The True Gospel

July 17, 2011 Leave a comment

I am a conservative Christian. What this means is that I believe that the Bible is God’s Word, that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate and that our salvation is only through Jesus Christ, His death on a cross and His resurrection. There is no other means of salvation.

How do I know? The Bible is a collection of writings penned by ordinary men whom God has spoken through. These writing are God-breathed.  They reveal the truth about God. 

The Bible contains True myth (the Creation) along with historical eyewitness accounts, wisdom literature, prophecy and letters written by the early apostles.

Jesus, the central figure of the Bible, is a historical figure in space and time. This cannot be denied. And, after fifty eight-years of following Christ I know that Jesus Christ is alive and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I have no doubt whatsoever.

I use the word conservative because there are those who superimpose teaching which projects their own thoughts and feelings onto Scripture thus making their version of the gospel a synthesis of good and evil.  Also, consider that some churches will teach that homosexuality is acceptable because of some romantic and cheapened version of grace.

There are also those who teach that the Bible teaches you how to become wealthy and prosperous. And there are those, social gospel proponents like Jim Wallis and his Sojourners group, who believe that the Bible tells us to rid the world of hunger and poverty, that the wealthy need to do their “fair” share. These same people will tell you that their ‘righteous’ ends justify the means.

There are many who teach a Gospel that is not from God. Their gospel is based on a very human desire to augment the truth with feelings of social compassion, wish-fulfillment and downright denial of its truth to further their political and social agendas. Many people will folow these teachings because the message is one they want to hear:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!”

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church in Galatia.

What is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
1. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament of the coming Redeemer.
2. Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
3. Jesus Christ lived a perfect sinless life for us. He became sin for us.
4. Jesus Christ died for my sins, once and for all.
5. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He conquered death that I might have eternal life.
6. Jesus Christ ascended to heaven.  There,  He intercedes for me before the Father. If I sin I have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.
7. Jesus Christ is coming back to take His people home to heaven.

What can you do?
Confess that you are a sinner in need of Christ’s salvation.
Pray:
“Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy upon me a sinner.”
“Lord Jesus Christ save me.”
Tell God that you willingly repent of your sins.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and Be saved. Tell the Lord that you believe on Him.
Attend a Bible teaching church where the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is offered each week. You will need both, not just preaching, or you will fall away.
Be baptized as testimony of your conversion to Christ.

If you do not hear these words at the church you are attending, if instead you hear about how to clean the environment, how to work to get the government to redistribute wealth, how to make money following Christ or how to become an advocate for the earth, the air, the water, the animals, sexual orientation and a host of other causes, then you are not hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you do not hear teachings about sin, the coming judgment, about heaven and hell than you are not hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Social gospel” is someone’s version of a “kinder, gentler” version of the gospel.  Presenters of this gospel teach that the rich should be shaken down and despoiled for the sake of the poor. They will teach that government should do this through taxes and wealth redistribution. They elevate government to a place of god-like status. Further, this type of gospel avoids the tragic view of man and his need for redemption.  It presents only what it deems the more ‘positive, social’ aspects of the gospel.  Its saccharin message is much like Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley telling us to think “Happy Thoughts.” Stay away from the placebo-like effects of “social gospel” preaching. If the Lord tells you to give to the poor, then give to the poor out of your own pocket.

There are false ‘gospels’ everywhere which will appeal to your ego, to your grandiosity.  The preaching of this ‘gospel’ will compel you to go out and change the world, to save our planet, to seek social fairness and social justice, to accept homosexuality and sexual perversity as just human foibles and to not call homosexuality what the Bible calls it – sin.  Beware. The “weeds” are presenting their gospel to you. Who are the weeds?  Listen to what Jesus said in the Gospel according to Matthew:

” Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.    “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.  “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’  “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.  Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

“Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”  He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.  The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.  “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.  The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.  They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple and straightforward.  If after hearing the Gospel you filled with a desire to change the world then you have not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  You have heard your own ego boasting with pride of its own greatness.  The Good Seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ starts growing in the person who knows he is a sinner and desperately needs Christ’s salvation.  Christ does not need your salvation of the planet or of the poor. Beware of false gospels.  There is “No other Gospel” than what is stated above.

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One Very Good Reason Why I Like Texas Gov. Rick Perry

June 12, 2011 Leave a comment

BTW: The separation of church and state effectively means that the state cannot control the church. Separation of church and state does not mean that we the people cannot voice our faith in Almighty God while serving our government. The wrong definition came directly from Bill Ayers, a known radical terrorist.

***You have to listen to these guys:  Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft. They are a riot. Tell them Sally Paradise sent you.
http://wlsam.com/sectional.asp?id=37837

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AIN’T NO GRAVE (Can Hold My Body Down)

June 10, 2011 Leave a comment

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D is for Divorce

June 7, 2011 Leave a comment

Divorce

Devastates,

Divides,

Devours,

De-vows,

Devalues,

Denigrates,

Decouples,

Destabilizes,

Denatures,

De-energizes,

Deviates,

Distasteful,

Disables,

Disappoints,

Disenchants,

Disheartens,

Deadens,

Disputes,

Dashes,

Diverges,

Disintegrates,

Disrupts,

Disperses,

Disbands,

Displaces,

Dissolves,

Distresses,

Distorts,

Disdains,

Diseases,

Destroys,

Demolishes,

Denys,

Deflates,

Defines,

Demands,

Deprecates,

Damages,

Divests,

Defeats

And

Disillusions.

Done.

© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved

Filed under Christian character, Christianity, Depression, family, Life As I See It, Poems, Poetry Tagged with , , , ,

Straight Arrow

May 30, 2011 Leave a comment

A few years ago I was interviewed and hired by the company I now work for.  I am not allowed to talk in detail about the company.  Suffice it to say, though, that I work with Professional Engineers (PEs) in a major industry.  Bill is the man who read my resume and sought me out for a position in the company.  It was on an ice-cold Friday one day in January 2007 that I was interviewed by him. During the first minutes of the interview I learned that Bill had served in the military – 101st Airborne,U.S. Paratrooper Division – – The Screaming Eagles, in Viet Nam, 1968.

I wasn’t sure why he told me his background during my interview.  He certainly had a right to be proud about his service.  Perhaps he wanted me to know who I was dealing with – a no-nonsense, disciplined kind of guy whose word was his bond. He was completely kind, overly polite and very desirous that I was being dealt with properly by the people interviewing me.  That day I was interviewed by five other people besides Bill.  Later, in the afternoon, Bill began gently pushing me to decide in favor of working there.  This was a surprise to me in that I didn’t think I would walk in and get a job that quickly, especially at a company that was so professional and technical. My previous jobs were with small companies.  These companies often moved slowly when choosing someone to hire, being very careful of every nickel and dime spent.

I liked Bill’s demeanor, his history of service in the military and his quiet gentle way that hid his strength. I also liked the fact that Bill had worked at this company for thirty-some years.  That meant something to me. I had cycled through many different jobs in the manufacturing industry due to the industry’s dependence on the up and down economy. I shook hands with Bill at 3:00 pm that day. I had agreed to work for him at this company.  I intuitively knew that he could be trusted to do right by me.  He was not like those in the past who had used me to just balance their books.

Over the course of the last few years Bill has directed our design group meetings.  He has reviewed me annually and has given me raises. He has been involved in most of the design review meetings that I have been involved in. Bill held everyone strictly accountable to the standards that our company had developed over the years.  In our industry, high standards and accountability are paramount to staying in the select stream of business offered by our clients. Bill made sure that each of us adhered to those standards on each and every project.  He made sure that our “deliverables” matched the high quality standards set by the company.

During the first year of my work with Bill, Bill held a “Boot Camp”.  He had developed a set of classes to give us an overview of the subject matter behind our daily tasks.  The camp was informative and again, matching Bill’s character gently pushed each one to a better understanding of our company’s work at hand and to be better people. 

Recently a retirement party was held by our company for Bill.  Bill decided it was time to go home and stay home.  His wife has been dealing with two cancers.  Bill needed to be with her on this battlefront.

Here are some of the reflections written out in Bill’s “Farewell Notice” to his team members:

“Th(e) boot camp was intended to teach you technical skills, to be a team player, focus your attention to details, to understand how to use verified design inputs and to be accountable for your actions – but it was also to show you how to be Respectful with each other.

As the time for me grows near for me to pick up my gear and head out, one phrase that I picked up from the years past is one that I may have used in conversation with you.

The phrase is that I am being a straight arrow with you.

The meaning of this phrase has had a deep and everlasting impact on me and for the person I hoped to be.

The meaning is of Trust, Loyalty and respect for each other.”

Bill went on to talk about his military experience in Viet Nam with the 101st Airborne,U.S. Paratrooper Division known as the Screaming Eagles. This happened in 1968.

Bill served in Viet Nam for thirteen months “where I lived in mountain caves in the Central Highlands with my unit.”  He shared the cave “with one of our allies who were Viet Nam native mountain soldiers who carried cross bows and wore their native clothes.”

It was in a cave on evening where Bill first heard the phrase “Straight Arrow”, from the lead scout of these mountain fighters. A relationship of trust developed – he had Bill’s back and Bill had his.  In broken English, French accents and many hand gestures, the scout explained what he meant by “Straight Arrow” – “a straight arrow is good (trusted) and a bent arrow is not…if you try to bend a straight arrow, even a little, it can never fly straight again and eventually this arrow, if bent too many times, will become a broken arrow that will not fly at all.”

Bill:  “This message came to me from this Loyal friend one evening in a cave so many years ago…I took this message to mean that we needed to be straight with each other to co-exist.”

“I believe, by straight, that he meant we should be there for each other – something I have carried with me as a way of life.”

“My hope is that I have always been a straight arrow with you and that you will always be a straight arrow with each other.”

Much more could be written coming out of Bill’s Farewell Notice to the company and out of his example set before me during my time with him.  He now wants to do the right thing by his wife. He wanted to be there for her during this enormously difficult time.  As he said, “I chose to do the right thing.”

My time of knowing Bill, from my interview to his farewell party just a few weeks ago afforded me the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to “serve” with a man who is honorable, honest, decent and trustworthy – a gentle giant of a man.  My quiver is now becoming full with “Straight Arrow” choices of my own.

© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved

Filed under Christian character, Memorial Day, Military, non-fiction Tagged with , , , , , ,

Earthquake Day

April 24, 2011 Leave a comment

Earthquake Day

Tremor was always, before ex Nihilo showed up out of nowhere.

Tremor was there when man finally noticed Big Bang and all of
the little Bangs including mathematics, quantum mechanics, knot theory, string theory, radio pulsars, genetics, music, phi, art and poetry.

Tremor was in the apple bite’s rude awakening.

Tremor showed red when murderous Cain fled.

Tremor, as Plumber, called Noah and told him to ship out. Later, when things were settled, Tremor threw a palette of watercolors at the sky indicating a watershed moment.

Tremor used a slingshot against incredible bull’s-eyes.

Tremor gave the startled stars something to blink about.

Tremor was magnified in the womb of Mary, there was room for Him there.

Tremor sat in the temple teaching Rabbis everything a Father has said before.

Tremor whipped up a tempest, the Sea of Galilee provided support.

Tremor caused a stir at the local water fountain by saying, “I am He who is to come.”

Tremor gave the blind a new outlook and the lame a leg to stand on.

Tremor received a farewell gift of pure nard and a woman’s tears.

Tremor stood at the death’s door and said “Lazarus, come out.”

Tremor did an exposé on white-washed tombs.

Tremor broke the loaves, divided the fishes, according to old math.

Tremor broke the bread, drank the cup of sorrows and poured itself out.

Tremor was nailed down, pierced, forsaken and crushed. Violent insurrectionists like me were set free.

Tremor tore a curtain from top to bottom under orders from the Weaver.

Tremor woke up those staying in catacombs.

Tremor angels shook the rug under a rocky patch of earth, happy to find nothing there.
Seismic joy and fear were recorded that day.

Tremor decided to walk through walls and then tell everyone not to be afraid.

Tremor walked out to sea and back again for a fresh fish lunch with his friends.

Tremor had to move on but did send Another Tremor for everyone who loved Tremor.

Tremor will one day separate the wheat from the chaff and the sheep from the goats. Tremor will make the lion and the lamb see eye to eye. Hold on, Tremor is beginning again.

© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved

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Self-Help Tools – Free of Charge!!

April 23, 2011 Leave a comment

Christian, you don’t need to buy another Beth Moore book!  Save your money! 

Don’t waste any more time on seminars and expensive do-dads hoping to find the existential answer for your life.  It is right here!

Below are all the tools, insights and reference guides you will ever need! Soon you will have your own Personal Testimony written by you into the script of your own life!  Act now! Though these tools will always be available, if you act now the sooner joy becomes a part of you and not experienced vicariously through others!  Act today! Not in the stores!

Here are the tools – Free of Charge!

Memorize Scripture

Pray to God the Father in the Name of  Jesus

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Gethsemane

April 22, 2011 Leave a comment

 

What does faith tell us? Before all else who this man is there on his knees – the Son of God in the simplest sense of the word. For that reason he sees existence in its ultimate reality.

 Wherever we encounter Jesus, it is as the Knowing One, as he who knows about man and world. All others are blind; only his eyes are all-seeing, and they see through to the very ground of human depravity.  The forlornness Jesus beholds there embraces the whole of human existence.  And he does not see it as one who has broken though to spiritual health and clarity with the help of grace.  Jesus’ knowledge of sin is not like that of fallen mankind;  he knows about it as God knows – hence the awful transparency of that knowledge.

Hence the immeasurable loneliness.  He is really the Seer among the blind, sole sensitive one among beings who lost their touch, the only free and self-possessed one in the midst of general confusion.

 Jesus’ consciousness of the world’s corruption is not grounded in the world and therefore the prisoner of existence.  It springs from above, from God, and enfolds the whole globe, seeing as God sees:  around existence, through existence, outwards from existence.  Moreover, Jesus’ divine consciousness, before which everything is stripped and lucid, is not extrinsic, but intrinsic, realized in his living self.  He knows with his human intellect, feels the world’s forlornness with his human heart.  And, the sorrow of it, incapable of ripping the eternal God from his bliss, becomes in Christ’s human soul unutterable agony.  From this knowledge comes a terrible and unrelenting earnestness, knowledge that underlies every word he speaks and everything he does.  It pulses through his whole being and proclaims itself in the least detail of his fate.  Here lies the root of Christ’s inapproachable loneliness. What human understanding and sympathy could possibly reach into this realm in which the Savior shoulders alone the yoke of the world?  From this point of view Jesus was always a sufferer, and would have been one even if men had accepted his message of faith and love; even if salvation had been accomplished and the kingdom established alone by proclamation and acceptance, sparing him the bitter way of the cross.  Even then, his whole life would have been inconceivably painful, for he would have been constantly aware of the world sin in the sight of a God he knew to be holy and all love; and he would have borne this terrible and inaccessible knowledge alone.  In the hour of Gethsemane its ever-present pain swells to a paroxysm.

 ****

Selection from the chapter Gethsemane, in the book The Lord by Romano Guardini

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer & Religion-less Christianity

April 21, 2011 Leave a comment

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Ping Revelation

March 29, 2011 1 Comment

Over the years my position on what I consider some major life issues has changed. This is one of those issues:

Born into an Evangelical/Baptist home I soon came to understand that communion, as it is called in the Bible Church, is to be celebrated about once a month. I was told that the church didn’t want to wear out its meaning by having the Lord’s Supper every week.  Later, I would understand this to mean that the Free Churches wanted to be different from Catholic churches.

As a student at the Moody Bible Institute, my Personal Evangelism teacher, Mr. Winslett, taught us that Catholicism is a cult much like Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Seventh Day Adventism and even demonism. I remember the teacher telling us that Mary, iconic Mary, was an idol. So, like many of my Free Church brethren, I became rather smug when it came to Catholics. They were beneath our Free Church ways. Besides, the Catholic Church had too much going on and the Free Church, striped of any vestige of symbol and ceremony was “Free” (and sterile) of all the trappings of Roman rigamarole. There is, of course, more history to the reformation than what I am describing here. One can read Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses for more information. But, indulge me, please, (and not as Johann Tetzel would) for the moment.

At the Bible Church I had attended you could come and get your spiritual fodder for the week. A sermon or two and a banquet here and there would deem to hold you over. Forget liturgy, we were free to stand up for a hymn, sit down for the announcements, listen to the organ during offering, stand up again for another pre-sermon hymn, sit down for the sermon and then walk the aisle – to the pulpit or out the door. Voilà, church. And, for me, church for fifty years. Throw in the opposing Continental and Analytic worldviews in modern thinking and I became sans joie d’vivre. My Sola fide needed not only to hear the Word of God, it needed to intuit God’s presence with me. And, this wasn’t happening for me at this church despite all of the contemporary emotive songs invoking God’s presence.

After this half-century of spiritual famine I came to realize that this poor diet – the Diet of Words – wasn’t sufficient for my life. And, the abundantly stocked shelves of Abundant Life Christian self-help books were of no help to me. I needed substance. Substance. Substance and Symbol.

At age fifty I began attending an Anglican church. Now, I regularly eat the Real Food and Drink of Life – the Eucharist. And, hearing the spoken Word of God, praying from The Book of Common Prayer, reciting the Nicene Creed, seeing the symbol of the cross and participating in the liturgy which points to the Great Feast of Thanksgiving (and not the sermon), my spirit has revived. I meet the Lord at this Well of Sychar where deep springs of Living Water come to the surface.

Phyllis Melanchthon (aka, Sally  Paradise)

http://anglicansonline.org/basics/thirty-nine_articles.html

“When Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being “in Christ” or of Christ being “in them” this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them: that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts –that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by the bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion…There is no good in trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.” C. S. Lewis

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