Hello, everybody.  Pastor Joseph here with some thoughts on salvation.

Will My Sins Hopefully Be Washed Away?

On Saturday night August 16th, 2008, Illinois Senator Barack Obama and Arizona Senator John McCain were given an opportunity to speak at the Saddleback Church with Pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren.  When Pastor Warren asked Obama to tell the voters what being a Christian really meant to the candidate, the candidate talked about his belief in Christ’s promise of redemption. The Senator said, “it means that those sins that I have on a fairly regular basis hopefully will be washed away.”

While I have trouble believing that anyone who thinks it’s alright to kill babies is in good standing with the Lord Jesus, I struck by the Senator’s answer that being a Christian means that his sins are “hopefully” washed away.

I’m so glad that Jesus did not say “”believe in me and you might be saved, or “confess your sins and hopefully they’ll be washed away.”

Are you confident enough in Christ to agree with our Lord’s declaration that if you believe in Him you SHALL be saved and if you confess your sins they WILL be washed away?

So!  What is the way of salvation?  The Bible gives a definite answer.  The one and only means of spending eternity with God in Heaven is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Because we cannot save ourselves by good works, goof character, personal effort, or merit of any kind, God’s son came into the world as a man (Jesus) to experience the same pain we endure.  He lived a perfect life, taught us about Heaven and faith, and died as a substitute for us, paying the penalty for OUR sins.  When Jesus died, he came back to life 3 days after he was buried in a tomb, to finish the work necessary for salvation. 

Now, all God requires of you is to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31) So when you trust in Jesus, you are saved and destined to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.  Jesus said, “He that hears my word, and believes on Him who send me (God), has everlasting life, and will not experience condemnation (Hell), but is passed form death into life (Heaven)” (John 5:24).

Will you accept God’s way of salvation?  The choice is yours. 

How do I become “Saved”?  How do I trust Jesus as my Savior? 

If you believe that God, who exists in 3 parts (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), sent His son into the world as a man named Jesus, that Jesus lived a sinless life and died to serve the sentence of death imposed on you (a sinner), that he overcame death and the grave (because he was God), and ascended into Heaven to prepare a place for those who trust Him, then you are ready to be saved and become a Christian.  All you have to do is pray a simple prayer to God, silently or out loud.  Tell Him you trust Him and tell Him what you believe about His son, Jesus.  It may sound something like this: “God, I know that I am a sinner.  I realize I am unclean and cannot make it on my own.  Thank you for dying for me to pay the penalty for my sin.  Right at this moment, I want to be saved through your grace by trusting you as my Savior and Lord.”

Let me know if you’ve prayed this prayer and are now my brother or sister in the family of God!

Joseph

Joseph Collins

DO WE NEED DADS?

Hello, everybody. 
 Last month we heard the distressing news of a number of girls in Gloucester, Mass. who were involved in an apparent “pregnancy pact” with each other.  Distressing because they were under age, unmarried and no reported expectations of marriage.  The fathers of the children were unnamed, but many were adult and one was a homeless man. 
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(Here’s one of the June articles from The Boston Herald)
Gloucester High teens involved in pregnancy pact
By Jessica Fargen  |   Thursday, June 19, 2008  |  http://www.bostonherald.com 
A group of teen-aged girls at Gloucester High who were part of a baby boom at the North Shore school entered into a pregnancy pact last year pledging to raise their babies together, Time magazine reported in a bombshell story published online today.

In total, 17 girls at Gloucester High are expecting babies and Principal Joseph Sullivan believes at least half those would-be moms planned to have babies, some even high-fiving each other when they found out they were expecting, according to the article.
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When The Almighty God began the pregnancy of women, He did it in the context of a family consisting of a male “Father” and “Husband” and a female “Mother” and “Wife”.   (see Genesis 1:26-28, 2:18, 24-25)
This new concept was totally God’s idea in the Old Testament and was ratified in the New Testament by the Lord Jesus Christ.  (see Matthew 19:3-9)

At one time this was totally accepted by all of mankind and was the normative experience through out the ages and through out the world.
We have now come to the place where the wisdom of the world is becoming so foolish (see Romans 1:22) as to think the male can be replaced with another female, or the female replaced with another male and everything will be fine.  The mix and match concept has evolved to the point that one of the two partners of the original God ordained family can be done away with altogether as in the Gloucester case.   The concept of marriage itself is up for grabs and we’re seeing whole generations who move in together, have babies without ever entering into the God given concept of the marriage covenant.

Thank God there is a growing revolt against this foolishness.  People are seeing the pragmatic need of a Father and a Mother in a loving, lasting relationship because then there is a better chance for well adjusted children who will grow up and be able to follow the Godly pattern with their families.

Here’s an excerpt from Kathleen Parker’s new book SAVE THE MALES.
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Where’s Dad? Not the “fathers” of these unfortunate pre-borns, but the fathers of these pregnant girls. Where, in other words, is the shotgun?

Back in the day when birth control and abortion weren’t readily available to high-school kids, fathers were pretty good deterrents to pregnancy. Boys knew they’d have kneecap problems if they got daddy’s little girl pregnant. If they were lucky, they’d be married by the morning after.

Girls, meanwhile, were less likely to risk pregnancy because alternatives to motherhood were few, adoption being the most likely.

It wasn’t a foolproof system, clearly, but the specter of lifelong consequences, combined with societal and parental disapproval, helped keep the illegitimate birthrate down.

Today, using the term “illegitimate” is more likely to spark disapproval than the activities contributing to the plague of unwed pregnancies. For sure there are far fewer fathers around to give young males The Eye. It is a fair guess, though not possible to confirm at this point, that at least some of Gloucester’s pregnant daughters are from fatherless homes.

That guess is founded on sound social science indicating a strong correlation between father absence and a high risk for early sex and unwed pregnancy. Not only do fathers provide the masculine affection so many girls seek elsewhere, but they teach their daughters how to handle male sexual aggression, as well as to understand their own role in stimulating that aggression.

Thus far, there’s been little mention of the family dynamic that often foretells the tragedy of children having children. Instead, most of the debate has centered on whether these girls and boys had enough access to sex education and contraceptives.

Other conversations have circled around the influence of movies, such as Juno, that glamorize teen pregnancy. In the movie, 16-year-old Juno is adorably pregnant and far wiser than the film’s adults.

Whatever happened in Gloucester, we know this much. Today’s girls and boys daily marinate in a culture that offers little instruction in responsibility and self-control — or the importance of marriage as antecedent to procreation — but celebrates single motherhood and encourages sex without strings.

The surprise isn’t that 17 girls are pregnant at one high school. The surprise is that there aren’t more.
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It’s time for men to become Godly Father’s and Husbands (see Ephesians 5:25-6:4) instead of sperm donors.
It’s time for women to become Godly Mother’s and Wives (see Ephesians 5:22-24.
Well, that’s enough for now.  We’ll talk again.  God’s blessings on you and yours.

As I was scanning today’s news, I noticed an article in the U.K. Telegraph, (article pasted below), in which the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams had written a 17-page letter called “A Common Word for the Common Good” to Islamic leaders. 

The title of the article is what caught my attention: “Christian doctrine offensive to Muslims, says Archbishop of Canterbury”.  The only “offensive” doctrine listed in the article is the Christian fundamental of the Trinity concept of the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit.

Excuse me, but should we be surprised if Moslems, Buddhists or any other religious group doesn’t “get it” in regards to the concepts of the Christian faith?  The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”.

What is needed here is an understanding that the first thing which must occur for the lost to understand the things of God is for them to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and allow the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit to teach them about spiritual truth.

I know that this is terribly politically incorrect, but we must pray for all Moslems, Buddhists and all other folks to receive salvation.  Only then will they “get it” about the doctrines of Christ.

Please join me in praying for the true blessings to be upon Abraham’s descendants, (both Ishmael and Isaac).  The truest and best blessing anyone could ever receive is to be right with God by accepting Jesus and Lord!

See you at the altar!

Here’s the article:

Christian doctrine

offensive to Muslims, says

Archbishop of Canterbury

By Ben Farmer

Last updated: 8:48 AM BST 16/07/2008

Key elements of Christian doctrine are offensive to Muslims, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said in a letter to Islamic scholars.

Dr Rowan Williams also spoke critically of the violent past of both religions and Christianity’s abandonment of its peaceful origins.

His comments came in a published letter to Islamic leaders, intended to promote closer dialogue and understanding between the two faiths.

However they come just months after Dr Williams was forced to clarify comments in which he said some parts of Islamic law will “unavoidably” be adopted in Britain.

The comments are also made as the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference begins in Canterbury. Up to a quarter of bishops are boycotting the event, as the Anglican Church faces continuing division over the issues of women bishops and homosexual clergy.

The wide-ranging letter, which covers difficult issues including religious freedom and religiously-inspired violence is in response to a document written last year by Muslim scholars from 43 countries.

Discussing differences between the religions, Dr Williams acknowledges that Christian belief in the Trinity is “difficult, sometimes offensive, to Muslims”.

The Trinity is the Christian doctrine stating God exists as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and conflicts with Islamic teaching that there is one all-powerful God.

Speaking about the history of the two religions, Dr Williams said they had been too often confused with Empire and control.

He said: “Despite Jesus’ words in John’s gospel, Christianity has been promoted at the point of the sword and legally supported by extreme sanctions; despite the Qur’anic axiom, Islam has been supported in the same way, with extreme penalties for abandoning it, and civil disabilities for those outside the faith.

“There is no religious tradition whose history is exempt from such temptation and such failure.”

He goes on: “What we need as a vision for our dialogue is to break the current cycles of violence, to show the world that faith and faith alone can truly ground a commitment to peace which definitively abandons the tempting but lethal cycle of retaliation in which we simply imitate each other’s violence.”

The 17-page letter, called A Common Word for the Common Good, is in response to a letter from Muslim leaders written last September.

That letter, A Common Word Between Us and You, was signed by 138 Muslim scholars to declare the common ground between the two religions.

Dr Williams described the Muslim document as hospitable and friendly and added: “Your letter could hardly be more timely, given the growing awareness that peace throughout the world is deeply entwined with the ability of all people of faith everywhere to live in peace, justice, mutual respect and love.”

His own dense and meticulous letter did not mention sharia Islamic law at all. He received widespread criticism from politicians and other clergy for his comments in February and later told the General Synod he took responsibility for his “unclarity” and “misleading” choice of words.

Story from Telegraph News:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2303162/Christian-doctrine-offensive-to-Muslims%2C-says-Archbishop-of-Canterbury.html

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