Sky Links, 11-10-18
Silent Coward Preachers: To Fail to Speak is to Fail to Love
Have you ever wondered why more pastors don’t speak out about controversial moral and cultural issues? Why it’s rare to hear a sermon about abortion or homosexuality?
I’m sure many pastors would say, “That’s not my calling. My calling is to preach and teach the Scriptures, not to be a cultural commentator.”
But doesn’t the Bible itself comment on culture? Doesn’t God’s Word intersect with society? Didn’t the prophets of old confront the evils of their day?
Other pastors might say, “My calling is not to be political. My calling is to make disciples.”
But how should disciples live? What happens when we experience injustice in the workplace? What happens when our kids come home from school crying after the latest sex-ed class? What happens when racism raises its ugly head in our community? How do we respond as disciples?
Why Some Christians Keep Voting Democrat
It is the pulpit’s fault. Believers are fed all the verses on blessing and few that relate to conscience. This is how they can walk into a voting booth oblivious to the fact that the Democratic Party has declared war on the Bible. Hillary Clinton said, “we must change religious beliefs.”
Even if you buy the myth that Trump is a white-supremacist…a charge that even his avowed enemies find hard to say with a straight face, you are not innocent from knowing what you are voting for. A vote is not a statement just of what you are against but also what you are for.
What does the Bible say about abortion? Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. The Bible clearly teaches that a fetus is a person not a glob of flesh.
Have you ever wondered why Planned Parenthood fights so hard to convince a fetus is not a person? Even they know, if a fetus is indeed a person abortion is taking a human life.
Therefore, abortion is murder. Of one’s own child! Late-term abortion is out and out savagery. The Democratic party not only defends late term abortion, they have said women “should celebrate our abortions.”...
...Many California Christians especially suffer from Biblical malnutrition. They can’t even fathom what is wrong with so many things that the Word of God calls sin.
America is seeing once again the damage done by Christians detached from their Bible. You raise your hands in worship. You sit in church and open your Bible and declare it to be the Word of God, and then you go and vote for the avowed enemy of the Bible? If you did that, then unlike the blessed man of Psalm one “who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly” you did.
In the comments:
It’s amazing the number of Christians who cite Trump’s vulgar tape from over 10 years ago as a reason not to support him who never comment on the Democrats going to the last election supporting taxpayer funded abortion up to 9 months.
Here’s a clue – one of these is merely offensive while the other has a 100% fatality rate.
-Cheryl
Evil has such amazing power, to hurt, harm and destroy. And how someone’s unaddressed personal pain can morph into acts of such incredible evil is so hard to understand.
But as horrible as that is, Love is more powerful still. Humanity does not only have the capacity to do great evil, but also the opportunity to put love and light in the world. That, too, happens every day, and even in the midst of tragedies just like this, as a sheriff’s deputy rushes in to confront the shooter, and as people pour their lives out to help those impacted by this tragedy.When Tragedy Comes Home -Wayne Jacobsen
Young people are enjoying themselves in a bar, and a guy walks in and blasts many of them away, including a security guard (or guards) and Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, who was called to the scene.
The shooter was an ex-Marine who is reported to have had PTSD. Or maybe he was just a garden-variety disturbed person who turned violent. He lived with his mother, and police were well aware that he was troublesome and had been called to the house about some sort of disturbance a while back:
Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said that deputies were called to Ian Long’s house in April. “He was somewhat irate, acting a little irrationally,” Dean said. The deputies requested the help of mental-health specialists, who met with Long. Ultimately it was decided to not detain Long for evaluation or treatment, Dean said.
I’m not going to criticize whoever made that decision. These things are notoriously difficult to predict, and there are a lot of disturbed people who’ve had the police called on them, and we can’t lock them all up nor will they be locked up for long in any event. And I don’t think this particular perp had any serious crimes in his past, so it may be that he was able to get a gun legally.Thousand Oaks Shooting -Neo
Escape from Paradise
But reports are that the town of 27,000 is no more, that it has been destroyed by an unusually fast-moving fire (even by California standards) fanned by high winds and drought conditions. The town had been evacuated yesterday morning and afternoon, but it’s very possible that some people didn’t get out: the elderly and/or disabled, and those who just left too late or were stopped by fires started by wind-blown embers, clogged roads, and poor visibility.
Here’s a video that shows you what they faced, taken by some residents fleeing in a car:
Drew Peterson eulogizes his grandpa
Staff infection
From time to time I’ll walk into a church and quickly learn that the team is not healthy.
...And many times the team is not healthy because the leader is not healthy.
...Because their relationships were impaired or, in some cases, completely lacking, their leadership was also impaired… or sometimes completely lacking.
...What are the symptoms that your “leadership” is creating a toxic culture?
Here are 10 signs you may be the boss but not a leader…
- You have to make every decision.
- You know people fear you… and you’re okay with that.
- You have an agenda for today, but you lack a vision for the future.
- You “lead” a team, but your life is isolated from other people.
- You think once you get the title you’ll have influence.
- You believe the volume of your words is louder than the impact of your behaviors.
- You blame others for mistakes and take credit for the wins.
- You don’t ask “your subordinates” or peers for input or advice.
- You are focused solely on the mission and not the people who are on the mission with you.
- You are the boss, but no one is following you.
10 Signs That You're "the Boss"... But No the Leader -Tony Morgan
Religious freedom
Late Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services finalized the interim exemption handed to the Little Sisters of the Poor on October 6, 2017. The ruling confirms the group’s freedom from Obamacare contraception insurance requirements.
...Two related cases remain ongoing. Two states — California and Pennsylvania — have sued the Little Sisters. Rienzi said the attorneys general for those states have been trying to prove the states “will actually be harmed somehow by the … religious exemption.” Neither state, however, has been able to find ” a single actual person who’s been deprived of contraception under these rules.”
Little Sisters of the Poor’s Interim Religious Exemption Finalized -Nancy Flory
Blexit
Its name’s a play on Brexit, Great Britain’s movement to leave the European Union. Its members believe the Democratic Party takes them for granted and does not represent their interests. They’ve become increasingly frustrated in recent years with the Democrats’ letting illegal immigrants into the country, taking jobs away from them. The movement is selling clothing to publicize its efforts.
They call their movement “Blexit.” And they come from the Democratic party’s most loyal voting group. If the group keeps growing, the Democrats are in trouble.
Blexit is a movement recently formed by black Americans leaving the Democratic Party. It follows the #WalkAwaymovement, which started earlier this year with Democrats, particularly minorities, deserting the party.
...Strangely, a Google search for “Blexit” doesn’t pull up the website in the first page of results. The site doesn’t show up until the fourth page. Negative articles about the movement dominate the top of search results. Other search engines, including Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo, show the site at the top of search results.
Democrats depend on blacks as a voting block in order to win elections. If Blexit is successful, the loss of this support will be a great blow.
Black Conservatives Building up Steam With Blexit -Rachel Alexander
Let go
(h/t, Charles Pope)
Books
(h/t, Scot McKnight; Maria Scrivan)
Church news from Babylon Bee that isn't too far off:
Discernment Blogger Makes Compelling Case That Jesus Was A Heretic
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Photo Credit: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0
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