 With the Secret Service prostitution episode, there has been a lot of editorials, commentary and questioning about why people don’t behave as they “should.” But, the editorial writers were looking for answers in all the wrong places.
John Adams, one of America’s founding fathers, said:
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The answer is the one answer that is unacceptable, Christianity. Not the hollow image of Christianity in which rules of morality are enforced through the threat of hell. That is nothing more than a different flavor of governmental law that does not and cannot work on its own. What John Adams understood is that a people group will only be moral (or call it law abiding if you wish), if they desire to be moral. Other countries have harsher punishments for violating laws, but that does not stop law breaking. Eliminating necessary laws is abdicating government’s proper role to restrain evil, and opening the doors to less “public virtue” and further overall decline.
The answer comes in understanding who we are, what our situation is, and what God has done for us. We are all law breakers. We have broken God’s laws and have earned the just punishment in hell. What God has done is pay that penalty in our place. He died, paying the penalty we owe, then He rose from the dead demonstrating there truly is life after death. No one else has done that. When we trust this is true, we turn away from doing wrong – not because we have to or are compelled by a fear of hell — but because we desire to out of our love for God.
Government and civil laws are needed. But, public virtue and success in the “war on drugs” only comes through a love for God that results from an understanding who we are, our situation, and what God sacrificed so we may be saved… should we accept God’s gift. When God has been rejected, don’t expect an “inadequate government” to be able to replace God.
 The following, from the book of Romans in the Bible, was written during the time of the Roman Empire. Rome ruled with an iron fist that was enforced by soldiers who had no mercy. It was not a democracy and, at the time this was written, was a ruthless and brutal government.
Romans 13:1-7 says this about government:
“Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Wherefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake.” For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”
 All government is from God. What does this say about the coming election in America? Should Christians sit back and let God decide the election? No. God has given us a government in which we are to participate. If we refuse to participate we’ll get the government we deserve, a government growing in evil.
Does this mean we’ll get the government Christians want? No. We’ll get the government we need. The Bible shows that God allows the moral condition of a country to degrade until the people cry out in their agony. That’s what we’re seeing in America. Growing evil and growing approval of that evil. That leads to God further withdrawing his grace and evil growing more.
For example, what we see now are people turning to the government and demanding to be given what they don’t deserve. The government is being asked to replace God, and in many ways has already replaced God in the minds of the majority of people. What kind of government do people who are selfishly grabbing all they can get for themselves get? A government lead by people whose main concern is enhancing their power and getting all they can for themselves. Of course, it is all done in the name of helping others… that’s always been the way it’s done.
What is the answer? Voting is part of it. But the real answer is the gospel. The problem is sin. The only answer to sin is the gospel.
We are putting our effort into fighting homosexual marriage by fighting laws. It’s a battle that needs to be fought, but a battle that will be lost… without the gospel.
We are putting our effort into fighting abortion through protests and working to change to the laws. That’s a battle that needs to be fought, but it was lost… because it is a spiritual battle and the effective weapons are God’s word and the gospel.
God’s word has been taken out of the public discourse. If a political candidate speaks in way that shows their Christianity, they are vilified… except for those who are not truly Christian. It’s interesting to notice that only the true Christians are attacked for their faith. A Muslim or Mormon candidate expressing their faith is fine. What does that tell you about who is ultimately behind this? Christianity has already lost the battle in the arena of politics… but the war is not over and the answer is the gospel.
We are sinners. Sin is the problem and the only answer is the gospel. Jesus died on the cross paying the penalty we’ve earned for our breaking God’s laws. Then He rose from the dead, showing us there truly is life after death… life that we can have, if we trust in Him to pay the penalty we’ve earned for our sin. That’s the gospel. That’s the answer to sin. Repent! Turn away from disobeying God and turn to Jesus Christ as your savior.
All government is from God. We get the government we need. As long as we need to be made more aware of our sinful nature, we’ll get a government that leads us further into sin. Have you shared the gospel today?
Posted in abortion, america, evangelism, gospel, homosexuality, mormons, sin, trust Jesus, witnessing
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Tagged abortion, america, christianity, gospel, government, homosexuality, mormons, politics, sin
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 Three Of Our DVDs We’ve put all of our videos online on YouTube and provide a page on our web site with links to each video. The page is at: http://www.movetoassurance.com/mta-tv/index.php
Visit our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/dregbert2) and check some of the discussions. There has been some very lively comments challenging the fact that the earth is not billions of years old.
In addition to our videos, the video page on our web site provides a number of videos produced by others. These include apologetic videos (the left column) and evangelism training videos (right column). Our videos are in the center column.
We need some help with our videos. Our budget has hit “empty” but we have requests for DVDs that need to be filled. In particular there is a creation museum that would like to give away our videos to visitors to the museum. We’d like to send them an initial batch of 200, but we’ve run out of blank DVDs. We have blank DVDs on our Amazon wish list. If several of you could buy just one pack of 100 DVDs that would meet our needs for the next several months.
Thank you!
 Football Fans Fill A Stadium The god you worship is the god you obey.
The god you worship is what determines what you’ll be like. You’ll have the characteristics of the god you worship.
What god does America worship? That’s very easy to determine. Where do American’s focus their time, energy and money? Read the daily newspaper. How often is there an article about the God of the Bible? Not about a church, but about God. Pretty close to never in my paper. What do you read about in the paper? What are the most popular videos on YouTube? Entertainment, politics, disasters, sports, cars, health and finances. There it is. Those are the things that are the object of America’s worship. Those are America’s gods. It is no wonder it appears God has turned away from America. We as a nation have turned away from Him.
So what you you worship? What do you spend you time, energy and money on?
Worship is not going to church, singing a few songs and listening to a sermon. Worship is what you do with your life. Whatever your life is focused on, that is what you worship. Do you spend more time watching sports than you do in prayer? Do you spend more time watching TV than you do reading the Bible? Throughout your day keep a log of what you are thinking about. How much time do you spend thinking about God and how much time do you spend thinking about how you look, what you are going to wear and what you need to buy? What gets you excited?
Who or what you worship is what defines who you are. Who are you?
We were traveling from Oregon to North Dakota last week and thought we’d check out the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum. It is located right at exit 215 on I-94 in eastern Montana. They are only open on Fridays and Saturdays in the fall, but we had a schedule that would have given us five hours in the museum – except that our van broke down three times. The third time was in Great Falls and required time in a repair shop. So we were stuck six hours away from Glendive late Thursday night. We needed the van fixed and to be on the road again by 10:00 AM in order to get to Glendive and have at least an hour to look around before the museum closed.
At 7:30 we tried a Firestone shop. They were too busy. Next we tried Midas. They brought the van right in, got the needed parts, fixed the problem and we were on the road at 9:45 AM. (Thank you Midas in Great Falls!)
 Otis Kline Shows Us One Of The Marine Fossil Exhibits The Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum was worth the trouble. If you are ever on the interstate in eastern Montana, get off at exit 215 and visit this museum. It is a Bible-based museum with beautiful, excellent quality exhibits. And it tells the truth about where everything came from and what happened (Noah’s flood). The first floor is filled with large and small skeletons showing marine life and giant dinosaurs.
The second floor is just as good. There is a stegosaurus skeleton and numerous other dinosaurs. There is also an extensive exhibit showing proof after proof (artifacts) that men lived with dinosaurs and the Biblical account of creation and the flood is true. We don’t need science to prove the Bible is true, but we can expect to find evidence the conforms with the Biblical description. There is lot’s of evidence and this museum lays out some of the more interesting facts for you to see for yourself.
Plan to spend several hours at a minimum… and don’t miss the videos in the museum theater. Admission is just $9.00 with discounts for children and seniors (over 60).
 MTA Booth At The Newburg Old Fashioned Days Festival Why do we share the gospel?
So that unbelievers will be saved. No. It’s clear that only God can save someone. He doesn’t need us. It is a wonderful gift to us that He allows us to be there when He saves someone. But, God and God alone does the saving.
Because we love people and don’t want them to spend eternity in hell. Yes, that’s a good reason. How can we say we love, if we are not willing to help someone understand they are heading for hell? If you are not sharing the gospel, then you are not loving people. But that’s not the main reason.
Because the Bible says to! That’s a very good reason (understatement). We need to be obedient to God’s word. But this is still not the main reason.
The purpose of evangelism is to glorify God. That is why we exist and that is why we share the gospel.
Consider this. Why do so few people share their faith… and even fewer still share it in a Biblical manner? Evangelism is something we don’t want to do. Why? I think it is because of the spiritual warfare that is going on. Now consider this: when we do go out and do what we don’t want to do, God receives greater glory. It is ALL ABOUT glorifying God.
When we do share the gospel why do so few people (usually) begin trusting in Christ as their savior? Because it is ALL ABOUT glorifying God. If you are faithful to continue to share your faith, no matter what the response, God is glorified.
Evangelism is not about saving people, it is all about glorifying God.
This has been a part-time ministry since is was founded in 2001.
 Sharing The Gospel With Youth At One Of Our Evangelism Booths (Tualatin 2011) The amount of ministry work in the past year has been overwhelming. We have weekly evangelism events. We’ve been working on a series of videos and there are translation projects to put the videos into other languages. I answer a lot of emailed questions. And we are involved in ministry in three countries. So four weeks ago I made the decision to leave my day job and move into full-time ministry with Move To Assurance.
In doing this there is a lot of uncertainty. Will we be able to survive financially? Will the amount of work continue to expand and I’ll still be buried? Will we be able to continue our international ministries?
Prayer made the answer more obvious. It was time to devote more time to ministry. There was no other choice. So far, in the first four weeks, I’m starting to see some change. I’m still way behind on answering emails, but there is progress. The Russian translation of “Diablo Mountain” is nearly done. And I’m starting to work on the evangelism and speaking schedule for the fall. But I’m still buried. Our goals continue to be the same: to share the gospel any place and any time we can, and to lead, train and equip others to do the same. And to lead in discipleship by teaching and training believers in the foundations of our faith, beginning with Genesis.
Our first step is to clear up some of the backlog and finish projects, some of which have been in progress for over a year. The biggest is a series videos about sharing your faith. The first one of these has been half finished for about six months.
So please keep us in your prayers, asking the Lord for wisdom and discernment as we expand and grow the ministry of Move To Assurance. Thank you!
At one of the fairs I went to this past summer I met a Christian who was staffing an evangelism booth. He told me the story of how someone visiting their booth became a Christian by mistake.
It seems the Christian was sharing the gospel with one person. When he finished he asked that person if he’d like to pray to accept Christ. Meanwhile another person had come up to the booth and that second person immediately said yes. So the staff person lead the second person in the salvation prayer.
But then the second person informed him that what he was saying yes to was a question in a gospel tract he was reading. The question asked if he’d like to take a test to see if he was going to heaven. He meant to say, “Yes, I’d like to take the test.” But, oops now he had prayed the prayer and was a saved Christian. What great news! He got saved by mistake!
There’s a problem here.
No where in the Bible does it say to pray a prayer and you become a Christian. Praying, no matter what words you use, will not make you a Christian and it will not save you. The Bible said you must believe in Jesus Christ. Believe and you will be saved.
Believe what? James says that even the demons believe that God exists and He is one (James 2:19). So believing there is a God and having right doctrine about who God is does not save you.
You need to know you are a sinner (disobeying God) and trust (believe) that Jesus paid the penalty you’ve earned for breaking God’s laws. That’s what you must believe. And that is why repentance is often also mentioned – repent (turn away from breaking God’s laws) and believe that Jesus paid your penalty.
And both of these are a gift from God.
That’s it. Saying a prayer does not save you nor make you a Christian. Asking Jesus into your heart does not save you nor make you a Christian. Going to church, getting baptized, doing good things to help other people do not save you nor make you a Christian.
If there was anything you could do to contribute to your salvation, that would be putting yourself above God. If you could be saved by saying a prayer, then God becomes obligated to you when you say that prayer. You are then in charge of God, taking away His sovereignty. That can never happen. There is nothing you can do to obligate God to do anything for you. All you can do is to put your life into God’s hands and trust Him.
Last weekend I met a young lady who said she was Hindu, but the way she was describing Hinduism didn’t sound right. I asked her for more information and it turned out she was a follower of Swami Vivekananda. She said that he was the one who finally got it right. She was so excited about him that she wanted to share more with me. I agreed to read one of his book and she accepted a copy of the Gospel of John.
 I ordered a book from the library that summarizes his teaching and it arrived just in time for me to read it on the way to Massachusetts. Vivekananda was an Indian spiritual teacher who make several trips to America in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. He incorporated a lot of what he learned in America into his spiritual teachings. The book, “Living At The Source” is a collection of his more important sayings.
You only need to read the first page of the first chapter (Who Am I?) to know who inspired this book. Here are some quotes:
“If a man stands up and says, ‘I am a sinner,’ he makes an untrue statement…”
“We believe that every being is divine, is God.”
Where have you heard this before? The words of Satan in Genesis chapter three? It’s a story that appeals to the blind human heart, easily leading this young woman away from God and in the wrong direction. It sounds good to our sinful ears. We’re good people. We can make the world a better place through love and peace. We love hearing that we are good. That we can do it on our own. That we are gods. It’s all about us.
But, it’s not about us. We just need to listen to our conscience to know that we have broken God’s laws and deserve His punishment. Yes, we are very special. We are created in the image of God. We are not gods and never will be, but to a small extent we represent who God is. When we fail at accurately representing the character of God (we break the Ten Commandments for example) we misrepresent God and deserve His justice. Other religions, such as following Vivekananda, try to find ways to avoid justice. Instead, God provided a solution — a substitute. Jesus took the full brunt of God’s anger and wrath against us, paying the price we earned for disobeying God. If we accept His gift we are free from the penalty for sin. Vivekananda did not do this. Only God can and did.
Five posts ago I started a series that discusses the five strategies used to prove evolution is true. This post serves to provide a single location with links to all five posts. They are:
 Charles Darwin 1. Use ad hominem attacks and misrepresent the creation proposition (use straw-man arguments).
2. Point out that God did a poor job of designing life
3. Demonstrate that life changes (QED, proving that creation is wrong).
4. Use circular reasoning
5. Anything is possible. Make the jump to the final proof using words such as probably, could be, possibly, might have… etc.
This is just a blog and space is limited. But these provide a good overview of the five strategies most often used to prove that evolution is true.
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