eChurch Blog

This is a timely reminder and an excellent post from our Lutheran brother over at the CyberBrethren blog. I personally worry at the tendency of some to have faith in their faith, or faith in their belief, which can be a subtle deception:-

CyberBrethren:-

I have, over the years, conversed with many Calvinists, in person and over the Internet. I always ask them, “Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are among God’s elect and are saved?” There are generally two reactions to that question: (1) A long and rather painful pause after which they say, “I hope I am. I do believe in Christ.” or (2) A quick, “Yes, I believe in Christ.” Now, let’s be honest here and admit that many Lutherans would answer in somewhat the same way. But here is the problem.

If our feelings of certainty in our salvation is based on our feeling that we have faith, we will flounder. The answer we must always give to the question of “Do you know you are saved?” is not, “Yes, because I have faith” but rather, “Yes, because Christ Jesus died for me” and of course, in my opinion, the very best answer of all is simply to point people to Luther’s explanation of the Creed and say, “Here, this puts it very well.”

Point yourself, and others, not to faith, not to subjective feelings that there is faith in your heart, but always, always, always, point people to Christ and what He has done for you and the whole world. Do not confused faith in faith, with trust in Christ. There is a key difference.

We are Christians, not Faith-ians.

For those who are not sure which Creed and explanation from Luther is referred to here, Jim Claybourn, helps us out:-

A bold move indeed. To view previous posts on Yad L’Achim, click here.

Cross-post by Gev over at the Rosh Pina Project:-

Calev Myers, a Messianic Jewish lawyer in Jerusalem has petitioned the Attorney General of the State of Israel according to section 50 of the Associations Law, 5740-1980, to dismantle the Yad L’Achim organization, led by Rabbi Dov Shalom Lifshitz, because of their promotion and instigation of persecution and denial of civil rights and democratic privileges to Israeli citizens whose faith they disagree with. i.e.  Messianic Jews and Christians in the State of Israel. Yad L’Achim’s anti-mission leader Alex Artovsky is due in court March 9th to face charges that he was involved in instigating a religious hate crime by inciting  a riot involving hundreds of Orthodox Jews raiding a Messianic Jewish Congregation’s worship service back in 2005.  The petition also cites Yad L’Achim’s appalling track record against Israeli Arabs, Reform Judaism, Jehovah Witnesses, New Age groups, the Kabbalah Centre and non-Orthodox forms of Judaism, including kidnap, breaking-up families, breaching the privacy act, hate-spreach etc…

The Petition states:

“And we stress that the longer the destructive incitement by Yad L’Achim continues without interference, the greater the chances for a repeat of the violence against innocent citizens, whose lifestyle is not to the liking of the Organization’s activists.”

JewishIsrael have characterised Calev Myers’ fight for the civil rights of Messianic Jews in Israel as a crusade against Orthodox Judaism. How empty would such a statement seem if the KKK had said the Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in 60’s America were just a crusade against the White Man!

The position of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice has also found support from the Haaretz editorial team, who wrote here:

“Yad L’Achim is a blatant violation of Israel’s Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty.

The organization’s shady links with the establishment are not new – for years, its activists have provided information to rabbinical courts seeking to stick their hands into sensitive cases at the Social Affairs Ministry. More than once the group has enjoyed the assistance of ultra-Orthodox politicians such as Menachem Porush, who as deputy social affairs minister in 1991 wrote to a court pleading for mercy toward the group’s activists who had kidnapped an orphan from relatives who were “not religious enough.” But the Interior Ministry employees’ collaboration with the group outdoes even that abhorrent precedent.

The government must call its employees to order immediately, to explain to Interior Minister Eli Yishai that he is not responsible for maintaining the purity of the Jewish race according to the formula of ultra-Orthodox zealots, and that any collaboration with Yad L’Achim is, in effect, a grave instance of persecution.”

The US State Department’s report on International Religious Freedom published , October 2009 named Yad L’Achim as an organisation that concerned them, Yad L’Achim was first named in the annual report in 2001.

Here is Yad L’Achim’s response to a past State Department report. They describe missionaries doing exactly what the anti-missionaries are doing!

Below is a lovely lenten meditation by William Arthur Ward (American author, teacher and Methodist pastor, 1921-1994).

Fast from judging others; Feast on the Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; Feast on the unity of life.
Fast from apparent darkness; Feast on the reality of light.
Fast from thoughts of illness; Feast on the healing power of God.
Fast from words that pollute; Feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; Feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; Feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; Feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; Feast on divine order.
Fast from complaining; Feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; Feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; Feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; Feast on non-resistance.
Fast from bitterness; Feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; Feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; Feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragements; Feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; Feast on verities that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; Feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; Feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from shadows of sorrow; Feast on the sunlight of serenity.
Fast from idle gossip; Feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; Feast on prayer that strengthens.

Hat-tip Solomonia

Commentary Magazine

The greatest threat to the hopes of those who think parts of Jerusalem should be off-limits to Jews comes not when Jewish-owned buildings go up in the city, but rather when Jews start digging into the ground of East Jerusalem. Because the more the history of the city is uncovered, the less credible becomes the charge that Jews are alien colonists in what the media sometimes wrongly refer to as “traditionally Palestinian” or “Arab” Jerusalem.

That’s the upshot from the release of an amazing archeological dig conducted just outside Jerusalem’s Old City. The excavations conducted by archeologist Eilat Mazar in the Ophel area revealed a section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem. According to the press release from the Hebrew University, under whose auspices the project was carried out, the dig uncovered the wall as well as an inner gatehouse for entry into the royal quarter of the ancient city and an additional royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse as well as a corner tower. While ancient buildings are not uncommon in the city, the significance of this discovery is the fact that these edifices can be dated to the 10th century before the Common Era — the time of King Solomon, credited by the Bible for the construction of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Pottery found at the lowest levels of the dig is dated to this era.

Even more telling is the fact that bullae — seal impressions — with Hebrew names were found, as well as seal impressions on jar handles inscribed with the words “to the king,” which means they were employed by the Israelite state in that time. Inscriptions on the jars, which Mazar says are the largest ever found in Jerusalem, showed them to be the property of a royal official.

[.....]

The significance of this extraordinary find is that it provides new proof of the existence and power of the Davidic monarchy, the Israelite state that it led, and the more than 3,000-year-old Jewish presence in Jerusalem. These new discoveries, along with those of a previous dig in a different area of the city of David, contradict contrary Palestinian claims that the Jews have no claim to the area.

Read all

This has also been reported in Yahoo News (Hat-tip Polycarp), the Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post.

I loathe abortion, but this from US State Delegate Bob Marshall is just wicked:-

Cross-post Polycarp:-

The GOP does not speak for God or THIS Christian

The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest. – State Delegate Bob Marshall (here)

No, Delegate Marshall, God’s doesn’t work that way. Read John 9 and Romans 2.

Let me restate his theological idea: Disabled children are God’s punishment.

Unsurprisingly, P Z Myers has also picked up on this.

It’s 3.53am GMT and I’m having trouble sleeping. It doesn’t help that I have been poorly for a while (man flu?) and sleeping in the day.

I woke up with sickness and death on my mind, which is not conducive to getting back to sleep.

Not so many years ago I was working a Friday night shift as a nurse in a local hospital and we had an unusually young female patient on the ward, in her early twenties.

As usual I was advised of this patients status in the “hand over” period from the afternoon shift and learnt that she had a meeting with Social Services on the Monday, to ascertain who would take care of her very young daughter when she died.

Around midnight, she pressed the buzzer to call a nurse and I found her quite distressed as she was vomiting black bile (this was probably caused as a by-product of the medication) and so I assisted and cleaned her up.

As I was leaving her room she said to me; “Why is this happening to me?” Guess what, I didn’t have an answer and I still don’t have an answer.

It might of been feasible to trot out some droll theological answer, but how inappropriate and insensitive would that have been?

I wish to God I could have provided an answer that would have furnished some comfort to her, but I couldn’t. I simply told her that I didn’t know, apologised and left the room.

This incident has plagued me since, but I know I couldn’t have done any better and the reason is, that as a human and a Christian I simply don’t have all of the answers.

A very astute post from Heresy Corner and well worth a read.

Oh finally someone important (Lord Carlile) has come out and said what we’ve been saying for ages about the BBC’s love of the “death cult”. Here are a couple of recent posts.

The BBC on: Assisted Dying, Terry Pratchett, Panorama, Dementia, Dimbleby Lectures and Euthanasia

I see that BBC presenter Ray Gosling has been talking about how he smothered his gay lover who was dying from Aids. The BBC is enthusiastic about supporting “mercy killings” and this story is simply an extension of this narrative.

And now this from the Telegraph:-

Original Source: If Global Warming Is Real Then Why Is It Cold?

Check out Vee’s post on “The Deniers” today over at Living Journey.

Original Source: EZGToons