant Were Like National Health Care?

Homosexual Activist Appointed To Federal Post Over Public Schools

Reported By Bob Unruh:

The founder of the homosexual activist group GLSEN, which promotes homosexual clubs in high schools, middle schools and grade schools and is the driving force behind the annual “Day of Silence” celebration of homosexuality in many districts, has been handed a federal appointment where he will be responsible for overseeing “safety” in the nation’s public schools. . . .

On Jennings’ own website, a biographical sketch talks about how his work as an activist started when he used a school assembly in a district where he was a teacher to announce his homosexuality.

He soon started the GLSEN activist group and, the report said, “has spent the last 12 years building GLSEN into a national organization at the forefront of a bold movement that now works with over 3,000 Gay-Straight Alliances.”

Read more. . . .

When I Get To Heaven

When I get to heaven,

I shall see three wonders there.

The first wonder will be to see

many there whom I did not expect to see;

the second wonder will be to miss

many people who I did expect to see;

and the third and greatest of all

will be to find myself there.

(John Newton, 1725-1807, English evangelical minister and hymn writer)

The Measure Of Liberty

Quoting President Ronald Reagan:

“[L]iberty can be measured by how much freedom Americans have to make their own decisions, even their own mistakes. Government must step in when one’s liberties impinge on one’s neighbor’s. Government must protect constitutional rights, deal with other governments, protect citizens from aggressors, assure equal opportunity, and be compassionate in caring for those citizens who are unable to care for themselves. Our federal system of local-state-national government is designed to sort out on what level these actions should be taken. Those concerns of a national character — such as air and water pollution that do not respect state boundaries, or the national transportation system, or efforts to safeguard your civil liberties — must, of course, be handled on the national level. As a general rule, however, we believe that government action should be taken first by the government that resides as close to you as possible.”

Ronald Reagan On Nationalized Health Care

Worship And Truth

From: The Pen of Dr. Alan D. Ingalls

The primary purpose of worship music is the mutual teaching of truth. In Colossians 3:16 Paul clearly admonishes us: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Compare Eph. 5:19. These are the only two NT passages which directly address the issue of music for the NT church. Since both of these texts place the purpose of congregational music in instruction, all other purposes, such as emotional expression or entertainment, must be subsidiary. The reference to singing in 1 Corinthians 14:15 seems to support this understanding, for there Paul is insisting that singing be comprehensible as well as “spiritual” (= emotional?). The OT confirms this picture. God is not pictured in the OT as an egomaniac who needs our praise, but as One who desires public praise as an instrument to bring the unbelieving world to faith (Psa. 67) and to build up the faith of the downcast (Psa. 22:22-26). The oft-repeated suggestion that God is the “audience” of our worship is only partly true.

According to the biblical picture of worship, then, if there is no revelation, no truth-content, there is no worship. Period. Consequently, lyrics which are unbiblical, frivolous, or disrespectful must not constitute any part of biblical worship. Lyrics which lack substantial, meaningful content must be used sparingly if at all and with the greatest caution. Any musical accompaniment which impedes congregational participation or understanding is unacceptable, including excessive volume. The excessive repetition of lines with little content aimed at manipulating emotions would fall under the same stricture.  Psalm 136 is not proof, as some suppose, that repetition is, per se, acceptable.

While the second line of each couplet in Psalm 136 is the same, the first lines of each couplet detail God’s goodness in creation and history. And very few of the psalms even come close to this degree of repetition. This is far different than some modern songs which use only three or four lines of poetry or a verse or two of Scripture plucked out of context. Purpose is significant as well. Some worship leaders have expressly stated that their choice of simple lyrics, repetition, instrumentation, etc, are designed to appeal to everyone and send everyone home “uplifted” and “encouraged”—i.e., to give the people an emotional euphoria. (Emotions ranging from sorrow for sin to jubilation at God’s goodness will often be the natural result of worship, but an emotional “high” or euphoria is not the aim of worship.) This is not to say that there is no place for instrumental music or light, energetic choruses, but these must always be secondary. Style, taste, or instrumentation is NOT the issue; content is. Since worship is rooted in revelation and targets teaching, a lack of truth results in a lack of worship. Might we at times be offending God with what we call worship (Isa. 1; Psa.50)?