•• Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another.
~ Malachi 3:16 ••
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I reach out to those who believe Biblical wisdom should once again greatly influence our society.
Perspective by Terry Haines
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• Ever heard, "The Church should stay out of politics"? James Eward, Jr. Responds!
• The divorce rate of couples who pray together is 1 in 1,152. That is less than one percent.
• What would happen if we treated people as Jesus in disguise? Jordan Peterson interviews a man who witnessed a man's life be transformed in one week doing this.
• REVIVAL: One million Iranian Muslims have left the faith and turned to Christ. 50,000 Mosques have closed.
• Just sit back and enjoy David Phelps singing
• I feel like saying "While we were sleeping, God did a miracle." Some, but very few saw this coming. The Supreme Court has ended The Lemon Test, called by Alliance Defending Freedom, an "extreme separationist version of the Establishment Clause"
The Lemon Test had three prongs to it to determine if an item or event was the establishment of religion:
lacks a secular purpose;
has the primary effect of promoting or disparaging religion;
excessively entangles the government in religion
As you can imagine, "lacks a secular purpose" prohibits any religion from making any statement on any public property. Now that was extreme! The third prong, "excessively entangles the government in religion" has come to mean that the government has somehow, deliberately or inadvertently, come in contact with a religion. Depending on your definition of religion and your definition of entanglement, it could mean that the government should never come in contact with morals of any type. Again - The Lemon Test was extreme.
The rejection of The Lemon Test means that government buildings and schools can now legally display the Ten Commandments and crèches. Our money can legally say, "In God We Trust." Christians will no longer be legally discriminated against for their historically established beliefs.
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• "Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz sided with radical LGBTQ activists and public school administrators in their bid to make pornographic books available to minors during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention (DNC)"
~ Ben Johnson with The Washington Stand
• When Betsie Ten Boom was carried away to the hospital ward where she died, she whispered to Corrie these famous words, "We must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still."
• Pastor Bill Vande Giessen has written and sung a beautiful song about depression connected to Psalm 42-43. The name of the song is "Why Are You Cast Down Weary Soul?" (4:01).
If you find yourself depressed, let me suggest -
Listen to this song. Then read Psalms 42-43. Repeat this until you are refreshed.
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• I love being in a faith family that is remarkably diverse. If you have time, listen to Alice Cooper's journey away from Christ and back again (30:56).
00:00 Intro
00:34 Alice Cooper's Rise to Fame
02:52 A Wake Up Call
07:42 Searching for Purpose
11:50 Healed from Addiction
12:44 A New Life in Christ
16:36 Chasing the World
21:46 The Power of Testimony
30:00 The Meaning of Redemption
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• In Matthew 13:10-17, Jesus explained why he spoke to people in parables. He wanted to hide himself from the curious and find truth-seekers.
I have over 2,000 Facebook friends. About 500+ who follow me on a regular basis. By doing these blogs instead of my normal posts, far fewer follow my thoughts. But I seek out deeper friendships.
Fellowship is two or more fellows in a ship. I believe the future of Christianity belongs to what one evangelist called the "Rudolphs" of the faith. Think of the story of Santa Clause. Rudolph was the oddball that the other reindeer wouldn't play with. Then Rudolph found his place and EVERYONE was better off.
We can learn from mythology and from real life.
In Genesis 26:22 we see Isaac who finally found his place. The Philistines hounded Isaac and filled in his wells or claimed them as his own. That happened until Isaac dug an undisputed well which he would name Rehoboth. The name to me means roughly "wide open spaces." God had, through difficult circumstances, finally made a place for Isaac. I want my well named Rehoboth, don't you? I want my place. I know you do, too. Together we will overcome. Like Rudolph and his fellows.
King David spent years hiding from his father-in-law King Saul until finally there was a place for David as King. While doing so, David found his "mighty men". Sounds like a Rudolph story.
Neither John the Baptist nor Jesus received positive peer reviews by the established religious authorities. Truth is truth whether we like it or whether we understand it.
Those who took the trouble to cut through Jesus' parables found the real Jesus. Those who read my blogs will find me and find what touches my heart. We will find each other. We will build each other. That's because we're both looking for each other. We need each other.
Those who want to go FAST go alone.
Those who want to go FAR go with others.
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Truly beautiful content, Terry. Thanks so much for what you do. I loved the references to David. It is a story I have studied extensively and it fits with so much that is going on right now in our own country. How anyone can be sad or depressed is beyond me. When one realizes it's God in Christ in us when we are born again by Jesus into the Church and receive the indwelling Holy Spirit and then take the commands to know God by learning the Word and meditating on it day and night---how can people say they are depressed. I know only joy. Even in the darkest of circumstances and reading the very sad things about …