I just got an email announcing a pre-release of a new Christmas CD from Red Mountain Music.  I have listened to a few of the samples and they sound up to par with other Red Mountain Music albums.  I give it a thumbs up.  I only own one other Red Mountain album, Depths of Mercy, and would highly recommend it.  Track #4, bearing the same title as the album name, has become one of my favorite “new” hymns.

Red Mountain Music is pleased to announce the pre-release of our new Christmas CD
Silent Night

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The new cd features traditional Advent hymns with traditional tunes. You can hear sample audio clips on our website. You can also pre-order the cd now. We expect to start shipping cds in late October.

The cd makes a great gift for family, friends or yourself. We are selling individual copies online for $10 each (includes shipping). We are also offering a $25 savings if you buy 10 cds. See our online store for details. For those interested, the album will be available for digital purchase in late October.

Thanks for supporting our music.
Merry Christmas!
Red Mountain Music

For too many of us we find it too easy to forget the gospel…Why are we prone, why are so apt to so quickly and so easily forget the gospel?  Well, a primary reason for our tendency to forget the gospel is in a word, Legalism…Legalism is a daily tendency.  Legalism is a daily temptation for each one of us.  No one is exempt from the daily tendency and temptation.  And no one will mature beyond this daily temptation and tendency.  (from a sermon on Galatians 2:15-16)

(Thanks to Todd for sending me this sermon.)

CJ Mahaney goes on to quote Sinclair Ferguson on the doctrine of justification in the context of legalism

The glory of the gospel is that God has declared Christians to be rightly related to him in spite of their sin. But our greatest temptation and mistake is to try to smuggle character into his work of grace. How easily we fall into the trap of assuming that we can only remain justified so long as there are grounds in our character for justification. But Paul’s teaching is that nothing we do ever contributes to our justification.

Psalm 27

4 One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to inquire in his temple.

This verse is a true test of one’s religion.  Is it religion or do you know God?  Those who truly know him long to be with Him, around Him, worshiping Him.  If given but one wish, if allowed to seek after only one thing, it will be to be in his presence.  For some who hold to religion and do not know God, Heaven has little to offer in terms of longing for it.  Their greatest wishes and pursuits are not to be in the presence of God.  One hour of worship a week is about all they can tolerate.  But for those who know God, this is to be our delight to dwell in His house, to gaze upon His beauty, and to worship Him.

Are you excited for Sunday yet?  Are you longing for heaven?

I recently read a convicting and humbling article on 8 Ways to Encourage Your Pastor which contained a brief story about Mister Rogers under the heading of “Cut the Criticism”.   Sadly, I have to admit, I have been on both sides of this story.

Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers, creator and host of television’s “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood,” recently gave an address describing the time he was a student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and attended a different church each Sunday in order to hear a variety of preachers.

One Sunday he was treated to “the most poorly crafted sermon (he) had ever heard.” But when he turned to the friend who had accompanied him, he found her in tears.

“It was exactly what I needed to hear,” she told Rogers.

“That’s when I realized,” he told his audience, “that the space between someone doing the best he or she can and someone in need is holy ground. The Holy Spirit had transformed that feeble sermon for her—and as it turned out, for me too.”

Ephesians 4:1-3

1I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Philippians 2:3

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Proverbs 15:33

The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom,and humility comes before honor.

What a lesson in humility.  We are often tempted to listen with very “me” centered ears to a sermon, which can often turn into being overly critical.  Notice there was nothing that was said in the sermon that Mister Rogers could say was in biblical error, but rather, to him, it seemed poorly crafted.  There are times when we must point to truth if a teaching is in error, but this too must be done in grace.  In this case, there was no error and God was at work in the life of the one seated right next to Mister Rogers.  This lady was hearing the same sermon he thought was one of the worst he had heard and yet was dramatically impacted.  What if the tears had not been there?  What if he had started in on how poor of a sermon he thought he had just heard?  What if he had criticized the preaching of the Word of God that was at work in this lady’s heart?

When we enter into such criticism we often become agents of disunity.   We hinder the work of the Word of God in the lives of others in the body, undermining it’s authority and the authority of those called to preach.   One individual or a small group in a church pick apart the preaching of the Word.  Later they complain that the Spirit is no longer in attendance.  Is there any wonder why?  Let us be careful with our criticism and be humble in our hearts.  If this pride in hearing has crept in, ask for forgiveness,  for humble ears, and for a vision of the advancement of the gospel beyond oneself.

JUDE, “the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,” speaks to us in the tone of an ancient prophet. His voice is that of Elijah or John the Baptist. It is “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” He speaks to the declining churches of his day. He speaks to the Church of the last days. It is against the evils within the Church that he specially warns. What a picture does he draw of error, licentiousness, worldliness, spiritual decay, and ecclesiastical apostasy! Who could recognize the image of the primitive Church in the description he gives of prevailing iniquity? The world had absorbed the Church, and the Church was content that it should be so…
It is a picture for the Church in our day to study, for we are rapidly becoming part of the world and falling into the snares of “the god of this world” (2Co 4:4). Nay, and we glory in this as “progress,” “culture,” and
“enlightenment,” as freedom from the bigotry of other centuries and the narrowness of our half-enlightened
ancestors, who did not know how to reconcile contraries and to join what God has put asunder; how to believe everything alike; how to combine earth’s pleasures and gaieties with the joy of God; how both to pray and to dance; how to revel and to weep for sin; how to wear both the “white raiment” and the jeweled ball dress; how to maintain friendship both with God and with His enemies; how both to pamper and to starve the flesh; how to lay up treasure both on earth and heaven; how to drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils; how to be partaker of the Lord’s Table and the table of devils.

From “Light and Truth:  Bible Thoughts and Themes” in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar.

Amos 5

14^(A) Seek good, and not evil,
that you may live;
and so the LORD,^(B) the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said.
15^(C) Hate evil, and love good, (ESV)

What you are entertained by today and find funny today, you may find acceptable and practice tomorrow.  If we do not learn to hate sin, we will often learn to love it.  For some it may be surprising what the church finds acceptable today that which was considered clear sin yesterday.  However, when we allow ourselves to be entertained by sin it will be much harder to hate it.  I can remember while in college on a Christian college campus back 12 years ago it was considered funny for guys to talk, walk, and wave their hands like a homosexual.  It seemed very innocent at the time.  We all knew homosexuality was wrong.  However, I now find friends who I went to school with tolerant and accepting of such a lifestyle and some no longer willing to call it sin.  How does this happen?  We were not hating what God hates, but rather we were enjoying what God hates.  This messes up one’s discernment and thinking.

There are many other issues beyond homosexuality where this is going on.  The church is often enteratianed by the same sin as the world.  In the June edition of World Magazine Gene Edward Veith commented on what is now considered normal.  Things even the world hedged on 10 years ago.  The shows he mentions that freely entertain with sin, The Office and My Name Is Earl, are the same shows I often hear Christians talk about as being funny or commenting on as “must see TV.”

The sitcoms of the 1990s—such as Friends and That ’70s Show—were full of sexual innuendos, double entendres, and suggestive plot lines. Today’s TV comedies—such as The Office and My Name Is Earl—do not depend so much on that kind of adolescent, off-color humor. Does that mean that TV is cleaning up its act? Not at all. TV has actually taken the next step downward.

The 1990s comedies approached the line of sexual propriety and then crossed it. This resulted in a titillating humor that made adolescents snicker and shocked their parents. Today there is no line to cross.

In The Office, arguably the funniest show on TV, it is simply taken for granted that unmarried people are having sex. There is no need for innuendo. The characters talk about their sex lives openly, and extramarital sex is normal.

…In the TV culture, teen sex, single adult sex, and in the most dramatic shift in sexual mores in history -homosexuality are all perfectly acceptable, unproblematic, and normal.  Conversely, tradritional sexual morality is presented as weird, strange, and out of the mainstream.

My point is not to condemn certain shows or create a black list for TV shows, but rather to ask the question, Are you finding humor in sin?  it is difficult, if not impossible, to find delight in sin and to delight oneself in God.  When we delight in sin we place ourselves in a dangerous tension.

Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. (ESV)

As Christians, even our sense of humor is to be for the glory of God.

Sarah Palin has picked out an All-American set of names for her children. There’s Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow, and Piper.

Ever wonder, What would your name would be if Sarah Palin was your mother? Well now you can find out!

A great tool for those looking for that unique baby name!  I am now legally changing my name to Rust Mustang!  Find your new name here.

(HT: Dave)

I was deeply saddened by the news that Ray Boltz, a former contemporary Christian artist best known for songs such as “Thank you”, “Watch the Lamb” and “I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb”, had left his wife and four children and that it has come out he is a homosexual.  Tim Challies posted a great commentary on Ray Boltz recent coming out.

Reading this story in the Blade provided an interesting perspective on worldview. Here is what Boltz said about the freedom he has found in declaring and accepting his homosexuality. “I didn’t have to be who I was in the past. I didn’t have to fit somebody else’s viewpoint of what they thought I was. I could just be myself and I met a lot of wonderful people.” He said also, “If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he’ll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be … I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself.”

He states with startling clarity that he rejects God’s assessment of who he is. No longer did He need to fit his worldview into anyone else’s–he was free to accept his own self-assessment. God’s assessment is that Boltz, like me, is a sinful man and one who is tempted and tormented by sin. He is a man who is corrupted by sin and so deeply corrupted that without God’s intervention he will more and more resemble the sin that inhabits him. And one sin that Boltz long wrestled with is the sin of homosexuality. This may well be a kind of besetting sin–a sin that has plagued him since his youth and one that has never lessened its pull on him. Each of us has sins we are more prone to than others and I know there are many Christians who fight lifelong struggles with sexual orientation. But I also know that God can give grace to overcome even that sin. A God-centered worldview would tell Boltz that, though he may be somehow inclined to homosexuality, this tendency is a result of sin and it is a tendency that God utterly rejects. A God-centered worldview would tell him that God assesses his sin and calls him to repentance. God does not condone his homosexuality any more than God condones any other sin.

Sadly, Boltz has an I-centered worldview. He declares without apology that he is gay and, digging a knife into God’s back, says that it is God who has made him this way. He rejects God’s assessment and instead assesses himself by his own standards and declares that he is good. He piles sin upon sin, accepting his homosexuality as good, rejecting God’s declaration that it is sin, divorcing his wife, living that homosexual lifestyle.

The lesson to me in all of this is the importance–the life and death importance–of seeing the world not through my eyes but through God’s. God has given us the Bible which allows us, like a pair of glasses that somehow illumines blind eyes, to see the world as He sees it.

Homosexuality is a rejection of God’s way.  God’s word is clear that it is sin.

1 Corinthians 6:8-10

8But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even^(A) your own brothers!^[a]

9Or do you not know that the unrighteous^[b] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:^(B) neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,^[c] 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (ESV)

1 Timothy 1:9-11

9understanding this, that the^(A) law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers,^[a] liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to^(B) sound^[b] doctrine, 11in accordance with^(C) the gospel of the glory of^(D) the blessed God^(E) with which I have been entrusted.

Romans 1 takes Homosexuality to another level in stating that it is a consequence of God turning men over to their foolishness and lusts.  Also, it states that it is a consequence of exchanging the true God for a god of one’s imagination or one’s foolishness (verse 23).

18For^(AJ) the wrath of God^(AK) is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be^(AL) known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature,^(AM) have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they^(AN) became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22^(AO) Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23and^(AP) exchanged the glory of^(AQ) the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24Therefore^(AR) God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to^(AS) the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for^(AT) a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,^(AU) who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason^(AV) God gave them up to^(AW) dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another,^(AX) men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

For those who want to say that these passages are just a reference to pagan worship and not a “wholesome” homosexual relationship there are levels of problems.  Even if they were only a reference to pagan worship it demonstrates that such a lifestyle is placed not in the worship of the true God but in the worship of false gods.  Also, some of the sins that are listed among are not directly associated with pagan worship, but are more general lists of sins such as theft, greed, and drunkenness.  Third, it puts this sin in a list of things that keep one from inheriting the kingdom of God.

There is another problem with such a lifestyle that is secondary to denying relevance of certain portions of scripture.  That is that we are instructed in Romans 13 to be subject to the laws of the land.

1Let every person^(A) be subject to the governing authorities. For^(B) there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you^(C) will receive his approval, 4for^(D) he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God,^(E) an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also^(F) for the sake of conscience

According to Wikipedia:

Marriage, as defined by the civil law, is currently available to same-sex couples in six countries. The Netherlands was the first country to allow same-sex marriage in 2001. Same-sex marriages are also legal in Belgium, Canada, Norway, South Africa and Spain, along with two states in the United States, Massachusetts and recently California (for status in California see California Proposition 8 (2008)). In 2005, Spain became the first country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage (including adoption rights) on equal terms and under the same law.

In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman amongst other stipulations.^[15] As of May 2007, twenty-six states have passed constitutional amendments explicitly barring the recognition of same-sex marriage.^[16], eighteen of which prohibit the legal recognition of any same-sex union. Nineteen additional states have legal statutes that define “marriage” as a union of two persons of the opposite-sex.^[17] The territory of Puerto Rico ratified a similar statute in 1998. Nonetheless, some states are beginning to offer legal recognition to same-sex couples, whether in the form of marriage or as civil unions or domestic partnerships.

Not only has God declared Homosexuality wrong, but the majority of governments in the world, even in our current day and age, do not allow homosexuals to be married.  This argument does not mean if they allow it that homosexuality would be right, because governments do not have authority over God and his Word.  However, it does demonstrate that one would have to enter into sin of sexual relations outside of marriage to practice such a lifestyle as well.   This is never acceptable in scripture.  In the case of Ray Boltz you can see the progression of all of the sins that it took to practice such a lifestyle.  He divorced his wife, he is no longer in the home fathering his children, he has entered into a relationship outside of marriage with another man.  In so many cases those that enter into a homosexual lifestyle are willing to alienate relationships with family, pastors, and faithful Christians.  Yet in their summary of their relationship with God they claim that they have never been closer to God.  Is this possible?  Only if God fits into their image and their mind, as Tim Challies demonstrates.

So where should Christians stand on Homosexuality?  It is a sin.  It is a sin that will keep one from inheriting the kingdom of God if one continues in such a lifestyle.  And I believe Tim Challies is right, it is a worldview.  It could even be catagorized a false religion in many senses.  It is a sin for which Christ died for and his death and resurrection has power over! 

Exodus International is a group established to help ones seeking help in this difficult area, as is Setting Captives Free.

Voddie Baucham brings out some strong biblical challenges on the issue of feminism creeping in on the church. He also does a great job clarifying on some misuse of scripture by Margaret Feinberg. He demonstrates something that is rare in our culture, a man speaking strongly and not apologetically as he is challenged by a female anchor and female guest of the show, and yet I believe he is respectful to both.

This video is of a girls state high school cross country meet where a girl broke her leg in three places just yards away from the finish, but crawled across to finish the race. The incident occurs around the 1 minute 40 second mark.

What a great illustration of what it is to finish the race and not become weary in doing what is right. It is also a wonderful illustration of going after the Kingdom of Heaven like a pearl of great price or a hidden treasure. If only we could get it through our heads that the pursuit of righteousness and the Kingdom of God is more worthwhile than a race, a football game, or a softball game. How many times would we not let being hurt or discouraged not allow us to be deterred from competing in and completing the competition.